The first of four annual half-hour travel documentaries, each one made by that year's winner of the Journey of a Lifetime award, which is organised by Radio 4 and the Royal Geographical Society to inspire an interest in people and places. The first winner, environmentalist Tessa McGregor, sets off to see how the people of the Bangladesh Sundarbans co-exist with the Royal Bengal tigers, but first she has to deal with poisonous snakes, mouse-sized cockroaches and convoluted Bengali bureaucracy.

Environmentalist Tessa McGregor explores the Sundarbans, the forest that fringes the cyclone-torn Bay of Bengal

Journey of a Lifetime 11.00am R4

Television has lately turned "the great outdoors" into a place where exhibitionists gather for the benefit of so-called reality-show cameras. But, glory be, there are still real people travelling to real remote places for reasons other than self-publicity. Environmentalist Tessa McGregor is one and she is the first winner of the Royal Geographical Society/Radio 4 travel award. Today, in Pugmarks in the Sundarbans, she reports on her trip to the largest mangrove forest in the world, fringing the Bay of Bengal. There, people live in close proximity with the notorious Bengal tiger, which has a reputation for regarding people as food. McGregor gives a vivid account of the trip and she emerges as a brave, resourceful and endlessly inquiring individual.