Benedict Allen

    (£3,000 - £5,000)

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Biography

The unique Benedict Allen is a speaker whose success has been born out of learning from "primative" peoples, the practices, teachings and skills that have enabled him to survive and succeed.

Benedict Allen has become one of Britain’s best known explorers, through his eight books detailing his travels and of course his unique BBC Television programmes and series.  He is driven by the challenge and the self-fulfilment of independent achievement but where he differs from most conventional explorers is that he learns about his survival and the places he visits from the remote tribes people he encounters, never supported by modern technology or twenty-first century thinking.  Truly Eco-friendly, he generally takes nothing with him into these communities...no equipment, maps or hi-tech navigational aides, simply throwing himself on the 'mercy' of local populations and indigenous tribes, adapting and learning, only from them, in their true environment.

Benedict's latest venture was to travel a thousand miles through Siberia with a dog team in the worst winter in living memory.  Despite a diet of raw walrus, and gaining frostbite within days, he built a team of faithful dogs from what had been a dangerous rabble, setting off to brave the Arctic alone.  The result of his endeavours is shown in his BBC TV series Icedogs.

Benedict Allen has captivated a vast television audience with two series for BBC as well as the thrilling series, Last of the Medicine Men - Benedict's encounters with strange shamans and witchdoctors around the world.  The Bones of Colonel Fawcett took viewers on a detective trail to try and retrace the steps of the famous 1920s explorer who went missing in the Matto Grosso region of Brazil.  In Edge of Blue Heaven - Benedict undertook, a breathtaking 3,000 mile trek around Mongolia, the land of Genghis Khan, including a six week lone crossing of the Gobi Desert, a story that captured the imagination and the hearts of many, with his passionate and intimate presentation of the expedition.

Benedict Allen was the first person to be allowed to walk the full length of the Skeleton Coast of Namibia in South Africa, which is littered with diamonds! He traversed the gruelling 2,000 kilometres over three and a half months with three reluctant camels, captivating the public as he shared the experience on screen.  During the journey he had to survive extreme temperatures, negotiate some of the world's highest sand dunes and cope with numerous dangers, from training his camels, to keeping lions at bay at night with fire...something that unfortunately also acts as a beacon to charging rhino!

One of Benedict's most dramatic experiences is referred to in his book ‘Into the Crocodile Nest’.  It documents how he became the only non-tribe member to have undertaken the 'Niowra' initiation ceremony, a punishing ritual to make him a man 'as strong as a crocodile'.  Benedict's torso still bears the astonishing tribal markings that resulted from having his skin gouged with bamboo and whipped with branches to leave a pattern resembling the scales of a crocodile.

Benedict's other explorations include crossing North East Amazonia on foot and by dug out canoe, covering more than 600 miles, a journey described in his first book ‘Mad White Giant’ and hunting for the elusive 'ape man' of Sumatra.

He uses his experiences to inspire the 'explorer' in all of us.  His fascinating stories of human endeavour convey messages that encourage personal development and achievement and promote people’s abilities to cope with challenging and ever changing circumstances.  His charming personality belies the grim determination he draws on to complete his thrilling expeditions, but it is his charisma that has endeared him to a vast public audience.  Benedict has motivated thousands with his passion for creating awareness of other incredible cultures, whilst developing self awareness and the skills, even the humour, to deal with everything, from threatening situations, to loneliness.

Benedict Allen has recently finished filming his new groundbreaking television series ‘Unbreakable’, the huge Ch 5 series where he acts as a mentor, pushing ordinary members of the public further than we’ve ever seen before on television. That’s what appealed to Benedict – ‘As an adventurer who’s had to struggle to survive in jungles, deserts and icy wastes, I wanted to see what mental and physical resources these ordinary members of the public would find in themselves when taken to the limits of endurance. It was important to me that these were indeed ordinary (though fit) individuals. No gimmicks: they weren’t celebrities; they weren’t competing for a prize, they were fit men and women, but “ordinary” people who we’d see do something extraordinary. They faced explosives, tear gas, had to secure an alligator... Even on the first day, one “Unbreakable” fainted, another collapsed unconscious from heat exhaustion. It was nerve-racking from the safety point of view, but I came away with the utmost respect for these eight men and women – how, time and again, they put themselves through hell and emerged (all the stronger for the experience) on the other side’.

Benedict Allen regularly addresses conferences, as a keynote speaker, throughout the UK and around the world. He inspires, motivates and excites all he addresses, whether he is invited as a platform speaker, after dinner speaker or lecturer. He is both a true personality and high-level achiever, in every sense.