ROUND-THE-WORLD adventurer Jason Lewis who turned down a six-figure advance from a major publisher to tell his story his way is reaping the rewards.

The Seed Buried Deep, part two of his trilogy, has just been published following the success of the first book The Expedition: Dark Waters, which has sold at least 18,000 copies and won some prestigious awards in the independent publishing world.

The second book – which Jason will be promoting in April in Bridport – begins when he regains consciousness beside a busy Colorado highway, lower limbs shattered by a hit-and-run driver while he was inline skating.

Jason, from Askerswell, is the Guinness world record holder for the first person to circumnavigate the earth using only human power. His journey took 13 years, two months and 24 days.

He set four records in total on his 46,505-mile journey across five continents, two oceans, and one sea, either walking, cycling, rollerblading kayaking, rowing, swimming and padelling a boat.

In a sense writing about his Odysesy has needed almost as much of his resolve as the journey itself.

Jason said: “It hasn’t been an easy way to make a living.

“There’s no stability, but the last 12 months things have started to pay off as far as sticking to my guns and writing the story the way I wanted.

“I honestly didn’t know if I could write the thing and I had some serious dark moments thinking: ‘Did I do the right thing?’ But I had put too much of my life into this and I had to do it right.”

For the future he is planning to take mini expeditions with groups of school children in Colorado.

TIMELINE 

July 1994: Jason rides to France before crossing the Atlantic to Florida.

June 1995: Jason inline skates and bikes across the US. He is hit by a car. Nine months in recovery.

June 1996: Arrives in San Francisco.

Feb to June 1997: Rides California highway to San Diego, through Mexico. On through Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

Sept to Nov 1998: San Francisco to Hawaii.

May to July 1999: Kailua-Kona to Tarawa.

April 2000: On to the Solomon Islands.

July to August 2000: Pedals the remaining 1,100 miles to Australia.

April 2005: Kayaks from Lizard Island to mainland Australia, Attacked by a 17-foot saltwater crocodile.

May 2005: Crosses the Arafura Sea from Darwin to East Timor.

June to Nov 2005: Island hops to Singapore.

May to Nov 2006: Bikes through Malaysia and on to Mumbai.

Feb 2007: Pedals to Djibouti.

March to July 2007: Ethiopia to Sudan and on to Egypt and Istanbul.

Oct 2007: Ostend to England.