Alan
Age: 43
From: Birmingham
Occupation: Woodland Manager

Biog

Father of two Alan runs two businesses with his wife, selling ethically sourced meat and teaching outdoor skills to other families. As a big family man, Alan would love for his kids to watch him complete this monumental challenge on TV so that they can feel proud and hopefully inspired.

Alan is autistic and says that he is highly verbal but lacks a sense of social propriety and has a poor short-term memory. He’ll often sing loudly to himself.

He finds solace in the outdoors, is a keen forager and loves cooking, writing and passionately debating politics.

Whenever he has had to overcome challenges or low points in his life, the outdoors has always been something of a comfort zone. Alan now has a chance to experience ultimate solitude and discover whether the skills he has gained can help him to survive.

Interview with Alan

Why do you want to take part?

I have been a fan of Alone for a while and I always thought it looked like a dream come true. So from my point of view someone’s rang me up and said, listen this is what we’re going to do, we’re going to give you the resources you need, we’re going to provide a safety team, we’re going to pay for your flights and we’re going to put you in the wilderness with no one else around for as long as you can possibly stand. I was like, what? There’s absolutely no way I wouldn’t do that, I just don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t do that. Unless of course they were so incompetent that they thought they might die, which is understandable. So I don’t know how anyone can’t see that, it’s very strange for me to think people wouldn’t want this experience. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for decades and every time I’m out on my own in the woods I want to be out there for longer. So I’m not saying it won’t be hard, it might be that after three weeks I’ve lost my stuff, I’m wet through all the time and I really need to go home, you know, but that’s still three weeks out there alone and that will be two weeks longer than I’ve been able to do before. And I will be extremely happy for that. But I’m planning on doing longer than three weeks.

What traits do you think you have that might help you not only in life, but in this epic adventure that you’re about to embark on?

Autistic traits include a very poor sense of social boundaries, a very limited sense of social understanding. So to me most of the stuff that people are doing with their little nuances and signals and everything are just witchcraft to me. I’ve no idea what they’re doing most of the time. My short-term memory is shocking, but my long term memory is almost perfect. If I’m interested in something, I’ll learn it and it’ll be with me forever. I am hypersensitive to basically all senses, so my hearing, especially, and my smell and my sense of touch are really, really sensitive. I’ll hear things that other people don’t. Plus, I have an extraordinarily high pain threshold, which has got to be useful on this show one would think. Also, I really like routine and I find, generally speaking, that other humans just mess up my day, so not having them around will be really nice for me. I think I’ve got a really vast store of knowledge and when I’m focused on a thing, I don’t really care if I’m uncomfortable, I don’t think about it at all, I do the thing that I’m doing until it’s done and I forget about everything else. And I think that that focus will also be really helpful. I get better when I’m on my own and I get happier when I’m on my own. I’m at my best when there are no other humans around and that’s always going to be the case.

What does being completely alone mean to you?

I really love being alone. I like to focus without distractions. I find that people are a constant drain on my energy all the time. I like to be in charge of everything myself, everything that I’m doing and I like the quiet and the peace. I like to be in my own headspace. When I was a kid, the only time I was safe and happy was when I was on my own and I’ve never changed, never deviated from that.

How do you think you will cope with the environment?

I don’t mind being cold or uncomfortable and I don’t mind having to struggle to get my food. These things can be annoying, but they are minor irritants to me. But what I really need is a lot of headspace all the time, a lot of quiet and I never feel like I’ve got enough of that. So I think I’ll really like the alone time.

What character traits do you have that you think will be useful for this challenge?

I think that the resilience I developed as a child means that I know that I won’t be giving up. There might be some reason, like I might get poorly or something, and then say, okay, now I need to tap out. But in general terms, I am very, very resilient, I’m not going to stop unless I really have to. And that’s got to stand me in good stead right from the start. Plus I think I’ll be happy out there, I’m well built for this challenge.

Do you want to win?

For me this is an opportunity to prove skills but also to gain more skills and to find new ways to solve problems and to go really next level as a bushcrafter.

This kind of opportunity does not come around very often and I don’t plan to waste it. So my focus is very much on that, that’s what I want to be doing. And when I think about what I’m doing, I do not think about the money, I think about that. But at the same time I do like money, so I’m not going to say no to the money, but I think there are other people who might go longer. There are lots of things that could go wrong out there and that’s fine. If something goes wrong, something goes wrong, I don’t mind that. It would be sad if something went wrong early. I just plan on just going until I can’t go anymore.

How do you think you’d feel if you had to tap out?

There’ll be so many emotions out there and part of this is managing myself mentally and emotionally when I’m tired and hungry and cold and all that stuff on my own for weeks and weeks and weeks. So I’m not going to worry about that. I don’t know how I’ll feel at the point that I tap out. I might have had a spiritual revelation by then and be in a completely different headspace. But if I tapped out before I felt I had to, if I left and got on the boat and went home and thought, you know what I could have got over that, then that will be a regret for me and embarrassment as well. I don’t want to be tapping out needlessly or just being out there and being incompetent, that would embarrass me and make me feel bad about myself. Missing the opportunity by just tapping out early would be a huge waste.

What do you see as the bigger challenge - the physical or the mental?

The only thing I’m worried about out there is procuring food. I’m not worried about the mental at all, maybe I should be, but I’m not. I’m going to be learning that a lot on the job. I can forage, but whether I can produce enough calories from foraging depends a lot on the land that I’m on and it’s not the easiest thing in the world to do. And the physical, I mean, unless we’re talking about the cold and the wet, I think I’m physically up to the challenge, but obviously if things go wrong,that’s a worry of course. I know how to build a fire, so I’m just going to stay warm as much as I can.

You’ve been tested quite a lot in terms of what you can endure and what you can survive, but do you think there’s still the chance that you might surprise yourself with how mentally strong you are?

I just assume it’ll go really well and when it doesn’t, I’ll be slightly disappointed, so that’s it. I don’t anticipant having mental problems with anything out there, but I know that when I’m out there it’ll be different. I just don’t really think that way. I’d get anxious if I started thinking about all the different terrible things that could happen and how I’d overcome them. I’m just going to fall off each bridge as I get to it.

What are you expecting this experience to be like?

I’m trying to focus on the fact that I have been many times in the woods with no stuff, and I have made that work for me just fine. However, this time I’m doing that for longer, but with the right equipment with me, and in a really nice part of the world. This is something I have been looking forward to for a long time, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I’m going to just try to relax, because I think that’s more helpful. It’s going to be fun and I’m going to have a great time and relax and enjoy myself. I appreciate that may not be how it pans out but that’s ok, there’s no point in worrying about that until I get there.

What is the thing that you’re most looking forward to?

I think that when you are cold and wet and tired and hungry and don’t have a roof over your head and you’re very uncomfortable but then the next day or the day after you do have those things, that is a beautiful, spiritual experience that fills you with joy from the tips of your toes to the top of your head, and I love that feeling. And when you make your own fire and you make your own shelter and you catch your own food, and you sit there in your shack which is basically squalor, and you’re fed and you’re warm, those are good times, I’m looking forward to that. I’m also very much looking forward to having the northern lights above me, wolves howling in the distance and a fire on, all at the same time. That’s the plan.