🎧 Follow the show here— it really helps Adventure Diaries reach more listeners. Thank you

What happens when you walk for days through some of the most remote jungle on Earth — and stumble across a cave covered floor to ceiling in ancient drawings that no outsider has ever documented? In this Season 5 episode, Chris sits down with Joe Trevorrow, former Royal Navy sailor turned expedition guide with The Wild Tales — an indigenous-led adventure company operating deep in Guyana's interior — to unpack three extraordinary expeditions into barely explored territory.

Alongside the on-the-ground stories (rapids, sand flies, night terrors in hammocks, and jaguar tracks beside your sleeping spot), Joe shares how The Wild Tales partners with indigenous communities — the Wai Wai, Patamona, and others — to create sustainable tourism that preserves ancient sites and dying traditions. We discuss the complex tribal history of Guyana's nine indigenous nations, how a Tomb Raider game sparked a life-changing decision, and what the jungle teaches you when you stop fighting it.

Chapters:

• 00:00 A Hidden Cave in Guyana's Jungle
• 01:07 Meet Joe Trevorrow: Royal Navy to Rainforest
• 05:30 Joining the Navy and Travelling the World at 20
• 07:56 How a Tomb Raider Game Led to Guyana Expeditions
• 11:33 How Indigenous-Led Expedition Tourism Works
• 16:45 The River of Death: Paddling the Cassai Chi
• 20:09 Undocumented Petroglyphs Along the Riverbank
• 24:18 Welcome to Masakenari: The Most Remote Village
• 29:30 Tourism as a Lifeline: Keeping Traditions Alive
• 32:40 Don't Fight the Jungle: Lessons the Hard Way
• 35:21 Sitting Under the Milky Way on the River of Death
• 38:10 Night Terrors: The Scariest Night in the Jungle
• 40:12 Makarapan Mountain: 3.5 Billion Years Old
• 46:00 The Mystery Pots Nobody Can Explain
• 55:12 The Cave Expedition: 45km Through Patamona Territory
• 01:03:21 Ancient Drawings That Left Everyone Speechless
• 01:12:00 Conservation: Keeping Sites Secret vs Raising Awareness
• 01:17:49 Future Expeditions and What's Next for The Wild Tales
• 01:23:17 Pay It Forward and Call to Adventure

What You'll Learn

• What the "River of Death" actually means — and the disease theory behind its name
• How indigenous-led expedition tourism works (and why it matters)
• Why two enormous pots were found near the summit of a 3.5 billion year old mountain — and nobody can explain how they got there
• What it feels like to walk into an ancient cave and see drawings no outsider has recorded
• The leadership lesson Joe learned — and why "Navy mode" doesn't work in the jungle
• What The Wild Tales has planned for 2026–2027

Connect with Joe & The Wild Tales

• Joe Trevorrow Instagram
• The Wild Tales: https://www.thewildtales.com
• Anders Anderson episode (S3): Adventure Diaries back cata

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Thanks For Listening.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a comment and subscribe for more exciting content.

Please visit AdventureDiaries.com/GO For more authentic stories of Adventure Exploration and the natural world

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

🎧 Follow the show here— it really helps Adventure Diaries reach more listeners. Thank you.

Chris sits down with Brazilian conservation biologist Letícia Benavalli to talk about her work protecting jaguars in the Cerrado — one of the world's most biodiverse yet overlooked biomes. From growing up in São Paulo to founding the Pro Onça Institute, Letícia shares how a childhood fascination with nature led her to track some of the rarest cats on the planet, including melanistic (black) jaguars. She also opens up about the importance of community-led conservation, empowering women and young people in rural Brazil, and her ambition to create wildlife corridors connecting isolated jaguar populations across biomes.

Chapters

00:00 Tracking Melanistic Jaguars
04:43 From City Life to Conservation Biologist
07:10 The Cerrado: Saving Brazil's Biodiverse Savanna
14:47 Learnings from Oxford University & African Wild
22:53 Rare Black Jaguar Encounter in the Wild
27:07 Survival Story: Lost Alone in the Brazilian Jungle
36:38 Jaguar Hunting Threats & Landowner Conflicts
40:58 Pro Onça Institute: Conservation & Community Empowerment
47:02 Women Leadership in Ecotourism
1:00 Urban Jaguars in Brasília National Park
1:06 Rolex Explorers Club Grant & Future Goals
1:14 Call to Adventure: Climbing Brazil's Serra do Cipó

Guest Bio

Letícia Benavalli is a conservation biologist and founder of the Onça Institute (Instituto Onça), an NGO dedicated to jaguar conservation in Brazil's Cerrado and Atlantic Forest. She has worked across multiple Brazilian biomes — including the Pantanal, Caatinga, and Amazon — studying large carnivores and developing community-based conservation programmes. Letícia is a Rolex/Explorers Club grant recipient and a member of the IUCN's Wildlife Conservation and Protected Areas group. She presented her research at the Explorers Club in New York and is preparing a PhD focused on jaguar density, diet, and the genetics of melanistic jaguars in the Cerrado.

Key Topics Discussed

1. Growing up in São Paulo & finding conservation — How a city kid from Latin America's largest metropolis ended up dedicating her life to wildlife, sparked by a childhood visit to the zoo and a love of nature documentaries.
2. The Cerrado: Brazil's forgotten biome — Why this vast savanna is critically important for biodiversity but receives far less attention and protection than the Amazon or Pantanal.
3. Black jaguars and the Onça Institute — Letícia's face-to-face encounter with a wild melanistic jaguar, the rare genetics behind black colouration, and the founding mission of her NGO to connect isolated jaguar populations.
4. Community-led conservation & empowering women — Why conservation cannot succeed without involving local and rural communities, particularly women and young people, and how traditional knowledge strengthens scientific work.
5. The Rolex/Explorers Club grant & global ambitions — Winning the gra

Send a text

Support the show

Thanks For Listening.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a comment and subscribe for more exciting content.

Please visit AdventureDiaries.com/GO For more authentic stories of Adventure Exploration and the natural world

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

🎧 Follow the show here— it really helps Adventure Diaries reach more listeners. Thank you.

Ricardo Kaljouw is a Dutch adventurer and mountaineer from Flushing (Vlissingen) in Zeeland, Netherlands — a province that sits below sea level, making his obsession with the world's highest volcanoes all the more fitting. By day he works in military shipbuilding, constructing frigates for governments around the world. By adventure, he has just become the first person from the Benelux to complete the Volcanic 7 Summits — a challenge so rare that only around 68 people in the world have ever achieved it.

Chapters

• 00:00 – Introduction: A Dangerous Encounter
• 01:28 – Welcome to The Adventure Diaries
• 01:50 – Meet Ricardo Kaljouw: Volcanic Seven Summits
• 04:35 – Growing Up Below Sea Level
• 06:39 – Navy Life: Battling Pirates in Somalia
• 09:13 – Inspiration: Climbing Kilimanjaro
• 12:16 – Inside the Crater: Virunga's Lava Lake
• 17:19 – Mount Damavand: Winter Climbing in Iran
• 23:41 – Mountaineering Lessons: Snow Blindness
• 28:04 – Papua New Guinea: Jungle Trekking Challenges
• 31:49 – Close Call: Mistaken for a Witch
• 33:07 – Survival Story: Stranded on Ojos del Salado
• 41:00 – Romance on the Peak: Pico de Orizaba
• 42:33 – Antarctica: The Ultimate Expedition
• 45:40 – Landing on the Frozen Continent
• 1:00:25 – Summiting Mount Sidley: A Historic Feat
• 1:13:26 – What's Next: The Volcanic Grand Slam
• 1:17:16 – Book Launch: A Million Steps on Lava

Key Topics Covered

• Growing up in the flattest country on earth and joining a walking club as a kid
• Serving in the Royal Dutch Navy, including an anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden in 2010
• How a safari to Kenya and a first glimpse of Kilimanjaro sparked a lifelong obsession
• The Virunga documentary that sent him to the Democratic Republic of Congo — and sleeping on the rim of Nyiragongo, home to the world's largest lava lake
• Climbing Damavand (Iran) in winter and going snow blind on the descent
• Surviving near-starvation and a machete encounter in the jungles of Papua New Guinea
• Getting stranded alone at 6,600m on Ojos del Salado (Chile/Argentina) in whiteout conditions
• Mount Elbrus (Russia, 2017) — his first experience on glaciers, roped teams and crampons
• Carrying his proposal ring to the summit of Pico de Orizaba (Mexico) and the Aztec legend behind it
• The full Antarctica chapter — flying to Union Glacier, a 1,000km internal flight to Mount Sidley, two weeks in a 10-metre safe zone, a guide evacuated with pulmonary oedema, and a last-gasp summit window in minus 42°C
• Reflecting on what it means to finish a multi-year, multi-continent challenge

Lessons from the Mountains

• You're only at 70% when you think you're at 100% — but know where the real limit is
• The descent is where most accidents happen; the summit is only halfway
• Always use

Send a text

Support the show

Thanks For Listening.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a comment and subscribe for more exciting content.

Please visit AdventureDiaries.com/GO For more authentic stories of Adventure Exploration and the natural world

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