Lucy Shepherd, 29, from London
Hacking through dense bushes, I squinted.
It was so dark, I could barely see my hand in front of my face.
I was deep in the Amazon rainforest, trekking from east to west across the Kanuku mountains in Guyana, South America.
This was uncharted territory – one of the last remaining unexplored wildernesses on earth.
No one thought it was possible.
But I wasn’t one to shy away from an adventure.
Exploring the world was my full-time job, and I adored it.
As a child, I was labelled as adventurous and free-spirited.
I loved to explore, but I didn’t think it was a real job.
I didn’t think modern-day explorers even existed – when I thought of them, I pictured men in woolly hats
