Globe-trotting archaeologist-turned-adventurer Mary-Ann Ochota is the star of the BMC TV series Great Walks showcasing five great walks of the Lake District. We unearth her diverse life experiences.
Not many people can boast a CV like Mary-Ann Ochota’s. Her dazzlingly diverse career has taken her from studying at Cambridge, being quizzed on University Challenge, modelling for Special K, presenting Time Team, reporting for Radio 4, and travelling the world from Chernobyl exclusion zone to the Australian Outback.
She’s also a keen outdoor enthusiast and has walked and bivvied across Britain, often accompanied by her loping pet Labrador. Now she’s presenting the five-part Great Walks series on BMC TV, a spectacular new short film series made in association with Marmot documenting five of the finest hill walks in the Lake District. We spoke to Mary-Ann about her experiences in the British wilds, what the aftermath of a nuclear disaster looks like, and the biggest challenge of all: being quizzed by Paxo on University Challenge.
The element that always draws me to a project is that it’s about people, and the fascinating, crazy ways we make sense of the world around us. Whether that’s a case study of a feral child or finding out about the people who live in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, or the archaeology show Time Team, or British hillwalking. The human landscape, people’s histories, and the modern folk who go exploring, they’re the things that get me excited.
I studied archaeology and anthropology, specialising in social anthropology. At its broadest, it’s the study of people – from our evolution to our biological connections with apes and each other, to the social and cultural worlds we create, learn about and live in.
I went on University Challenge. I think Jeremy Paxman was being kind to us because it was a Christmas Special – but it was definitely dry-mouth and sweaty-palms territory. I spent quite a lot of it with my face screwed up looking like the answer was on the tip of my tongue, when in fact I could barely understand the question. I couldn’t believe it when we got to the final! My finest moment was knowing that Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, was part of the Soviet Union in 1921. How do I know that? No idea.
I ended up being a model. I knew I didn’t want to do the corporate thing and get a deadeye job in the city. I was never a skinny model, I was ‘plus size’. The times I did high fashion shoots in Milan everyone was mean and took themselves way too seriously. But the last modelling job I did was as the Special K girl. It was brilliant – I thought, it can’t get better than this. So I quit.
By then I knew that I wanted to get back to anthropology and archaeology, and fuse it with the performance side of things. TV presenting was the obvious fit. I made a bunch of showreels practicing pieces to camera, and I did loads of work experience in TV production, learning how it all works. Then I secured an agent. It’s a slow build in factual TV, and is, like most things, a combination of working hard and then getting a break.
There’s nothing better than spending a few days out on the hills with the dog and a good mate. Making the Great Walks series for BMC TV, showcasing classic day walks in the Lakes was fantastic – I got to revisit some old favourites, and discover some new routes. The day on Scafell Pike via the Corridor Route was great, a real classic, and one we didn’t have to share with anyone.
Knowing about anthropology means you see the landscape in a different way, and you often realise that wild landscapes are actually the result of human effort, farming practices and long-abandoned settlements. Making the Great Walks films with the late Ben Winston (mountaineer and filmmaker) was really fun. I was staring at the dry stone walls, he was looking for lines up the rock faces. We learned a lot from each other.
My most memorable outdoor experience was a solo wild camp on Dartmoor. I’d got to the tor that I’d planned to kip at, had just finished my dinner, and the dog had snuggled next to me. It had been a lovely day but the cloud had been dropping all afternoon. In the space of five minutes these spooky tendrils of cloud curled round the rocks, over our heads and then rolled down into the valley. There were funny little vortexes in the cloud so it looked like there were figures moving in the mist. It was really freaky. I had to have some serious words with myself about getting a grip.
The Australian outback is one of the few areas of the world which remains undisturbed wilderness, with extreme biodiversity. It covers 70% of the country but is home to just 5% of the population.
This summer I was in the Simpson Desert, on the boundary between Queensland and the Northern Territory. I joined a scientific research expedition surveying the plant and animal life, and searching for the archaeological remains of aboriginal desert people. The areas we were in aren’t accessible by vehicle – so we had 17 pack camels, each carrying up to 250kgs. It was 43 days in the desert, 500 kilometres trekked, a pretty special way to experience one of the world’s last natural wildernesses. It was epic.
You need more than a generation’s worth of knowledge to understand the cycles of the desert. The only way desert tribes could survive was with a profound understanding of the plants, animals, climate and geography of the desert. Lots of the songline stories the elders remember are about dying of thirst or being burned by wildfire.
The area around Chernobyl is surprisingly beautiful. I got access for a documentary for Animal Planet that should hit TVs early next year. The disaster was in April 1986, and people were evacuated from a 30km zone around the blast site. There’s an area called the Red Forest which is still fatally contaminated and no-one in their right mind would go in there. The caesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years, so it’s going to be off limits for generations. The rest of the area, however, has become an unexpected nature reserve. The plants and animals are all affected by the contamination they’re exposed to, but because there aren’t any people, and therefore no hunting or farming pressures, the creatures get free rein.
I love travelling but Britain is my home. There’s something about the green-and-pleasant that makes my heart sing. That view of Wasdale's field systems from the top of Kirk Fell in the Lakes, or tumbling into a Snowdonia village after a long day on the hill. Or sitting at the top of Cairngorm in a snowstorm eating a pork pie.
Go to the Outer Hebrides. Fly in from Glasgow and land on Barra beach, the only scheduled flight to land on a beach at low tide. Get yourself to the beaches on Harris, trip up An Cliseam (only 799m but still a great hill day) then keep heading north and visit Calanais – the most incredible, massive, spooky stone alignment. If you think you’re not bothered about archaeology but you do like wild places, wander through the stones at Calanais, which are better than Stonehenge in my opinion but without any barriers or nonsense, and marvel at the construction projects of people from 5,000 years ago.
Maybe we need to teach everyone to use a map and compass and basic first aid at school. And have classes for grown-ups who don’t think they like hills or walking. I’ll always go halves on a pork pie, if that’ll sweeten the deal.
Find out more about Mary-Ann at www.maryannochota.com or tweet her @MaryAnnOchota
Interview: Carey Davies
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