Steve led a 35-person team of explorers and scientists across 2 540km from the source of the Okavango delta in the Angolan highlands to its desert estuary in Botswana in 5-metre, flat-bottom mekoro, or canoes – an expedition which qualified him as a contender for the 2015 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, with the winner set to be announced in February 2016.  NatGeo named him the ‘Wilderness Protector’ and the 36-year-old nature-lover is the only adventurer from Africa in the group of finalists. The Okavango Delta in Botswana was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014, but Boyes says that as long as the rivers that feed the delta remain unprotected, the delta is at risk. NatGeo describes it as an “unprecedented international conservation effort that would ensure the preservation of the entire Okavango catchment”. 

Read MoreSteve Boyes