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

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The Adventure Diaries Podcast also covers a broad spectrum OF topics withIN the fields of Adventure, Exploration, Micro-adventure, Survival, Mental Resilience, Conservation, Scotland, Hiking, Solo Travel, Cycling, Nature, Storytelling, Mountaineering