LAWLESS jungles of Colombia would not be many people’s ideal foreign destination but Rowley Regis's Daniel Eggington is no normal man.

The 26-year-old is the brother of Stourbridge’s former European, British and Commonwealth boxing champion – Sam ‘The Savage’ Eggington – so bravery clearly runs in the family.

Daredevil Daniel is heading off to trek through lawless jungle from Columbia into Panama via the notorious Darian Gap.

He has undergone previous expeditions to Panama, Costa Rica, Indonesia and Guyana but says his venture into the Colombia’s jungle unknowns is ‘by far the most dangerous yet’.

Those other trips have mainly been concerned with wildlife conservation – this one is more perilous because of human rights issues involving drug cartels who run the area he will be exploring.

Daniel admits: “There’s not many people that have done it, that part of the world there’s very little known about it, there’s no maps for example.

“There’s very little military there, very little government so I’m going there to try to do as much as I can to raise awareness.

“With the wildlife, if you dedicate yourself to learning about the terrain and you’re fit enough for it, that’s as low risk as it can be.

“But it’s the people – they could see an opportunity with me to get a bit more money or to widen their agenda – ‘I’ve got this person from Britain, I want this, this and this’.

“You’ve got to have some level of fear or you haven’t got any marbles. You’ve got to literally figure out every eventuality, anything that can happen, you’ve got to try to figure out how to get out of it.”

Daniel’s inclination to help others does not just extend to other shores.

His full-time job – if full-time is an adequate enough description given he works 60-70 hours a week to fund his expeditions – is as a support and youth worker for the Salvation Army in Birmingham.

Daniel’s workmates don’t want him to come back – not because they want any harm to come to him, they just want him to fulfil his dream of being the ‘next Grylls’.

He got to chat to Bear during his time filming an ITV news clip and Daniel beamed: “That’s the dream, to do something like he’s done.

“Even just a wildlife TV programme – I could sit and talk about snakes all day! So if I can make some sort of career or livelihood out of it, that would be perfect.

“He’s a superstar both sides of the world. Whatever he says goes a long way and holds a lot of weight. He’s up there with the most knowledgeable people you could talk to.

“If he doesn’t come along with you, you want to get the knowledge off him, that’s the next best thing.

“He’s been to the central part of Colombia, not the Pacific part where I’m going. He said it’s really, really notorious for kidnapping, so I need to have a Plan A, have a Plan B, have a Plan C.”

Such talk naturally concerns his family – dad Keith, mum Donna, sister Jordan and brothers Josh and Sam, the youngest of the four.

Daniel grins: “I water it down when I speak to them about it. I say ‘I’m going to the jungle and I’ll take a couple of pictures and I’ll write about it’…

“My mom sat down with me and watched it on ITV News last week. So when they saw the news [clip], all hell broke loose!”

Brother Sam, who has won 20 of his 25 professional boxing fights on his way to national stardom, admits he thinks his older sibling is mad.

Sam said: “He’s asked me to go on some trips with him but there’s a not a chance! You would not catch me going to the places Daniel goes to!

“People say to me ‘you’re a boxer, you would do this sort of thing’ and I’m like ‘no way’. I know what I’m getting into in a boxing ring!

“It’s not great when he’s away – you are always expecting ‘that phone call’, when it rings you almost don’t want to answer. No one can really have a good sleep while he’s over there.

“The last place he went to, my mate was in the SAS – and he told me that if a British citizen was in trouble there, the Government wouldn’t even send the SAS in.”

Daniel flew out this week, via a detour to New York where he will spend a few days with his dad on a ‘proper’ holiday – the ticket is cheaper than going straight to Colombia too.

He aims to return in the middle of February but admits he only buys a one-way ticket because he does not know where and when – rather than if – he will fly back from.

Daniel has an impressive two-way communicator for his travels, which features an ‘SOS button’ that will launch an International Rescue Service: “I’ve never used it but people who have say it works quite well.”

It’s good to know something scares him, though – when asked if he has a girlfriends or kids, he replies: “No, that terrifies the hell out of me!”