Friday, May 4, 2012

Bear Grylls Interview


This is the highlight of my year so far a chance to interview Bear Grylls. Given To Distracting Others is the blog title and I found myself rather distracted this week, dreaming up questions, giggling lots and telling anybody who would stand still long enough to bend their ear.
Bear Grylls is pretty much a national hero, who broke his back in a free-fall parachute  in 1996, yet 18 months later became one of the youngest climbers to conquer Mount Everest, aged 23.

He is certainly someone my son rates, anyone knows that at 17, its very hard to impress!!

Conor goes on a three mile hike this weekend its a real survival trek as well,  carrying all their own food, clothes tent and equipment, no showers just roughing it, much tougher than Paige's Duke of Edinburgh silver last year so he keeps telling us!

He is off into into the peak district, with a forecast of gales, cold and rain a 12 hour hike on one day, this interview has really spurred him on. It made me feel a bit less mumsy about him going, if Mr Grylls can survive snake bites, broken backs and me distracting him with my interview, then Con should be able to manage.

Conor was gutted I did not ask Bear if he drinks his own wee still, I found this the main question amongst my Twitter and Facebook friends too!

I felt I would be a professional interviewer people!!!! Not lower the tone and take it seriously..........well up until the last question.

I said this would be  my test of whether Bear was really a man of adventure, he certainly rose to the challenge, be it an easier one than Everest.

The Interview

You are the youngest Briton to climb Everest, the youngest Chief Scout (I believe) - any more on your own top 10 list of things to do?
Loads! I need a few life times to get through the list!

Who inspires you?
That would be my late father- the man who taught me to climb.
I encouraged my children as much as possible to play outdoors and we certainly built dens - what’s the best den you ever made?
It would probably be a snow cave in Patagonia, or a tree camp in Borneo. Both were really fun to build and worked really well.

Why do children need to be outdoors? What skills do you think they gain for later life?
It is all about watching their confidence grow as they do and make things for themselves. For example, when a kids manages to make a fire with no matches - just watch their smile!

What is the  funniest moment you have had as a Dad outdoors with your boys?
Making a canoe and then sinking mid river - Marmaduke said: “Papa your rafts always sink!”

I went to an activity weekend; we had fantastic fun, tried archery, climbed huge totems and leapt off the top. We actually bonded more as we worked together. I found I was the only Mum prepared to do this, the dads seemed as reluctant, they felt it was pushing the kids too far, too dangerous. How would you encourage parents to allow their children to take on more challenges?
Just teach them and watch them, then see them grow in confidence.

As Chief Scout what message do you want to convey?
Join the adventure!

Finally a question you may not ever have been asked, this actually made Masterchef Dhruv Baker laugh out loud on a train when I asked him. If you had to have one of these facial features, Quavers instead of lips, or Wotsits for a nose, which one and why?
Wotsit - my nose is smashed up enough as it is!

So there you have it a man of adventure and so it seems humour! I feel he is now more of a hero than ever answering a bloggers questions when he is rather a busy man. Thank you.

Disclaimer: Sadly I did not get to keep Bear Grylls for the purpose of this interview!!!

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The Scouts have had a massive surge in membership since Bear Grylls became Chief Scout as a result they need more adults to volunteer as leaders, if you can help visit the website.
http://www.scouts.org.uk/


My interview was kindly arranged by Persil Small and Mighty who Bear Grylls is working with. They created a ‘Top Ten Things To Do Before You’re Ten’ handbook designed to get kids playing, having fun and getting mucky! For more information, please see here:


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