Good Nature

What can a seasoned adventurer who has seen it all learn from people who have eschewed modern society to live deep in the wilderness?

- Jamie Tan

Ben Fogle has made adventuring in the wilderness his career. He has climbed Mount Everest, rowed across the Atlantic, skied to the South Pole, and even crossed Oman’s portion of the Empty Quarter. Along the way, the English broadcaster has also written a number of bestselling books, and been appointed by the United Nations as its Patron of the Wilderness. Fogle’s latest outing with BBC sees him visiting some of the world’s most remote locations for the seventh season of Where The Wild Men Are. The documentary series looks into the lives of various people who have turned their backs on “organised” society to, essentially, eke out a living in isolation. To most people, visiting and staying with these people would be as extreme as it gets. For Fogle, however, it’s all in a day’s work.

You featured very diverse individuals in the seventh instalment of Where The Wild Men Are. What were some of your biggest takeaways from them?

The biggest takeaway is really our attitude to life. I think a lot of people go through life with hunched shoulders feeling that the weight of the world is on their back. People like Annalisa in Sweden, however, show that you can achieve extraordinary things when you have hope. Courage is another important factor – these are folks who are brave enough to take financial and social risks to drop out of society. You won’t do such things otherwise.

How did you strike a balance between providing entertainment with the more profound issues that these people spotlight, such as sustainable living and mental resilience?