Ordinary won't change the world.
Sometimes we set boundaries for ourselves in life, or even worse, we allow others to do so. In many cases, these boundaries are just in our mind and need to be pushed away.
We have to appreciate that we are part of nature, we must work with nature; the environment is our lifeline.
You shouldn't be able to do a swim at the North Pole, it should be frozen over.
Very few things which are really worth achieving come easily. Sometimes they do, but most of the time you really have to work hard and cleverly.
If you've got a problem and you multiply it by 50-million people, it becomes unsolvable, but if you've got a problem and you divide it by 50-million people, it becomes solvable.
The businessmen of the world who are not taking environmental matters seriously are just wasting money, aside from damaging the environment it's wasting money and in this economic climate you just can't afford to do that.
I had a dream , okay, go do a swim off Antarctica, and I'd train in Gauteng and just dive into the sea off Antarctica... You've really got to do a simulated test as best you can in South Africa before you go off.
I think every child in every country, not just South Africa, every year should go to a national park, and it should be part of their basic curriculum.
I'm one of the lucky people that, my job is my passion, is my hobby. I hope this doesn't sound arrogant: I truly feel that this is what I'm meant to do, to swim and to talk about protecting the environment, my two passions.
I've seen some glaciers in the world which have been, which are just turquoise blue blue glaciers up in the Arctic. It's tragic to think that because of climate change, because of man's actions, they're melting away.
I was asked to give a speech on the Everest swim, and during the Everest swim, I changed. I changed as a person, I honestly did. That mountain changed me, and I gave a speech about it for nine minutes.
I got bored and then joined the British SAS. It was five very exciting years of my life, and then I'd always had this passion for swimming, so started swimming around the world, in some of the most exotic and distant and dangerous locations.
I love swimming, swimming's my passion and I hope I swim until the last day of my life, so I really, really do enjoy swimming, but swimming for me is simply a way of carrying a message.
I was very, very lucky because I started swimming when most of the landmarks in the world had not been swum.
Britain has bred many great explorers, but they seem to get so little coverage compared to soccer and rugby players.
I do have spare time and I love to read, and I love just to go to a national park and just relax and just think. But most of the time, it's swimming or talking.
What I'm asking people to do is to look at their lives, wherever they may be. I mean, you may be a housewife or a mother in Gauteng and you're driving your kid to school, you know, and you've got one kid in the back and you're driving 30 kilometres to school and 30 kilometres back, so 60 kilometres in a day, to take one child to school. Is there a possibility that you can put a few more kids, some friends' kids in the car, and start saving on those types of things?
Mount Everest is a very spiritual place, it's a beautiful mountain.
I've got two dogs - one's a Jack Russell and she's one year old now, and I've got another dog called Kanga, and I got him from a rescue shelter, and there's nothing I enjoy more than just walking them on the beach in Cape Town. I find that very destressing and very relaxing.
