Mental breakdown no deterrent for extreme survivalist

Six years ago, seasoned explorer Ed Stafford made history as the first person known to walk the length of the Amazon River; a gruelling feat that took 859 days.

A year later, the 40-year-old’s incredible achievement was showcased on the Discovery Channel documentary Walking the Amazon, which later spawned the TV series Naked and Marooned where Stafford spent 60 days naked and alone on a remote island in the South Pacific with nothing but his camera equipment to record the experience.

Despite previously tackling the dangers of the Amazon jungle, the 60-day exploit took a huge toll on the former British Army commander, who suffered a mental breakdown on returning to Britain.

But that did little to deter him from his next adrenaline-seeking adventures.

In his latest instalment Marooned, Stafford set himself the challenge to “survive and thrive” in some of the world’s most remote and unforgiving locations, albeit for 10 days at a time.

The remote sites Stafford was dropped into include Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, the Guatemala jungle and the parched bushveld of northern Namibia in South Africa.

Equipped with just his camera equipment and a pair of shorts (he decided not to go naked this time around), how did Stafford prepare his mind and body for such a gruelling challenge?

“Probably the biggest thing I do that is ongoing and helps me is meditation,” Stafford explains down the line from Britain.

“You watch (Naked and Marooned) and for me that was like opening a massive can of worms in terms of, I’d never really been in any sort of therapy before that and I’d never really looked at any way of psychologically managing myself.

“And yet, because of that experience, I was kind of forced into it afterwards. That mindfulness gives you that step back to sort of observe what’s going on inside yourself, so rather than getting locked into these mental battles, I kind of see them coming before they take over.”

Stafford adds that, as well as keeping physically fit, he followed a ketogenic-style diet high in fats and low in carbohydrates.

“You can definitely adapt your body to predominantly burn fats rather than carbohydrates,” he says. “I think if I go in there very full, very bloated and with too much carbohydrates in me, I sort of set myself up for a massive crash.”

Ahead of each expedition, Stafford spent time near each remote location to become familiar with his surroundings and often turned to locals for their knowledge.

“I normally arrive in a country, get whatever vehicle of transport which is near to wherever I have to go to and there’s normally an ex-SAS guy there who’s a survival expert and there are a couple of indigenous people there,” he says.

“I’ve always done that because I thought it would be arrogant for some British guy to land in each country and think he knows it all and it would end up being really repetitive TV as well.”

Marooned airs today at 7.30pm on pay-TV’s Discovery Channel.