From weird food to endless rain, Bear reveals what takes him out of the comfort zone - and offers his own top survival tips.
Have you ever thought: 'Oh my God, this time I've gone too far and I really shouldn't have done this'?
I do quite often feel well out of my comfort zone. But also I'm aware that that's what I've been trained to do, it's where I come alive and it's one of the few things in life I do okay. And I do find, when it really gets difficult, I do thrive on that in a weird way: something sort of clicks into place. But I think a lot of the pressure comes from me more than anything.
And the menu is pretty unappetising; the stuff you eat sounds indigestible!
Food sucks generally in the survival world, but it's what it's about: leaving your prejudices behind and doing whatever you need to do. But definitely this series has seen some pretty terrible stuff, from raw goat's testicles and the fluids in camels' intestines, to live snakes and grubs the size of a kid's hand. Yak eyeballs, squirrel brains... it's all there! It's almost always raw, because you're in the jungle, or wherever, and starting fires is hard and you're on the move. In one of the shows I kept a snake alive until we could eat it fresh – because things go off so quickly with the humidity and heat. A couple of hours and food's bad, so I end up eating it raw.
But I love getting home and having nice flapjacks and cups of tea. It makes me really, really appreciate home and I don't tell Shara, my wife, too much about my work otherwise I think I'd never be allowed back into the marital bedroom.
Does home keep you going? Is it something you focus on while you're out there?
Home keeps me going through so much, through lots of big expeditions and through all of these programmes. I always keep a little picture of my kids in the sole of my shoe. I use it so much at difficult times when it's been pouring with rain for 24 hours in the middle of the jungle. You're cold, you're wet, you're not sure where you are: we all have those moments, and such a key part of survival is trying to keep cheerful.
If you look at the people who do survive disasters, it doesn't always come down to knowledge; it's who has the biggest drive to get home or get out of a situation. So I spend a lot of time really looking forward to home, it's very precious to me.
Do squirrel brains or yaks' eyes actually have much nutritional value? They can't be very big or filling.
There's loads of energy in all that sort of stuff. A lot of the struggle is killing these things. I got bitten by a snake recently filming in a jungle and bit the head off it and then had this huge snake I couldn't eat – I ate as much as I could raw, but I can't manage all of a snake that big.
But so much survival is not about hunting big game; it's about foraging all the time on berries or leaves or fruits you find or little grubs, little crickets or grasshoppers or whatever. You can waste a lot of energy going for the bigger stuff, but generally, if you do come across a snake, great.
I caught a huge bullfrog the size of a football; I was thrashing around in this elephant mud hole, trying to get this thing out, whacking it with these bramble branches to sort of pull it out... it's all part of the job!
If someone finds themselves in an inhospitable environment, is there one key survival tip you would give them?
For me I can summarise it in three things: first my faith, that's really helped me in so many difficult times; second, never, ever, ever, ever, ever give up – good Winston Churchill advice, at the heart of survival; and third, think outside the box.
So much survival is common sense. It's about being innovative with things, about coming up with ingenious ways of doing it. I'm not the best person in the world at weaving a hat out of straw or vines but I am quite good at working out how to tie my shoelaces together to climb a tree, and I think so much survival is about that.
But ultimately, it's the other stuff that's going to keep you going, whether it's your family or faith or whatever: that's really what matters in survival. I've seen so many stories of people who've come through nightmare situations, and it's all about heart - the people who get out of it are the ones who are really driven.
As humans we're capable of extraordinary things and I think our greatest asset in survival situations is our brain. People always ask me: 'What knife do you use?' and all of this, but it's not about that, it's about using your brain to think your way out of a situation and then using your heart to keep you going.
And finally, is there anything you're afraid of?
It's a long list, I always feel really scared sitting in those helicopters before jumping out to go into it. I think the anticipation is always worse. It's fine once I'm in it because it's what I've been trained to do, it's what I love, it's when I come alive. But beforehand, that anticipation, I get really nervous.
I get really good briefings from rangers and local experts beforehand and they always paint such a miserable picture: the crocs or the snakes or 'watch out for this or that'. And for me it builds that fear, so I do get quite scared before them, and I spend quite a lot of my life scared of these things. But I've also learnt how to handle that and to say that's part of my job and that's okay.
