- Now, Steve, as we all know, is an intrepid explorer, a naturalist, climber and, of course, TV presenter. And he's grown up to live his childhood dream of uncovering new frontiers which is the subject of your new book, Steve, "Looking For Adventure". Now I understand, you've literally just come in from the Arctic, is that true?
- Yes, well, just outside the Arctic Circle but in Alaska filming bears. Um .. so, yeah, just a couple of days ago I was standing about three or four metres away from a mother brown bear as she leapt into a waterfall and pulled out salmon as long as my arm which she was, then, feeding to her cubs that were just little round bundles of fluff. And, um, now I'm here in Edinburgh Book Festival and this is more frightening.
- Nuh. Steve Backshall is not afraid of anything. How can....
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- Um..
- So, it's, um, it's a sort of, um, a rusty red colour.
- Yep.
- It's almost like ribbon that you might wrap a birthday present with..
- Yes. It's broad or flat?
- Um, and it's a little, tiny bit rubbery. I'm gonna try some now.
- Surprisingly crunchy in your mouth.
- It is.
- Seaweed can be off-putting but actually it's very palatable.
- It's as crunchy as a romaine lettuce.
- Yes.
- I'm surprised how much I like this.
- It's actually very high in vitamin C like this and the old wives tails used to say when... when the collectors were collecting this, they never had a cold. It's also quite high in iron and, uh, most seaweeds including this one usually have all the essential amino acids that we require in our diet.
- Oh.
- Seeing as we're on a roll...