Australian Geographic

You've ridden a bicycle solo across Asia for 17,000 kilometres.

You've climbed every major mountain peak in Africa, spent a decade presenting and being a roving reporter on Channel 9 show Getaway, hosting Painting Australia for the ABC and a presenter on Best of Australia series for Australian Geographic.

You've collaborated with Wild Bear Entertainment on more than 50 documentaries and served as the chair of the Australian Geographic Society, authored 13 books.

They range from travel memoirs to children's titles.

And you've written over 100 publications and contributed images and articles for lots of magazines, including National Geographic.

We actually

met.

I mentioned we met probably 16 years ago on Christmas Island when you were filming a documentary for Australian Geographic.

And if you look like you're going to be going on that expedition with them or without them and you look like there will be benefits to the company, like maybe marketing benefits or some kind of box that it ticks in terms of their goals and community outreach, then they would offer the grant to you.

So I won one through the North Face and through Australian Geographic.

And that really then made life so much easier because it gave me credibility, even though I didn't really deserve it, with other companies who would then help to contribute to my equipment as well.

Because that is, given that I'm changing jobs, walking along a line of longitude, the climate is always changing consistently and I need to be switching out.