Pack Rafting Gabon's Uncharted Jungle Rivers with Beki Henderson

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Beki Henderson is a BAFTA-nominated adventure filmmaker and expedition safety specialist with years of experience leading camera teams into some of the world's most remote and demanding environments. She's worked alongside Steve Backshall, Ben Fogle, Levison Wood, Aldo Kane, and most recently Will Smith on the landmark Pole to Pole series — premiering at the Natural History Museum in London.

In this episode, Chris sits down with Beki to dig into the Green Abyss — her personal expedition into Gabon's Waka National Park in 2024, launched in the wake of the country's military coup. The plan was to pack-raft the undocumented Akoi River for a month, reaching remote communities to understand the human cost of conservation policy. What followed was a masterclass in expedition reality — strainers, flash flood risk, a support team walking in entirely the wrong direction, and a village that no longer existed.

Beki also reflects on building a career in adventure television from scratch, why qualifications mean nothing without field experience, and what it really means to take risk seriously — not the dramatic kind, but the deep, lasting uncertainty that keeps you up at night two metres above a rising river in the middle of a Gabonese gorge.

Chapters:
00:00 — Risk Isn't Dramatic: What Expedition Danger Really Looks Like
01:25 — Introduction & Welcome to Adventure Diaries
03:12 — Growing Up in North Yorkshire With No Adventurous Instincts
06:53 — Building a Career in Adventure Filmmaking From Scratch
10:00 — Wilderness First Responder: Why Qualifications Mean Nothing Without Experience
12:17 — First Break Into Adventure Television: Steve Backshall & Expedition Series
14:07 — The Green Abyss: Pack Rafting Gabon's Undocumented Akoi River
16:29 — Building a Team in the Field & Getting Government Permission Post-Coup
22:29 — Strainers, Portaging & Why the River Always Wins
26:43 — Trapped in a Gorge: The Flash Flood Decision That Changed Everything
33:37 — The GPS Disaster: When the Support Team Walked the Wrong Way
38:10 — Ingondé Doesn't Exist: Conservation, Gold Panning & The Human Cost
44:24 — Recording Undocumented Species & Reflections on the Green Abyss

Pay It Forward: Beki shines a light on the Black Mambas — an all-female anti-poaching unit in South Africa working to protect wildlife and educate communities before poaching ever starts. Find them at blackmambas.org.

Call to Adventure: Figure out where your own edge is — and go there. Adventure doesn't have to cost money or require extreme skill. Start with what takes you outside your comfort zone.

Follow Beki Henderson:
Instagram: @bekihenderson
Website: beckihenderson.com

Transcript

[00:00:00] Beki: This isn't about jumping off the highest cliff or running the biggest rapid. This is when we really got to thinking about what risk meant. And actually, as I sat there thinking about what we were going to do, I realised that risk isn't dramatic. It isn't heroic. It's really that deep, long-lasting uncertainty of knowing something may or may not happen.

[00:00:24] And for me, that's a really interesting moment to realise when you are taking risks and when you're taking perceived risks. Do I really want to be just two metres above the water's edge in a gorge? And it was as we slung up our hammocks and found a bit of dry wood and set up our fire for the night that the sky erupted with thunder.

[00:00:50] And as we sat there, we thought about all of the countless dams, all of the countless fallen tree trunks that we'd already had to portage in days to come, and realised that two metres below us, the rapids that are getting bigger and faster are not our worry. It's actually what's going to be upstream.

[00:01:07] And thinking about that wall of water — if one of those tree trunks goes, that wall of water is going to smash us. There we are, the two of us who specialise in adventure and expedition, trapped — really as good as trapped — in the middle of the night, in the absolute middle of the jungle.

[00:01:25] Narrator: Welcome to the Adventure Diaries Podcast, where we share tales of adventure, connection, and exploration from the smallest of creators to the larger-than-life adventurers. We hope their stories inspire you to go create your own extraordinary adventures. And now, your host, Chris Watson.

[00:01:47] Chris: Welcome to another episode of the Adventure Diaries. Today we're joined by Beki Henderson, a BAFTA-nominated adventure filmmaker, expedition safety specialist, and one of the most experienced field producers working in adventure television today. Beki has spent years taking camera crews and talent into some of the world's most remote environments — from places like the Congo Basin to the high Arctic — working alongside the likes of Steve Backshall, Ben Fogle, Levison Wood, and more recently Will Smith in the National Geographic series, Pole to Pole. In today's episode, we explore the Green Abyss — Beki's personal expedition into Gabon's Waka National Park, an expedition launched not long after the country's military coup. This was an expedition to paddle an undocumented river and reach communities living on the edge of that national park. We explore what happens when a month-long pack-raft expedition unravels in a remote gorge, and the split-second decisions the team take to keep themselves alive. And we explore the uncomfortable truth about conservation — who it protects, and who it leaves behind. So please settle in and enjoy this fantastic conversation with Beki Henderson.

[00:03:12] Beki Henderson, welcome to the Adventure Diaries. How are you?

[00:03:12] Beki: Thank you very much, Chris. Yeah, I'm good, thank you. Thank you for having me.

[00:03:15] Chris: No, it's a pleasure. I do appreciate your time. As I said just before we started, you have been highly recommended by a number of past guests. I was hoping to come to your talk at Kendal, but I had two clashes unfortunately, so I'm excited about today.

[00:03:35] Beki: Brilliant. Well, thank you for reaching out to me.

[00:03:37] Chris: So the frame for today is the Green Abyss. I don't know if you can see this on camera — your fantastic expedition in Gabon in 2024, not long after the military coup. There's a lot of exciting stuff. I am a bit of a geek — I have poured over your expedition reports as I do with many of my guests, so I'm so excited to talk about that. But before we get into that, I always like to bring it back and understand a little bit about the guest, their formative experiences, and how they got to where they are. I believe you grew up in North Yorkshire? So what was life like for young Beki in Yorkshire?

[00:04:20] Beki: Yeah, I grew up in a small town in North Yorkshire. Very much — and I don't know if this is almost quite opposite to a lot of people who do this sort of exploratory adventure work — but I wasn't an adventurous kid. We weren't an adventurous family. I wasn't scaling walls at the age of five or whatever everyone seems to be doing. We were probably quite an ordinary family. A wonderful but ordinary town. I wouldn't say it was anything out of the ordinary. I know that growing up, I knew I wanted to do something different. I just didn't know what it was. It was very much down-steering in our schools — go be a teacher, go join the military. We weren't really looking outside of more mainstream careers. So unlike many of my peers who say, "If eight-year-old me was to look at myself now, I'd be so proud, I'd be so excited" — if eight-year-old me was to look at me now, she would be petrified. She would be saying, "What are you doing?" I was definitely in that era of having fear instilled in me — don't jump off that, you're going to break both your legs. So it was very much something that I came to later in life. But I knew I wanted to do something different. I was that little kid — in the nativity play at school, every other little girl wanted to be an angel, and I had to beg my mum, "Please let me be a shepherd. I just want to be a shepherd." So yeah, I would say there were no indicators in my formative years that I was going to do what I do now. That stuff definitely came later on.

[00:05:54] Chris: Yeah, and that's fascinating — because that's part of the reason for the show, to show that the opportunities don't always need to be ingrained in you or passed down through the generations. In terms of you, actually — firstly, I wanted to say congratulations on Pole to Pole. I don't want to jump around, but you're not long off the back of the premiere of the Will Smith production. How was that?

[00:06:23] Beki: It was amazing. It was wonderful. The premiere was at the Natural History Museum — what better place for it? And it was wonderful after so many years. The teams — I was on it for a relatively short period of time, a year and a half — but people were working on this for six years. It was such a brilliant experience and a brilliant opportunity to take a team, but also talent, into places they'd never been. It was wonderful to use the skills that I have to really offer people a first experience.

[00:07:00] Chris: Can I ask a quick favour? If you are enjoying the Adventure Diaries Podcast, could I ask that you take the time to click that subscribe or follow button? And if you're feeling extra generous, a written review and a star rating on your platform of choice would be greatly appreciated. Now let's get back to the episode. Thank you.

[00:07:22] Beki: Brilliant time in London though. Definitely enjoyed it.

[00:07:25] Chris: Awesome. And so bringing that back — how did your career come together?

[00:07:28] Beki: Do you know what, my career's been kind of all over the place, really. I think I look back and go, "What was it that got me into television?" And as many people probably of a similar age to me, I remember watching Bruce Parry's Tribe. We've all watched it, we all loved it. And I remember it was very much this secret little world that never even felt like I could go into it. It didn't even cross my mind. So I would say it really came later on. As I mentioned, I went to Leeds. I was the first one in my family to go to university, to really have an education after 16. I ended up doing graphic design — I started out in osteopathy, thought about medicine, did graphic design, switched again — and I was constantly switching, not really knowing. And at one point my mum said, "Just finish a degree. Just finish. You've started, please just finish." And I did. I moved to London, really not knowing what I wanted to do. I'd worked in fashion studios and had no roadmap and no plan, just knowing I wanted to do something different. And through a long pathway of working and making film for theatre and so on, I ended up — a friend of mine said, "You should work in television." And I sort of laughed. I thought, "I don't want to do quiz shows or Strictly Come Dancing or X Factor" — not even knowing then, in my early twenties, that this was a career option. I saw an advert and got my first job. And from then it's really just been that hustle. I think about how I curated my career specifically in adventure. I just constantly was watching other people and thinking, "Hey, I want to do that. No, now I want to do that." I look at my career as really being a stepping-stone career — not something I wanted to do when I was younger, and not something with an end goal in 20 or 30 years. Instead it was: hop onto the next step, look around, and think, "That looks interesting." And through that I've been really able to curate my career. I always said you should be doing two things to make the career you want: curate it — which means also saying no, and we don't all have the privilege of saying no, I know I didn't financially — but where you can, say, "No, I don't want that, but could I do this?" You don't have to cut people off. Make it known what you want. But also do the thing you want to do outside of work. Be explorative, travel — you don't have to have loads of money. So that's sort of how I created this career that I didn't even know existed.

[00:10:00] Chris: Yeah, it's so fascinating. You've got one of the best CVs of anyone I've had on this show. When I was doing the research, I was like a kid in a candy shop trying to figure out which expedition to discuss. Looking at your skillset — the Wilderness First Responder and all that good stuff — how did you start to build that expertise and those certifications? Did you do that consciously as you were trying to carve out a niche in TV?

[00:10:33] Beki: Both, I think. You're right — a lot of people I work with maybe had that background before they got into the industry. For me, they both came kind of hand in hand. I did them both at the same time. That skill foundation level — what you're talking about with my Wilderness First Responder, water rescue, ropes rescue, et cetera — is twofold: experience and qualifications. And I think so many people I know are quick to jump on the qualification bandwagon, but it's more than that badge. It's more than something on your CV. They really have to go hand in hand. Anyone can get a qualification — it's how you use it and the practice behind it. The more adventurous stuff I did, the more I was looking at my peers and seniors and working out what I needed to do to make myself a valuable asset. Somebody who, when there's no rescue, can act as a safety net — rather than heading off to a school hall first aid training and popping that on my CV. I've slowly built that up. And the more I learn, the more I see what's valuable and what's not. I often say we work in a lot of countries where these qualifications don't actually exist. They don't have that qualification. And so really it's only as good as the bit of paper it's written on. I'll often work with other teams who don't have the qualifications but are far more experienced than I am. Competency doesn't have to come with a qualification — but I say: get your qualifications, and more importantly, learn how to use them.

[00:12:17] Chris: Yeah, exactly — in the field, experience counts for more than a piece of paper. What was your first break into adventure TV? High-stakes TV — you've done a lot of work with Steve Backshall, Aldo Kane, Ben Fogle, the list is endless. What was the first time you actually got into adventure TV?

[00:12:38] Beki: I actually worked as a coordinator on some adventure shows before — that meant being in the office doing logistics, and that was a really big eye-opener to what was necessary. But really first on the ground, it was several years ago now, working with the likes of Levison Wood, Ben, and Steve — and they almost came back to back. One of my real favourite early expeditions was working with Steve Backshall on the Expedition series, series two. That was really all about finding world-first expeditions, but tied to conservation, wildlife, people, and community. When you start to dig into adventure like that — and you're not just doing adventure for the sake of adventure — this whole world just opens up. When you're working with people like Steve Backshall, Ben Fogle, Levison Wood, Aldo Kane — they're seasoned explorers themselves. The hand-holding doesn't have to be done. Most of them have been on their own extreme expeditions and they know what they're doing. With that comes a team who are also seasoned expeditioners. So really we can focus on the actual adventure, the journey, and the messaging, rather than looking after people who are outside their comfort zones.

[00:14:07] Chris: Yeah, that's a perfect segue into what I did want to focus on — the Green Abyss expedition, through the Scientific Explorer Society. End of 2023 into 2024, not long after the military coup in Gabon. What were your objectives for that expedition?

[00:14:32] Beki: Yeah, absolutely. I just love Central Africa — Congo, Gabon — I spend a lot of time there. Through past expeditions I'd learned a lot about the area and the people. So ultimately, the plan was to paddle a little-known river called the Akoi River, which veers through the Waka National Park. We were going to navigate on a month-long expedition by pack raft through this jungle, on a river that had never been documented as being paddled before — but specifically to find communities on the edge of the national park, with the hope that we could learn from them about the impact of conservation. Quite controversially, it was to look at the threat that conservation posed — what national parks and conservation were doing to their way of life.

[00:15:26] Chris: Yeah. And I think you spent 30-odd days there — without foreshadowing too much, the logistics presented quite a lot of challenges. The satellite imagery was quite dated, and I think the surprise on the ground was quite significant. And I think your takeaway is: don't attempt to paddle it.

[00:15:49] Beki: Look, I'm never going to say never. Yeah, definitely there were moments where I thought, "If we'd had more food, or maybe..." But yeah, I would agree with that statement. I wouldn't go back with that motive.

[00:16:03] Chris: What I find quite interesting is the logistics and preparation — there are a lot of good insights in the expedition report. Building your team — you spoke about going on expeditions with heavily experienced people. You were with Dave Leakers. But you also formed part of your team on the ground when you got there — and that didn't go immediately to plan.

[00:16:42] Beki: It did not. I think it's a really hard one. In television, especially for adventure, you're on these smaller, agile teams with people who specialise — as I do — in adventure. Or you've got a crew that's more drama or studio-based, and you manage around that. Now this was my own expedition — completely up to me who I had. And I'll say, I wanted to go on my own at one point. But however experienced I am, I'm also not reckless. We realised after a little while that wasn't going to work — and that's where Dave Leakers came in. We've worked together for several years, spent months living in the Congo with communities, paddled rivers together. He seemed like the great option — just to have a buddy, really. It wasn't about him leading or running safety. It was a solid expedition buddy that I needed. But on the ground, the plan had been to not have a support team as such. The plan was that there were villages along the river where we could relay kit — I'd get to one village, ask somebody to take my resupply of food and spare batteries to the next village, and keep moving and shuffling that kit along. Because traversing that jungle by foot was a massive ask for anyone. It's one thing for us to take that on, but to ask somebody else felt like a big ask. But it wasn't as simple as that. People were a bit confused about why we were there. There was a lot of: "Are you here to extract minerals? Are you here to do deforestation?" Nobody could really understand what these two outsiders were doing — it wasn't a known tourist area and wasn't particularly studied for primates or other wildlife like you'd find in other parts of Gabon. But throughout, we ended up somehow picking up a real ragtag team of people — who I came to love and equally find infuriating, and I'm sure vice versa. Each town we went to, we seemed to pick up one extra person who just wanted to be involved, who wanted to work in conservation. And that's what made me happy — it was a team who saw something and said, "I want that adventure." And that made the best team we could have asked for.

[00:19:09] Chris: Before you went — you talk about getting entry into Gabon, all the medical side of things, yellow fever certificates — but also permission from the government, effectively going in as tourists. How was that? Was it fraught?

[00:19:26] Beki: It's a really complex place to work, especially with the language barrier. On these personal expeditions, there isn't a lot of money to be hiring loads of translators. But I knew the process, having been into Gabon several times before. It had changed since the coup, as you mentioned — the whole trip had been postponed a season, a rainy season, because of that. It's difficult trying to convince the government — well, the national parks really — that you're going to go and do something they deem impossible and reckless, and to convince them that actually it's a good idea and you know what risks you're taking. I actually postponed my trip by a day while I was in Libreville, just because I didn't have a mission order — which I needed just to travel. Even to get to my starting town, which is two days' drive away, I'd be crossing military checkpoints and wouldn't be allowed through without one. So I went down, knocked on doors, asked anyone in my best French with a little Google Translate. We managed to get to the starting point, but not without sitting down talking to conservators and ultimately signing paperwork to say: if anything happens, nobody is coming to get us. The ANPN — the government — weren't responsible for us and nobody could be held liable. It's not the first time I've done that, but it's always quite unnerving when locals are telling you it's a bad idea. I always say local knowledge is absolutely king. But in this one, we really felt our research had done enough to allow us to take that expedition on.

[00:18:42] Chris: And was that a decision you and Dave came to together? Were you on the same page?

[00:21:16] Beki: Totally, yeah. It's hard to convince people who maybe haven't even been into the jungle that you know what you're doing — especially as a woman. Most of the time, Dave kept getting told, "But she's going with you — you're taking her, that's reckless." And I was thinking, hang on a minute — I'm taking him. It's quite a hard shift in mindset to navigate.

[00:21:40] Chris: What you mentioned about the locals being almost bewildered — you're going into areas that don't see Westerners at all. What was that like? They must have been quite surprised to see you yomping through with machetes into these very impenetrable parts of the jungle.

[00:21:57] Beki: Yeah. It's not the first time I've had babies crying at the sight of me and toddlers screaming and running away, particularly in remote communities with few visitors. I would say far less of a surprise than I thought it would be, to be honest. There were definitely several babies still crying, but walking through the jungle is just the way of life within those communities. People appearing from the middle of nowhere is relatively normal, it turns out.

[00:22:29] Chris: How did things go in terms of setting out to paddle the Akoi? You had quite a bit of portaging and deviation from the river. The weight — I think it was 40 or 50 kilos you were having to carry — and you can't go a metre without machete-bushwhacking. How did that weigh on you physically and mentally?

[00:23:07] Beki: It's tough. I would say mentally more than physically — but physically wasn't easy either. To give a bit of context: with that river paddle, we were planning to cover around 25 kilometres a day. This was all educated estimation. As mentioned, we had very little pre-existing knowledge of the river. Locals told us there would be potentially some small waterfalls — we translated that as rapids. We were able to map what we thought was the river route, but mostly it was cloud cover; if it wasn't that, it was canopy cover. It was very rare to find sections of the river visible on satellite. So we were actually using topography rather than satellite imagery to work out where the river was — it's quite a mountainous area, so we could look at where the valleys were and make assumptions about where the river would flow. Looking at elevation: "Well, it drops quite significantly from here to here, so there's probably going to be a rapid or waterfall here." We were extremely knowledgeable in terms of GPS coordinates, but visually we were going in relatively blind. We planned 25 kilometres a day. Within the first half a day, we realised we were covering maybe three to four kilometres. That's a significant difference. We had everything on our backs — we were both in pack rafts, and with that came our hammocks, food, camera gear, a little drone, everything we needed to survive. Each stint, we thought we'd get to the village of Ingondé in maybe a week to a week and a half. But as you mentioned, there were tree trunks and blockages everywhere. Every time we came up to a blockage we couldn't get around, we'd have to get out of the river, load up our bags, and drag everything around — and it wasn't just a case of popping them on our backs and walking. We had to relay kit. Everything we did once, we did three times. Our progress was extremely slow. The further down the river we got, the more powerful it became. And we were coming across strainers. I don't know if you know what a strainer is — with the amount of fallen trees. I always try to explain it to people like my mum: it's like a colander. Water goes through, but objects don't — and those objects were going to be us. Severe risk of drowning. You get pinned on them and under the pressure of that water, you're done for. I actually had a previous trip in Gabon where I got stuck in a stopper and it was very touch and go. The river will always win nine times out of ten, so it isn't worth the risk. We ended up taking the long route many a time — because when you're faced with a 100% collision, it's not about "Am I brave enough? Can I do it? Am I good enough?" It's: no, you're going to hit it. There's no two ways about that. So we spent a lot of time on and off the river and ultimately had to make the decision to leave the river. If you'll humour me, can I tell you about that decision?

[00:26:43] Chris: Yeah, go on.

[00:26:43] Beki: I talk about it a few times when I give talks — because I think it's a really interesting way to analyse what risk is in these scenarios. We'd been paddling for about four, five, six days. We knew we were way behind. We were going to start eating into our emergency ration foods. There was no way we had enough to get where we wanted to go. We had to start thinking quite analytically about what to do. This particular night, we'd just got to what was going to be the beginning of the gorge — what we saw as the most risky part. We tried to find somewhere to camp. Everything around us was as much use as a mudslide — it was getting steep, and there was nowhere to hang hammocks because every tree was relatively small on a gorge side. What we found was a rocky outcrop, a little patch of land with a tree or two. We could hang hammocks, but we were going to be two metres above the water's edge — which, yes, you think: "Do I really want to be just two metres above the water's edge in a gorge?" And it was as we slung up our hammocks and found a bit of dry wood and set off our fire for the night that the sky erupted with thunder. It's a rainforest, right — it's going to rain. But this was a storm of a different magnitude. As we sat there, we thought about all the countless fallen tree trunks we'd already had to portage, and the days to come, and realised that the rapids two metres below us getting bigger and faster weren't our worry. It was what was going to happen upstream. That wall of water — if one of those tree trunks goes, it's going to smash us. There we were, the two of us who specialise in adventure and expedition, trapped — really as good as trapped — in the middle of the night, in the absolute middle of the jungle, at a high risk of flash flood. And I'll tell you, we both sat there thinking: "How did we get here? What are we doing?" And that really was an eye-opener — this isn't about jumping off the highest cliff or running the biggest rapid. This is when we really got to thinking about what risk meant. And actually, as I sat there thinking about what we were going to do, I realised that risk isn't dramatic. It isn't heroic. It's really that deep, long-lasting uncertainty of knowing something may or may not happen. And for me, that's a really interesting moment — realising when you are taking risks and when you're taking perceived risks. So we figured out what to do. Flash floods are the most dangerous thing — and staying felt reckless — but we knew we had no other option. So we did what I like to call the worst pub quiz in the world: "Will we hear a flood if it comes?" Probably. "If we hear it, what are we going to do about it? Will we get out of the way?" Maybe — there was a 15-metre slope we could scramble up. "If we get out of the way and all our kit's gone, will we make it out of this jungle?" Probably not — we were in the most remote part of the Gabonese jungle. So we hauled up all of our gear using our throw lines as rescue lines, and tied everything up at the top of a tree — apart from our hammocks. We then left two throw ropes with knots all the way up, so we could get out of our hammocks and run up. We left two because Dave didn't want to have to be chivalrous and let ladies go first — so we could both go at the same time. And off we went, and we came back, and we slept. I mean, we did not sleep that night — but we got through it. That was a real eye-opener: we're about to head into a gorge. We're lucky we've got this here. Any further down, there are zero escape routes, nowhere to sleep, and no escape if we see a 100% collision. That was the real turning point — the expedition changed from a river expedition to not a river expedition.

[00:31:02] Chris: Yeah. It's so easy for these things to go completely pear-shaped and then we're not having this conversation. What did you learn from that? You and Dave have so much experience between you — what was the key takeaway?

[00:31:33] Beki: The thing is, it'll happen again. Expeditions are inherently risky. I'll always say that contingency planning is the biggest thing — planning A to Z. Even at that point, in that moment, we weren't problem-solving. The little bit of problem-solving about hauling kit, yes — but in terms of the greater expedition, we were just moving along our A to Z plan. We made a decision. We didn't solve a problem, and we left. It really cements the importance of having all of those plans in place and knowing your environment, knowing what options you have. But I think in terms of learning and reflection, that was a real eye-opener. I understand risk — it's a massive part of what I do as a job — but that was a real life-experience example of why risk isn't always how it seems. It's not always the perceived risk — the crocodiles, the rapids — it's other things.

[00:32:30] Chris: Did you have an evacuation plan? Because you'd mentioned being in a very remote area — a difficult exfil or extraction if something happened. What was the plan?

[00:32:51] Beki: We had many plans. The day before we departed Libreville for the jungle, Dave was off to try and visit a tourist helicopter company to see if he could convince them to belly-wrap their plane with rigging rope — then if needed, we could be attached through our harnesses and airlifted out on a long line, and they could cut the rope if we got tangled. As you can imagine, the company was like, "No, we're alright." So there was never going to be a rescue — it was always going to be self-rescue. The evac plan was never about actually leaving the jungle from the air — it was looking at several mapped routes across our GPS and using those as options to schlep out by foot. In terms of safety, it went all the way down to contacting the support team to come and help us, or getting ourselves out. Dave convinced himself — rightly so, he's extremely capable — that he could carry me out if I couldn't walk. I believe 100% he would. We were less convinced I could carry him out — he's about six foot three and far heavier than me. We did try walking around Libreville with me carrying him, so I can confirm I can manage a few steps. But the last-resort plan came down to: mark a location on the map, split the teams — one goes to get rescue, the other stays put, and we hope to find them again. It wasn't desirable, but a plan's a plan.

[00:34:21] Chris: I'm sure I read something about Secret Compass being involved back home. Did your support team end up going in the wrong direction? There was a misunderstanding with the GPS?

[00:34:36] Beki: That's the best way to put it, yes. I work with Secret Compass a lot — I think they're an amazing organisation who not only help us manage safety, but actually help me creatively do more. You can't imagine what you could do until they say, "Yeah, you could definitely abseil off that thing." They kindly offered to support me and Dave with a daily check-in — every day a comms check through inReach: all good, here are my coordinates, this is the plan for the next day. So once we came off the river and we were going to make a beeline for what we assumed was a village — it wasn't Ingondé where we were ultimately trying to go, it was what looked like a little airstrip or strip of land we'd seen on satellite footage — we contacted them on our daily check-in. We're coming off the river, we're heading for these coordinates, we expect a three-day trek through the jungle. Our support team would need to come back and meet us — they had our food resupply. We sent the message on sat phone, on inReach, in English and in our best French. Very clear. Acknowledged, heard, let's go. So the three days that Dave and I spent with horrendous yomping and bushwhacking, with ridiculous weights, having abandoned a load of kit, thinking we were going to see the faces of our wonderful team — was really shattered, honestly, when a couple of days in we did our daily check-in and heard from the UK that the tracker I'd given to my support team was two days in the wrong direction. As we'd been walking one way, they'd been walking the opposite way. They were not going to meet us. Now, we hadn't actually planned on having a support team — so it did raise a question for the rest of the expedition about how much room for misinterpretation and miscommunication there was between the teams. It definitely put a dampener on some of our plans for potential medical evacuation, which would have required support from that team. But they turned around — the message was clear in hindsight — and they'd made what they saw as the right decision in an extreme environment. I don't hold it against them. We eventually reunited and got their food resupply several days later, and it was hugs and laughter and lots of chatter about the adventures we'd each had. Though frustrating at the time, I've got to accept that they also had quite a bit of hardship. It's just another little thing thrown at you — which makes it all great fun.

[00:38:00] Chris: Switching lanes a little bit — the human and cultural side of it. You were on your way to the village of Ingondé, and it didn't exist when you got there.

[00:38:18] Beki: It did not exist. You say it as if it was such a small thing — "it just didn't exist." I had been planning to get to Ingondé for about a year. I spoke to several people within the area from Libreville — Ingondé was recommended as one of the best villages to visit in terms of conversations around conservation. I spent many, many months mapping ways to get there and trying to find people who'd also been, which was really hard. I found an anthropologist — Olivia Hymas — who had been there 13, 14, 15 years prior, looking at hunting patterns. That was his real interest within hunter-gatherer communities. Through that, he was mapping hunter trails. That was probably the best data I had — bear in mind, it was over a decade old, from a jungle. A jungle within a matter of days, if not weeks, will have lost any sign that a human has been there. It felt slightly irrelevant — but hunting trails are often used time and time again, through generations. That was all the intel we had. It was certainly the reason that when we decided to leave the river, we went in the direction we did — because we knew there had been hunting trails there, and that felt better than walking into the middle of nowhere. Information like that is so valuable, and it's 100% worth digging around and finding people who know, rather than just being confident with your own data.

[00:40:03] Chris: What was the reason for the village being abandoned? It had existed for 100-plus years. Was it the impact of gold mining, logging, something else?

[00:40:11] Beki: It's really hard to ever get a proper answer. The village we ended up rendezvousing with our support team was a relatively new village, about a day's walk away from Ingondé. It was only at that point that I learned Ingondé was no longer — because some of its villagers had become part of this new village. There were lots of different theories thrown around. The one I heard most commonly was elephant invasion, which is based on the fact that there were a lot of crops. Yes, it's a hunter-gatherer community, but there are areas where they specifically grow certain leaves, vegetables, cassava, palm nuts — and elephants love that. These jungles are full of forest elephants. So there's a lot of thought that elephant invasion was a big problem — and that could well be true. But it felt like there was a lot more to it. During our conversations, we were hearing a lot of noise — not natural noise — lots of banging and rattling and hammering. It was only through one of my trusted contacts in that village that I learned there was small-scale gold mining. I say gold mining — it's gold panning, really. They call it mining. And it turns out this new village was next to quite a successful river for gold panning. So I think we can look at it from lots of angles. The elephants? Yes, they were a big problem — I wouldn't like them running through my back garden eating a year's supply of food. But equally, there were definite benefits to moving village, with gold panning now providing a viable way for young people to get cash.

[00:42:21] Chris: Was it the same lineage of people at the new village?

[00:42:21] Beki: Yeah, it was a mixture of people from all over the area. A lot of these villages are quite connected, even if they're a day or two's walk apart. I was hearing about get-togethers where all the villages would come together every so often. And it really shows the mission of what this expedition was about — looking at the impacts of conservation. A lot of these villages were originally hunter-gatherer communities, and they've lived that way for millennia. With conservation putting restrictions on their way of life — subsistence hunting — the development of national parks has made that illegal. That's now called poaching. They're now having to find other ways to feed themselves, which often requires cash. In villages and communities that were never cash-driven — because they didn't have to be — we're now finding areas where money is required to live. We see it all around the world. And I think we're so quick to say, "Brilliant, more national parks, let's close off these areas." We forget that the people who live in those villages are not the problem. They are 100% not the problem. It's often the external outsiders who are the problem. And their way of life often sustains the jungle rather than depletes it.

[00:43:53] Chris: Yeah — as a white Westerner, you take things like this so for granted. When I read that a cash economy was being established, it makes you think — they've lived off the land in this way, unperturbed by the outside world for so long, and now we're encroaching on that. These places are so almost impenetrable, and yet they're being touched by Westernisation.

[00:44:24] Beki: It's hard. As storytellers, with the responsibility of telling other people's stories, you always have to go in without judgment, without bias. You have to look at all sides. The amount of times I've gone into areas — not just Gabon, but across the world — with one idea, and come away completely changed in my opinion because of what I've seen or learned, is incredible. When we put the word "poaching" into context, there's a lot of negativity attached to it. Effectively, all we're saying is that society has made their way of life illegal. Whose fault is that? It's a really complicated moral landscape to navigate — but a really important one, especially in the eyes of conservation.

[00:45:17] Chris: From the cultural side of things — the human-to-human exchanges with these villagers — once they got over the initial shock, what was it like, and how did it make you feel?

[00:45:54] Beki: I love it. With Gabon and with any other villages I've had the honour of visiting, it's wonderful. I always say: if you go in and arrive saying, "This is what I want to do," nobody's going to want to help you. I never pick up a camera for the first few days anywhere. It's all about giving as much as I'm going to take. When I go to a village, I'll sit down — even if there are language barriers, even if you're working through two translators because there's no direct translation — and I offer a lot of information about myself and say, "Just ask me whatever you want." I've had some of the most bizarre questions in the world, and it's wonderful. And then the best thing — you've got to go and dance. Everyone loves it. Everyone loves to dance, whether you're good or bad. Once you break down that barrier — once you're no longer saying "I'm here to get something from you" but instead "I'm here to have an experience, and hopefully you'll have one too" — you end up with a shared goal. That's when the barriers come down and you're sharing food and stories, and it's great fun. There's nothing that compares.

[00:47:14] Chris: Can you recall any situations where they asked you about the Western world — things they didn't know or understand?

[00:47:25] Beki: It's always interesting — knowing that they might hear planes going over but have never been on one. I remember being in a different community and trying to chat about how I got there and what it was like to be in that plane flying overhead. And I had this wonderful story from when I spent some time with the San, actually on Pole to Pole. We were chatting about what it meant to be a community and what it was like to leave what felt safe — which, for this particular elder, was the wild. And he told this wonderful story about how he went to a local town and saw this big herd of buffalo speeding towards him — that he'd never seen moving at that speed — until somebody said, "No, no, that's a train." I loved that, because there was this crossover of worlds — where we'd be shocked by a herd of buffalo running towards us, and for someone else, that's the equivalent of a high-speed train. Rather than talking to somebody about my world, I want to know about theirs.

[00:48:47] Chris: The fact that the modern Western world and these worlds can still have exchanges like that is magical, quite frankly. Actually, I want to switch lanes back — the wildlife side of the expedition. Was it two undocumented species you came across? A banded water cobra and a dwarf crocodile?

[00:49:21] Beki: Yeah. They're known species — it's really interesting. This goes back to research and why research is so integral. One of the first things I want to know when going anywhere is what's going to kill me. So I reached out to the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, who put out a journal every year on what wildlife is known in certain regions, particularly Gabon. I asked them, and they pretty much said: "It's very much terra incognita. We know very little about that area because people don't go there — it's really, really hard to get to." I think they didn't even believe I was going. They said, "Well, if you go, you've got to take pictures and coordinates of anything you see — not just rare species, literally anything." It's quite hard when you're paddling and you spot something to quickly pull out a phone. But we managed to photograph a banded water cobra, a dwarf crocodile, and there was another tree snake as well. For them, that was great — it added three new species to their documentation of that particular area. For some reason I also got published as an author in the journal, which felt completely wrong. I understand from their point of view it saves them trying to get there. But yeah, it's always great when you can give back in that way.

[00:51:12] Chris: It sounds like an expedition that had everything — all the drama, all the excitement, all the near-death moments, risk assessments coming to life. Reflecting on it now — you've been talking about it at Kendal and the RGS — what are your thoughts?

[00:51:36] Beki: I think it has multiple purposes, this expedition. We filmed as we went along, and we've been releasing some of that. I'm still yet to do some master interviews, because it's quite a complex expedition and there's more to it. But what I really want to take away is not an expedition film — because that's what I do as a career — but rather taking those moments. As you said, it's the expedition that had everything. Rather than presenting it as one film, it's about pulling out these moments and using them — yes, for entertainment, because people love a good story — but I call it Type Three fun. You know the types of fun: Type One is actually having fun. Type Two is retrospectively saying, "That was great fun." Type Three is: I'll tell the story, and it's never going to be fun for me, but it's fun for someone else. It's about taking those moments and really analysing them — whether in the form of written articles, talks, or short films. And particularly that risk angle: the understanding of what risk actually is. It doesn't have to be climbing something really high or jumping off something extreme. It's about that deep understanding of risk. That's what I really want to take away and push. When we talk about being brave, when we frame the mindset of what an explorer looks like — I might not naturally be that. And yet, as you've heard, it wasn't exactly the tamest of expeditions. For me, it's about reframing how we see adventure — shifting it from the highest, the longest, the fastest, the conquering — to looking deeper. Walking away. Championing adventure that shows learning and a shift of perception. That for me is really key.

[00:53:45] Chris: Wow. That almost needs a round of applause. Fantastic. Do you have any plans to go back to Gabon any time soon?

[00:53:50] Beki: I hope so. Everyone asks, "What's next?" And I think, I wonder what next. I don't have a tick list — because if I do, I go back to: what's the highest, the fastest, the longest? For me, it's about getting deeper. I have a project I'm working on looking at community-led storytelling. I hope I can go back to Gabon for that project, as well as working with various other communities around the world.

[00:54:14] Chris: Excellent. Well, I think we only scratched the surface today, and I'll link the expedition report and some of the media that went with it for people to check out. I'll move into the closing traditions — Pay It Forward, Call to Adventure, and then some quick-fire questions.

[00:54:39] Beki: Great.

[00:54:39] Chris: So, Pay It Forward — an opportunity to share a cause or charity you're passionate about that you'd like to get elevated.

[00:54:50] Beki: I knew this was one of the things — and I thought, this is really hard. I've been working a lot with organisations — and if anyone hasn't seen it, The Wild Ones with Aldo Kane. That was one of my projects. There's an incredible, endless list of organisations and charities featured in those episodes. So firstly, go and watch that show. Find out about the Malaysian tigers, the rhino conservation — organisations really pushing to stop animals on the edge of extinction. But for me specifically, I'm currently starting work with an organisation called the Black Mambas. They're an all-female anti-poaching unit in South Africa, very much focused on preserving and protecting wildlife — but doing it through educating and protecting their community. Stopping would-be poachers from picking up a gun before they even get there, at school age, through inspiration. And they're still going out unarmed, patrolling their reserve daily. I'm working with them to look at how we can get their story out into the world — through their own eyes and their own authorship. Check them out if you don't know them.

[00:56:07] Chris: Fantastic — the Black Mambas. You might not be able to answer this, so feel free to say no — but is there a season two of The Wild Ones?

[00:56:16] Beki: TBC. Yeah, I'm not sure myself yet.

[00:56:25] Chris: Fair enough. Right, the second tradition — a Call to Adventure. An opportunity to recommend a place or activity for people to get outdoors and adventure.

[00:56:33] Beki: It's a very good question and one I thought about a lot. I thought about little young Beki in North Yorkshire — where, if I turn around and say, "You've got to go to Gabon, go to Kyrgyzstan, climb this mountain," it feels so unachievable. And I don't think that inspires on the mass. So for me, I would say: figure out what's adventurous to you. Where is your edge? Because most of us, when we get to the edge of our comfort zone, we retreat back. There are very few of us who go, "I'm still comfortable in a jungle." So: what is uncomfortable to you, but still within your ability? Go and do it. For my family, I might say, "Go and camp for a night. Go to a national park." If that's going to give you that excitement and push you outside your comfort zone — that is what adventure is. For others, it might be a multi-day hike, something you've always dreamed of. Start with what takes you outside your comfort zone — because as soon as you get there, you strip the ego away. And that's when you get your real adventure.

[00:57:46] Chris: Fantastic. Couldn't agree more. Just start — it's too easy to listen to podcasts and watch adventure TV and not do it. Just pick a date, commit, and start.

[00:57:59] Beki: Exactly. And it doesn't have to cost. That's the biggest thing people say: "I don't have the money." There's always an obstacle we'll put in front of ourselves — "When I get the money, when I've done that qualification, when I've got that experience." Just decide. I know people who've said, "Right, I'm going to walk coast to coast — I'm putting a backpack on my back and it's going to cost me nothing." Just do it. Start small, whatever is achievable to you.

[00:58:25] Chris: Excellent. Love it. Right, 10 quick-fire questions to close. Question one: you can have a dinner party with two guests, dead or alive — who would they be?

[00:58:25] Beki: Shackleton — and that's going to sound really obvious for an explorer. But I use him a lot when I talk about risk versus reward. He turned back the Nimrod expedition 97 nautical miles from the Pole because he knew he wasn't going to make it, and he had a responsibility to his team. At that era, to be able to say that — I think he said something to his wife along the lines of, "Better a live donkey than a dead lion" — to think like that in that era, he would definitely be number one. And then — and this is very out there — Meryl Streep. I would love to socialise with her. I think she and Shackleton would have great chats. Very unexpected chats.

[00:59:31] Chris: That would be a pretty epic conversation — I'd just want to sit and watch those two. Number two: do you have a hidden talent?

[00:59:41] Beki: I do all of my talents in my work, so I guess none of them are hidden. I'll pass on that one.

[00:59:57] Chris: Fair enough. Number three: what is the scariest experience you've ever had on expedition?

[01:00:06] Beki: Probably nearly getting washed away by a flash flood in Gabon. Those are the scary ones — not the jumping off, not the climbing up. It's the uncertain moments.

[01:00:17] Chris: Number four: what is your favourite expedition snack?

[01:00:25] Beki: Definitely not protein bars — if I see another protein or cereal bar, I'll go mad. I love taking mushroom jerky. I'm vegetarian, so rather than beef jerky, I love that. Could eat it all day — and it's really good protein without the sugar hit.

[01:00:46] Chris: Number five: dugout canoe or pack raft?

[01:00:54] Beki: Pack raft. Have you ever tried to portage a dugout canoe?

[01:00:55] Chris: Number six: favourite book?

[01:01:04] Beki: I'll go old school and say Wuthering Heights. At the moment I'm reading Invisible Women — too early to say if it's my favourite, but it's definitely an eye-opener on data around gender gaps. Very interesting.

[01:01:26] Chris: Yeah, Wuthering Heights is coming out as a film soon apparently. Number seven: if you could snap your fingers and be anywhere, where would it be?

[01:01:41] Beki: That's a hard one, because you go everywhere. Right now, I love the Okavango Delta in Botswana. There's just something magical about it — I would go back there time and time again.

[01:01:57] Chris: I'm literally planning a trip there. Number eight: what scares you?

[01:02:14] Beki: Not spiders or snakes. What scares me is regretting that I haven't done everything I wanted to do. That's definitely what drives me — the worry of regretting not doing things.

[01:02:24] Chris: Number nine: what makes you happy?

[01:02:33] Beki: People. Being with people. Especially when you're in communities and that wall gets broken down and you just share. It's incredible.

[01:02:48] Chris: And number ten: what is the best advice you've ever received?

[01:02:56] Beki: Expect the unexpected. And it sits down to this: the unknown isn't the scary thing. Lean into it.

[01:03:13] Chris: Excellent. And that's us — that's been brilliant, Beki. I do appreciate your time and all your answers. It's been wonderful.

[01:03:31] Beki: Thank you for having me. It's been brilliant chatting to you.

[01:03:38] Chris: And where can people follow along with Beki and everything she's doing?

[01:03:43] Beki: Instagram — I'm not always great at social media, but I do try to keep up to date as much as I can. Instagram is often where you'll find what I've been up to, future projects, past projects — and through that, links to my website, which is just beckyhenderson.com.

[01:04:01] Chris: Awesome. We'll get all of that linked. Thank you again — it's been an absolute pleasure. There are so many expeditions I could spend all day chatting about, but we'll keep that for a follow-up. And with that, I'll bring it to a close.

[01:04:16] Beki: Thank you.

[01:04:33] Narrator: Thanks for tuning in to today's episode. For the show notes and further information, please visit adventurediaries.com/podcast. And finally, we hope to have inspired you to take action and plan your next adventure — big or small — because sometimes we all need a little adventure to cleanse that bitter taste of life from the soul. Until next time, have fun and keep paying it forward.