Chile: November (11.11.04)

Today, high in the foothills of the Chilean Andeas, we're here with Dan Jamieson, at the brat & crack camp, Raleigh International. As he relaxes at his Field Base home we ask him searching questions about his personal life, his career and his work for charity that he doesn’t usually like to talk about.

SO, DAN, YOU'VE GOT A LOVELY HOME HERE?
Yes, it's comfortable, has beautiful views and internet access. I especially like my minimalist living quarters, otherwise known as my tent.

YOU'VE DONE SOMETHING LOVELY WITH THE INTERIOR DESIGN, I SEE?
Yes, once I found this double mattress, I've been able to sleep like a baby.

HOW DO YOU RELAX AROUND FIELD BASE?
I like to play table tennis to keep fit. I'm currently pretty much unbeatable. My Spanish is coming on ‘mas y mas’ as they say round these parts. I like to relax with my friends, watching videos and eating enormous, fat dinners, pretty much like normal people.

HOW IS THIS PHASE COMPARED TO THE LAST ONE?
Last time I spent my time exploiting the sexual and personal office tensions for my own amusement. Now everything is sweetness and light as lovely people have been shipped in to cook amazing meals for me, add comedy voices to the radio show and lose obligingly at ping-pong. I've also been on one particularly famous excursion.

SOUNDS INTRIGUING, TELL US MORE?
Yes, my colleague James and I went south for a day to a local beauty spot called Puerto Tranquilo. We were meant to get the bus back the next morning but became too engrossed in a particulalrly excellent game of scabble. When we'd finished we'd missed the only bus of the day and we had to throw sheets at the problem and get a taxi to do a 9-hour, £80 round trip. (My mentor back home, Brad, would have appreciated this excellent effort). Now everyone in the camp likes to take the proverbial michael out of me for missing buses and not being allowed out on my own. Oh, how we laugh!

SO TELL ME ABOUT THE TIME YOU HAD TO GO TO THE RESCUE OF THE STRANDED LADIES
Yes, it was an extremely dangerous situation for the young girls. They had been taken off into the hills for a hike which was supposed to end late afternoon with a boat ride across a lake. Unfortunately, they got awfully lost in the hills, missed the rendezvous and had to spend the night in the wilderness without tents, food, or sleeping bags.

WERE YOU SCARED?
No, but they were. I was left at Field Base while our glorious leaders headed off into the night to rescue them.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
Thank the Lord they found a dwelling in the middle of nowhere where they could stay the night and get out of the sub-zero tempartures. We did find it funny the next day when they recounted the story of the locals genuinely believing they were encountering aliens and started shooting at them.

AND YOUR ROLE IN ALL THIS?
I don't want to overplay my role in all this but I did go along the next day to help with their recovery by boat. I had to make sure all those ladies got back save and sound across the lake.

WOW, THAT SOUNDS EXCITING. I ALSO HEAR YOUR RADIO SHOW HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY RESCUED TOO, IF YOU'LL EXCUSE THE PUN.
Yes, ratings are now up from 99 to 100, and we've had our broadcast length extended by 10 minutes. The scripts are on my own personal website if you want to relive some of their highlights and laugh out loud at the well-crafted gags. You may find the in-jokes a bit inpenetrable but the jokes about Germans and hot Swedish girls on websites are pretty much universal. (

HAVE YOU BEEN ON ANY OTHER EXCITING ADVENTURES?
No adventures just yet, I have to contend myself with visiting the troops, as it were, to raise morale for a couple of days. I tend to go for especially for their soft skills sessions when we all sit round in non-confrontational circles and mince on about things. I'm useful for these because I can introduce a sense of perspective and some much needed bad language and sacrcasm.

WHICH WAS YOUR FAVOURITE VISIT THIS TIME?
I visited one project close to my heart in a windswept border town in the middle of nowhere called Balmaceda. I was able to do something actually constructive for the Old People's Community Centre and pass on some of my greater knowledge about the world to some plucky youngsters.

WHAT ARE YOU HOPING TO DO IN THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE?
Travelling the world and working with young people is what gives me joy in my life, so I'm really looking forward to going out into the field on November 17 for 3 weeks. I can't wait to really interact with some social awkward, barely reformed heroin addicts and some lovely girls from Rodean. We'll all be building a path together in the beautiful countryside (readers may remember this from our issue on October 18). Three weeks, then its back to Field Base to see off the happy, smiley and personally developed young people, then its back on the booze.

HOW IS YOUR ABSTENACE FROM ALCOHOL GOING?
Its a fu*king nightmare, but we manage, somehow.

AND WHAT WILL YOU DO AFTER THE EXPEDITION?
I shall be meeting my father, Crawford Senior, and we shall be taking the air down in the south of Chile, in a national park called Torres Del Paine. I’ve heard tell that it’s magnificent, then I'll be back to see all my fans around Christmas.

AND AFTER THAT
Well in order to help the young people of the world I left behind my job, my lady friend and threw away all my money, so I'll be essentially starting my life again from scratch. Marvellous.

THANKK YOU FOR LETTING US SHARE A FEW PRECIOUS MOMENTS OF YOUR TIME
Don't mention it, anything for Hola! Gotta go, some logs need stacking. As they say over here, adios amigos!