Nick Knowles in South America: 'We can't let fear stop us doing things'

Knowles was in Chile, at the southern tip of the world, for his new three-part series Nick Knowles in South America, the last episode of which airs on Channel 5 tonight.

“A lot of what Torres del Paine is about is climbing,” explains the 61-year-old, describing the Patagonian national park famous for its pretty but perilous peaks. “So I thought to myself, there’s no point talking about it if I’m not going to do it.”

Although his sympathetic director repeatedly offered to find an alternative way to tackle the filming, Knowles insisted this was now a battle of “me versus me”.

Shuddering at the memory, he recalls gripping the rock with his fingernails.

“I’m roped up, but I’m 19 stone and my climbing partner – who is supposed to be my counterweight – is about nine stone wringing wet! But even when I’m shaking, I’m still looking out and thinking this is incredible. We can’t let fear stop us from doing things.”

Later in the series, he goes on to play polo with a professional Argentinian team (“They gave me this feisty pony who took me for a ride”) and picks up a few tango steps in Buenos Aires (“Just to do it there is fabulous. Even if I did It badly, I don’t care”).

The series also shines a spotlight on several extraordinary environmental projects and success stories, reflecting Knowles’s belief that long-haul travel can still be sustainable. “As part of these programmes, we want to showcase things that bring hope,” says Knowles, whose late mother, Patricia, was from Wakefield. “We have a bit of a nihilistic attitude towards the environment, but there are people doing extraordinary things.”

In this series, he visits farmers feeding seaweed to cattle to reduce methane output and meets brewers using CO2 waste, water and wind power to make fuel.

“Humans are very destructive monkeys, but we are also very creative monkeys too.”

Visiting Argentina and Chile had long been a bucket-list ambition for the former rugby player, journalist and game show host, due partly to a boyhood obsession with great explorers.

“Knowing the stories of Darwin, Drake and Magellan, and being in the Strait of Magellan between Tierra del Fuego and the mainland was amazing to me,” he recalls. “In Punta Arenas (the main city on the mainland) there are replicas of Magellan’s ship Nao Victoria and Darwin’s HMS Beagle. Considering the difficulty of those waters, the boats seem very tiny.”

The last episode of Nick Knowles in South America is on Channel 5 at 7pm tonight, and all three will be available on the broadcaster’s website.