In the footsteps of explorers

Sandi Toksvig talks to three explorers about walking in the footsteps of the heroic explorers from the age of adventure. Tom Fremantle has trekked into Africa on the path of Mungo Park's journey in 1795. Rebecca Harris retraced the steps of John Franklin, lost in 1845 whilst trying to find the North West Passage. Benedict Allen travelled by camel along the Namib desert/Skeleton Coast of South West Africa.

Tom Fremantle has had a restless career. He's been a teacher, journalist, dustman, bartender in a Hong Kong nightclub and a jackaroo on an Australian sheep station. His new book is called "Down the Niger on the Trail of Mungo Park". It is his journey into the interior of Africa, a travel commentary interspersed with description of Mungo Park's journey over the same terrain in 1795.

Rebecca Harris used to work for the BBC Natural History Unit. After she left the BBC she became involved with the Shackleton Memorial Expedition to Antarctica in 2001. In her own Franklin Memorial expedition to the Arctic in April 2003, Rebecca and her team retraced the steps of John Franklin and his crew who were lost in 1845 whist trying to find the North West Passage.

Benedict Allen believes that being an explorer today is not so much about the heroic adventurer conquering the wilderness, but learning about the wilderness and conquering ourselves.
On his trek along the Namib desert/Skeleton Coast of South West Africa he travelled with three camels for 1,000 miles. He was always looking forward to the end of the journey, but says that when it was reached he could not wait to get out to the desert again.