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Ade Adepitan: 'I was almost kidnapped in Mexico'

Ade Adepitan
Ade Adepitan
Postcards podcast - always pulls through latest episode
Postcards podcast - always pulls through latest episode

In the latest episode of ‘Postcards’, former Paralympian and TV presenter Ade Adepitan discusses his travel highs and lows, including a hairy moment in Mexico

In each episode of ‘Postcards’, host Greg Dickinson talks to globe-trotting guests about three photographs from their travel.

These snapshots, of precarious moments, ill-advised adventures, or poignant moments, each have an untold story attached.

In our conversation with Ade Adepitan, we begin with a photograph during his first time living away from home. His second shot shows him perched on the side of a volcano in Nicaragua, shooting with BBC Two’s Beyond Boundaries. The third was taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo at a boxing camp.

Listen to the episode on the audio player above, or subscribe on Apple/AndroidSpotify, Pocket Casts, or wherever you stream your podcasts. Here are Ade’s images:

Making Spanish headlines at 22 years old

"This photograph was taken from my first training session with a wheelchair basketball team called High CDM Zaragoza or Real Zaragoza, which is in Northern Spain, I’m a chubby faced Ade and I just started growing dreads. I was 22, I grew up in East London and this was my first opportunity to go abroad. I was just right at the beginning of my career. And to be on the front cover of this newspaper in Zaragoza and to have this headline, ‘A jewel in the crown of CAI CDM basketball team’ was amazing."

Zaragoza, Spain
Zaragoza, Spain

Crawling to the top

"This was the last section of a journey that I went on for a BBC two documentary called Beyond Boundaries. I’ve got my team buddy Carl Sacks who’s a single leg amputee. He’s just above me and he’s tying off our safety line because the volcano is so steep at this point."

Nicaragua, South America
Nicaragua, South America

"We had to travel from one side of Nicaragua, from the Atlantic side to the Pacific side through the centre of this really beautiful country, which meant we had to travel through the mosquito rainforest and through amazing villages and on the final stage we had a volcano which we needed to climb. We’d set off at 5am, and we had until 2pm to reach the top."

It’s always about the people

"DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] is one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been to. And it’s heartbreaking, you know, it’s not just their recent history, but for hundreds of years they’ve had the resource curse. DRC has every resource or mineral known to man in that in that country. Everything we exploit from this earth is there: gold, oil, gas. all the minerals are there. And because of that, the world has basically pillaged that country.

"So to see this country that’s been ravaged on the outside is sad. But then you delve deeper and you meet the people. They’re extraordinary."

Democratic Republic of Congo
Democratic Republic of Congo