What will you be doing and the age of 56?
I would like to think that by the time I reach that age, I will have my own home, a couple of kids and a stable career. Maybe me and my wife-to-be would go on the odd long holiday for three weeks at a time to the likes of Mexico, or somewhere else that's hot. One thing I won't be doing at 56 is going off on my own in the jungles of Papa New Guinea with no phone or means of contacting people.
However, this is exactly what world-renowned explorer Benedict Allen did, and when he didn't board his planned flight home – his family feared the worst.
Allen had set out to find the reclusive Yaifo tribe, whom he had first met 30 years ago. But after setting off on his journey, in which he said that he "may be some time", Allen seemingly disappeared... until now.
According to Allen's agent, Jo Sarsby, the coordinating director for New Tribe Mission in Papua New Guinea, Keith Copley, had confirmed that Allen was found "safe, well and healthy" and is currently at a remote airstrip 20 miles north-west of Porgera, Enga Province.
"Confirmation on exact location coordinates are now being confirmed in order to arrange evacuation as soon as possible," she said.
In a post on his website, before he set off on his escapade, Allen said: "don't bother to call or text! Just like the good old days, I won't be taking a sat phone, GPS or companion. Or anything else much. Because this is how I do my journeys of exploration. I grow older but no wiser, it seems..."
According to his agent, Allen's wife Lenka was "very worried" about her husband before he was found. Speaking to the Daily Mail, she said:
"He is a highly experienced explorer, very clever and resourceful and adept at surviving in the most hostile places on Earth, and he would never give up. He may not be a young man anymore but he is very fit.''
"He was trying to reach the Yaifo people, a very remote and reclusive tribe – possibly headhunters, quite a scary bunch. Goodness knows what has happened.
"I just imagine he might have been taken ill or is lying injured somewhere, perhaps with a broken leg, and maybe being helped by locals. He never takes a phone with him – he believes in living like the locals. For him not to come back is really odd."
Let that be a lesson to you all - don't go off into the jungle on your own with no phone, GPS or any form of contacting people. I feel like I shouldn't need to be telling you this, but if a 56-year-old man is silly enough to do this, what's to say other people won't give it a go?
