Adventure Diaries: Exploration, Survival & Travel Stories

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A routine camera-trap check went wrong when Leticia Benavalli took the wrong path in the Cerrado. With little food or water and her GPS battery running down, she describes the moment she stopped trying to force her way back, what happened overnight, and the field habits she changed afterward.

Chapters

00:00 The routine camera-trap check
01:11 A wrong turn
01:39 Th...

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Jeff Jenkins tells Chris how Never Say Never came together, then opens up about the physical challenges and his nerves before hosting the first shoot. The two excerpts show a side of the adventure that the finished TV programme could not: uncertainty, support and learning in public.

Chapters

00:00 How the show began
01:38 The challenges behind the camera
...

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Adam Weymouth retraced the route of a wolf tracked by researchers across Europe. He talks about following GPS points on foot, the landscape he crossed, and what the animal’s journey reveals about the way wolves move through places shaped by people.

Chapters

00:00 Retracing the wolf’s route
00:55 Following GPS data on foot
01:45 The journey bec...

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Dr Rosa Vasquez Espinoza explains the work behind legal recognition for stingless bees in parts of Peru. She describes what rights of nature mean in practice, why science and community knowledge both mattered, and what still has to happen before wider protection is possible.

Chapters

00:00 The stingless bee protection effort
00:50 What legal rights mean here...

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Chaz Powell was walking the Zambezi with a road map and a GPS. When the GPS broke and smaller villages were missing from the map, he began asking people along the river for directions. He describes arriving as a stranger, asking permission, and the hospitality he found.

Chapters

00:00 Planning the Zambezi route
00:57 The GPS breaks
01:56 Villages missing ...

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Oscar Scafidi explains how his Madagascar river expedition relied on people who knew the ground. The satellite images could not settle the route, local guides helped them assess the mountains, and the portage grew far beyond what the team had planned.

Chapters

00:00 Finding support on the ground
01:15 A five-year conversation with the guide team
01:50 Max...

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A family adventure does not have to begin with a long expedition. Henry Brydon talks about why the outdoors can feel intimidating to parents, how he starts close to home with his children, and the simple treasure-hunt idea he recommends.

Chapters

00:00 The first step for parents
00:55 Why getting outside can feel daunting
01:53 Start small and stay local<...

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Ness Knight and her team chose to work with the Wai Wai community on a remote river expedition. She recalls arriving without having met them, learning to respect different traditions, and gradually earning a place alongside the local guides.

Chapters

00:00 Why collaboration was a choice
00:39 Making contact with the Wai Wai
01:28 Arriving in the community
02:36...

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In this episode of The Adventure Diaries, Chris sits down with Dr. Rosa Vasquez Espinoza, the first scientist in her family, who grew up between the streets of Lima, the high Andes, and the Amazon River. Rosa has since done something no one in history has ever done — securing legal rights for an insect, the Amazonian Stingless Bee...

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Award-winning adventure photographer and filmmaker Toby Roney joins Chris Watson to talk about a life spent documenting expeditions in the world's most extreme environments — from minus-27°C storms on Iceland's Vatnajökull ice cap to a world-first ascent in Kyrgyzstan. We dig into the "say yes first, work out the details later" ph...

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Award-winning travel writer Adam Weymouth joins Chris to talk about Lone Wolf, his account of retracing the epic 1,000-mile journey of Slavc — a gray wolf who walked from Slovenia, across the Alps, into Italy in 2011. It's a story about rewilding, politics, folklore, and an unlikely wolf love story.

Key Takeaways

• Europe's carniv...

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Para Horse Rider Stephanie Quintrell Crosses The Pyrenees  In A World First Expedition.

In 2023, Stephanie Quintrell became the first wheelchair-dependent woman to traverse the Pyrenees on horseback — five days in the saddle, over 130 kilometres from France into Spain, following the World War II Freedom Trails. In this episode...

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From a desk job in IT to flying one of the world's most dangerous bush pilot routes — Matt Dearden spent seven years flying the Pilatus Porter into 30% gradient mountain airstrips in the remote highlands of Papua, Indonesia. After landing a Susi Air co-pilot job with just 10 days' notice, Matt sold his car, rented out his house, a...

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Today's guest is Henry Brydon — adventurer, writer, and founder of We Are Explorers (Australia's biggest adventure publication) and Outside Kids (a platform for dads raising adventurous children).

In this episode, Henry shares his epic two-year, 38,000km bicycle journey from London to Sydney through 30 countries — inc...

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Daniel Eggington is an adventurer from the Black Country in the UK who has spent the last decade pushing himself deeper and deeper into the world's most demanding jungles. At 17, he booked a £500 flight to Sumatra with no plan, no preparation, and no clue — and ended up tracking a wild Sumatran tiger in the rainforest just before ...

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Oscar Scafidi has spent two decades living and working across 36 countries in Africa — writing travel guides for Bradt, teaching African history, and launching himself down some of the continent's most remote rivers. In 2022, he and a teammate attempted the first descent of Madagascar's Mangoky River: 750km, 28 days, and a 200km p...

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In 2008, Louis-Philippe Loncke became the first person to walk the full length of Australia's Simpson Desert unsupported — 35 days, a 215kg cart, no water cache, no drops, no helicopter rescue within range. Last year, he tried again. He covered 75 kilometres in 13 days and turned back. Climate change, he believes, may have made thi...

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Pete Casey was chest-deep in floodwater, five days without food, in the middle of the Amazon at dusk. His guide said: "This is a beautiful place to die, and the day you die is the best day of your life." No higher ground in sight, no GPS signal, no way out. This is the story of the first ever sea-to-source ascent of the Amazon River.
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