Behind the wheel with Ben Fogle

Words: Danny Scott

Where has been your favourite road trip destination?
In 2016, I was filming Where The Wild Men Are in Khatgal, Outer Mongolia, and it was probably the most complex, demanding road trip I’ve ever undertaken. It meant a couple of flights, 24 hours on a train drinking vodka and 12 hours in a tiny Russian minibus called an UAZ SGR driving across frozen lakes and rivers with huge ships trapped in the ice. We had to chop away at the ice ridges to get across them. Otherworldly and utterly, utterly beautiful.

What’s on your bucket list?
China had long been on my bucket list and I’ve just come back from there. It completely surprised me. I got to fix part of the Great Wall – not bad for my first bricklaying job!

What’s your ultimate travel song?
My favourite band of all time is a Kiwi bunch called Fat Freddy’s Drop. They play the kind of cool funk that really pulls you in and you can’t help but start grooving. I could go for any track on any album because they seem to suit any place, any environment, any weather, any situation. Have a listen – you won’t be disappointed.

What are your packing essentials?
My non-negotiables are my little cafetière and a packet of decent coffee, a jar of Marmite, large enough to keep me going for however long I’m away, and a method of communicating with my family.

Do you have any clever travel hacks?
Drink water! Whenever I fly – and I have done a lot of long-haul trips – I literally drink litres and litres of water. Yes, it means that I’m in the loo more than anyone else on the plane, but I never suffer from jet lag. And when I land, I go for a run. Not fast, not long... just enough to get the body moving and give me an idea of where I am.

What’s your dream car? And where in the world would you most want to drive it?
No surprises here. I wrote a book about Land Rovers and any time I see an old one, it stops me in my tracks. The design, the way it’s put together – there’s more than a touch of genius about that car. And it would have to be a trip that put it through its paces, so let’s go to Pakistan. Start at the coast, drive to the far north and the Karakoram Mountains [pictured above].

Do you think you’re a good traveller?
These days, I take around a hundred flights a year, so, yes, I think I’m getting the hang of it. It’s become a routine for me: how long to pack, getting to the airport, the right hotel and, most of all, enjoying the experience. Travelling doesn’t have to be stressful.

What’s been your craziest travel experience to date?
Quite a few, but Mount Everest in 2018 immediately springs to mind. We were camping at 8,000 metres and a massive storm hit. For about 12 hours, I had no idea if we were going to make it out of there. A stark reminder that, even with all our machines and technology, nature is still in charge. 

If you could live anywhere else in the world, where would it be, and why?
Like the people I meet on New Lives in the Wild, it would be somewhere ‘out there’. Not a city, not a holiday resort. Probably the north of Norway, Sweden or Finland, on one of those islands near the Arctic Circle. The Scandinavians are good people with a healthy respect for the outdoors. Plus, they have great alcohol! 

Ben Fogle’s Wild UK tour tells the extraordinary true stories of his amazing encounters with people and animals and how they changed his life.

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