SIMON Reeve returns to some of the world’s most remote landscapes for a new BBC Two Wilderness series, travelling from the rainforests of Papua New Guinea to the Yukon and the Gobi Desert.
The broadcaster and adventurer has spent much of his career travelling to places that most people will never see, but his latest television expedition still managed to present him with a problem he hadn’t expected, an a solution he probably anticipated even less.
Camping in Canada’s Yukon, a burning log fell from his camp stove onto the floor of his tent.
“The only thing I had to put it out, because my water had frozen, was my recently-filled wee bottle,” he told the Press Association.
“I had to pour my wee over the burning log. And thank God it worked and put the fire out. That was a very bad moment.”
It is one of the more memorable moments from the new series of Wilderness with Simon Reeve, which returns to BBC Two this week.
Reeve travels through Papua New Guinea, Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, Canada’s Yukon Territory and Mongolia, meeting people living in some of the world’s most remote environments and examining the pressures facing them.
The new series follows the first, which took Reeve to the Pacific Ocean’s Coral Triangle, the Congo, the Kalahari and Patagonia.
“In Mongolia, we make a 3,000-mile-trek – there are camels, snow leopards and golden eagles. We bloody slog for it,” he said.
For Reeve, however, the journeys are about more than the physical challenge. He says he wants viewers to see that there are still places where nature has survived despite the impact of human activity.
“It’s massively important for the viewers to know these places still exist. There are people like me who worry about the state of the world and think we’ve ruined all of it,” he said.
“But if you want something to fight for, here’s an example of somewhere that’s got 4% of the diversity on the planet. And there are incredible people there who want your help.”
The opening programme takes Reeve into the rainforests of Papua New Guinea in search of the critically endangered Tenkile, a species of tree kangaroo.
The expedition coincided with an important moment for the animals, with their numbers beginning to increase.
“We turned up at the Goldilocks moment when their numbers had just increased, and no other telly team had been out there,” he explained.
“We’re not a wildlife team who go for months on end. We’ve got to go at the right time and work hard to get it.”
The journey through the rainforest was physically demanding, with Reeve describing plenty of “slipping and sliding about”.
“I tried to make sure my ankles were strong for that one,” he said, revealing his training methods.
“Weighted vests are my secret. Wearing those going up and down the stairs 10 times. That’s properly shattering for middle-aged legs.”
The programme also looks at the people trying to protect the forests and wildlife. Reeve says he has noticed a change in the way conservation work is being led in some parts of the world.
“Five years ago we struggled to avoid filming white conservationists, now it’s not just locals who are doing field work but leading it with real passion and skin in the game.”
In Papua New Guinea, he encountered communities prepared to confront road-building projects that threaten their environment.
“Some of the villages are out there with bows and arrows literally fighting off the road builders.”
The second programme takes him to Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, once described as “the aquarium of the world”.
There he looks at the impact of industrial fishing and visits a depleted reef that has been transformed into a marine reserve. He also gets into the water with rare scalloped hammerhead sharks.
The trip provided a rather less pleasant wildlife encounter when Reeve and the crew spent a night on an uninhabited island.
“We’d foolishly camped on an uninhabited island and it was only when the boat had left and it was dark that we realised why nobody stayed.”
“There was this thick but fine dust floating like talc in the air, and when the wind kicked in, all the crap from these blue boobies began whipping up.
“I was swallowing it, breathing it. God knows where that fitted on a risk assessment.”
From Mexico, Reeve travels north to Canada’s Yukon Territory, exploring its forests, glaciers and the Yukon River. He meets First Nations people for whom hunting moose remains a matter of survival before travelling towards the Arctic Circle to look at the effect of declining salmon runs on grizzly bears.
The Yukon is also where the camping mishap with the burning log took place.
It wasn’t the only time the conditions tested the expedition, but he says the experience of travelling through these environments is precisely why he wanted to make the series.
“I hope people will see that there are rugged, raw areas that still exist. There is nowhere that isn’t touched by humans, but we haven’t lost our planet to industrialisation. There is still wonder out there.”
The final expedition takes Reeve into Mongolia, where he travels with nomadic families in the Gobi Desert and learns about camel herding before heading west in search of snow leopards.
“We had a bit of a wobble because we thought we really might not see them,” he said.
“So finally, seeing snow leopards, one of the most elusive creatures on the planet. I could not believe that was the gig!”
Wilderness with Simon Reeve begins on BBC Two on Sunday September 20 at 9pm.
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