Luke Tarrant (00:00):

A nurse walks in, she’s basically like, you’ve had a motorbike crash and we’re going to chop your leg off. And I was like, pause. Can we at least do this on Google Translate? Because that’s all well and good, you’re telling me this, but

Ross Borden (00:11):

That’s a high stakes message. I want to make sure I got that

Luke Tarrant (00:14):

Right. I said to my dad, put an update on my Instagram and let my friends know what’s going on. And the video that he uploaded across all platforms is now on live fucking, I dunno, like 70 million views or something stupid. So it was a lot more of my friends that just viewed it.

Ross Borden (00:30):

This is creator, the podcast from Matador Network. I’m your host Ross Borden and I believe creators are the future of all global advertising. So join me as I sit down with top creators to hear about how they got started, the challenges they’ve overcome, and the tips you need to become a full-time creator. Alright, we’re back. We’re back with another episode of Creator the podcast. Today we have Luke Tart joining us from London, England, and Luke, please introduce yourself.

Luke Tarrant (01:05):

Well, you are right. I’m sat in London, England. My name’s Luke. I’ve been invited on this podcast, it’s called Creator. And it’s quite funny because the brief, which I read said it was to get on top creators and talk about their journey into making content and how they’ve turned their passion for travel into a content making business, whereas that’s not really me. I accidentally grew an Instagram following through, smashing my leg off on my motorbike while I was in Columbia. So in terms of any advice I can give people on making content, it would just be have some sort of tragic accident and tell people about it. So that’s probably my best bit of advice.

Ross Borden (01:50):

So let’s go. Before the accident, I discovered you after post-accident and I was like, what an incredible story. So we’ll get into that in a minute, but it sounds like you were an adventure traveler before the accident. So tell us about what you were doing in your life and in your travels before the accident in Columbia and then we’ll get to all that after.

Luke Tarrant (02:15):

Yeah, exactly. So my passion has always been travel and well, I say I’ve got two or three passions in life, big ones travel. I just love experiencing new places, people, culture, food, whatever I can experience, I want to do it at least once. That’s my mantra in life. So there’s that and there’s also motorbikes and I’ve managed to sort of marry the two up into basically just motorcycle travel. And I spent the last roughly two years on my motorbike just traveling around. I’ve been all over the trip. I crashed on, I was going from Texas down to, but I’ve previously driven around lots of Asia on my motorbike. I’ve been through Australia, large parts of Europe, but unfortunately, yeah, the trip which I crashed on was going through the Americas.

Ross Borden (03:11):

So this is like long haul, what are they called? Overland? Overland Mountain Overland, right. Okay. So these are a mix of railroads, dirt roads, anything you can get across. And so what was your first big over landing trip that you did?

Luke Tarrant (03:32):

First big overland trip because what I used to do, how I even got into motorbikes when I would do a little trip. So say I was going to, when you’re a teenager and you go to the parts of Asia, which everyone travels to, I’d always rent a two wheel vehicle. That’s how I got into it. When I was a kid at home, there was not a chance my mom was ever going to let me have a moped when I was 16. So when I was just about old enough to get away, we’d go and we’d rent mopeds and whatnot and get around. And that’s kind of where the love for motor biking and travel started. It all came at the same time. That just developed over a time where every time I would go anywhere I’d rent a bike. Even if it was a two week, one week weekend holiday, I’d always rent a bike and do it on my bike. So that kind of naturally picked up to the point where then I did say my first big start in one place, finish another packed the bike up, everything is on the bike was probably the classic Hanoi ta, chi min, that route, which is an amazing route and I absolutely love that. But to be honest, every holiday I’ve ever done since I’ve been old enough to do holidays by myself has been in some way with a motorbike.

Ross Borden (04:52):

I’ve never been to Vietnam. But it seems like it would be like motorbike would be the mode of transport that you take on a cross

Luke Tarrant (05:00):

Country. Yeah, if you did that trip in a car, it would be an entirely different trip because I mean would just be sat in traffic all day. The way the traffic system works in Vietnam is just most aggressive winds and you just push through the swarm of mopeds and little one two fives.

Ross Borden (05:22):

Yeah, I’ve seen videos. It’s insane. Those intersections with like 5,000 mopeds in one intersection,

Luke Tarrant (05:30):

If you want to cross the road, you just walk into it, you just start walking and then the traffic will naturally make its way around you.

Ross Borden (05:38):

And so when you’re doing, I mean what sounds like would be amazing creator content for people to fall along, but it sounds like you weren’t even really focused on that. Were you even making content while you were in your early traveling career on these bike trips?

Luke Tarrant (05:51):

No, to be honest, I was just doing them for myself. I’ve always had a bit of a negative view on social media to be honest. I’ve always viewed social media as a platform for people just to share the best bits of their own lives and make everyone else feel jealous about it. And to be honest, I was just doing them for myself. I didn’t need to share it now. I wish I had filmed it all. I would’ve so much content I could make. Now I’ve got snippets of stuff which I use quite regularly to link in with videos about my recovery and stuff. But yeah, I didn’t feel much of it and I was quite happy doing that to be honest. It wasn’t really something even on my radar because until I find most people that have a platform like Instagram or TikTok or what, YouTube, whatever, they started up, not necessarily Baxter, but they’ve had one or two videos that have gone viral and then they’ve gone, oh wait one second, I could actually do this as a thing. And that’s kind of what’s happened to me. I’ve just accidentally ended up in this position where I’ve now got a couple of platforms with hundreds of thousands of people watching my stuff and I now may as well use it for the travel side as well.

Ross Borden (07:19):

But it’s a fair point. It is everyone’s highlight reel of their life and it just seems like everyone has a perfect life if you live on just basing how people are doing off their Instagram or their TikTok. So I totally agree with you on that. Alright, so you’ve done these trips, you didn’t really give a shit about social media, you were just doing this stuff for travel and adventure and on the bike. Then let’s talk about the trip that really changed your whole trajectory in your life. What was the original itinerary for that trip

Luke Tarrant (07:52):

With

Ross Borden (07:52):

The route route that you were taking?

Luke Tarrant (07:54):

Yeah, I mean the itinerary was honestly just go where I wanted. I didn’t have it. People always say, what was your plan? I was like, I didn’t have one.

Ross Borden (08:06):

Not having a plan was the plan,

Luke Tarrant (08:08):

But that was the beauty of it because sometimes I’d intend on going somewhere for two days and I’d end up there for a month. I can tell you a number, I’d stay with locals and stuff, but the rough loose plan was fly to the US somewhere and acquire a motorbike and just head south. That was my loose plan. And over the next roughly 10 months, I was just weaving around. I spent a lot of time in Mexico, went into Belize, into Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, every country in Central America. I flew my bike from Panama across to Columbia. I the

Ross Borden (08:56):

Darion

Luke Tarrant (08:56):

Gap. Skip that gap, yeah. Yeah. I might be going back there actually soon, but that’s a different conversation. And I jumped on a small boat and did the boat. I dunno, have you been to that part of the world? I imagine you’ve probably,

Ross Borden (09:09):

I’ve been to Columbia a bunch of times, but I’ve never crossed the Darion gap.

Luke Tarrant (09:13):

Well you can. There are companies where the locals run little small boat services. So I spent five days hopping to island, to island from Panama towards Columbia, staying on this Blas Islands. You sleep beautiful, you sleep. Yeah, you sleep in ock, you watching the sea, they’ll catch some fish and ceviche. It just was amazing. Landed in the port of cap Ghana, I think it was called in Columbia, picked my bike up, went to Venezuela, back to Columbia, crashed my motorbike. And then now

Ross Borden (09:51):

Before we get into the crash, and I think you said you’re near Meine, but how is Venezuela? It’s a place that almost no Americans go. I tried to go a couple years ago, couldn’t get a visa. How is that experience?

Luke Tarrant (10:05):

Honestly, it was my favorite and my least favorite place I’ve been. I truly like experiences and travel that are off the beaten path. I know it’s a bit of a cliche thing to say. Everyone nowadays thinks they love being off the beaten path, but genuinely Venezuela is, no one goes there, mainly people can’t go. But also people don’t want to go there because there’s so much political instability. It’s very poor everyone, not everyone, I think, I dunno, John, I’m going to murder the stats. A lot of people are walking to the us, dunno what percentage, but it’s high to the point where even when I was driving through Mexico, I’d see caravans of thousands of people walking from Venezuela to the US and it’s kind of sad to see, but what it does also have is unbelievable nature. Some of the mountains are insane, the people are genuinely lovely. And if I stopped on my motorbike anywhere, I’d have almost immediately minimum 15 lads. What are you doing there? This is for example, people told me stories that I stayed with about the time a German person came to their town five years ago. That

Ross Borden (11:26):

Level, that level of rarity that you’re the exotic import for any of these stuff.

Luke Tarrant (11:31):

Honestly this was before anyone had a clue. I was from social media I reckon maybe 10 times a day I was taking photos of people. I’ve got loads of photos because when they take a fail they’d be like, oh, I off on my phone. So Venezuela is like mountain road, a repper, and then just me and 10 lads. And then the same thing the day after Mountain Road, a repper for dinner meet because every day I was, and I was also using it as an opportunity to practice my Spanish. But yeah, it was an awesome experience but also kind of sad just hearing some of the personal stories of people who have had family just in bad situations. And it’s a tough

Ross Borden (12:11):

One, it’s got a reputation for being really dangerous and I feel like those are usually overblown when you hear about somewhere being dangerous. Did you feel like Venezuela was legitimately dangerous?

Luke Tarrant (12:23):

No. No. What I would caveat, I think so what I would massively caveat that with is I’m not sure that part of my brain works because that’s probably the reason I’m sat here with one leg. But in terms of if I ever get around thinking, oh, I don’t think I’ve ever walked around thinking, oh this is dangerous, I’m just like, this is wicked until it’s not. But Venezuela didn’t feel danger. The people were lovely. And even in Colombia was I crossed into Venezuela from a place called Kakuta. And in Kakuta, I mean Kaku has not got the best rep itself to be honest, but everyone in Kakuta was like, you cannot cross the Colombians. It’s not just western media propaganda. It is the people in Columbia were like, they

Ross Borden (13:13):

Were trying to warn you.

Luke Tarrant (13:14):

Yeah, they’re like, you’re making a mistake, woman. I remember the woman that stamped my motorbike out of Columbia was, I’ve got motherly maternal vibes and she was like, if you were my son, I would be nervous. And I’m like, well my mom probably is nervous but she’s not aware I’m going to Venezuela. That’s fine.

Ross Borden (13:35):

Well that’s good to hear. That’s good to hear that it wasn’t, didn’t

Luke Tarrant (13:38):

Feel you get in there, it’s fine. It’s like every time someone’s like, oh, don’t go there. It’s dangerous. You get there and it’s not, it’s just, there will obviously be dangerous parts of any country. There’s dangerous parts of London, you walk around at night in London in a dodgy part and you might get robbed or someone might nick your phone, whatever. But it’s just part of it. And if you live your life in fear of traveling, you’ll end up just going to a hostel after hostel in the hotspot. So everyone goes to you won’t properly experience a place. But anyway.

Ross Borden (14:06):

Exactly. Totally

Luke Tarrant (14:07):

Agree. Ran over.

Ross Borden (14:09):

So then you come out of Venezuela and I assume that’s when something bad happened on the road near ine. So tell us about the firsthand account. I’m sure this is a story you’ve had to tell a whole bunch of times, but for those who are not familiar, tell us what happened.

Luke Tarrant (14:26):

I don’t get bored at telling it because to be honest, I am still rapping head around it myself. It’s pretty recent. It was only eight months ago, obviously. I came back into Columbia from Venezuela. I spent another two, three weeks up north in North Columbia and then I was like, right, I need to drive back down south to Medellin. I had a couple of things I was planning on doing to my bike in town and then I was going to head to Ecuador and I set off really early. One morning I stopped off at petrol at 5:30 AM I probably left at 3 34. I dunno why I left at left early that day. I just got up and started riding. And I don’t remember the crash itself, but I just remember having this sheer panic. I have no idea what it was about. Was there an animal on the road? Was there a truck? Was there just a bit of oil? No idea. I cannot remember.

Ross Borden (15:17):

Wow, wild,

Luke Tarrant (15:18):

Wild.

Ross Borden (15:19):

So you actually don’t even know exactly what the cause of the crash was?

Luke Tarrant (15:23):

No idea. I’ve got no idea. I don’t know who found me. I don’t know really anything. I’ve got a slither of memory of waking up in, I call it a ditch, but I don’t, again really know if it was a ditch kind of away from the road. And I remember somebody being there, if he was sat next to me now, wouldn’t be able to tell you. I would be like never seen him in my life. I just remember there being someone’s presence there. And then maybe it was him that found me or who knows. But I ended up in somewhere near the crash site and I remember there being a wooden roof thinking to myself, this can’t be a particularly good clinic if it’s got a wooden roof. And I don’t think it was, I was in the Andes Mountains, so it wasn’t like a proper hospital. And then I ended up in a different part of Columbia hour and a half north. Again, no idea how I got there. I don’t have a police report or anything. This is just like there was no one with me. I’ve just got these snippets of memory.

Ross Borden (16:28):

Do you think you were going in and out of consciousness between the crash site and the local whatever clinic and then the trip to the hospital? Or do you think you were awake that whole time, but from the concussion or whatever you had going on, it’s just gone from your memory?

Luke Tarrant (16:46):

I dunno, when I try and deeply think about it, I get this weird nervous feeling. It’s like my body’s going, don’t go there mate. Why’d you care? Just leave it where it is. Almost like there are plenty of theories on this and obviously I’ve read about some of them because people send ’em to me. But some people say that when you have a huge trauma, sometimes your body can block it out. It might be that the memories are in there and they’ve just been suppressed by something else. But at the same time I had a head injury. I don’t have any lasting damage. I don’t think so anyway. But I had bruises all over my face from where my, I had full kit on full motorbike kit including my helmet. But the force of something hitting my head caused me to basically have a motorbike, motorbike helmet mark on my face. So I did hit my, so I probably was also concussed. I was concussed and had a mild head injury, but who knows man. But I’ll be honest, I’ve made peace with it. I immediately made peace with it. I was just like, well, this has happened. And

Ross Borden (18:05):

So you wake up and you’re in presumably a more legit hospital, and then what

Luke Tarrant (18:11):

Happens? Yeah, so this is when I properly wake up. So I wake up in this more legit hospital up north in north where I was. And I remember waking up and this is my wallet, I have my phone on my chest like that. And I was like, oh, this isn’t great, is it? I’m looking around, I’m totally naked, which is a bit weird. And then a nurse walks in and it’s obviously all in Spanish. My Spanish is good enough but it’s not amazing. And she basically, you’ve had a motorbike crash and we’re going to chop your leg off. And I was like, well you’re not. She said

Ross Borden (18:56):

That in Spanish or English

Luke Tarrant (18:58):

In Spanish. And I was like, pause, can we at least do this on Google Translate because that’s all well and good. You’re telling me

Ross Borden (19:06):

That’s a high stakes message. I want to make sure I got that right. Did you say you were going to take my leg?

Luke Tarrant (19:12):

Yeah. Oh my god. I knew what she was saying, but I was also a savvy and Google translate to make sure, then obviously I could probably go back into a Google history and find it, but we’re going to chop your leg off. And I was like, well you’re not, you’re not going to chop my leg off. Can I speak to a doctor please? And she’s like, there is no doctors here. There’s no doctors here until tomorrow at 8:00 AM and he’s coming in to chop your leg off. And I’m like, oh, fucking hell. This is not good. So anyway, like I said, I’ve got my phone, so I picked my phone up and I dunno how many of my videos you’ve seen, you might’ve seen this in one of them. I picked my phone up and I’m literally like, right, well let’s try and get myself to a betta hospital and met in. So I go on my Instagram story,

Ross Borden (19:59):

Second opinion, get a second opinion before

Luke Tarrant (20:02):

They take the leg. Yeah, so far I’ve got a nice Colombian nurse saying, oh, we’re going to drop your leg off. And I’m like, well, let’s get a proper medical professional to come and talk to you about it.

Ross Borden (20:15):

Oh,

Luke Tarrant (20:15):

Anyway, so I get on my phone, I’m like, right, I have pressed my motorbike. I’m in North Columbia. If anyone can help me get to medi in, please say now. And then through the power of the internet, a lovely bloke helped me pay for a random private taxi that was in a town four hours away to come and pick me up from this hospital. I couldn’t do it myself because you needed a Banco Columbia account and all this stuff, which obviously didn’t have anyway. I was like, this ambulance ain’t turning and I’ve obviously paid that guy back and everything in, but the ambulance turns up four hours later, which was a surprise to me, to be honest. And we spent 10 hours, I think it was about 10 hours driving through the night through the Andes Mountains two Medi Inn. So we get to mein.

Ross Borden (21:06):

Damn,

Luke Tarrant (21:07):

We get to Mein by sunrise.

Ross Borden (21:10):

How are you managing the pain on this trip? Are you morphing? What do you not, you’re clearly brutally injured.

Luke Tarrant (21:17):

No, honestly, I was just raw it in the back of the ambulance to be honest. I was just fucking just like go to No, I didn’t have any morphine or nothing. I was fully awake. But to be honest, when you are in, I can’t really explain it. If I was sat here saying this to myself nine months ago, eight months ago, whatever it was, I’d have been like, obviously you’d be in a bad way. But I was just in survival mode. I wasn’t worrying about anything. I wasn’t stressed, I wasn’t upset. I was just like, right, let’s get to medi in, let’s do this thing. It’s time. It’s time to sort this out. Wasn’t anywhere emotional about it. Get to medi in the doors of the ambulance, swing open. And then my best mate, Jack’s there, he was in Columbia as well, but we sometimes did set pretty little side missions and then we’d meet up again after. So we weren’t actually together at the time of the crash, but he flew to in to meet me there. And he’s like, oh bloody. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, we’re going to the hospital medi in and they’re like, oh no, we do need to chuck your leg off. That wasn’t a joke.

Ross Borden (22:32):

The nurse was right. The assessment of the last nurse was

Luke Tarrant (22:35):

Accurate. It turns out maybe apparently the place I was, they could have got a half decent doctor anyway, but whatever the point was, if they chopped my leg off there, I’ve always had what if hanging over my head, what if I could save it? And even when I got to medi in, I was like, guys, you need to try and save my leg. They were like, we’re going to chop off your leg. And I was like, no, you’re not. We’re going. What

Ross Borden (22:55):

Was the medical prognosis of, was there clotting or sepsis in the leg or was it just so badly broken? They’re like, we need to remove your

Luke Tarrant (23:05):

Leg. I’ve seen a x-ray of my leg. It doesn’t look like there’s any bones in it. It just looks like it’s been crushed. It’s just been mashed up. However, you mentioned sepsis. So they ended up for a day or two, they tried to save it. They put a cage on it, like an external cage that fixes it in place. Basically I was being a stubborn idiot and I was like, you ain’t chopping it off, do something else. So they put a cage on it. I think they knew they were going to chop it off by that point, but they were just like, alright, we’ll keep him

Ross Borden (23:37):

Happy. We’re going to go through the motions for this guy just to

Luke Tarrant (23:39):

Make him feel better. By that point, I was getting drugged up as well on all this stuff, but my mate Jack said, I was just being so stubborn. They’d come in, they’d be like, right, we need to do this. And I’m like, nah, my God. Yeah. So anyway, they put the cage on it and then about a day later they’re like, all man, you’ve had your cage. And they basically by that point and said, if we don’t chop your leg off, you’re going to die, mate. And I was like,

Ross Borden (24:02):

Exactly. At some point they’re like, this is your whole life that you’re actually risking now if we don’t remove the

Luke Tarrant (24:08):

Leg, holy, holy. So whether it was through that or who knows what, but they chopped my leg off and I was fine about it because maybe I hadn’t processed it or I was just still in that survival mode. And I put up, because all my mates were like, what the fuck is going on? We’re all in England stressing out their mind. They think I’m about to die and all this. So I put up a story,

Ross Borden (24:36):

Have you talked to your family? Are you live reporting to your parents? And they’re

Luke Tarrant (24:42):

Freaking out. I told my parents by that point, were obviously aware of what was going on. They’re at home trying to sort out the travel insurance. Paul, I think they were probably having a worse time than I was, but they sort out the travel insurance, they came to medi in. But this year as they got to medi in, I’d had my leg chopped off and within about 12 hours I had mad sepsis, went into septic shock, half my organs were shut, my kidneys shut down, my lungs stopped working. My leg, my lungs up filled with fluid. Basically it went from the leg being the biggest deal ever to no one cared about the leg. The leg was the least important thing on the menu.

Ross Borden (25:25):

Damn dude.

Luke Tarrant (25:26):

Yeah. So they put me in critical care, put me on a ventilator, and then that was probably the worst bit, to be honest. That was a bit that nearly killed me, the actual sepsis and all that rather than the leg. So yeah,

Ross Borden (25:40):

Wild. It was

Luke Tarrant (25:41):

Pretty mad.

Ross Borden (25:44):

Do you know how long you were out when they were amputating your leg?

Luke Tarrant (25:50):

Unconscious while they chopped it off?

Ross Borden (25:51):

Yeah, like the surgery, they

Luke Tarrant (25:53):

Removed it. The trouble was I had such bad sepsis, they did it eight times, so they kept dropping more off.

Ross Borden (26:01):

Oh my God.

Luke Tarrant (26:03):

Yeah. Yeah. So over the course of about two weeks, three weeks, every day the day would go like this. I’d have to fast because I was potentially going to have surgery. Bear in mind the leg was bad. But I also had plenty of other injuries. I still do have plenty of other injuries, but my other leg was snapped through the skin. My collarbone was broken, my hand was broken. I basically was lying there covered in bandages, all four limbs. And I actually three limbs and my left arm was the arm they used for the cannulas. So all the things that inject you with the constant fluids and antibiotics and all that stuff, because I had sepsis, they were pumping me full of stuff to the point where my hand, my hand was three times the thickness of what it normally is. It was just so full of all the fluid.

(26:49):

But yeah, they put me in every other day to have a surgery because they had to chop off. They come in, they’d undo the bandages and bear mind, it wasn’t proper sewn up. It was like my leg had just been chopped off and then wrapped up with bandages. So they come in, they poke around all the tissue, try and see what was infected, and then take me in for surgery. And annoyingly they have to chop off more leg, which means I’ve now got a shorter stump and would be ideal for walking, but it is what it is. I’d rather have me on foot back. Do you know what I mean?

Ross Borden (27:19):

Holy shit, man. I feel like I need a drink hearing this story. This is intense. So they literally, literally took more and more of your leg off to fight because they’re running from the sepsis they were trying to get you just make sure you didn’t die. Holy shit. So once you’re out of the woods, you’re out of critical condition, at least I assume. Did your parents come and come to the hospital and your mate is there already? And what was it like waking up from fucking insane

Luke Tarrant (27:58):

Ordeal? Well, that links quite nicely into the theme of the podcast into my creator origin story, because I woke up obviously the first time in the hospital up north. But the second time I feel like I kind of realized what was going on was during the critical care sepsis period, by which point my parents had arrived in Columbia. It was my mom’s first long haul flight. And honestly, she’d have been terrified going to Columbia anyway, let alone under these circumstances. But I had a ventilator that, because obviously my lungs weren’t working, I couldn’t breathe myself. The machine had to do it, but I remember it was strapped to my face and it’d be really aggressively shoved air in your lungs. I remember it really clearly, but I was so off my face and all the, they’d induced me into this weird half awake state.

(28:58):

I was just in crazy town to be honest in my brain. But then all of a sudden I became aware of the fact I couldn’t breathe myself. And I tried to catch my own breath. But as I tried to catch my own breath, the ventilator took a breath for me and I just had this total feeling of nausea come over my body. And I was like, what the fuck is going on? And then I was sick into the ventilator and my dad was there and he saw it and he just yanked it off my face, obvious all the alarms are going off, doctors are coming while they’re sorting, all that. It kind of sobered me up. The process of being sick and all this, it pulled me out, the delirious in.

(29:43):

And I was like, what on earth, man? And my dad in that moment said, everyone, even the people you don’t know are asking me, your mom, your friends. Bear in mind by this point, I’m not keeping people updated on my Instagram story, anything that, and I didn’t have a big Instagram folder, just my friends. I had a 1,400 Instagram followers, whatever it was, I didn’t have a platform. It was just, that was what I used to share my pictures from being away with my mates. I said to my dad, look, you don’t have to reply to everyone. You’re never going to be able to, you’ve got my phone, the code, just put an update on my Instagram and let my friends know what’s going on. And the video that he uploaded across all platforms is now on fucking, I dunno, 70 million views or something stupid. So it was a lot more of my friends that just viewed it. But yeah, so basically that’s how, oh my

Ross Borden (30:40):

God, dude.

Luke Tarrant (30:40):

And then that’s how this whole new crazy journey started. So

Ross Borden (30:44):

You woke up, you came out of this daze. As you’re recovering, you’re like, okay, life with one leg, I’m going to let that sink in. But I survived. At least I almost died, really almost died. And now I have what you woke up to all these new people following this tragedy that had just happened to you. What was that like? It was different levels of bizarre. I mean, that’s a really fucking crazy thing to happen.

Luke Tarrant (31:13):

At the start, it didn’t really, the Instagram thing and all that was, it was just so irrelevant. I still just used it when I could use. So by the time I was out of critical care, my dad started doing updates. By the time I was out of critical care, I could use my left hand, but I had to hold my arm straight because if I move my arm at all, all the alarms would go off on the cannulas. And so I was basically just like this and I’d use my phone and I’d keep people in the loop, but it was just to keep my friends in the loop. I couldn’t reply to anyone’s messages. I could, it would probably take me two hours of trying to type that, write one thing on my Instagram to let the lads know what was going on. And I saw the the follower number ticking up, which was, I didn’t even really think about it to be honest.

(32:02):

I was like, oh, look at that. Some randoms are looking at my page because it hadn’t got to the level it is now, but it was when I got home. And we’ve missed a big chunk of stuff out in that time. But towards the end of my hospital stay in England, I ended up being in England Hospital for ages as well. The first day they took me out as my sort of intro back to society. Let’s go and see how we’ve coped on the fucking public tube and whatever. So by that time, I had my first basic prosthetic leg. I just got it. So I couldn’t walk. It was my first time back in London in months over a year. So that’s weird in itself. And then because of all the stuff that was going on, a production company had picked up on it and were like, at some point you’re going to want to make a film, get the footage now.

(32:53):

And I was like, alright. So they would come for important things. So the first time I got back on a tube and all this stuff’s filmed there, ready to go when it’s eventually needed. But the production company there, two cameramen film me. So I’m in London, I’m trying to learn to walk. I’m getting back on a tube for the first time. I’ve got cameramen shoving cameras in my face. And then this is the first time I’m out in public. I forget that actually on the other end of these Instagram videos are real life people. And there’s people on the YouTuber come out to me going, mate, I’ve seen you on Instagram. I’ve seen.

Ross Borden (33:24):

And I’m like, how bizarre, dude, that is so bizarre.

Luke Tarrant (33:29):

What the hell is going on right now? It’s a lot

Ross Borden (33:32):

To take in.

Luke Tarrant (33:33):

And I literally was just like, I’ll go to bed at night and I still will do it. Now I have a dream and I’m just walking down the beach, fixing my motorbike, putting oil on my chain, wondering about getting some food with two legs, just doing my normal thing, my life, which has been my life for ages. And then I wake up and I’m in this fucking weird reality that feels like that’s the dream. That’s honestly only way I can describe it. It’s just bizarre.

Ross Borden (34:00):

Wow, dude. That is quite a series of events. Well, first and foremost, I’m thrilled for you that you survived. I’m happy to see that. I mean, I don’t know if you can say that having a platform now is a good thing that came out of this. It’s kind of a bizarre way of thinking about it, but certainly I’m sure you’ve been an inspiration to a lot of people who are either, I appreciate that probably in the same situation or could be in the same situation, have to go through this because you’ve really documented all the after effects. And I have to say what I loved about the videos that I saw in your channel is that you have just a really positive attitude. You’re not like, oh, woe is me. My life is ruined. I lost my leg. You’re like, well, I got one good leg left and I’m getting a new prosthetic today and I’m pumped on that and I can still travel and spend time with my family and friends. So congrat you on surviving. Congrats. Congrats on having such a positive attitude about this new stage of your life.

Luke Tarrant (35:07):

No, I appreciate that. Thank you.

Ross Borden (35:08):

After the dust settled, so to speak, you’re back in England, your condition is stable, you’re out of the hospital, maybe you have these guys following you around with cameras, documenting your first couple of weeks. What are you doing now? Are you basically like this is your new job, are you full-time creator now? Or how has life changed other than physically?

Luke Tarrant (35:35):

Physically, yeah. So I mean, when you said earlier, has this been a good thing that’s come out of it? It has been a good thing because the trajectory of my life’s changed in a physical sense. But now, I mean, we wouldn’t be sat here having this conversation unless it was because of Instagram. It wouldn’t happen. This one tiny example, out of basically every day, which is all the things I’m now doing all, even the trips I’ve got planned coming up. I just did a trip to Canada with my dad. I took my dad as my plus

Ross Borden (36:09):

One.

Luke Tarrant (36:10):

Yeah, the Vancouver Tourism Board and the Whistler Tourism Board sort the whole thing out. The people are taking me on trips. I’m going to China in a month or a month and a bit with Intrepid Travel. I’ve now got the opportunity to travel as a job, which is something which I guess would’ve been my dream before. So it is a positive thing that’s come out of it. But yeah, I don’t quite know exactly where I want to take all of this because I don’t want to be a straight content creator forever. That’s not really my thing traveling yet, talking about it. Amazing. But just churning out videos forever. Don’t think I’ve a thing. I think I always have the social media there and I like interacting with people on it. And if people take stuff from my videos, great. But I want to have other projects.

(37:08):

Like I mentioned to you, the trips I’ve got planned, but I’ve got some little short films. We’re talking about making, initially I’m doing a skydiving license, soon they’re going to come film that I’m getting ’em back on a motorbike in New York with this charity. They’ll come film that. We’ll turn ’em into maybe potentially, hopefully brand sponsored short films. That’s the plan in immediate term, potentially my own podcast. I’ve had a few offers of people wanting to set things up, maybe do that, people talking about books. There’s a lot of different ways of spreading the word. But up until now, my full-time job has just been recovery, to be honest. I’ve spent almost every weekday at some sort of appointment, whether it be for my collar,

Ross Borden (37:58):

Physical therapy and

Luke Tarrant (37:59):

Yeah, yeah, prosthetics, physio, collarbone, leg, other leg hand, all that stuff. It’s just taken up all my time and now it’s starting to chill out a bit. I’m getting better on my prosthetic. I’m trying to work out what the next route is, but I don’t think it’s going to be pure social media.

Ross Borden (38:17):

Yeah, ever. Were you ever worried about people kind of exploiting your accident when you’re like, Hey, you should write a book or you should do short films, or we should make a show and bring it to a streaming service, or you should do speaking engagements. What was that like? Were you cool with those people or was some of those advances like, whoa, just let me heal first before you pitch me on something?

Luke Tarrant (38:44):

I’ll be honest, I think I’ve always said my goal in life is to have an interest in life. Not that bothered about that. I made a quote before, which a load of my mates took the piss out of before, but I said, bothered, I’m not bothered about having loads of money or having a hot girlfriend. I just want to have an interest in life. And I got quoted saying that and my mates were like, oh, I a hot girlfriend. But the point I was trying to make is, as long as my life’s interesting, even if it’s a bit shit at times with the leg or whatever, I’m satisfied because living within my boundaries of what makes me tick. Do you get what I mean? So at the moment, and when people have been coming to me saying, oh, do you want to make a film?

(39:34):

Do you want to do a book? Do you want to? For me, that’s quite interesting because that’s not something no one’s ever come to me before and said, Hey mate, do you want to make a book? That for me is a new thing. And I find it kind of fascinating that people even want to chat to me about it. So I actually embraced it more than anything. I don’t think it’s, I’ve never felt exploited because if I felt exploited, I’d be like, nah, I’m not doing that. And there’s definitely an element of, there was a period kind of recently where I felt like the sharks were circling a bit. There was a lot of people who were trying to park with me on this and this and this and this, and I never really knew what to do because this is a whole new world to me. But really it’s just a new interesting chapter, which I’m quite enjoying, embracing and seeing where it goes.

Ross Borden (40:24):

So going forward now you’re going to China, you’re going on these trips. What’s next for the story? This amazing story that you’ve miraculously survived? Are you doing a show or short films or where if anyone’s going to watch out for that, should they just follow you on Instagram and TikTok or what’s your plan for the next version of this?

Luke Tarrant (40:51):

Well, the Instagram and TikTok will always be there and always be where I probably share the news about stuff. Pipe dream goal. The goal, which I’d love to end up doing is I’d like to, well, I will finish off the motorbike trip, which I crashed on. So I’ll go back to Columbia exactly where I crashed on a motorbike and then ride the rest of that trip down to Antarctica. I’ve had a lot of people in the sort of film world saying, oh, we want to make that into a film. But I know there’s a bit of a stepping stone from going from putting things on social media to making a proper film. And in that gap I’m going to potentially, well, one thing I’ve literally been working on today with film directors and brands and stuff is working out if brands are happy to sponsor five to 10 minute, maybe a bit more short films that will sit on YouTube about the adventures I do and leading up to that big final one. So in New York, like I said, in July, I’m getting back on a motorbike for the first time. I’m learning to ride it with one leg. Obviously I can’t change gear on my left anymore. I’ll film the skydiving stuff. I’ll just film these little films and eventually do the Big Daddy, which is finish the trip.

Ross Borden (42:11):

That was my next question actually. I was like, will you ever ride a bike again a night? I had a sneaking suspicion it would be yes, but that’s such a cool idea to go back to the scene of the crime and ride from there down to Patagonia. I mean, that’s going to be epic.

Luke Tarrant (42:27):

Also, just not only that, I mean all the stuff around it, like going back to the hospital, I am in contact with a lot of the people in Columbia that looked after me in the month I was in hospital there. Go to the place of the crash and see if someone has a clue what happened.

(42:45):

There’s, there’s a police station nearby. I’d like to go and see if they got a report. Just go and try and work out what happened. And I think it would be quite an emotional thing. Even getting back on a motorbike. I’m obviously saying I’m going to do it, but the whole reason I love to travel on a motorbike was because I wasn’t even thinking I was riding the bike. I’m just in a flow state going through the mountains or where now I might be on it thinking every corner I’m going to fall off and it’s, there’s a whole process I need to go through and I’m going to go through it. If I’m going to do it anyway, someone may as well come film it if it can turn in something cool. And that’s my view on it basically. But let’s see what happens.

Ross Borden (43:27):

I love it, man. I’m really excited to see what comes next for you, and I appreciate that. I love all these ideas and I love the courage. I totally feel what you’re saying about, you don’t even know how you’re going to feel when you’re back on the bike if all your confidence that you used to have is shattered. And you have to build your confidence again, because around every corner you’re like, oh fuck, this is like

Luke Tarrant (43:50):

PTSD. I appreciate it and thanks for having me on as well.

Ross Borden (43:53):

Yeah, absolutely. Well Luke, thank you. And just for listeners, just to make sure they can find you, what is, tell your handles on IG and TikTok and anywhere

Luke Tarrant (44:02):

Else? Yes. Luke, LUKE, Tarn, T-A-R-R-A-N-T. That’s just my name. It’s on all

Ross Borden (44:09):

Luke Tarn. Alright.

Luke Tarrant (44:11):

Yeah.

Ross Borden (44:11):

Thanks Luke.

Luke Tarrant (44:12):

Nice one. Awesome. Cheers. Ross

Ross Borden (44:16):

Creator, the podcast is produced by Matador Network. We are a leading global travel publisher focused on travel and adventure. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please subscribe. Every week I interview a new top creator. New episodes are released every Tuesday on YouTube, apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere podcasts are found. Thanks for listening.