British extreme cameraman Stan Gaskell films life on the edge across 39 countries

British extreme cameraman Stan Gaskell has clocked up visits to 39 countries while living in a van named Nelly and filming the adrenaline-filled journeys of real-life explorers. The 24-year-old from North Yorkshire began freelancing as a camera operator at 16 and earned his big break on Project Africa in March 2023, documenting Russell Cook’s bid to become the first person to run a 10,000-mile journey across Africa.

Over the course of 352 days, Gaskell traversed Africa with Cook, capturing the landscapes, cultures and dangers encountered along the way as the pair chased endurance records. The project, which followed Cook—known as "the Hardest Geezer"—offered a window into the risks, improvisation and relentless pace of expedition filmmaking.

The sea crossing from Cameroon to Nigeria was among the deadliest moments. The team loaded their 4.5-tonne van onto a rickety cargo boat, with the engine strapped to the top, and endured a thunderstorm while a fixer loomed over the operation. "I was sailing on an oversized plank of wood across the world’s most pirated waters with our van strapped to the top, in a thunderstorm," Gaskell recalled. "Safe to say we didn’t actually drown that day, but it’s one of the closest times either of us has ever felt to death, and it’s stuck with me for a long time." After days of arguing, the van was hauled onto the vessel, and the crew pressed on into a storm where a main beam cracked in the rolling sea.

The peril did not end there. In the Mauritanian Sahara, Gaskell and his teammate Jamie were forced to split from the group and push ahead on unmarked tracks toward the Algerian border, with no satellite phone and hundreds of kilometres of desert between them and civilization. "This meant going off on our own, with no satellite phone, along barely used tyre tracks in the middle of nowhere," he said. A sandstorm halted progress, and the next morning’s start was delayed as the engine failed repeatedly. Eventually they found a route again, but the team faced a dangerous detour into Western Sahara, where Morocco was bombing civilian vehicles. Algerian truckers later towed the van 400km to an outpost, and a desert mechanic tried but could not fix the engine. The memory of the breakdown lingered. "We were officially stuck," Gaskell recalled, describing the moment when a chance encounter with aid turned a near disaster into a survival story.

"What goes through the mind when it feels like the worst could happen?" he asked. "At that point, I was so used to things going wrong that I wasn’t even that worried." He described the experience as a vivid reminder that this work demands a calm, practical mindset—"you have to adopt a mindset of expecting things to go wrong. It’s part of the day job."

After Project Africa, Gaskell moved into a creative producer role for Project Limitless, documenting British adventurer Mitchell Hutchcraft’s record-setting Everest climb. The eight-month project began in September 2024 and concluded in May 2025, taking in 19 countries and about 13,000km of filming through some of the world’s most challenging terrains. He returned from Africa in April 2024, and the Limitless assignment broadened his portfolio of high-altitude, extreme environments.

Among the places he’s filmed, Algeria stands out as a favorite. "The one that pops into my head is Algeria," he said. "It’s a rarely-visited country; they’ve only recently started opening up for tourists in the last few years." He noted that his team crossed a crossing that had been open only to trade up to that point, making the moment particularly meaningful. He also highlighted the hospitality he encountered across remote regions, with locals sharing what they had even in the most isolated areas.

On technique, Gaskell emphasized storytelling over gear. "The most important thing that people should understand is that to make a great travel video, you don’t need to have fancy cameras or a massive production budget," he said. "The heart of it is always the story, and you can capture that with a phone camera or GoPro. Everyone has an incredible camera in their pockets these days." He added that filmmaking in tough environments is ultimately about capturing the people and the moments around you, rather than chasing perfect visuals.

Gaskell says the experience has broadened his perspective on culture and entertainment. He has spent two expeditions filming across the world, totaling 39 countries, and his work centers on human resilience, hospitality, and the raw realities of exploration. His stories contribute to the growing culture-and-travel genre, illustrating how modern adventurers balance danger with curiosity.