When Edward Michael Grylls was born in 1974, his big sister nicknamed him Bear. Today Bear Grylls has become a household name worldwide as Britain’s ultimate adventurer and survival expert. He’s also the youngest person ever to be made chief scout, taking responsibility for more than 30 million scouts around the world. Oh, he also eats really revolting stuff. Donna Verrydt chats to this living legend.

We’ve watched you devour raw goat testicles and drink intestinal fluid from the bowel of a dead camel. Has anything you’ve eaten in the wild actually tasted good?
Survival food is never going to be pretty, but you’ve got to get out and do it. You need energy! The worst is always the remains of animals, but berries are good, and scorpions, if they are almost burnt, taste like shrimp.

You’re good at ascertaining what you can and should absolutely not eat. Have you ever been wrong?
Yeah, there has been quite a lot of vomiting and diarrhoea over the years, but most of the time it goes right. The point to remember here is that it may not taste very nice but it could save your life.

What has made you the most sick?
Goat testicles. I also ate a particularly bad snake in Southern Africa… and there was the rotting carcass that I thought was borderline okay, but it wasn’t. Cow intestinal fluid and bear pooh is also bad.

Someone once asked you whether you had ever eaten human flesh...
I know! They asked me if I’d eaten a lot of bodies! All I could say was, ‘Um, no!’

But in the name of survival, it does happen.
Yes. Let’s hope we’re never in a situation to have to eat human bodies, but it is a reality. There are many such World War II horror stories, and then there’s the Alive story of the rugby players whose plane crashed in Peru. But it’s a difficult one, isn’t it? It’s always easy to say, ‘I would never do that’ when you’re not hungry and all cosy and warm at home. But ultimately, if I died and my son was hungry, I would want him to eat me. Wouldn’t you?

Sure. We think you should launch a Bear Grylls recipe book about the worst food ever.
That’s a good idea! Do you think anyone would buy a terrible recipe book?

If it has your face on it they will. You’ve recently launched the Bear Grylls Survival Kit, haven’t you?
Yes, it’s a series of knives, tools, and gear – actually the best-selling knives in the world right now.

What other products carry your name or image?
Well, I do Solo (the drink) and Nissan in Australia, and I do Degree deodorant in the United States. I did a first-ever Sure deodorant advert 10 years ago and got paid $5 000 [about R20 000 back then]. I then did the campaign again for them a year ago, and they said, ‘We see we paid you $5 000 before. Can we pay you the same again?’ I went: ‘No. We’re a bit further down the road now.’

That’s right, you’re definitely a survival expert by now. How do you become a survival expert?
Well, much of it stems from my training in the military. My job in the SAS was to teach combat survival. I served operationally twice in North Africa, but I’ve never served in full conflict. Some of my friends are still in Afghanistan, doing stuff way scarier than anything I do.

What do they think of what you do?
They tease me ruthlessly! But then one of them goes quiet and whispers, ‘You wouldn’t just sign a T-shirt for me kid, would you?’ And that sums it up for me.

You’ve said before that besides your military training, you learnt a lot of survival tricks growing up.
My mother says I was trouble as a kid. I admit I got into lots of scrapes… but it’s what I’ve always loved. I was encouraged to climb and loved outdoor adventures with my dad.

And you must be the coolest dad for your three boys?
I actually never used to let my kids watch the show, but then other kids in their class were asking them questions about me, and they didn’t know what everyone was talking about – so I felt mean. Now when I get home the kids want to endlessly go out and make rafts and stuff and I just want to put my feet up. But our home life is very normal.

Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site

Is it? Do you call living on a barge on the Thames normal?
Ha, ha it’s a fun way to be in London without feeling crammed. There’s a great community on the river, and we’ve got a kayak on the side and everything.

Do you go shopping by kayak?
Yes, we do that a lot actually. I love boats. I’m not that into things like watches or clothes or cars.

What car do you drive?
We’ve got an old black London taxi, a pick-up truck and a Land Rover.

Interesting! You’ve also said that your worst nightmare is a day at Disneyland.
Yeah, that’s bad. I’d rather take the jungle!

But there are things scarier than Mickey Mouse lurking in the jungle.
Yes, the jungle is one place that even the little things can bite you bad – things like fire and bullet ants. And lots of little plants can kill you too. The jungle is all about little things, and if you don’t have experience, then your life is going to be tougher there.

What are you most scared of?
I’m especially nervous of big white water, crevices, glaciers and saltwater crocodiles.

What’s the closest near-death experience you’ve had?
I had to be rescued on this last season while doing an ice decent because I got hit by a big metal camera housing that fell. It skimmed past my head, luckily, because the crew reckons it would’ve taken my head right off. It missed though and hit my leg. There was blood, helicopters, evacuations and hospitals! I did lie there thinking, ‘Got to be careful! You’ve got to be more careful!’

Hectic! There’s the funny side too though.
There are lots of funny bits. Recently Dan the cameraman and I were running along, moving really fast, and we were separated by a rock. I went over the rock, Dan went around, and I landed in a bog right up to my waist. Dan came over and just sat down and filmed me cursing and struggling in the bog for five minutes.

You’ve said the members of your crew are the true heroes.
The crew does an amazing job, considering they have to do everything I do, with heavy equipment and often backwards! Our best time together is when we’ve wrapped and about to head home. That’s when we find some bar in the middle of nowhere and we get a big crate of beers and just chill out. Everyone is so exhausted and people just fall asleep – those are great moments.

What do you say to those who call you a fake?
I say, ‘Come film with us!’ You know, after a show takes off there’s always going to be some negativity, but I think Discovery’s response was a good one. They said much of this is born out of people’s desire to see more. So they made the behind-the-scenes shows where we filmed the crew and interviewed them on how we do everything. Those shows have proven really popular – a positive from a negative.

Why do you think ‘survival’ has so much appeal?
I think everyone thinks, ‘What would happen if it were me? Could I cope with the situation?’ And the truth is many people who have survived terrible situations are not survival experts, but they had spirit, and it’s that spirit that kept them alive.

Has Discovery ever refused to show something you’ve done?
I was once showing how to survive on a raft at sea, and how having an enema with dirty water – that would make you sick if you drank it – but if you have it up your backside it would hydrate you. I demonstrated that, and it had to go through a lot of hoops with the channel. But it got there in the end, pardon the pun. There are a few like that, but generally we know what we’re doing, and we try to keep the edge of the show, and Discovery is supportive of that.

How does your wife cope?
Sometimes she watches the show and turns to me and says, ‘What were you thinking?’ But generally we don’t talk about it much. I come home with a bag full of blood and mud-stained clothes, and she throws them in the washing machine, and we go on with our normal lives.

She’s a saint. Where did you meet her?
I met Shara on a beach in Scotland in 1997, three months before I went off to Everest for three months. I was skinny dipping in the sea on New Year’s Day, like I do every year, and the waves were taking my clothes. I was running around trying to find them, and she helped me. I thought, ‘What a cool girl’.

Then you went off to Everest.
Yes. Everest was special. It took a lot to get there – a lot of sacrifice, preparation and hard work. It was my dream. But we lost four climbers up there on that mountain!

You nearly lost Jake Gyllenhaal on a mountain recently too.
Yeah, we took Jake with us to Iceland. He was nervous before, and I said: ‘You’ve just got to come. You’ve got to trust me, and we’ll have an adventure!’ What I didn’t know was that Iceland was about to have the worst storms they’ve had in 10 years. We had hurricane-force winds blowing us across mountains like tumbleweed – we had to stop filming. It was really scary! It was so bad, even planes were being blown sideways across tarmacs. It was crazy. Jake said afterwards, ‘If I had any idea…’

So, when would be the best time to stop?
I always think it’s best to finish five minutes too early than too late. I never thought we’d do one season – let alone six. Every year is a blessing, and I’m just very grateful.