Rockall Solo: 45 days of Discipline, Optimism and Endurance

by Nick Hancock Frgs

Nick recently returned from a unique and record breaking expedition to the remote Isle of Rockall in the North Atlantic, an expedition which Bear Grylls described as "An ambitious, exciting and wonderfully mad project…" Nick lived alone on Rockall, in a home-made survival pod on a small ledge, for 45 days, over 15 hours and 230 miles from the Outer Hebrides; a project which was 5 years in the planning. Rockall Solo was undertaken by Nick in June and July 2014 in order to raise funds for Help for Heroes. Following his successful Rockall Jubilee reconnaissance expedition in 2012, the challenge then became for Nick to return to and land on Rockall for a second time, becoming only the third person in history to do so, and this time survive solo in his home-made survival capsule in an attempt to set two new endurance the longest ever solo occupation of Rockall, and the longest occupation in history. This is the story of the five years of planning, fund raising and logistics just to get to the start line, and Nick's experience during that record-breaking occupation.

246 pages, Paperback

Published July 19, 2015

Reviews

[Alasdair MacCaluim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very entertaining account of Nick Hancock's 45 days spent on Scotland's most isolated island - or islet - of Rockall. This book is mainly written in diary format, looking at what happened each day on the island, It is an interesting mix of the very exciting and hazardous aspects of such a mission such as reaching the island, isolation and facing storms on one hand and the very dull stuff involved in staying alive on a rock in the middle of nowhere on a day to day basis such as how to make tea, wash, keep dry and avoiding boredom.

This is a book about Nick Hancock's mission to Rockall and doesn't contain much about the history of the Island so if this is your main interest, it might be better to buy another book instead.

This is a self-published book and the photos are black and white and not of particularly good quality. This aside, this is a very interesting book and mostly a very easy read. Sometimes the books gets slightly technical with long and complex descriptions of equipment but this can be easily skipped over if not of interest or read in detail if your aim is to beat Nick's record on the island!