Professional explorer who runs, cycles and hikes around world ‘can’t wait’ to adventure with son after becoming a father

A professional explorer who has run, cycled and hiked more than 32,000 miles solo across the world said he “can’t wait” to take his son on adventures after becoming a father.

Jamie Ramsay, 44, originally from East Lothian, Scotland, had worked his nine-to-five job in financial communications in London for 12 years, but he resigned in 2014 after spending the night on the office toilet floor after an evening of drinking.

He has since become an endurance athlete, living nomadically and travelling around the world to complete 34 gruelling adventures in a “voyage of discovery”, visiting 35 countries, reaching the summit of at least 10 mountains and crossing vast deserts in South America on foot.

His adventures have included running solo and unsupported from Vancouver in Canada to Buenos Aires in Argentina, cycling alone across Australia in 25 days, and paddleboarding across frozen lakes in the Pyrenees in Europe.

He completes his feats with little to no support and feels some people are “missing the essence of what unsupported adventuring gives” when he sees others tackling challenges with support teams.

Jamie has completed the equivalent of 500 marathons and is an ambassador for retailer Runners Need, but with a young family to support he admits the lifestyle comes with some financial “uncertainty”, adding “you don’t have a pension plan” as an adventurer.

Speaking to PA Real Life from the Isle of Gigha in Scotland, where he was camping with his family, Jamie said: “I think it’s important your child grows up seeing you doing what your passion is.

“I can’t wait to be doing adventurous stuff with my baby and my partner… we’re looking at adventures where we will do it as a family and make it more of a family excursion adventure lifestyle.

“For me personally, I’m still planning epic adventures but I’m probably not looking at three-month-long trips at the moment, I’m looking at shorter but still challenging adventures.

“It’s healthy to continue doing the adventuring because it’s who I am, it’s my personality, I don’t want to change that and my partner supports that.”

Jamie met his girlfriend, fellow adventurer Simone Talfourd, 40, at the Kendal Mountain Festival in Cumbria – saying the pair progressed into a relationship where “every date was an adventure” from wild swimming to skiing.

He bought a house in Tillac, south-western France, in 2018, where he now lives with Simone and their one-year-old son, but he said the family aim to be “fluid” with their lifestyle and move around where possible.

“Simone has the world record for rowing around the UK in a mixed boat, she stand-up paddleboarded the west coast of Greenland through icebergs… our son has double adventure parents,” Jamie said.

Jamie worked in financial communications in London for 12 years but became “frustrated with the rat race”.

“It was a good job and I worked with really lovely people but it just didn’t inspire me, it didn’t light a fire in me,” he said.

He said his life was slowly becoming “unhealthy” and felt a desperate need for change when he slept on the toilet floor in his office following a night of drinking after work.

“I woke up the next day and went, ‘yeah, you’re obviously not very happy with this’,” he said.

“I made the decision to change direction and I’ve never looked back.”

Jamie resigned in 2014 and has since undertaken around 34 adventures to explore the world, starting by spending just over a year running 17,000km (10,563 miles) solo and unsupported from Vancouver to Buenos Aires to raise money for charity, during which he crossed the Atacama and Sechura deserts on foot.

In 2017, he cycled 3,700km (2,299 miles) solo and unsupported across South America, and in 2019, he crossed Australia on his bike, covering 4,027km (2,502 miles) solo in 25 days.

The same year, he completed a 620km (385-mile) unsupported run across Iceland and he also fast hiked alone along the Pyrenees mountain range in Europe in 2023.

“When I get to the end of my adventures, there’s never anyone there,” Jamie said, adding he carries his supplies on his back for his journeys and once ran pushing a baby buggy full of equipment.

“I don’t really understand celebrating the end of adventure because it’s the end – it’s the doing it which is the fun and rewarding part.”

While Jamie feels the recent boom in running challenges and record-breaking adventures is “mind-blowingly amazing”, he feels some may be “missing the essence of what unsupported adventuring gives”, though he admits no two adventures are comparable.

“I think there’s so many awesome adventures going on at the moment but many are like, ‘I’ve got to be the first’ or ‘I’ve got to be the fastest’, which is great but just not what I am about.

“I think it misses the essence of what unsupported adventuring gives.

“My first adventure was a voyage of discovery, both discovering where I was going but also about myself.

“I still love following anyone doing amazing adventure stuff even if they’ve got a whole support team around them or a van following them.

“For me, finding water, finding places to sleep, learning where you’re going to go, standing on the edge of a desert alone and running into it with no safety net – that’s the exhilarating part.”

To earn a living Jamie works with companies such as Cotswold Outdoor, of which he is a brand ambassador, and Thule, a company creating products for active families, adding he prefers to finance every adventure himself.

“Being able to pay for them myself means that they are very pure, they’re on my terms and doing what I want to do,” he said.

Jamie’s lifestyle comes with some financial “uncertainty”.

“You don’t have that steady pay cheque coming in, you don’t have that pension plan,” he said.

“Freedom comes with the price of uncertainty but if you have the temperament or the personality to ride out that uncertainty, it’s a very freeing life.

“I’m very much not about things, I’m not about money, I don’t need fancy restaurants or fast cars or nice clothes – I’m about enjoying life in the best way.

“If you’re happy with less, why not live that way?”

Jamie said his decision to buy a house in France was prompted by a need to store his belongings, rather than the stability of owning a home.

“I moved into my camper van for a year, then I started kind of being nomadic and then it got to the point where I didn’t know where all my stuff was,” he said.

“I felt I needed to buy somewhere that was just in one place so I could put all my stuff and return to it.

“Being an adventurer is not a well-paid job and France is a lot cheaper place to live.

“We move around, we try to be as fluid with our lifestyle as possible.”

Jamie said he has big plans for next year and will continue to enjoy the great outdoors in the meantime.

“I go on adventures and rather than coming back to an empty house, I come back to a very different type of adventure at home – now I come back and there’s a little guy who wants my attention 24/7,” he said.

“It’s a beautiful adventure in a very different way.”