Benedict Allen Exclusive Interview

Benedict Allen is one of the leading adventurers of his generation, his unique style of immersion coupled with his unrivalled enthusiasm for exploration makes this an unmissable interview. Benedict discusses his personal life, career and future plans...

Question 1: Benedict, you are nicknamed the 'British Indiana Jones' but what inspired you to become what your are today?

Benedict: I think my initial inspiration was my dad; he was a test pilot and tested aircraft in Africa. He brought back objects that would inspire me, for instance, a weaver bird nest and a baby stuffed crocodile. I was one of those children that would always ask questions about all sorts of things, and I think that started me off and it also made me believe it was possible to become an explorer or adventurer. I started to read about places such as the Amazon and Borneo and it just got me more and more excited. I think it was as simple as that really, my first expedition was in the Amazon; I paid for it by working in a warehouse. When on the expedition, I realised I had the qualities needed to become an adventurer, a lot to do with that was because my dad was a test pilot, I was very calm in a crisis, and there were many on my first expedition. I had to survive by myself and even had to eat my own dog just to survive, because I was starving to death and had malaria. I almost lost my life on that first expedition but that drove me on to do another expedition. I wanted to understand what had happened to me and I why I didn’t die...

At school I wasn’t a top sportsman, or even an outdoor person. But I was incredibly passionate about travelling. I knew that if I just got out to these people all around the world, with all these skills. Then I could be an adventurer.

 Question 2: Quite often, explorers seem to bypass education in order to pursue their career, however education seems to have been an important part of your life?

Benedict: Undoubtedly, I’m naturally more of an artist. Writing was always going to be a useful skill for me. I studied environmental sciences at University, and went to Aberdeen to study Ecology. I think without doubt that gave me a good grounding for what I wanted to do; and that was to understand the world. But to call yourself an explorer these days, you’ve either got to be a scientist who’s expanding our knowledge, or someone who’s describing these places that we don’t understand or have misunderstood. That is my role. I believe my biggest role is to be subjective, to immerse myself in places that we hardly know, and don’t understand, and portray them for people back here. The key element of exploration is the reporting back, it’s no good just going on adventures although it’s great fun, but it’s not actually exploration unless they’re bringing something new back with them.

Question 3: Has expedition changed significantly since the era of Stanley and Columbus.

Benedict: I think less than people think, people tend to think that the golden age of exploration is over, I think the glorious romantic adventures are finished, you can’t go and find a continent like Colombus did. In a way, that was the age of discovery, when Stanley went into the African continent and studied the interior. Although those glorious days are gone, it’s wrong to say that exploration has finished. We don’t understand our planet at all, discovering climate change for example, there are immensely complex events happening out there that we haven’t a clue about. We’ve only indentified something like 10 percent of the species on our planet and just identifying them, let alone studying how they interact, there is huge amount to be done. But what has changed is the scientific level, although Stanley wasn’t a scientist, he was describing the interior of Africa for Victorian Britain. In the same way I’m describing the interior for places that aren’t well known or understood. Man is not a rational creature, we have a certain perception of the world and that will keep changing through the generations. We don’t understand about climate change and that is at global scale. We haven’t even got to the bottom of the ocean floor. There are huge bits of the planet that we don’t understand.

Source: BenedictAllen.com

Question 4: Do you find it difficult to communica with the many indegenous locals you meet?

Benedict: I’ve always struggled, the main problem for me has been that I find it difficult to have the level of skills of local people; I’d try and go hunting with the men, with bows and arrows hunting monkeys for example. I was never good, I had to learn from the children, and that was important because I was like a child, I had the skills of a 5 year old or 10 year old and at a practical level it was useful, children had more time than the adults and children were more open to me, they just communicated naturally and didn’t hold back, unlike the adults. It was very important because I was effectively humbling myself; unfortunately exploration has got a history of arrogance. For instance, Indiana Jones isn’t a very sympathetic character to indigenous people but what I was trying to do was learn from the local people, and above all to listen. I don’t take a satellite phone or GPS or any kind of technological device because I want to settle in with the local people.

GeoUniverse would like to thank Benedict for the detailed and honest answers he gave. We were truly facinated by the tales he recounted, and the lessons he learned. We appreciate how busy Benedict is, and we thank him for his generosity in giving up his time...