The 48-year-old TV star in embarking on a trip around Australia in the new eight-part documentary, exploring everything from family life Down Under to surf patrol on Bondi Beach and, of course, plenty of nature and the outdoors. Julia Bradbury, who has recently partnered with Cotswold Outdoor, opened up about her time in Australia, revealing one nerve-wracking experience with a crocodile hunter. “I spent time on the floodplains with a crocodile hunter called Chase Johnson who, as a wildlife expert, has specialised in crocodiles for the last 20 years,” she told Express.co.uk. “We were on a tiny little hover boat surrounding by throngs of crocodiles.”
Julia said Chase was telling her about the creatures, what to look out for and “not to fall overboard”.
“You don’t ever feel safe,” she said, explaining how the crocodile expert had told her she still never feels relaxed and is “never off her guard in that situation”.
“Dinosaurs are incredible predators, they have an amazing sense of smell and incredible vision and they have a panel of vibration sensors down the side of their body so they can see you, they can smell you and they can feel you in the water,” she continued.
“We had one hairy moment where there was a gigantic crocodile, it was the size of three sofas, on the side of a riverbank and we were watching it for quite some time.”
Julia recalled how she was close enough to the crocodile to see its eyes and the texture of its skin.
“And then it disappeared under the water,” she said. “And [Chase] kind of carried on telling me about it and I said, ‘Yeah, but it’ll be alright, won’t it? It can’t go as fast as the boat.’
“And she went, ‘They can at 18 kilometres an hour and yes, it can climb onto the boat and yes, if we were on the land, yes, it could chase you. It’s time for us to move on now.’
“I was like, oh my god, she’s serious,” the former Counrtryfile host exclaimed.
“It’s not like watching racoons or something! It’s a far cry from watching red squirrels in Northumberland for Countryfile,” she quipped.
Julia recently partnered with Cotswold Outdoor, and explained how they have a shared enthusiasm for the outdoors.
“It’s about encouraging people to spend more time outdoors,” she said of treating up with the brand. “How to do that, how to get outdoors more easily and really show all the benefits of walks in the mountains.
“There’s a lot of research out there which has categorically proven that time spent outdoors and time spent in green spaces, the appreciation of nature, Vitamin D, ‘Vitamin N’, all of those things are profoundly good for us as human beings,” she added. “Good for our mental health and good for our wellbeing.”
The Outdoor Guide co-founder also spoke about the joint projects she was planning, saying: “We want to plan the next year and beyond very carefully.
“We are working out what we can do together, how we can engage more people, how we get our message out to more people and get more people to share their stories.
“Building a community of people who want to share their outdoor adventures with us and then we’ll take it from there.”
Inspiring people and their families to get outdoors, Julia is partnered with one of the UK’s leading outdoor clothing and equipment retailers Cotswold Outdoor, and walking website The Outdoor Guide.
Australia with Julia Bradbury airs tonight at 8.30pm on ITV.