Adventurer, presenter, author and digital journalist are just a few of the titles I’ve collected in recent years. Ultimately though, I’m a guy who has an intense passion for global travel, adventure and gruelling outdoor challenges. Colonel Mustard, my veteran Land Rover has been my partner in crime since 2004.
After twiddling my thumbs in the UK until the age of 21, I finally threw off the shackles of a normal life, and set to the mother city of Cape Town for a life-changing adventure working at the Round the World Yacht Race, representing Champagne Mumm as their Events Team Manager.
In the six years that followed, I slowly became addicted to the gateway drug I really needed – the intensely powerful hook of independent overland travel. Nothing quite prepares you for the rush of new experiences that exploring new countries gives. With no fixed agenda I could dig deep and discover myself for the first time, and understand how adventure travel teaches you more than any classroom ever could. I had unconsciously discovered the next few years of my life.
In 2008, I plucked up the courage to live a lifelong dream and created an independent, self expedition to circumnavigate Africa, raising money for charity along the way. Afritrex was three years of hard planning, saving and training to complete a one year journey around the continent, climbing five of the highest mountains and running five marathons along the way. 32 countries and 65,000km later, I rolled back into the UK without a care in the world, and no job lined up. Life was about to change irreversibly.
As my Africa journey was coming to a close, I came across a little ad in a newspaper, seeking applicants for “The Best Job in the World”.
Somehow I managed to rise above 35,000 other Best Job seekers and quickly found myself spending nearly two years flying, diving and sailing along the Great Barrier Reef as an Island Caretaker. Life hasn’t slowed down since.
In 2011, I kayaked 1600km along the Great Barrier Reef, in a Hobie kayak. In 2013 set a world-record running up the tallest mountain in each state in Australia and then in 2014 raced around New Zealand’s Nine Great Walks in a record nine days.
By now, my reliable Land Rover, Colonel Mustard was residing with me in Australia, so it was about time to embark on another great overland adventure, Best Life in the World – a drive from Singapore to London. In February 2015, Sophee and I set off for a year to drive through 32 countries enroute to Christmas in the UK with my family.
It was a chance to dig deeper into our souls and work out what the next few years would look like, and from the maelstrom of opportunity – Best Life Adventures was born. The opportunity to create brilliantly mad adventures for other people, who could challenge themselves physically, mentally and culturally – much like I had done for the two decades before – with expeditions to far-flung corners of Planet Earth.
In that time I’d fallen in love with making the impossible, possible and in 2017 started creating adventures for the Office of the Chief Entrepreneur (with the Queensland government) to take entrepreneurs on life-changing adventures to wilderness areas of the state, country and world.
Since then we’ve led groups to Uganda, Mongolia, the Arctic Circle, Tanzania, New Zealand, India, the high Himalayas and around the islands of the Torres Strait. Every expedition carefully curated from a lifetime of challenging travel experiences, in remote, awe-inspiring parts of the world.
Covid was an ass-kicker for every travel company around the world, and Best Life was no different as we tried to forge something from nothing, and so we returned to our ‘adventurepreneurial’ roots – physical adventures that had never been done before.
From the ashes of Covid came our ‘OReillys to the Rock‘ ultra adventure with the team from Wild Earth, and a human-powered outrigger canoe expedition around the islands of the Torres Strait. There’s no point in sitting still when the world is telling you too.
Today we lead private, corporate, charity and government groups on adventures around Australia and Planet Earth, and have a community of like-minded adventurous people who form our Society of Extraordinary Venturers, a tribe committed to challenging themselves in all aspects of their lives.
How do you join them? Sign up for any Best Life Adventure and receive complimentary membership to a cohort of equally bat-shit crazy adventurers.
Best Life Adventures closely aligns with Wild Earth around building community in the adventure space, and since 2021 Ben has hosted the fortnightly Wild Chats series which digs deep into the mindset of adventurers from around Planet Earth.
Keen to find out more? Head to Aaron Shank’s Diaries of the Wild Ones podcast for a deep-dive into the stories behind the story. Access it here
