It was during the four years from 1999 to 2003 that Tanja and Denis Katzer were caught in the spotlight on the adventurer and explorer stage, when they embarked upon their world record walk across Australia. A 7,000 km trek from South to North; West to East.

Tanja and Denis filmed their caravan of camels in the desert and sent the material to a Perth-based TV channel (three episodes of which were actually broadcast). As Denis put it, “that was pretty cool.” Before their departure the producer threw a small leaving party during which she (the producer) took Denis to one side and asked why he thought their story was so important. “Because not many people choose to walk across this huge continent of yours,” he replied.

Her response was less than heartwarming: “I’ll give you that, only a few people have tried. But that’s not the real reason. We don’t expect you to survive. And that’s what we want. Don’t misunderstand me, we don’t want you to die, but we’re pretty sure that’s going to happen anyway and it will make the headlines. And you are our story.”

“This wasn’t good. I couldn’t believe my ears. They wanted to profit from our failure, our death. And to cap it all, she chose this farewell party as her moment to share this disappointing snippet of journalistic anticipation with me. Right there and then, I made a vow to myself: I’ll show you. I’m not going to die.”