“If you risk nothing you gain nothing”

“But, we’re also going to learn to look after each other, who to work together and who to understand and manage that risk.” That’s what it’s about, you don’t empower kids if you don’t expose them to risk.

My faith isn’t very churchy, it’s a pretty personal, intimate thing and has been a huge source of strength in moments of life and death.

I learnt another valuable lesson that night: listen to the quiet voice inside. Intuition is the noise of the mind.

That feeling when you’re so cold you’d give anything to be warm – I’ve had it before, literally huddled around a candle flame on an ice sheet.

I do see a lot of the hard end of ecology, and my feeling is that we live on a super-exciting planet but a super-fragile one.

Textbook survival says stay still, don’t take any chances, wait for rescue. That’s a boring TV show. My thing was always, “Listen, shoelace, dead squirrel and no other way down this rock face. You can do this!”

I grew up on survival shows and they were always just so…anoraky.

The truth is, I need 10 lifetimes to scratch the surface of the things I’d love to do.

Sometimes an ember is all we need.

Nothing inspires people more than reckless acts of courage.

Look, sometimes, no matter how hard you try, sometimes you need a bit of luck.

How you speak about others speaks loudest about yourself.

The hardest thing about my job isn’t the snake bites or the crocodiles, it’s being away from my children. I have a really religious satellite phone call every day back to the boys, wherever we are, whatever time zone, to say goodnight.

I said no to the Born Survivor producer three times because I’ve never aspired to be a TV man.

A wise man knows; learn from others, never get complacent and know where the classic old dangers come from.

Is your ego small enough, and your backbone strong enough, to raise others up high on your shoulders?