Jamie Bunchuk

Jamie Bunchuk
Born	James B Maddison (1988-07-09) July 9, 1988 Lancaster
Nationality	English
Occupation	Explorer
Website	www.jamiebunchuk.com

James Benjamin Maddison (born 9 July 1988), known by his pen name Jamie Bunchuk, is an English explorer,^[1] equestrian Long Rider (assoc.)^[2] and an editor of Sidetracked Magazine.^[3] He is best known for his exploration of the Central Asia region. Bunchuk's first expedition was to the Djangart Valley of the Tian Shan mountains in eastern Kyrgyzstan.^[4] Since then, he has mounted numerous expeditions including: spending one month living and working with Kirghiz hunters in South East Tajikistan (as well as small archaeological discoveries from the X-XI C. Sak city of Bazar Dara), a 100 mile, multi-day, camel supported run across the Red Sands Desert in Uzbekistan,^[5] chronicling the lives of Kazakh eagle hunters in Western Mongolia and Winter packrafting down the Khovd River,^[6] Mongolia (temperatures down to -20 °C) in retrofitted and homemade packrafts.

The Tian Shan range on the border between China and Kyrgyzstan

In 2013, Bunchuk – alongside friend and colleague Matthew Traver – completed a 750 mile, 63-day-long, horse ride from Ust-Kamenogorsk to Almaty,^[7][8][9] in honour of the centenary of a historical journey through the region by the Anglo-Irish explorer Sir Charles Howard-Bury. For their efforts, the pair were presented with an award for the 'Best individual contribution for furthering relations between the UK and Kazakhstan' by the British-Kazakh Society at the House of Commons.^[10] For the expedition, he was also the recipient of a Sir Peter Holmes Memorial Award from the Royal Society for Asian Affairs.^[11] This award is designed to encourage independent and purposeful travel in Asia.

In the Autumn of 2014, Bunchuk led the first expedition ever to cross the Betpak-Dala or the ‘Steppe of Misfortune’ from its easternmost extremity on the shores of Lake Balkash to its western edge on the Sarysu River.^[12] He also ran 190 miles, nearly eight marathons, back to back over the course of eight days within the region. The expedition was aided by two locals, a supporting 4WD, and with funding from the French underwear company HOM.

Bunchuk is an established journalist, having penned a number of investigative articles including on deforestation within Armenia (published in Geographical Magazine)^[13] and reporting on the further environmental damage of Lake Sevan’s changing water levels (published in Hidden Europe Magazine).^[14] He is now an editor of Sidetracked Magazine and presenter for Sidetracked TV.

References