Mount Everest is a very spiritual place, it's a beautiful mountain.

I've got two dogs - one's a Jack Russell and she's one year old now, and I've got another dog called Kanga, and I got him from a rescue shelter, and there's nothing I enjoy more than just walking them on the beach in Cape Town. I find that very destressing and very relaxing.

We have to appreciate that we are part of nature, we must work with nature; the environment is our lifeline.

I'm one of the lucky people that, my job is my passion, is my hobby. I hope this doesn't sound arrogant: I truly feel that this is what I'm meant to do, to swim and to talk about protecting the environment, my two passions.

I think every child in every country, not just South Africa, every year should go to a national park, and it should be part of their basic curriculum.

I got bored and then joined the British SAS. It was five very exciting years of my life, and then I'd always had this passion for swimming, so started swimming around the world, in some of the most exotic and distant and dangerous locations.

Mount Everest is a very spiritual place, it's a beautiful mountain.