Simon Reeve

Simon Reeve sets off on an extraordinary adventure across Australia. Simon’s adventure starts in the magnificent ‘red centre’ of the continent and onwards through South Australia, via the extraordinary Indian Pacific Railway until he reaches the west coast city of Perth. On the way, he joins an Aussie rancher in the parched outback and takes part in a spectacular camel round-up. This mad adventure, involving specially adapted off-road vehicles and a chopper, is part of an ongoing effort to stop the damaging spread of up to a million feral camels across the country. Finally in Perth, Simon discovers a full scale British invasion. Working in a mine or driving a lorry can bring a salary of a hundred thousand pounds a year, as evidenced when Simon meets a former bin man from hull who is now living the dream, with a beautiful house in the sun, private pool and his very own boat. Simon travels from Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory or ‘Top End’, across to the remote Cape York Peninsula, and on to the Great Barrier Reef. Simon sets off from Kakadu, the largest national park in the world, where the wildlife is under threat from the march of millions of poisonous cane toads. He joins a team of toad-busters catching the amphibian invaders – originally introduced to the country to kill pests. In Robertson barracks Simon meets Australia’s best – and only – tank regiment. They will soon host 6,000 American Marines – evidence of Australia’s strategic importance in the Asia Pacific region. On the Cape York Peninsula Simon joins scientists catching deadly box jellyfish, whose venom could prove to have great medicinal value. And on the Great Barrier Reef he dives in search of the starfish destroying coral, before flying 100 miles out into the ocean to watch as a huge tanker is expertly guided through the fragile reef. Simon travels travels down the east coast to the magnificent cities of Sydney and Melbourne in the final part of his journey. Simon’s journey starts in Surfers.