On his latest adventure, TV explorer Simon Reeve travelled around the world following the invisible line of the Tropic of Capricorn, visiting some of the planet’s most amazing places as he went. Maire Bonheim chatted to him about his favourite travel destinations, responsible travel and eating penis soup!

Simon Reeve Interview

Of the places you went following the Tropic of Capricorn, which do you think are the top must-see areas?

Botswana has the most extraordinary oasis probably on the planet, the Okavango delta. It’s the biggest in Africa and probably the world; animals are just drawn to it from across southern Africa so if you go there you’re guaranteed to see amazing wildlife. Madagascar is extraordinary in that it’s been cut off from the rest of the world and animals have had time to develop in their own eccentric way, so it’s an extraordinary place to visit as a result. Western Australia is beautiful, vast and empty and has some beautiful national parks. In Chile there is the Atacama Desert, which is probably the driest, most sterile place on the planet, but it’s amazing at the same time, it’s a little bit like visiting the moon.

To view an image gallery of photos taken during the Tropic of Capricorn journey, Click Here.

If you went again, what would you avoid?

I probably wouldn’t eat some of the foods I had on this journey because I know how revolting they are. I could manage without eating the penis soup in Madagascar, for example. It tasted generally awful, like eating lumps of grizzle. Maybe it’s the connection with the male appendage but I ate it with my legs crossed, it was just disgusting with bits of penis floating around in the soup. Horrible! I also had to eat bee larvae and mopane worms, which are little dried caterpillars, a bit of snake… and that was just on this Tropic of Capricorn trip!

What was the most surprising thing about other cultures that you noticed?

I think the situation in Australia – the Aboriginal crisis – really did surprise me because you’ve got there a developed first world country where the first people of that country are living in third world conditions. The general indifference of many Australians to their situation surprised me. And the inability of Aborigines to bond with mainstream Australians really shocked me as well. It was very hard to form any connection with them, much harder than even tribes in South America who’ve never had contact with foreigners before. That came as a huge shock.

It seems you deliberately went and got involved in things that the average tourist would avoid – like poverty and AIDS. Was there anything that shocked you?

I was constantly surprised and appalled by the situation on the ground in many of these countries. The idea with my journeys isn’t just to go and see the pretty sights; it’s to find out more about what’s happening on the ground, so we end up blending travel with current affairs. Personally I prefer that – when I’m going on a normal holiday I want to know more about the country that I’m visiting, and that’s what we do, going behind the scenes a bit. I was constantly surprised, appalled, amazed and excited; it was one long roller coaster of emotions and new experiences.

Do you think the government should do more to help places like Africa?

Yes I do. I think we as a people don’t do enough to resolve the problems there and we just end up giving them small amounts of money that become sticking plasters for great wounds without resolving the real underlying issues. Tony Blair said Africa was a stain on the conscience of the world – it was then and it is now, and very little seems to be changing.

What was the most amazing image the journey left you with?

I’d say the vastness of our planet. Whenever you think you’ve covered an area, you then discover a whole new continent sized region you haven’t explored, and there’s so much of our planet out there it seems so strange that we can’t manage to run it very efficiently.

What do you think about responsible travel?

I think there’s a balance to be found. Environmentally friendly travel is the responsibility of all of us, it’s hard to travel overseas nowadays without accepting the fact that international flights are a huge privilege and as such they carry responsibilities as well. But I m not somebody who says we should immediately ban all international holidays because taking a holiday in many parts of the world can be of enormous benefit – there are many game parks, nature reserves, conservation parks that absolutely depend on money from tourism to exist and without that money locals might try looking for profits elsewhere, from logging, bush meat or other sources. So I think travel and tourism has a huge role to play in conservation but we have to look at the way we travel and the fact that it is polluting.

Do you think most Brits avoid getting involved in the real culture of a country when they travel?

No I think most Brits are desperately keen to get involved, it’s one of the reasons they go abroad, although sometimes it can be quite difficult or intimidating. But I’ve found most people are extremely pleased when foreigners take an interest in an alternative culture. I think that’s one of the reasons people go abroad – to experience something different and to have experiences that will change and help them develop. There’s no real point otherwise, you might as well just stay at home in your garden, under a sunlamp maybe.

Do you think Brits have a bad reputation as tourists abroad?

We only have a bad reputation in certain parts of Europe where they sell cheap booze, because of our well known lack of restraint when it comes to alcohol!

Where in the UK do you like to travel best?

Generally around the South where it’s warmer, but I tend to have terrible experiences when I go away in the UK. I do get sick when I go abroad and eat strange foods but the only time I’ve had serious food poisoning was in the UK where I was expecting comfort food. I love going to Dorset and Devon though. When it’s nice and warm and sunny, there are no better places on the planet than Devon, the Lake District and the Scottish Highlands.

Have you ever been on a relaxed beaches and bars holiday?

Not really to a resort but I have been on bars holidays with mates where we spend most of our time drinking copious amounts of booze, and in the right context they can be very memorable holidays. It can be great fun and a great chance to get pissed with your mates. But maybe I’m getting a bit older now so I’m doing it less.

Who was the most memorable person you’ve met on your travels?

There was a young woman called Fatima who I met in a refugee camp on the border between Kenya and Somalia a couple of years ago. She and her story were incredibly memorable. She was a refugee from Somalia who’d been in this refugee camp for 17 years. Her family had fled the fighting and the Kenyan government was holding them in this refugee camp where tens of thousands of similar people are still being held because they refuse to let them into Kenya. So Fatima was basically being held in open air prison in the middle of the desert. She has such huge potential and enthusiasm and she was an amazing person, and yet she wasn’t allowed to go 4 km from the centre of the camp. I was allowed to fly in there with my little passport and fly out again and it was a real reminder of the privilege of Western passports that mean you can flit in and out of countries around the world while someone like Fatima is completely unable to travel. She and her story were upsetting but also a reminder of how lucky I was.

Can you speak any foreign languages?

No, I’m completely crap at foreign languages, I really am. I can do silly accents and they seem to get me through, just by talking in a slightly Spanish accent and somehow I think people take pity on me and listen to me and humour me. I forget the most basic phrases that I’ve just been told. I travel the world using eye contact and smiling a lot and generally looking harmless.

Where are you going next? Are you going to do the Tropic of Cancer?

I’m not sure actually, I’d be very interested in doing that but I have to talk with the BBC about what they are prepared to fund because it costs quite a bit to send me and the team around the world. That would be the culmination of the last two series I’ve done – I went around the Equator which is through the middle of the tropics, I went around the Tropic of Capricorn which is the southern border of the tropics, and the Tropic of Cancer marks the northern border. It goes through about 19 countries, so that would be the big one for me. It would be a colossal journey.

Extract from Simon’s new book Tropic of Capricorn: Circling the World on a Southern Adventure:

“For a minute there is silence. Then rustling, snarling, roaring, the sound of crashing movement among the river bushes, followed by the piercing trumpet of a startled elephant. With a crack and a clatter, the huge grey shape of an old bull elephant emerges from the bushes, his ears flapping, his trunk stiff, his tusks flashing, and flanks still glistening with water. He is just 30 metres in front of us. He looks directly at us, his vast ears flare, he trumpets again, turns around and heads off away from the lions and the river. Well, I could not be more thrilled if I’d seen duelling dinosaurs. My mouth gapes open.”

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