9 minute read
Home’s where the crocs are..
THE first thing Lyndon and Ruth Pinches taught their girls after building a safari lodge in Zambia surrounded by leopards, hippos, crocodiles and snakes was how to not get eaten by wild beasts. Their property is 100 miles from a village shop, 250 miles from the nearest city, Lusaka, and a four-hour drive from a hospital.
Ex-Army officer Lyndon, 40, who served twice in Afghanistan with The Rifles, says: “We have to drive and meet any ambulance half-way.”
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He and his wife fell in love with Africa after working with an anti-poaching group in Malawi for six months in 2014.
In 2016 they sank £70,000 of savings and Lyndon’s redundancy payout into building three safari lodges in Kafue National Park to house 200 guests a year.
The pair lived in a tent under a tree during the work –while supply teacher Ruth, 37, was pregnant.
Bringing up kids Indiana, six, and Ivy, four, in the bush had unique challenges.
Ruth says: “When a baby cried it sounded like a distressed animal and hyenas would come around the campfire. But Lyndon had a gun so we were safe.
“A baby monitor wouldn’t tell you if there was a snake around, so I had to strap my babies to me all the time. We never sugarcoated anything. Our girls know the dangers.”
Horror struck when a worker was eaten by a crocodile while fishing at the camp in February 2019, while lightning strikes caused by 40 degree temperatures triggered Lyndon’s PTSD.
But bush life also had tremendous benefits. Ruth adds: “We would wake up and see an elephant eating from a tree or a leopard in the bushes – moments people would pay to see.”
The couple now run the lodge from Swindon, Wilts, where Indiana is in school.
Lyndon says: “I miss the wild. We built that place with nothing but our bare hands. We would love to go back.”
■ George & Sophie are on Ben Fogle: New Lives in the
Wild on Channel 5 on January 31 at 9pm; Lyndon and Ruth on February 14
LODGE: Only electricity is solar
PARK LIFE: In Zambia reporter Claire Toureille ran weekly features on each of the episodes (twelve features in total). The articles were accompanied by pictures and exclusive clips, we have picked out 3 extracts below.
3/01/23 “Pro snowboarder reveals how he quit his $150,000ayear career that felt 'like a circus' to live in a tiny solarpowered hut in the snow”.
Mike Basich, 50, from Nevada, is retired 1990s snowboarding champion Athlete won $150,000 at the height of his career, but abruptly retired aged 27 Told Ben Fogle he grew 'burnout' from the sport and felt he lived in a 'circus' Now father-of-two, lives in a small hut in the snowy mountains of Sierra Nevada Read more: Couple who were dedicated to the church for decades reveal how they gave up monastic life to get married
By CLAIRE TOUREILLE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 11:34, 3 January 2023 | UPDATED: 12:11, 3 January 2023
27 shares
A former pro snowboarder who helped pioneer the sport revealed how burnout led him to quit competing and move off-grid.
Mike Basich, 51, was at the height of his career in 2001 and ranking number two snowboarder in the world, earning $150,000 a year through sponsors when he quit the competitive side of the sport to buy 83 acres of land in his native Sierra Nevada, where he built a tiny hut.
More than twenty years on, Mike welcomed Ben Fogle for a new episode of New Lives in the Wild, airing tonight at 9pm on Channel 5, where he explained to the presenter that burnout and feeling like his life was 'a bit of a circus' pushed him to take a step back and reconnect with nature.
Mike Basich, 51, left competitive snowboarding whilst he was earning $150,000 a year through sponsors, and bought 83 acres of land in his native Sierra Nevada, where he built a tiny hut. Tonight, he welcomes Ben Fogle in his life for a new episode of New Lives In the Wild, airing at 9pm on Channel 5
25/01/23 “I left Hollywood to live alone on a 400acre farm in Uruguay and I've not had a visitor in three years”.
I left Hollywood to live alone on a 400acre farm in Uruguay and I've not had a visitor in three years
Rhona Mitra, 46, British actress who left Los Angeles to move to Uruguay in 2017
Told Ben Fogle grew disillusioned with modern world after autoimmune disease
Added she prefers to rescue animals on her 400 acres farms to dating any man
Read more: Artist reveals why he chose to live in lawless Californian community
By CLAIRE TOUREILLE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 14:40, 25 January 2023 | UPDATED: 13:25, 27 January 2023 shares
413 View comments
An actress has revealed why she left the glitzy red carpets of LA for a remote life in Uruguay on Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild.
Rhona Mitra, 46, grew up in West London but found fame onscreen after moving to Los Angeles in the '90s, where she starred in flicks like Sweet Home Alabama and series including The Practice and Boston Legal. She wa also the first official live action Lara Croft in 1997,
On the Channel 5 show last night, Rhona explained that after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2012, she grew disillusioned with her life and bought a derelict 400-acre farm in Uruguay in 2017, where she lives alone in a house she made from horse manure.
Rhona Mitra, 46, grew up in West London but found fame on screen after moving to LA in the 90s, where she starred in flicks like Sweet Home Alabama and series like The Practice and Boston Legal. She revealed why she left the glitzy red carpets of LA for a remote life in Uruguay on last night's Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild on Channel 5
Ben learned about the tough life Rhona faces on the farm, including being intimidated by neighbours and having no back up plan if anything should happen to her
15/02/23 “We moved to Zambia to open a safari lodge some friends have been eaten by crocodiles but growing up here has made our daughters more confident”.
Ruth and Lyndon Pinches moved to Zambia to open lodges six years ago They are raising their daughters Indiana and Ivy near the Kafue river in the wild Read more: I'm a homeless single dad and I've been arrested
By CLAIRE TOUREILLE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 08:23, 15 February 2023 | UPDATED: 08:29, 15 February 2023 shares 10
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A couple have told Ben Fogle that growing up in the Zambian wilderness has made their daughters more confident - in spite of all the dangerous wildlife lurking around.
Ruth, 36, and Lyndon Pinches, 39, moved from the UK to Zambia six years ago to open a safari lodge business where tourists pay £218 per person per night.
The couple admitted on last night's New Lives in the Wild that there's dangers from the local wildlife on the edge of the Kafue river, which includes lions, cheetahs, leopards, hippos and crocodiles.
They told Ben Fogle that there were initially worried about Indie and Ivy not having contact with other children, but added growing up in the wilderness has made the two girls more 'confident.'
The couple moved to Zambia six years ago with the aim to build touristic lodges and help with local conservation work.
They used Ruth's saving from her teaching career and former soldier Lyndon's army redundancy money to fund the project.
Ben travelled to the lodge by car to meet them, on the edge of the Kafue River, in Zambia's oldest and largest national park.
He had very strict instructions not to get out of the car for any reason, due to the wildlife living in the park.
Upon arriving, he was taken with the beauty of the family's surroundings, saying: 'What an amazing place for the girls to grow up.'
'We've had leopards coming through here, hippos coming out the river, crocs everywhere, loads of antelopes,' Lyndon told Ben.
They also warned him against snakes, while their father added: 'The day, you're fine, just don't go in the long grass, stay two metres back from the river,
'At night time we'll always have someone to escort you around with a torch,' he added.
Ben was blown away by Lyndon, Ruth, and their family, as well as the lodge.
'What a place. It's quite hard to find a family from a totally different culture, from a different country living here.
'It's quite a simple set up. I know that just behind that very thin canvas, there are crocodiles and hippos and lions and cheetahs, and that's one of the exciting things about coming to a country like Zambia,' he said.
'But quite brave to have your two very young daughters living here as well.'
The couple are so isolated they have to harvest and forage as much food as they can, with Lyndon making trips to the nearby village to stock up on food and fuel.
When the family and Ben took a tour of the park, Lyndon escorted them with a shotgun.
(Online) 17/01/23 Feature on DNA with clips and photos “SCRAP PEEP I quit 95 to live in offgrid ‘Slab City’ – if you annoy the neighbours there’s a savage rule but I have no regrets” by Josh Saunders. (Extract below)
WITH burned-out vehicles, scrap-metal trailers and unbearable 50degree heat, Slab City looks like a scene from the post-apocalyptic lm Mad Max.
Yet here among the makeshift camps – made from old school buses, cars and branches – is where former construction worker 'DNA', 49, nally feels at home many of the norms and rules of wider society.
Yet the supposed ‘Utopia’ has a dark underbelly blighted by drugs, violent thieves and arsonists - and there is a brutal way neighbours 'burn out' locals they don't like.
The town's bohemian occupants, known as ‘Slabbers’, features in tonight’s episode of Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild, on Channel 5.
Self-monikered DNA, who moved here four years ago, explains: “When I rst go here I was afraid someone might steal my stu.
“I had the mindset of a new person coming into town, ‘What could potentially be here?’ because you hear all kinds of rumours. Some of them are true, very much so.
Homeless single dad stopped
times by police convinced he’s kidnapped own son
Comment
Ruth LawesWednesday 8 Feb 2023 10:56 am
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A homeless man has opened up about the prejudice he experiences from police officers who believe he has kidnapped his own son.
Rob, known as Pirate Rob, appeared on Tuesday’s Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild during which he spoke about his unorthodox lifestyle.
The 49-year-old, who lives in homeless community Slab City in California for part of the year, also calls home a make-shift tent on an island in Oregon.
Describing himself as a ‘bouji bum’ because of his ‘high-class’ tastes, Rob show Ben around his abode and discussed his family life.
Rob is father to an 18-year-old son, Damien, who he lives with, as well as two daughters, explaining Damien’s mother left when he was younger.
Asked by the presenter why he had chosen this lifestyle, Rob explained he found it ‘safe’ as, in the outside world, ‘so many people try and tear him away from me.’
‘It’s just so overwhelming I’d rather just come out into the wild,’ he added Ben asked him who the people were trying to ‘tear’ Damien apart from him, with Rob replying: ‘It was everyone. ‘It would be the old lady down the road seeing my son with me, thinking he must be up to no good or something.
‘The police instantly judged and constantly tried to tear us apart. We even had police take us to the police station and put us in different rooms and he’s just a little kid.
‘They were telling me they would take him away from me if he could. For what reason?’
Speaking more about his experience with the law, Rob revealed he’d had the ‘cops thinking I’d kidnapped him more times than I could count.’
He added that in one day alone he was approached three times by different officers.
Rob explained that he had ‘always dreamed of being a dad’ and wanted to be a different parent from his own ‘overbearing’ father.
In previous episodes of the docuseries, Ben has met other people living off-grid including a former Sydney businessman David Glasheen who lost £6.5million in one day.
After losing the fortune, David traded the city life for Restoration Island, an isolated backwater off the tip of northern Queensland, where he had even founded his own microbrewery.
Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild is available to stream on My5.
