Mike Horn is an extreme sportsman, adventurer and explorer. He has swum the length of the Amazon from its source to its delta and has gone around the earth along the Arctic Circle and the equator. In 2008 he started the Pangaea sustainability project, a four-year sailing expedition, on which he is accompanied by young people for different sections of it. The expedition travels to different corners of the world, but the aim is always the same: Horn shows the youngsters just how beautiful the world is, and brings it home to them how threatened it is.

Mike Horn: I know it may sound a bit dramatic - but I asked myself how we can save the world. And it became clear to me that we need young people for this, youngsters who have their life and their ability to influence still before them. One day these kids will be able to change the way their generation thinks.

Mike Horn: Not just because of that. It has been scientifically proven that particularly good or bad moments in time leave traces in the brain. In most cases when you are doing something completely new. I would like to leave traces of achievement, success and self-confidence. Because it is precisely these traces that later have a decisive influence on how we live our lives.

Mike Horn: Up until now, I was always conducting inward research: where are my limits, how much further can I go? If you have to walk 20,000 kilometres, your only thought is "onward, onward, onward". You’re not interested in sunsets, but in survival. Since I have been journeying with these young teams, I have been able to see the world through their eyes - and have a new awareness of what beauty is, too.

Mike Horn: I don’t need to motivate myself to trek across the North Pole at night. On the contrary. I can scarcely sleep, because I’m looking forward to it so much. Many people can’t understand that. But I can’t grasp how someone could drive the same route to the office every day, to sit at the same desk and then die at 80, either. That seems like a colossal waste of time to me. We only have 30,000 days of life available to us. You need to think at length about how you’re going to use the time.

Mike Horn: I do. And frequently about my impertinence. When I’m travelling on my own I have to keep my brain occupied, otherwise I’d go mad. Sometimes some really good things come out of it - like Pangaea, for example.

Mike Horn: When I was eight. I set out on my bike to visit my uncle - who lived 300 kilometres away. When I still wasn’t home by 6 o’clock, my father guessed what was going on. He drove after me until he caught up with me. Not because he wanted to stop me, but because he wanted to show me how to do such things properly.

Author: Jenny Buchholz