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April 24, 2002

DISCOVERY CHANNEL SHOWS THE FIRST EVER ATTEMPT TO CIRCUMNAVIGATE THE EARTH USING HUMAN POWER

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>> DATE: APRIL 24th, 2002
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London, 24 April 2002: Next month marks the 10-year anniversary of two intrepid Brits founding an expedition to circumnavigate the globe using human power alone. Almost a decade later the venture is still ongoing, making it one of the longest expeditions in history, as Discovery Channel reveals in Expedition 360.

Broadcasting on 5th May from 8pm, this remarkable trilogy of programmes, follows two men as they take on the last great human adventure. They cross whole continents on bikes or roller-blades and take on the oceans in a unique pedal powered boat. The challengers are two very unlikely candidates – Steve Smith, an environmental scientist and Jason Lewis, an ex-rock musician and carpet cleaner –both of whom have neither any adventure experience nor money!
Their incredible journey began at the Greenwich Meridian line in London, then through Eur0pe to Portugal across the Atlantic to Miami in a pedal boat, by bicycle to San Francisco and on to Hawaii and the South Pacific before pedalling into Australia.

Over the years the pair has had to overcome numerous obstacles, including broken limbs, raging storms and failing support from sponsors. Not only is this a record of incredible human achievement, Expedition 360 is also a compelling human drama as the duo of Brits battle with the elements, each other and ultimately their sanity – in order to reach their goal.

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Notes to Editors:
Expedition 360 will be broadcast exclusively on Discovery Channel on 5th may from 8pm – 11pm. The trilogy of programmes will go out in one block and the individual episode titles are as follows:

8pm, Expedition 360: Cycling to America
9pm, Expedition 360: Into the Pacific
10pm, Expedition 360: Road to Australia

Discovery Networks Europe (DNE) operates nine channels on twelve networks; Discovery Channel, Discovery Home & Leisure, Discovery Health, Discovery Animal Planet, Discovery Civilisation, Discovery Sci-Trek, Discovery Travel & Adventure, Discovery Kids, Discovery Wings, Discovery Channel +1, Discovery Home and Leisure +1 and Discovery Animal Planet +1.

Since launching in 1989, DNE’s European subscriber base has risen to over 94 million subscribers channel by channel. Its channels are now available in 51 countries and territories across Europe, the Middle East and South Africa and are customised into 20 languages, via 34 feeds. Please see www.discoveryeurope.com for more information.

DNE is wholly owned by Discovery Communications Inc, which is a privately held, diversified media company with headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

For Further Information Please Contact:
Stephen Pain, Press Co-ordinator
Discovery Channel
Telephone: 020 7462 3675
Email: stephen_pain@discovery-europe.com

For Photographic Material Please Contact:
Sam Spurgeon, DNE Picture Editor
Telephone: 020 7462 3651
Email: sam_spurgeon@discovery-europe.com

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Posted by jason at April 24, 2002 11:47 AM