Credit: Tim Jarvis/John Stoukalo
"My sense of direction isn't that great actually," the Member of the Order of Australia recipient and world record holder tells me.
"I had a talk at the University of Sydney last night and it took me a while to get there. When I arrived I said, 'pleased to have made it'," he jokes, clearly seeing the irony.
In order to make sure he arrives to lunch, I pick him up from his previous interview. I've seen countless photos of him, but in person I'm unprepared for how big he is - he must be pushing two metres.
I can easily imagine him grappling with the elements on ice caps and mountains, but he seems out of place at the small café I've taken him to, where he has to sit down sideways to fit his knees under the table.
Jarvis lives predominantly in London, but spends a lot of time in Australia - and the rest of the world - in order to keep up with his numerous global projects.
Not only is he an adventurer, he also consults for various companies, works on environmental projects and inspires people worldwide with his stories.
Jarvis has written two bestselling books about his adventures - The Unforgiving Minute and Mawson: Life and Death in Antarctica on his replication of Mawson's Antarctic voyage (which he copied identically - except without eating any sled dogs). His Mawson trip was also made into an award-winning documentary.
He originally studied environmental science and environmental law, and now uses his expeditions to push his message, which includes encouraging people to take a few small steps to reduce their footprints.
He's also currently writing the environmental science course for Open University UK's Bachelor of Science. "I'm busy all the time," he admits. But it's obvious just from lunching with him that he has a passion for the environment and for exploring that drives him forward.
Here's what he told Fiona MacDonald about why he hasn't tackled Everest, natural disasters and his next adventure.
FM: At university you studied environmental science, why did you move into communication?
TJ: I started off wanting to be a good scientist, but I subsequently realised that the solutions to a lot of the problems relate to behaviour changes.
And a lot of scientists are not very good communicators; climate change is a classic case where the message has been too ambiguous. It's about making science relevant to people's everyday life so I've gone from researching what needs to happen to trying to change behaviour.
How do your expeditions tie in with this?
I use the polar expeditions to really pitch an environmental message. Sadly, I spent years studying for all of these science qualifications and trying to get access to the corporate sector and say, "hey, look biodiversity loss and climate change are happening, what are we going to do about it?" They don't necessarily want to hear that message.
But they will invite you to come and speak to them if you've got a message about leadership or how to run their business better and relate that back to expeditions. And you can pitch your environmental message on the back of that. I feel a real responsibility to do something with the vehicle these expeditions represent.
You've been to both Antarctica and the Arctic, have you noticed much of a change over the past decade?
Yeah, one of the things happening up north is that the sea ice is melting. Getting to the North Pole involves walking over that sea ice - it's 5m thick at the North Pole and that's the thickest it gets.
The ice now is not forming all the way to Russia any longer, which is where I left from in 2003. I had to take a helicopter to the first piece of ice that was solid enough to be dropped off on. It's changing very, very rapidly.
Have you always wanted to be an adventurer?
I grew up in England and when I was seven I went to Malaysia. When I was 12 I went to Singapore and then I went back to the university in the UK. I've always had the travel bug, always. As a young child in the 70s in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, my parents would just say, "go and play". So my dog and I would go off and explore the jungle.
I've always had an inquisitive mind and that's gotten bigger over time. My love of getting out there, having an adventure and discovering things led to a belief in environmentalism and that's now supported by my exploring.
