BASE CAMP EDEN: BEN FOGLE ON HIS TIME AT THE BBC

“I was very lucky, as I was approached by BBC Country File and they asked me if I’d like to become a presenter. This is something I hadn’t really ever thought about- becoming a presenter? It had never really crossed my mind. I loved watching Blue Peter and I thought being a Blue Peter presenter might be fun, but it wasn’t something I genuinely thought about.

So, I decided to have a go and I worked on that show for 8 years, during which time I got to do some pretty fun things. I got to take part in the world lawn mower racing championships where you sit in a little mower and race around a course. I crashed it and ended up in hospital incidentally. I took part in the world conker championships and the World oyster eating championships; I managed to eat 88 oysters in 3 minutes! I took part in the world stinging nettle championships; I managed to eat 200 leaves in one hour and I felt very sick afterwards with a very sore tongue! I took part in the world tin bath racing championships where you sit in a little metal tin bath and race across a harbour. I sank and got hyperthermia in that. I also took part in the man versus horse race, a 21 mile race across the black mountains racing against horses- and yes I got beaten by a horse.

So my early sporting achievements weren’t bettered by any of those challenges. But I loved being in the outdoors and I developed a real passion for the countryside; I discovered what we have on our doorstep which you’re all discovering today [ at Eden]. It was about the same time that I was asked by the BBC if I would like to present a programme called Animal Farm. I did that for 10 years and that was one of my favourite programmes. I got to work with the lions, the tigers, the elephants and finally I was fulfilling my childhood dream, working alongside vets. I got to work with animals on a daily basis which was just fantastic. We witnessed the highs and lows, the cycle of life as it’s called. Animals passed away but many animals were born and again all of these experiences started changing me as a person, started changing my values in life and I suppose another of these tipping points, these moments when you realise what other people do and what work goes on, was when I became an ambassador for WWF, The World Wildlife Fund for Nature.

As an ambassador they sent me off to Nepal to watch a Rhino relocation project down on the border with India. A lot of us think of Nepal as being just mountains but they’ve got lowlands there too. I went to one of the big National parks called Badia, and the idea was that there were too many Rhino in one of the national parks and not enough in the other. So they wanted to move these enormous creatures from one park to the other and the only way to do that was to go out on elephant back, huge Indian elephants- they’re the biggest thing I’ve ever seen-they would take 5 of us on top of each elephant, in a convoy of 20 elephants with 5 people on each one. These included vets, antitheists, scientists, and we all went out for a 5 day trip, walking through this forest until we found a rhino.

When it got darted, a huge sledge was bought in on the back of elephants and we had to lift one of these rhino that weighs many, many tons- more than a car- onto this sledge and then get the elephants to haul this thing out. It was like watching an episode of King Kong, I’d never seen anything quite like it, and the reality that people worked for these conservation groups made me decide that this was what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to do as much for nature and working for wildlife as I could.

BASE CAMP EDEN ALAN CREE

I was lucky enough to join the UKTV competition winners at Base Camp Eden in The Forest of Dean; a weekend that celebrated Eden's British Wild Life season with an array of activities, luxury camping and encounters with locals and wild life experts. One of these experts was Bushcraft genius Alan Cree, who has over 20 years of outdoor experience. Inspired by living and working in Africa, he has been studying Bushcraft and outdoor leadership for the last 10 years and holds over 10 relevant qualifications. I managed to tear Alan away from the forest for a quick interview and here's what I found...

RPM: Tell me a little about yourself and how you became the Bushcraft ‘guru’ you are today.

ALAN: I used to work in London, and to release myself from the pressure I was under, I used to do some wild camping. I spent a lot of my time designing buildings around the world-I realised I had designed all different types of architectural buildings- yet knew very little about the natural world. So about 12 years ago I started going on some courses in Bushcraft with some very well known names and those courses gave me the confidence to study nature in much more detail. So after that I moved down to the Forest Of Dean and I’ve been studying bush craft and wilderness skills here for 12 years.

RPM: So you were an architect before? That must seem very different to what you’re doing now?

ALAN: Funnily enough I don’t think it is different, I teach people about the design of furniture and shelter outdoors and architecture is a form of shelter. The tepees you see around here (he points to the yurts our competition winners are staying in) they are still some of the most elegant shelters that have ever been designed. So I think I’ve learnt quite a lot about architecture from working in the woods because the ergonomics, the design of everything has to be the appropriate size of human beings. It’s actually a very similar skill, just going back about 40,000 years!

RPM: How did you become such an expert? Did you have to live in the woods surviving off water and berries for a year....?

ALAN:You can get courses now, but they’re quite simplistic. They teach people some skills, but the only way to really learn is through experience. For five years, I spent every single day going out and trying to learn 2 new things about nature: one wild flower, one plant one medicinal herb whatever it was, and if you add that up, then you end up with about 30,000 things you know. Again, for one year, I would spend every single day going out and making a fire, without matches, every single day.

RPM: And were you successful every day?

ALAN:I reckon I’ve made 3,000 fires now and I think only about 3 times it’s not worked. That took a lot of practise and preparation though. It’s not obvious to people for example when they come to my woods that there is actually preparation that’s been done. There are groups of young people I’ve had for 24 hours who have never even been out of a city and it just rains for that entire 24 hours and you’ve got to keep them warm. Fire is one of the most basic forms of shelter; it’s something that you can’t live for long without in the outdoors as people get hyperthermia and die.

RPM: So you’re interested in showing people how to survive?

ALAN: You know humans have some physiological requirements and some psychological requirements and that’s what I’m interested in showing people; how nature provides for them, in abundance. It provides for all our physiological requirements: food, shelter and water.

RPM: I’ve lived in London all my life, so it’s really interesting meeting people like you and the rest of locals at The Forest of Dean who can take me back to basics. I really wouldn’t have a clue how to survive in the forest!

ALAN: Deep down in the back of your head, you actually do know these things. I do try to prompt people to think about what the priorities in life are. There are lots of things in life that are unnecessary and only a few things that are necessary and it’s quite amazing how necessary these few things are. You actually do know; all humans know instinctively. You might not know how to go about getting it in an elegant and good way, but you do know what’s important. So I think it’s a good thing to reconnect people with nature, and I think bush craft and wilderness skills are the best way of doing that. It’s about what we need as humans and it is a very human experience. When you spend a lot of time out on your own in the woods, you come to appreciate the value of human company, so it teaches you that as well, it teaches you humanity I think.

RPM: I saw you earlier sniffing the firewood we’ve got ready for our bonfire later. What exactly were you doing there?

ALAN:I was trying to tell how long ago it’s been cut, because it’s not been cut as long as I would have like it to have been cut. It’s only been cut in the Spring so it’s not completely seasoned. That’s one of the few fire-woods in the world; it’s the best firewood in the world as it has the highest calorific value. Ash will burn when its green and no other wood will burn when it’s green. So looks like you’ve arranged a fire here that has the best combination of firewoods possible, ash, which is the heat, and I’ve bought in five year old seasoned beach from a forest. That provides a very clear white light, so more light than heat and the combination of those two woods gives the best combination.

RPM: Is fire-making one of things you enjoy teaching the most?

ALAN: Fire, yes, we’ve been doing it for the last thousand years and there’s a lot more to it then lighting some matches you know? You get to learn lots of things. I stay away from the brutal aspect of ‘survival’. I’m much more interested in talking to people about life and things that are really helpful.

RPM: What are you going to be teaching the competition winners today and tomorrow?

ALAN: Well I have a two hour session, a bit like a TV programme, with some scratch and sniff elements where people can get involved. But I’ll teach a couple of the most fundamental skills for living outdoors and show them how nature provides for it. I’ll let them see it through my eyes. I’ve bought along some examples from nature, for instance I’m going to teach people about shelters, so I’ve bought a long a Green Finches nest, a Wren’s nest and a solitary Bee’s nest to show you how nature solves those problems. You’ll see that nature has set a very high bar for us to jump to. A wren makes its nest with a beak and a couple of claws so architecture and shelter is inspired by nature. The competition winners can learn from that and I want to really inspire them, to show them what we can come up with, some fundamental life skills