ABOUT BEN

Ben was born in 1973, in South Australia, the driest state in the driest continent on Earth.  Perhaps significantly, perhaps not, he grew up in a city that was once reputed to be one of two ports in the world where visiting ships refused to take on water.   

As a boy, when not indulging a ravenous appetite for playing sport – especially cricket, soccer and Australian Rules football – he could be found with his nose planted firmly in an atlas.  By the age of ten, an unnatural love of geography saw him able to rattle off the capital, and basic statistics of almost every country on Earth.        

Having flirted with the idea of a career in the navy, he entered university with the short-lived intention of becoming a biochemist.  Ultimately, a long time passion for nature documentaries and a growing environmental ethic saw him pursue majors in Zoology and Botany.  

However, a critical turning point came midway through the third year of his degree.  With only six months remaining, and with the protests of his parents ringing loudly in his ears, the decision was made to put study on ice.  Tired of life as a poor student, and nurturing a plan to drive around Australia, he worked three jobs simultaneously, which included a year of getting up at three o’clock every morning to deliver bread for a bakery.  Then, having repaired his ailing Datsun, he hit the road.

He got as far as Queensland and there spent several months getting his hands dirty as a conservation volunteer.  His interest in restoring the damage done to the Australian environment took him all over that state planting trees, attacking noxious weeds and building educational walking trails.  

During a two year stint as a team leader on such projects, Ben had the great fortune of working with people from all over the world.  Inspired by the many stories they told him about their homelands, and with a lot of places to stay, he left Australia to backpack around Europe.

He returned to Australia more than a year later, headed back to Queensland and again worked in conservation, firmly believing that the rest of his life would be dedicated to the service of the environment.  Yet the seed of something else had been planted.  A travel bug, a particularly potent variety of travel bug, conspired with the long neglected storyteller within to demand a review of career paths.

Oblivious to this period of self re-evaluation, an old backpacking companion named Colin Angus proposed a trip across South America.  Ben was ripe for the picking.  Less than a year later, he found himself peering at the Atlantic Ocean, a member of only the third team ever to successfully trace the entire 6700 kilometre length of the Amazon River.  It must be said that the murky brown water rather reminded him of home.   

Although he proclaimed the Amazon journey to be a distinct aberration in a life of much subtler types of wandering, a follow-up expedition was brewing soon enough.  Ben and Colin recruited two others for another long river journey, this time along the world's fifth longest waterway – the Yenisey.  Traversing Mongolia and Siberia with the aid of kayaks, a rubber raft and an old wooden boat, they became the first people to go down the full length of the Yenisey.   

In the period since coming back from Siberia, Ben has written extensively about each of these adventures.  He has also finished off his science degree at last.  He currently lives in Adelaide, where he divides his time between postgraduate study, freelance writing, paddling his inflatable kayak, and hatching plans for a journey through Saharan North Africa.