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'Safe Journeys’ Goes Extreme with Ben Fogle
Local company Safe Journeys Adventure Treks, which specialises in trekking in the Nepal Himalayas, has successfully beaten off stiff UK competition to organise an exciting and adventure filled series of programmes, for the BBC 2’s Extreme Dreams, featuring the popular presenter Ben Fogle.
A phone call in September from the BBC to Richard Struthers, proprietor of Safe Journeys, asked if it would be possible for him to arrange an adventure trek to a remote and inaccessible area in Nepal. The eager answer was a definite YES!
 “This led to a very busy few months finding a suitable location in Nepal which fulfilled the BBC’s criteria for the Extreme Dreams programme,” Richard told Comment. “After organising fact-finding missions to different locations - in between leading a trek in November to Everest Base Camp - the hard work finally paid off. In December I found out that we had beaten off all the competition from the larger UK-based trekking companies to be awarded the contract.”
The hard work, however, really began when Ben Fogle, the participants and the film crew arrived in Kathmandu for a very hectic fortnight of arduous trekking through terrain rarely travelled before by western travellers.
The participants for the Extreme Dreams programme had been chosen out of thousands of applicants for an adventure challenge of a lifetime, and they certainly got it!
“The weather was also extreme during this time,” continued Richard. “I have never experienced weather like it in Nepal, we had thunderstorms everyday, with hail and snow thrown in for good measure.”
Richard noted: “This was a very exciting few weeks filled with extreme adventure in an extreme environment, and was a huge learning curve for me.
“I had no experience of working with a film company before, although I do have considerable experience in getting people to achieve their personal goals. The film crew, however, were great to work with, as was Ben Fogle who was very helpful and kept the participants spirits up with his personal expertise.”
The whole trek was filmed, and will be broadcast over five episodes in September on BBC2.
Richard, who has been leading treks to the Everest and Annapurna Regions for over 15 years, has an office in Aberfeldy. A lot of work goes into the promotion of his company and he has had many people successfully complete a lifetime’s ambition of reaching the foot of Mount Everest after 3 weeks of strenuous trekking.
For more information, Richard can be contacted: Richard@safejourneys.co.uk (see also www.safejourneys.co.uk )
Richard (left) and Ben are pictured centre with some of the 'Safe Journeys' local Nepalese staff in the Himalaya
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