Top explorer opens up world of adventure to pupils

Intrepid explorer Benedict Allen was exhausted after his grillings by children enthusiastic to learn more about his global travels.

He prides himself on becoming immersed with those he meets during the journeys to the most isolated spots on the planet.

Spending an hour with each of the three classes of about 30 seven and eight-year-olds at the school as well as 25 minutes talking at the school assembly was equally tough as he juggled questions fired at him by his inquisitive audiences.

He said: "Children are just so challenging because they are so direct. When I told them I had to eat my dog, one of them asked me what it tasted like.

"There's a lot of honesty with the children and you have to be honest with them, otherwise they seem to sense it.

"It reminds me of when I was their age and I read about places like the Orinoco River and the Gobi Desert.

"People used to come to my school and enthuse me to want to get out there and explore them. I've still got that childishness and I'm lucky I'm doing my dream job."

The visit by Mr Allen (48) was a highlight of the school's current topic of travel and exploration, fittingly for being located in Raleigh Road. The pupils enjoyed meeting him.

Megan Holmes (seven) said: "He has been quite fun to talk to and learning about other places. It was really good when he talked about being bitten by piranhas."

Sophie Clapp (seven) said: "I enjoyed listening to him telling about the people he has seen in the Amazon."

Daniel Arran (seven) was most enthusiastic about a bird-hunting bird and arrow which provided a prop to one section of the talk.

"I've never seen one of those before and he showed us how he would use it," he said.

But for Anna Wisdom (eight) the idea of being an explorer just didn't appeal. "It seems a bit dangerous because you can get killed by animals or by people in different places," she explained.

Benedict Allen has a reputation as one of Britain's most prominent explorers who went on to pioneer the filming of authentic journeys for television.

By not using a film-crew, he has allowed millions of people around the world to witness for the first time adventures unfolding genuinely in inhospitable terrain. Few people alive have been so long isolated and alone in so many different potentially-hostile environments.

His adventurous activities have included a 600-mile crossing of north-east Amazonia, completing the first recorded crossing of the central mountain range of Papua New Guinea and making the only known crossing of the Amazon basin at its widest point to mean a journey of 3,600 miles.

All this, and more, has earned him the title of 'television's most fearless man'.

He has also written ten books about his exploits.

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