Scottish adventurer sets out to break record for solo stay on remote Rockall
Nick Hancock finds ordinary life 'a bit dull', so he's going to live in a converted water tank atop a speck of ocean rock in the middle of nowhere
An adventurer hoping to set a new endurance record by living alone for 60 days on Rockall, a storm-drenched rock in the Atlantic, was given a piece of advice by the last man who did so.
Nick Hancock, a 38-year-old chartered surveyor, was warned: "You need to enjoy your own company."
Tom McClean, a Special Air Service veteran who holds the solo record by occupying Rockall for 40 days in 1985, told Hancock that loneliness would be his greatest challenge atop the volcanic outcrop 360 kilometres beyond the Scottish Western Isles.
McClean lived in a hand-built plywood box, sleeping on top of his water containers and food - including a large stash of Christmas puddings - and kept up human contact by reaching passing trawlers by shortwave radio.
Hancock, too, has made his own vessel. He has nearly finished fitting out and testing a homemade survival pod, built in his garden near Edinburgh from a modified, bright yellow tubular water tank. It is 1.9 metres long inside, 1.2 metres wide and at just 76cm high, too low to stand up in.