Call Of The Wild

Bagshot-born wildlife presenter Steve Backshall’s latest TV series takes him to some of the most remote and unexplored places in the world. Simone Hellyer finds out how his childhood love of adventure books led to a life of exploring

- Simone Hellyer

Stuck in the shackles of a nine to five or a boring commute, many of us have daydreamed about jetting away to a far off land in search of adventure. But with just 20-odd days of annual leave to play with, most of us will have to keep on dreaming. Perhaps that’s why modern-day adventurers like Surrey’s own Steve Backshall continue to draw in big TV audiences.

Expedition, the Bagshotborn wildlife presenter’s latest series is currently available to watch on UKTV Dave and is his most adventurous yet. The 10-part series takes Steve into unchartered territories in pursuit of new discoveries and is something that he has been planning since the late 1990s.

“My feeling was that everything has been discovered, but it turns out that’s not true; there are plenty of places for us to discover. It just takes a little bit more creativity and a little more effort,” he says. “The very last expedition in Borneo was very special because we discovered a cave system that isn’t mapped and doesn’t have any names.

Inside this cave system were works of art that date back at least 40,000 years and are some of the oldest examples of primitive art on the planet. We were the first people to get up close to them in tens of thousands of years and for that to be possible in this day and age feels pretty extraordinary.”

He adds: “Bhutan was also extraordinarily beautiful and very wild, but where there are people, they have clung to their traditions in a way that is really remarkable. I think it’s one of the best countries in the world for that.”