Do you ever have any back up in cast things go wrong?

Do you ever have any back up in cast things go wrong?

Benedict Allen (Explorer) gives expert video advice on: Do you get nervous before an expedition?; How long does an expedition last?; How do you decide what expedition to do next? and more...

My backup is probably not what anyone else would choose to take or certainly not the familiar way. I don't use a GPS. I have done, actually, but generally I don't navigate with a GPS. Sometimes I have one in a survival kit that I take, but I try not to use one. I don't use a satellite phone, if I can help it. Sometimes I've been made to, by the BBC, or someone, but I generally don't use that. So I'm not quite a technophobe, but it's just part of my philosophy that if you call yourself an explorer, you should do things on your own terms. If you're scared, for example, to climb Everest without a phone, without this and that, then perhaps don't climb Everest. Climb Mt. Snowden, or something a little bit less challenging. So I think that you should, rather than just trying to conquer the place with all these extra aids, you should try and lower your expectations, because to me you're sheltered from the real place, the reality. So I don't take all these gadgets. To me, a compass, a map, a survival kit which has a range of things, like distress flares and waterproof matches, antibiotics, and so on. So I carry that around with me all the time and my backup becomes, essentially, the environment itself, the Amazon, which is a shelter, is a place of medicine, is food, and of course the local people, who I've plugged into, and their knowledge. They become my backup team, as it were.