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Lucy Shepherd is quickly becoming one of the most prominent names in outdoor exploring, leading expeditions across arctic tundras, rugged rainforests and remote mountain ranges. We managed to catch Lucy in between epic expeditions to chat about her journey to some of the most remote locations on the planet, the stories and lessons she's learned along the way, and why she feels such a strong connection to the great outdoors.
Honestly, I just really loved the outdoors. I grew up in the countryside as an only child, so I loved roaming the fields and being in my own imagination. I was happily bored in a tree. One big thing that sparked the adventure side of me was our holidays to Scotland. We would go at least once a year, and the west coast of Scotland, Glenuig to be exact, ended up being my favorite place in the world, especially as a child. It just had it all! The rocks, the forests, the mountains, the sea, the lochs. I felt more like myself out there than I did anywhere else so I always try to replicate that feeling now. When I got older, I was watching shows like the ones I'm making now, and I remember realising the world is so vast, and having that urge to just go and explore. It wasn't about, ‘how can I make this my job?’ Because that's pretty crazy. It was more like, ‘how can I go and experience these things?’.
That was a huge turning point for everything. It was 10 weeks long which, for anyone, let alone an 18 year old, is a really long time. It showed me that you could be different kinds of leaders. I grew up as a shy kid at school, I felt like you had to have a really loud voice and be bossy if you wanted to lead anything. I realized on that expedition that I wasn't shy, I just needed the right place to thrive, and that you could lead in any way that suits you. I don't think you get taught that at school.
I also remember feeling a connection with the world, but also such a frustration. I felt this deep connection with this world that was also under threat. It felt so good out there, despite it being hard to thrive. But I also had the thoughts of ‘Why aren't we treating this like an emergency?’ Maybe people don't feel inspired enough, or they don't feel like what we've got already is worth fighting for. So I made sure to take on that battle in my own way. You don’t need to change the world and start a renewable energy company or anything like that, but once you see what’s really going on out there, you might just make one small decision that impacts something bigger.
I grew up watching all these brilliant male explorers who became my role models because there was a lack of women doing the things that I wanted to do, or at least they weren't given the platform to shout about it. My other love, ever since age 10, has been making films. I realised all the documentaries that I grew up loving that had the self film adventure element to it, so the foundations were all there.
In 2015, I finished university, I came to London, and got a job in television. I thought I was never going to do a big expedition again, people who work full time don't do that, they can't take time off. And then I got dumped. Afterwards, I thought, ‘What am I doing here? I need to get back into the wild.’, I was craving to have a backpack on my back! So that was me. I left the job I was in and headed out on long hikes across Spain and Corsica. It was during one of those trips where I had the epiphany of ‘I want to find a way to do this full time’. I took influence from the people who were doing similar things and molded my own path. I kept doing expeditions, and kept working freelance. I had this big expedition in the Amazon planned and I just knew that was going to be my now or never moment.
Svalbard in northern Norway has always held a close place in my heart because that’s where it all started. I go back there so often, and I love to introduce other people to the island too. It's so pristine and beautiful. But also, the more distance I get from those places in the Amazon that I’ve visited, I realise how special that experience was. It's quite rare to get that remote on such an intensely dangerous expedition, but also so fascinating. No one can give you the answers out there. One of my top expeditions however has to be mountaineering across the High Sierras in California. They’re just so unexpectedly beautiful. It’s a great adventure in the American wilderness. It was only eight days, but I did it with two of the best people in my life and it was just awesome.
There's been many. Recently, whilst filming my new series, Secret Africa: Into the Wild, we had a pride of lions around us as we slept in our tents, they were only a meter or so away from us and in that situation, the only thing you can do is remain still and silent while it roars at you for two minutes. There's nothing you can do except remain still and just hope that it's not hungry that day. That was a moment where I thought, ‘I pushed this too far, I'm gonna be eaten by a lion’. So that was pretty intense. It was like when you’re a child waking up in this nightmare where there's a monster under your bed.
A lot of things, really! My first time in the jungle was in 2014 which is where I met some of my team members, but also some one of my mentors. I had a pretty scary experience with Jaguars from that trip which made me think the jungle wasn’t for me. Then back in 2019, I reached out to an ex Special Forces and military contact out there, and he said I should come back. He had just attempted to go South to North across Kanukas and he'd failed, but he said I should give it a go because it's never been done in that way. So, we gave it a go and we were successful! It proved that there was so much left to explore there. After our success, I knew I wanted the next expedition to be ‘impossible’ and be the one that I leave everything for. That’s when he sat back and said, ‘Well, you're gonna have to cross the whole thing then, aren't you?’ And that's where that idea then came about.
It seemed so impossible at the time, but then it became even more impossible because he was my in-country guy that would help me get all the permissions, and unfortunately he passed away a few months into planning. It was a real case of thinking ‘Am I foolish to think that we can continue this?’ But we knew he would want us to go for it, so it was then about finding a way to do it, regardless of his support.
So I was self filming it all, and even though it is hard to self film, I've been with a camera ever since I was 10. It's hard, but it also gives you different perspectives. So every night in the hammock you have to think of the bigger picture. All of the things that have gone wrong, or if you're in a muddle, you have to have a zoomed out lens of it, and think ‘How is this going to feed into the story, and how the character is doing?’. With filming my new series, Secret Africa, it was a three episode commission beforehand, and we just had to hope that the expedition was exciting, we didn’t know what was gonna happen, so that was nerve wracking.
So much! Whether it's looking at the world and the environment in a different way, or not fighting when things are hard. They showed me that with most situations, if you just go with the flow, it can make things a lot easier. It makes you look at adventure in a different way, because they're the explorers at the end of the day, they're the heroes of the story.
I did a few solo expeditions but I think doing it with a team, and doing it with people who don't necessarily come from the same background as you enriches the experience. It's great to tell an expedition adventure story from both of our sides. At the end of the day, it's a journey of friendship and getting to know each other as well.
Some sort of filming device, for sure. Whether it's to share the story or to find some comfort in if you're going through a rubbish day, speaking it out is always good for you.
I probably give a different answer every time for this, but today I'm going to give it to the moment we got out of the jungle after the Kanukus, and came into the sun and knew we'd done it, that was quite a big moment knowing we had just done something incredible. Something that other people have tried and failed at, and maybe the key is to do it in a collaborative process.
The book tells the story of how I put everything in motion to do what I do. Becoming an explorer, and the milestones that happened at each step that essentially made this into what I love, and little hacks that I used to try and make sure that I was progressing towards that dream. On top of a childhood dream made real, it's also a love letter to the wild, to these places that we think don't exist anymore, but they do. Hopefully it's pretty thrilling! Half of the book is written in past tense, and then the other half, once we start the expedition, is written in present tense, so it's as if you're there on the ground with us. It covers all the bits that you remember in the series, but also all the bits that didn't make it, whether it was the little conversations or the agonizing things, the pain that I went through, brutal bits I didn't want to film because I felt if I was filming it, then it could get worse. It delves into all of that, and then also the heart. The expedition wasn't over when I got home. We then had the challenge of getting the whole thing on television, so it explores that part too.
Absolutely! Once again, I'm joining indigenous locals who are nomadic hunter gatherers. This time, I didn't know them beforehand, so we very much had to form a relationship on the ground, going across Tanzania in places you've never seen before. We go through such remote places, dense forest, lowlands, across the Serengeti and then into the islands as well. It’s so visually beautiful, and of course you’ll meet the brilliant people who I was with as well.
We’re planning the next series already, so that's exciting! Hopefully I can film that this year, and then it’ll be out this time next year. Hopefully we can keep the momentum going. I also want to work with younger audiences on YouTube as well, and incorporate local adventures. I want to engage them and show that you can get off your phone and get outside and explore. There's exciting things to be done outside!
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