What surprised scientist Mireya Mayor most when she and three strangers relived Henry Morton Stanley’s trek across East Africa for a series now airing on the History channel was how little had changed since the journalist’s 1871 search for missing explorer David Livingstone.

“A village or two might have sprung up, but the elements of nature, the diseases, the harshness, that was all there—and then some,” Mayor, A.B. ’97, a twice Emmy-nominated former National Geographic field correspondent, says, sipping coffee in a bookstore near her Miami-Dade home.

Even with Mayor dressed in gaucho pants and peasant blouse rather than fatigues, tank top, and hiking boots, it’s easy to see why Survivor creator Mark Burnett chose the wildlife expert to join a navigator, war correspondent, and survivalist for his new reality show, Expedition Africa: Stanley & Livingstone.

She’s brainy (Fulbright and Ph.D.), beautiful (former Dolphins cheerleader), experienced (leader of dozens of expeditions since her first while attending UM), credentialed (discoverer of a new species), undaunted (think killer sharks, charging gorillas, and tarantulas), and balanced (mother of two young girls).

Of course the self-described girlie girl/tomboy, raised in Miami by her Cuban mom, never hesitated when the call came.

“I was destined to do this,” she says. In true Burnett style, Mayor, 35, and her fellow explorers barely had time for a howdy-do when they met in Zanzibar to embark on a 970-mile journey across Tanzania with little more than Stanley’s journals, some maps, a compass, and limited supplies.

Naturally, conflicts arose. “We’re all strong-headed,” Mayor says. “So deciding who was the leader was a challenge.”

A bigger challenge was water. “It was brown, milky, and had a stench—when we could find it,” she recalls.

Time was the only luxury Stanley had that this foursome didn’t. They had 30 days to reach the village where Livingstone was stranded, oblivious to the furor his disappearance had caused. Mayor can’t say if they made it but offers this insight: “It was life-changing—the most challenging, amazing experience I’ve had.”

—Maya Bell