Hello I'm Krestey Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive

for rights reasons we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in the year 2000 and the presenter was Sue Lawley. My castaway this week is an explorer. His appetite for adventure meant that by the age of 28 he

raised 3.5 million pounds to retrace Scott's trek to the South Pole. Three years later, he'd

recruited a multinational team for another grueling journey to the North Pole.

Thus he was assured his place in history as the first man to walk unaided to both Poles.

These huge expeditions made him realize how threatened our planet was

and encouraged him to become an environmental campaigner, a role in which his

natural gift for communication has allowed him to excel. His energy and

commitment however have been partnered by something less fulfilling,

depression. The route down from the peaks of achievement it seems is something he's found hard to make.

The qualities of real survival he says are the ability to cry, to ask for help.

He is Robert Swan. What we admire, of course, in heroes like you, Robert, is your sheer physical courage,

pitting yourself against those ferocious elements, you know, temperatures of minus 50 and so on.

Are you saying that's the easy bit?

It really is actually the easy bit.

When you're saying you're going to go to the south or north pole,

if you have the right mindset, you start your journey and you either get there or die, it's actually really quite simple.

Is it that simple? I mean, if I don't do this job, I die.

In my mind, yes, I made a commitment to myself that I'd rather reach the poles than come

back without reaching the poles.

But you imply that you therefore en route contemplate death?

...