Wizard in Oz

AUSTRALIAN WILDERNESS WITH RAY MEARS ITV, 8pm

BUSHCRAFT expert Ray Mears is the Indiana Jones of nature documentaries.

Dependable yet unafraid, he’s the man you’d call on to remove a spider – or in Australia, perhaps a snake or scorpion.

With his safari shorts, hiking boots and wide-brimmed hat, he is the valiant boy scout leader who will venture anywhere, which means we don’t have to. And it does all look a bit exhausting.

As this new series begins, Ray is wandering in searing temperatures of 40C, but he’s not moaning about it. He just heads for the Indian Ocean and takes a cooling dip.

Compared to Bear Grylls, Ray is a rather calm presence, guiding us through Australia’s wilderness with no fuss or yelling.

And there’s certainly no drinking his own wee, which is a blessing.

He’s going off the beaten track, “wilder than ever before”, investigating majestic mangroves, stunning mountain ranges and prehistoric forests. He also wants to know how the wildlife and people thrive and adapt in such extreme conditions, kicking off at the Ningaloo Reef, on an ancient coastline which sits between a rocky desert and the Indian Ocean. First of all, he hops into a microlite aircraft to see the reef from the sky, then he’s back down, in a wetsuit and swimming with the sea turtles.

Ray also has a friendly encounter with a massive whale shark, the world’s biggest fish. Not as big though as a megalodon – an ancient shark the size of two double-decker buses – whose fossilised teeth Ray finds in the cliffs near the reef. Watch out for the odd kangaroo hopping past, too.

GOING WILD Ray Mears