Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me!

Steven Bartlett (0:00)

When I say day 102, does it bring back any memories?

Russ Cook (0:02)

Yeah, it's the only YouTube video that I didn't release.

SPEAKER_3 (0:05)

My name is Russ Cook, and I'm attempting to become the first person ever to run the entire length of Africa.

Russ Cook (0:11)

It was probably the hardest part of my whole life.

Steven Bartlett (0:14)

What happened?

Russ Cook (0:16)

So, going down this dirt path, and two blokes on a motorbike pull-up, I knew that I'm on the bike for longer than half an hour.

SPEAKER_4 (0:22)

It's bad news.

Russ Cook (0:24)

I ended up spending seven hours on that motorbike, going into the jungle. I was getting kidnapped.

Steven Bartlett (0:28)

Your partner told us that she thought you had died.

Russ Cook (0:32)

I mean, I thought I was going to die, yeah.

Steven Bartlett (0:34)

Were you thinking about people back home? Russ, I don't think many people know that you did all this stuff before Africa. 22 years old, you become the first person to run from Asia to London. You buried yourself for life for seven days. You pulled the car as well, which is pretty crazy. What were you looking for?

Russ Cook (0:55)

God, that's one hell of a question, man. Things had got pretty bad. I wasn't speaking to my family. I was drinking and gambling. I would wake up throughout the week and just burst into tears crying.

Steven Bartlett (1:04)

You had dark thoughts.

Russ Cook (1:05)

Yeah, but ultimately, you know, no one was gonna come and save you. It just had to be you. And I thought Africa would be the best adventure ever.

Steven Bartlett (1:15)

But day 30, you start pissing blood.

Russ Cook (1:17)

I knew it was bad. It would probably end.

Steven Bartlett (1:18)

You get robbed at gunpoint.

Russ Cook (1:19)

They got passports, money.

Steven Bartlett (1:21)

And then a falling out amongst the team. You've not talked about this in detail either.

Russ Cook (1:25)

I just blew up, shat on everyone, thrown in chairs.

SPEAKER_4 (1:27)

What happened?

Russ Cook (1:28)

Well...

Steven Bartlett (1:37)

Russ, you're someone that has achieved and has pursued really anomalous feats in their life, feats that most of us as muggles would never have the insanity to take on. So I was so curious to understand from your perspective, what are the dominoes that fell in your life that led you to be the guy that sits here, that everyone around the country and around the world is perplexed and astonished and inspired by? Where does it start?

Russ Cook (2:11)

That's one hell of a question, man. I think really I had quite a normal upbringing. And maybe that's like the basis for why I ended up doing all this kind of stuff.

Yeah, like dad, my early memories of like my dad were he was a very hard working man. He cut metal for a living and didn't really see that much of him when I was young. He would be out working 13, 14 hours a day coming home, metal dust all over him. Mum would look after me and my brothers. And I think he kind of instilled the like that hard working mentality in me. And, you know, a lot of the, a lot of the dominoes fell from that really.

Steven Bartlett (3:04)

And what was your mum like when you were growing up?

Russ Cook (3:07)

My mum was very, what I always remember about my mum, she really enforced it in us to be polite. She, that was like a big thing for her. So always like, yes, yes, please, thank yous. Whenever we'd go around to people's houses, she was like, make sure that we behaved well and all of this kind of stuff. And, you know, her dad is like military man. So 18 to 65 always, in RAF, like very well respected. So I think she got that from him and that's what she passed down to us. But she was like very caring.

She, her whole life was her kids really. So yeah, like a lot of respect for my mom.

Steven Bartlett (3:46)

The absence of your father. You said a second ago that because he was quite absent, your mother kind of carried the responsibility of raising the kids herself. Do you reflect on that? And as you look back in your life, understand how his absence had an impact on you? Because before this conversation today, I got to speak to my team and I got to speak to lots of people around you, as you know, because I'm sure they're all little snitches. So we spoke to your girlfriend, we spoke to your dad, spoke to your team, spoke to everyone around you privately, and got all of their sort of perspectives and stuff. And it appeared from those conversations that the early sort of absence of your father had a pretty big impact on shaping you as an individual.