Michael Turek has been taking photographs since he was eight years old. In this conversation with Matt Pycroft - that ranges from a close encounter with a Siberian tiger to a lifelong affection for the Yorkshire Dales - he makes an eloquent case for photography being one of the closest things we have to teleportation. 

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After a fourteen year career in the British Army, Jay Morton found himself catapulted from clandestine special forces secrecy to household-name celebrity. In this conversation with Matt Pycroft, Jay talks about growing up on active military service in Afghanistan in his early twenties, as well as the roles that both commitment and suffering have to play in a life well lived.

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In the second half of this two-part interview, Sophy Roberts shares the epiphany that led to her debut book The Lost Pianos of Siberia, and the ‘pursuit of an object’ that ultimately took six expeditions, thousands of miles of travel and three years of her life. Sophy eloquently describes an odyssey through communities living by the rhythm of the earth, and the surprising freedom she found deep in the Siberian wilderness.

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Sophy Roberts cut her journalistic teeth reviewing luxury hotels for glossy magazines, before turning her back on the world of ‘infinity pools, free lunches and free flights’ to tell the story of a vast swathe of Russia – eleven percent of the earth’s landmass – that is arguably the least luxurious destination on the planet. In the first half of this two-part interview Sophy looks back on the path that led to Siberia.

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Filmmaker and producer Emma Crome specialises in adventure and documentary film production. Following an unexpected insight into the decline of Britain’s wild spaces, Emma embarked on a long-term documentary project exploring the contemporary and precarious state of nature in the UK. Along the way she discovered the story of the father and son subjects of John MacDonald’s book ‘The Last English Poachers’, and set about tracking them down. In this episode we hear their tale, and that of Britain’s shrinking pockets of wilderness.

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Nick Bullock describes himself, in a self-deprecating manner that is a refreshing hallmark of his storytelling, as “someone who likes to go climbing”. Preferring off-the-radar mountains to well-trodden summits, his 24th expedition was to the rarely-climbed 7555m Mount Gongga, in the Sichuan region of China, “a massive mountain that launches up into the sky out of nowhere.” In this conversation with Matt Pycroft, Nick talks honestly and movingly about his own relationship with risk, ego, ambition, conflict, and the ‘lack of imagination’ that he feels is hampering the newest generation of alpinists.

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Five weeks after first arriving in the UK to study, Vedangi Kulkarni set off on her bike with the aim of discovering the country she had chosen to call home. Three weeks later, she stopped pedalling in John O’Groats, having cycled the length of mainland Britain. The story of how she got there is far from the usual bike-packing tale - with no sleeping bag, and an accidental foray onto the M27 - but one of dogged resilience, brave determination and an unwillingness to give up; qualities that were stretched to breaking point when she set out to cycle around the world the following year, aged nineteen.

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In 1989, George Monbiot travelled to Brazil to explore the troubling stories emerging from the rainforest. He lived in Manaus - in the heart of the Amazon - for two years, learning Portuguese and immersing himself in the country. George describes this time as “the beginning of my political education”, and his story spans a series of encounters that trump any Hollywood film, with investigations into local Brazilian land seizures leading to his reported death in the national press, and his dogged scrutinization of the gold rush finding him in a Wild-West-style shootout in the Amazonian hinterland.

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Still climbing in his ninth decade – and with nearly 30 first ascents under his belt – Sir Chris Bonington’s appetite for adventure has made him both a trailblazer and a mainstay of the mountaineering community. This conversation spans the peaks and valleys of a life well lived, and offers insight, humour and pathos. From an unsuccessful boyhood attempt on Snowdon to breaking new ground on distant Himalayan summits, Chris shares his hard-won wisdom on triumph, tragedy and the ingredient he calls ‘the most important thing in life’.

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Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-adventure-podcast.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.