Television presenter, writer and adventurer Ben was first flung into the public spotlight when he volunteered to be marooned on an island in the Outer Hebrides as part of telly series Castaway. Since then he’s tackled all manner of extreme escapades, from racing 160 miles across the Sahara, rowing over the Atlantic Ocean, beating up Ricky from EastEnders in a charity boxing match, and talking to Bizarre…

You got a frostbitten nose in the South Pole. What would you have done if it’d fallen off?
I’ve always thought my hooter was rather large, so I was hoping the frostbite would act like a free form of plastic surgery. If it’d dropped off, I would’ve replaced it with a useful macaw’s beak, so I could crack open nuts with my face.

Didn’t your nose get attacked by a flesh-eating disease, too?
Yes. I caught an infection called ‘mucocutaneous leishmaniasis’ after being bitten by a sand fly. It creates raw, weeping lesions and ulcers around the nose and mouth that just get bigger and simply don’t heal. It can eat away your face. I needed two courses of intense chemotherapy to properly zap it away, because it came back the first time.

Is that the worst pain you’ve ever been through?
A rabid dog bit me in Ecuador and the subsequent anti-rabies shot involved six thick needles being inserted into my stomach. The worst though was being bitten by a South American bullet ant – their nibbles feel like being shot. They’re the sensory equivalent of about five wasp stings and can give you a fever for 24 hours. Some tribes make boys wear a glove filled with hundreds of bullet ants as an initiation rite. I don’t know how they cope, as I was having convulsions after a couple of bites.

Have you ever hallucinated due to a fever?
Oh yeah, and I’ve had visions due to exhaustion, snow glare or desert mirages too. I saw snowmen who came and chatted to me and gigantic rabbits jumping across Antarctica, and Brad Pitt randomly shimmered into existence to walk beside me on Mount Kilimanjaro. James Cracknell once hallucinated that I’d morphed into Pamela Anderson when we were sharing a very small, intimate tent. That was… awkward.
 
Rabid dogs, sand flies, bullet ants… you seem to have bad luck with bites! What’s the weirdest thing you’ve bitten into?
I’ve gobbled guinea pigs, witchetty grubs, tarantulas and, sadly, a tree-kangaroo. They’re like a cross between a panda and a koala bear, and extremely endangered. Five people and I were presented with a live one by a small tribe in Papua New Guinea. Everyone was cooing over it when a tribesman suddenly clubbed it over the head. Half of us were in tears as he proceeded to skin and barbecue it, then serve it up to us. We couldn’t refuse it, as it had been slain in our honour, but I felt terribly guilty. It tasted like chicken.
 
What’s the stupidest bet that you’ve ever made?
It involves chowing down on more strange stuff, actually. I entered myself into a stinging nettle-eating competition. I lost pathetically by only managing to eat 200 leaves in an hour, while the winner ate 2,000. The guy next to me was drinking beer to help his digestion, but ended up vomiting it back up into his glass. He had to drink his sick back down in order to avoid disqualification. Oh, I also once bet that I could outrun a horse in an annual race across the Welsh countryside. Again, I lost.
 
Do you believe in aliens?
I think there’s something else out there in the universe. I also believe that a lot of ‘mythical’ creatures may actually exist on earth. I’d love to search for yetis at some point. We’re constantly discovering new species, so who’s to say these beasts aren’t lurking deep in some dark forest?
 
How close have you come to death?
During the Atlantic crossing, mine and James’ boat capsized. There was no rescue vessel, no support harness, not even life jackets. Plus, we were rowing totally naked to avoid getting chafed by our wet suits. Somehow we managed to right the boat and get back on board, but I thought that was the end. Another team’s boat was attacked by sharks and sank, but thankfully they reached safety.

You’ve encountered a lot of animals – and their dung. What’s the worst shit you’ve ever smelt?
The most horrible I’ve come across was human. On Castaway we pooed into deep pits and had to sprinkle on live worms on it to help it all decompose. The pits still had to be cleaned out though, and the stench coming off six months’ worth of rotting droppings was one of the worst odours on earth.

Finally, the Bizarre challenge. If you had to choose between necrophilia, bestiality, or coprophilia, what would you pick?
Bestiality, but with a furry dressed as a tree-kangaroo – I think I owe that species some love! I’d also consider a porcupine. I’d indulge in a bit of a pleasure/pain thing with all those spines, but bring a big bag of corks to blunt them with in case I wanted to be more tender later on. I’ve unintentionally had animals down my pants in real life, actually: leeches. Ugh. You can burn them off, but I didn’t fancy putting flames near my privates so I doused them with salt until they shrivelled up. The leeches, I mean.

Ben is backing the Stella Artois Hedge Fund; for every special pack of Stella lager sold, money will be donated towards planting more hedgerows in countryside.