MY HAVEN – SIMON REEVE

The TV adventurer, 44, in the living room of his converted barn in the heart of Dartmoor

1 BIG BROTHER

My wife Anya and I bought this 125-year-old converted barn in the middle of nowhere four years ago. It’s just us here with our son Jake, five, and our one-year-old dog Obim, who’s half-Alsatian, half-collie. I spend much of my life travelling, so this place is a blissful refuge. Despite my job I’m very familyoriented – this picture is of me aged six on a beach holiday in England with my brother James, who’s two years younger, on the left. He’s a photographer now and we’re still close, although he lives in France.

2 ROCK STAR

My father-in-law David Courts is a renowned jewellery designer and he gave me this silver skull ring for Christmas two years ago. It’s a replica of the iconic ring he made for Rolling Stone Keith Richards in 1978 which he always wears on stage. David’s in his 70s now and he had an amazing life in the 60s and 70s hanging out with rock stars like the Stones and Jimi Hendrix and I love hearing his stories. The ring is utterly beautiful and whenever I wear it I feel like a rock star for a split second.

3 HEADHUNTERS

This sword was given to me by a Dayak tribe in Borneo while I was making the series Equator in 2006. They’re known for being ruthless headhunters – but they made a point of telling me they’ve moved on from killing people now. The blade is marked with five dots to represent the number of kills it completed. The tribe adopted me and conducted a ceremony, which involved lots of chanting and hugging and me being smeared in chicken blood. Then they gave me this sword.

4 I’M A LUMBERJACK

I love my chainsaw because it’s essential for our life on Dartmoor. The house has electricity, but is so far off the grid we don’t have gas. I have to keep our biomass boiler burning to give us hot water and heating, as well as make sure there’s plenty of wood for this stove. I get a great sense of satisfaction going out like a real man to cut wood to keep my family warm. It connects me with my distant ancestors and lets me forget for a few hours that I’m actually a feeble urbanite!

5 HARD CASE

My faithful Pelican travel case has been everywhere with me for 15 years. It only cost £100, but it’s bombproof, waterproof and, most importantly, idiot-proof. It reeks of happy adventures because it’s been over oceans, up mountains and across deserts. I even used it to hide from gunfire in Mogadishu, and it easily survived when it fell into the Amazon because it floats and kept everything dry. The downside is that it weighs 5kg, so it’s no good for family trips on Ryanair.

6 MATERIAL WORLD

I bought this beautiful length of fabric known as a suzani in Kazakhstan for about £10 when I travelled across Central Asia for my first TV series Meet The Stans in 2003. It would have been used to decorate a tribal tent and it was the first major souvenir I brought home, so it means a lot to me. I’ve stopped bringing souvenirs back now because it’s hard to find authentic stuff these days. Everything seems to be shipped in from China, and Anya doesn’t want any old rubbish in the house!