Simon Reeve: To The Ends Of The Earth Tour

Simon Reeve: To The Ends Of The Earth Tour

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Posted 2023-07-13 by Tony Collinsfollow

Wed 04 Oct 2023 - Mon 27 Nov 2023

TV travel presenter and explorer Simon Reeve is promising to reveal all about his wild and exciting adventures as part of a new UK tour. Simon’s own experiences of growing up in inner city London, escaping from a mental health crisis to flee to Scotland and literally finding his feet see him well placed to suggest ways that others can discover more personal wild moments. And he hopes his forthcoming To The Ends Of The Earth tour, which takes place during October and November, including a visit to Birmingham's Symphony Hall on 9 October, will encourage people to take a few more risks and find the value in nature, wherever it may be.

Simon said: “I loved getting out there and being with a live audience on my last tour, and that was a big part of wanting to do another. But the real motivation was that I was getting a bit depressed about the state of the world and how digital our lives were becoming, and I want to remind audiences there’s a really beautiful, wild world out there for us to love and experience, individually and collectively. My theme for the tour is ‘wild places exist and we need to find them’. There’s not much in life that I am sure about, but I am sure about this. The value of getting into nature is very simple, whether it’s a local park, a remote national park, or somewhere elsewhere in a far-flung corner of Planet Earth. It all counts.”

Simon Reeve talks about exploring the world in UK tour


Simon, whose travels and award-winning TV series have taken him to more than 130 countries, across jungles, deserts, mountains and oceans, acknowledges that many people reconnected with their local world in recent times due to the COVID-19 pandemic – and is keen to remind us not to forget those moments. “Millions of people reassessed their lives during the pandemic, and while, yes it was hellish in a lot of ways, it gave people time and space to reconnect with their local area. We were forced to stay close to home, and there is something powerful in re-discovering what is around you, seeing it with fresh eyes. Even by just turning left instead of right on a walk or run, you can have a completely new experience, adding a heightened sense of value to your love of the place."

He added: “Going wild can be in any environment – whether the inner city or a remote island. The important thing is to push yourself out of the comfort zone and try new things, which help us see the world differently, and prompt us to raise our eyes from that screen we all carry with us. Noticing nature around you is a bloody tonic. It’s a lot cheaper than therapy or other exercise, but super-valuable for us as individuals and collectively. So if your partner or your kids aren’t great at taking chances or eating in restaurants that don’t have photos of the food outside, bring them along and let’s see if I can persuade them to have a few more adventures.”

He opens up about a childhood crisis and finding himself


On his new theatre tour, Simon says he’s also planning to talk about the craziest places he’s been to, the adventures he’s had and the amazing people he’s met. “I’m really hoping to inspire people with my tales, and I’m planning to tell some stories I’ve never shared before, about my adventures and also about my background.” That background includes being on the brink of suicide at the age of 16. “The great outdoors started out as a mental health tonic for me. One of my real formative experiences as a lad – I was on the dole, very depressed, stood on a motorway bridge – was when I went wild to Scotland on my own and found a shed-load of physical self-confidence, exploring and discovering and feeling the grass under my feet. That kind of experience can truly transform a person.

We have been lulled into thinking that we can experience the world via our screens, but the benefits to head health of being in nature and getting wild are so much greater. That experience, getting on a train to Scotland, climbing Glencoe in jeans and trainers – I shouldn’t have made it up and back safely, but I did. The most useful mental health tonic I had in the darkest time of my life was to put one foot in front of the other and keep moving, and I’ve found that ever since."

Simon's UK tour includes a date at Birmingham's Symphony Hall on 9 October


Besides sharing the many benefits of getting into the great outdoors on his new theatre tour, Simon also plans to share his experience of nature in a broader sense – talking about ecosystems around the world and the impact mankind has had on the planet. “I’ve travelled through so many completely different environments and am looking forward to sharing some of that.... what it’s like to be in the desert, in the mountains, the coldest places on the planet, and all the other extreme locations I’ve visited. I’ve met some incredible people in remote parts of the world with very different outlooks on life. In the developed world, we are very much about driving forward, acquiring, insulating yourself from the outside world and other humans. But I’ve spent time in remote communities where everyone is raising children together in solidarity, and it’s breathtaking to see. "

While keen to encourage responsible tourism and travel, and seeing sights beyond the obvious, Simon also reminds people that exploration is a ‘fundamental’ part of human nature. “There is an enormous value to travel,” he said. “I don’t want people to forget we have done it since the beginning of our species. It is part of human history and we need it in our lives. It’s a fundamental aspect of our humanity, that desire to see what’s around the corner or over the next hill. We haven’t just done it to look for food but for adventure and experiences. We, humans, are incredible. The world is amazing.”

Tickets for Simon Reeve - To The Ends of the Earth are on sale from https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/simon-reeve

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222442 - 2023-07-11 15:48:20

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