Big Expeditions with (real) Purpose
The media loves big, exciting, daring adventures and expeditions.
The media loves big, exciting, daring adventures and expeditions.
The best weekend of the year has come around again and adventurous folks from all around the country will be descending on the Royal Geographical Society.
"The urge to explore a wilderness is inseparable from the desire to help save it." - Michael Fay
A new year and a new expedition.
A spotlight burst into life, momentarily panning across the far bank, before returning us to darkness. Adolfo slipped the blade of his hand carved hardwood paddle into molasses coloured water, adjusting the course of our dugout canoe with precision developed over a lifetime plying these waters.
I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything.
and if you put them together, this is what it boils down to.
They say that a camel can smell water. I'm not sure if that's true, but they do have a knack of turning up at camp..
On one particularly tiring and long day, the very instant my head hit the pillow (insert: a sandy pair of rather grim trousers) the valley boomed with the rasping bellow of an Arabian Leopard.
Have you ever heard of the 'Big 5'? Supposedly the five African animals most difficult and dangerous to hunt on foot. Unfortunately, it's more a marketing term aimed at tourists than anything else.
Science is taught in the classroom and practiced in the laboratory. Sometimes you get to have a go in the field. Lab's are sterile, everything goes (almost) to plan
Sometimes science seems boring. It can be difficult to connect the apparently disparate effort in the field, to the long term goals and achievements.