![On the edge: Cricketer Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff hangs off a Blue Mountains cliff for Freddie Fries Down Under TV show. With Blue Mountains Adventure guide Marty Doolan and TV sidekick Rob Penn. On the edge: Cricketer Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff hangs off a Blue Mountains cliff for Freddie Fries Down Under TV show. With Blue Mountains Adventure guide Marty Doolan and TV sidekick Rob Penn.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/k3URiCr4E4bXjHGXmnwsZQ/ea4f797c-0b1c-484a-b8ec-8a6a4a09121f.JPG/r0_704_2448_2980_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
England Ashes legend, swashbuckling all rounder, cricket commentator, TV host, professional celebrity ... pretty good abseiler as well.
Create a free account to read this article
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
On a spectacular visit to the Blue Mountains this week, Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff revealed that his courage and skill extends beyond charging down the wicket to smash the world's fastest bowlers for six.
He also looked comfortable camped out for the night on a tiny temporary platform nestled on the side of a towering sandstone cliff where Katoomba landmark Boars Head stares ferociously over Narrow Neck and the depths of the Megalong Valley.
![On the edge: Cricketer Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff hangs off a Blue Mountains cliff for Freddie Fries Down Under TV show with sidekick Rob Penn and guide Natasha Sebire. Photo: Marty Doolan On the edge: Cricketer Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff hangs off a Blue Mountains cliff for Freddie Fries Down Under TV show with sidekick Rob Penn and guide Natasha Sebire. Photo: Marty Doolan](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/k3URiCr4E4bXjHGXmnwsZQ/f3103654-e937-4ba6-b234-0121b73eea7b.JPG/r0_0_2448_3264_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Getting to this precarious perch and back to civilisation for the sake of a new television series required multiple abseils, traverses and rock climbing from Flintoff.
His host was Blue Mountains Adventure Company guide and cricket tragic Marty Doolan. Despite plenty of "clowning around" and hamming up a fear of heights for the camera, Mr Doolan said Flintoff coped well on the cliffs and the tiny portaledges.
The former cricketer's cliffhanging exploits were captured by Natasha Sebire, another Blue Mountains local, who specialises in filming in wild places, especially where roping is involved. She has previously won the Australian Geographic Society Spirit of Adventure Award and been a finalist at the esteemed Banff Mountain Film Festival. If there had been more room on the portaledges, Ms Sebire might have had the chance to show Flintoff the skills that saw her play cricket at state level for several years and even play against England.
Flintoff, famed for his big personality and role in winning England the 2005 Ashes, now has a busy life in the media and his latest project is Freddie Fries Down Under.
The show has him travelling Australia with his sidekick - the journalist, extreme cyclist and tree lover Rob Penn - in a lime-green van called Flintoff's BBQ Joint, seeing the sites, meeting the characters and consuming some epic meals.
![On the cliff face: Anyone fancy this bed for the night? Photo: Gemma Woldendorp. On the cliff face: Anyone fancy this bed for the night? Photo: Gemma Woldendorp.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/k3URiCr4E4bXjHGXmnwsZQ/0eb0bd0a-44e8-4a15-9ce4-a8a1d237473b.jpg/r0_0_683_1023_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
In the morning before arriving in the Blue Mountains they visited a Sydney pie establishment and gorged themselves on as many as they could.
Freddie Fries Down Under is the latest chapter in a series that started as Lord of the Fries and originally saw Flintoff and Penn travelling around Britain in 2014 in a van that doubled as a mobile fish and chip shop.
They first paired up in 2013 for a 1200km bicycle ride through the Amazon rainforest that became the TV documentary Flintoff's Road to Nowhere.
While the Freddie Fries Down Under production crew numbered about a dozen, on the tiny portaledges there was only room for Flintoff, Penn, Mr Doolan and Ms Sebire.
![Freddie's cliffhanger Freddie's cliffhanger](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/k3URiCr4E4bXjHGXmnwsZQ/81a43e59-5b57-495e-aac4-d153f4b07c00.JPG/r0_0_2448_3264_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
There they enjoyed a stunning sunset before talking late into the night, with cricket a major topic of discussion, but also Penn's acclaimed book, The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees.
Mr Doolan whipped up a curry dinner on the cliff, "but the boys weren't that hungry because of all the pies they had eaten that morning", he said.
Boars Head is a regular rock climbing and abseiling destination for Blue Mountains Adventure Company.
![Extreme adventurers: Cricketer Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff hangs off a Blue Mountains cliff for Freddie Fries Down Under TV show. With photographer Natasha Sebire, Blue Mountains Adventure guide Marty Doolan and TV sidekick Rob Penn. Extreme adventurers: Cricketer Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff hangs off a Blue Mountains cliff for Freddie Fries Down Under TV show. With photographer Natasha Sebire, Blue Mountains Adventure guide Marty Doolan and TV sidekick Rob Penn.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/k3URiCr4E4bXjHGXmnwsZQ/f071904a-fb67-411c-994d-88eb60cbaee6.jpg/r0_305_3264_2140_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
![Photo: Marty Doolan. Photo: Marty Doolan.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/k3URiCr4E4bXjHGXmnwsZQ/f3103654-e937-4ba6-b234-0121b73eea7b.JPG/r0_0_2448_3264_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
![Freddie's cliffhanger Freddie's cliffhanger](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/k3URiCr4E4bXjHGXmnwsZQ/1cbc9904-99e3-4e2d-af2d-8d4045f62654.JPG/r0_306_3264_2142_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
![Halfway down a cliff face: Anyone fancy this bed for the night? Photo: Gemma Woldendorp. Halfway down a cliff face: Anyone fancy this bed for the night? Photo: Gemma Woldendorp.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/k3URiCr4E4bXjHGXmnwsZQ/a0d157f4-5500-40a2-a4e2-a2f73b1c4add.jpg/r0_55_1024_631_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
![Extreme eating and adventures: Freddie Fries Down Under visited the Mountains. Extreme eating and adventures: Freddie Fries Down Under visited the Mountains.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/k3URiCr4E4bXjHGXmnwsZQ/34f5ee80-e915-42eb-af2f-7e8a11d47bac.JPG/r0_80_852_561_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
![In the distance: Flintoff had to scale down a cliff and sleep on a temporary ledge in the Blue Mountains. In the distance: Flintoff had to scale down a cliff and sleep on a temporary ledge in the Blue Mountains.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/k3URiCr4E4bXjHGXmnwsZQ/966a5b46-ee99-4d13-aea8-882febc39454.JPG/r0_191_2048_1342_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)