Benedict Allen

Background

When Allen was a child, he went on fossil-hunting expeditions in Lyme Regis. His father, Colin Allen, a test pilot who taught Prince Philip how to fly, brought back exotic presents and so passed on to his son the sense that there was still an exciting world out there waiting to be explored. Amongst explorers, his heroes are Laurens van der Post and naturalist Peter Matthiessen. To him, "the greatest explorers are people like this who just listen and learn, and don't impose."

Allen has two older sisters, Katie and Susie. He was educated at Bradfield College, and read Environmental Science at the University of East Anglia. He joined three scientific expeditions during his last year at university.

Allen began a degree in Ecology at the University of Aberdeen but failed the final exam, claiming to have been distracted by planning his first independent expedition from the mouth of the Orinoco to that of the Amazon.

In 2009, Allen was one of four stars of the reality epic Expedition Africa, airing on History. The eight-part series followed the team as they retraced the journey of Henry Morton Stanley in his quest to find David Livingstone, the journey which supposedly ended with the famous phrase, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

Allen is a Patron of the Environmental Justice Foundation.

Expeditions

Allen has taken part in scientific expeditions to a volcano in Costa Rica, to a remote forest in Brunei, and as leader to a glacier in Iceland.

In other expeditions, Allen crossed northeast Amazonia in 1985, going 600 miles on foot and by dug out canoe (Mad White Giant). In West Papua and Papua New Guinea he flew from the Obini community in Irian Jaya. He participated in six-week male initiation ceremony of the Niowra tribe (Into the Crocodile's Nest). In Siberut and Sumatra he investigated the "Orang pendek" ape man, via the Mentawai of Siberut and the Kubu of Sumatra (Hunting the Gugu). He crossed the central mountain range of New Guinea and the Torres Strait to Australia. He made 'first contact' with the Yaifo people in New Guinea (The Proving Grounds). He crossed the Amazon basin at its widest point, 1,200 miles from the Andes of Ecuador, through the lowland jungle to Mato Grosso in Brazil, helped by the Matses Indians (Through Jaguar Eyes). In the Cocha Brava he went in search of tigers (The Raiders of the Lost Lake). In the Namib Desert (1995), he spent three and a half months travelling with three reluctant camels, learning from the nomadic Himba tribe to survive with little food or water (The Skeleton Coast).

He crossed the steppe and Gobi desert in five and a half months, going 3,000 miles by piggyback and camel through Siberian drylands, Mongolian steppe (The Edge of Blue Heaven). In the Mato Grosso he investigated the Kalapalo Mexicans’ story of the disappearance of Colonel Fawcett (The Bones of Colonel Fawcett). He attempted to cross the Bering Straits. He travelled with dogs 2500 miles through Chukchi and Inuit peoples and beyond (Ice Dogs). He visited spiritual healers including Voodoo witchdoctors in Haiti, the Mentawai in Indonesia, the Huichol of Mexico and shamans in Siberia (Last of the Medicine Men).

As author

Mad White Giant (1985, published in America as Who Goes Out in the Midday Sun?)

Into the Crocodile's Nest: Journey Inside New Guinea (1987)

Hunting the Gugu: In Search of the Lost Ape-Men of Sumatra (1989)

The Proving Grounds: A Journey Through the Interior of New Guinea and Australia (1991)

Through Jaguar Eyes: Crossing the Amazon Basin (1994)

The Skeleton Coast (1997)

The Edge of Blue Heaven (1998)

Last of the Medicine Men (2000)

Into the Abyss (2006)

As contributor

More Great Railway Journeys (1996)

As editor

The Faber Book of Exploration: An Anthology of Worlds Revealed by Explorers Through the Ages (2002)

TV series

The Skeleton Coast (BBC, 1997)

The Edge of Blue Heaven (BBC, 1998)

The Bones of Colonel Fawcett (BBC,1999)

Last of the Medicine Men (BBC, 1999)

Ice Dogs (BBC, 2002)

Travellers' Century (BBC, 2008)

Unbreakable (Five, 2008)

Other TV appearances

The Raiders of the Lost Lake (video diary)

A voyage through the Brazilian Amazon to reveal the secrets of the Cocha Brava (Wild Lake), home to the giant monster snake – which no white man has ever seen.

Great Railway Journeys: Mombasa to the Mountains of the Moon (1996, BBC)

Through Kenya to Uganda. An account of contemporary life in East Africa.

We Need Answers, 25 February 2010, A British comedy panel show broadcast on BBC 4.

I Shouldn't Be Alive: Alone in the Amazon

Highlights and mishaps

On his adventures, Allen considers the primary threat to come from humans, usually non-native. He has never been attacked by a wild animal.

On his first journey, he was attacked by gold miners and was left without food or possessions. Eventually, Allen chose to eat his own dog.

Allen is the only non-tribe member to have undergone a six-week Niowra initiation ceremony on the Sepik, Papua New Guinea. It was designed to make boys into men "as strong as a crocodile". He has crocodile markings on his back and chest from the sacred ceremony.

Allen funded his crossing of the Amazon Basin by working in a warehouse. His eight-month 3,600-mile crossing was accomplished without the aid of a map or compass

In Colombia, he escaped from what he believed to be armed drug barons. They tried to pursue him, using the butt of a rifle to paddle. On the same trip, his guides abandoned him, taking his supplies with them.

In The Skeleton Coast, Allen had to train three camels to help him cross the desert. This was to become his favourite travel memory, "Emerging out of the Namib Desert with my three camels – led by the heroic old camel Nelson. I'd been alone more or less for six weeks. I was so proud of my camels, who had become more like professional colleagues than working animals. Nelson hated sand dunes – and the sea, and elephants, and women! Gradually he overcame his fears and helped get me safely out of the desert."

In The Edge of Blue Heaven, Allen crossed 1000 miles of the Gobi desert alone

His attempted crossing of the Bering Straits coincided with the worst winter in living memory.

During his stay with the Mentawai of Siberut, Indonesia, Allen was offered and received a tattoo on his right leg. A blunt safety pin is used for the decorative tattooing, which the Mentawai believe to reflect the beauty of the spirits around and within them.

In the Arctic, he lost his dog team. This would have meant certain death if he had not found them after only one night, which he had spent sheltering in a snow hole.

His expedition to Chukotka was provided with logistical support by the Russian oligarch, and then governor of the region, Roman Abramovich.