Wander Woman: A Travel Podcast

Got Grass?

• Phoebe Smith • Season 2 • Episode 11

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What if one simple question could help save the planet? Join Phoebe as she heads to the Maldives to ask the difficult question - can travel to these islands ever really be sustainable? Learn about the unsung hero of marine conservation: underwater seagrass, which so far has been ruthlessly removed in pursuit of the 'perfect' image of paradise despite it capturing 60 times more carbon than terrestrial forests and how one resort is working to save it and get others on board.  

Also coming up:

TV Bushcraft Expert Ray Mears talks about the importance of sound on our travels; learn how to pass time when weatherbound in a resort or hotel; discover 10 of the most endangered species and where to find them - plus how to help conservation efforts to save them; meet the woman on a mission to rewild a great swathe of South Africa; find your sole mate - with our guide to multi-activity sandals and learn all about our Wander Woman of the Month - the unsung conservationist who stared down the barrel of a gun to try to save the Mississippi - Mary Hannah Gibbs.

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

Speaker 1:

On this month's Wander Woman podcast.

Speaker 2:

All of a sudden, what was initially a focus of hey, there's seagrass and I don't want to be in the seagrass areas now became hey, there's seagrass and there's some really healthy marine life in there.

Speaker 1:

I go to the Maldives to learn all about the value of the underwater seagrass, a carbon-capturing mega species that until now has been ruthlessly destroyed to create that idyllic overwater beach bungalow setting. I also speak to TV bushcraft master Ray Mears about why we should all be using our ears when we travel.

Speaker 3:

Sounds really important. I mean, if I hear a loon, it takes me straight back to Canada.

Speaker 1:

And I meet the family who are rewilding a swathe of former farmland in South Africa to try and help local people as well as bolster native wildlife numbers.

Speaker 4:

We had one neighbour who sort of said well, why on earth are you bringing the cheetah back? It was my great-grandfather who shot the last one.

Speaker 1:

Also coming up. My travel hack delves into the ways that you can pass time when weatherbound in a resort or hotel. In my top ten segment, I seek out the world's most endangered critters and tell you where to find them, and in my regular gear chat, I help you find your soulmate. See what I did there? With my expert guide on how to buy walking sandals. Finally, I'll be revealing this episode's Wonder Woman of the month, the traveller whose name is lost in the history books. You're listening to the Wander Woman podcast, an audio travel magazine with me, adventurer Phoebe Smith, exploring off-the-beaten-track destinations, wild spaces, wildlife encounters and the unsung heroes behind conservation efforts. Come wander with me.

Speaker 5:

Maldives. We are such a fragile ecosystem that we can't keep on going this in the name of development. In my opinion, it's not a development. I think it's a destruction.

Speaker 1:

You're listening to the very honest cries of local Maldivian man and master, diver Hussain, a man who is, along with his partner, trying to get more Maldivians into positions of power within conservation initiatives. There's a huge elephant in the room whenever we talk about travel, along with his partner trying to get more Maldivians into positions of power within conservation initiatives. There's a huge elephant in the room whenever we talk about travel to the Maldives, one that I feel it's my duty to address right at the start of this segment, and one that few travel articles or podcasts will dare to, and that is sustainability. As a place with an average height of just over a metre or three feet above sea level, it is, by all accounts, sinking at an alarming rate due to the rising sea levels caused by the climate crisis. So a valid question we should all be asking is should we really be going here at all, and can a trip ever really be sustainable to this destination? It's a question that I asked the regional general manager of the Sixth Sense Laamu,

Speaker 2:

I think you know. I think the alternative is what you don't do. So you could certainly say, hey, the carbon outlay to come to the Maldives is enormous, so let me not do that because I'm contributing negatively to global warming. But the alternative is that you're at least contributing to the protection of an area and innovation. If there's one thing I've learned in all the years as the general manager my passion, the people I've met, the people that have inspired me, you and I talking, I might have a really little footprint in the Maldives, but maybe you meet other people and put them in touch with us and they have an opportunity to protect something that doesn't require a flight. So I think the exchange of information, the knowledge exchange, I think the move towards conservation happens irrespective, or ideally happens irrespective of the flight, and I think the world is not yet as good a place that we can afford to not do anything.

Speaker 1:

A juggle it is, and from my perspective, I think that right now, people are going to visit regardless, and while we can all help by continuing to lobby the airlines to properly invest in carbon-free fuels and do things like stay somewhere longer, go less often, go direct, one of the best things we can do is make responsible choices while we're there in terms of where we stay and the activities that we do, and we do that by being armed with knowledge so that we can ask the right questions. And when it comes to the Maldives, the main question you should be asking of your resort is a simple one: Got grass?

Speaker 6:

You guys may already know, seagrass in the Maldives has a very varied reputation.

Speaker 1:

This is Jonathan. He heads up SHELL here on Laamu Atoll, which stands for the Sea Hub of Environmental Learning in Laamu. It's an interpretation centre run by a team of scientists and marine biologists doing vital research into environmental impacts and changes here in the Maldives, set up to get visitors to understand the wildlife and the threats they face, and is funded by the Six Senses Resort it shares the island with.

Speaker 6:

A lot of Maldives resorts actually actively remove their seagrass because it's thought that seagrass meadows are ugly. Guests don't want to see it and therefore, if you want successful tourism, you have to remove the seagrass.

Speaker 1:

I should point out here that the Laamu resort shamelessly has tons of seagrass around its property, but it didn't always. Marteyne herself remembers around 12 years ago she would have eight people in the water every single day, cutting theirs. With the start of tourism here back in the 80s, people were sold and still are online and on social media with images of crystal clear waters beneath wooden overwater bungalows. But that's not normal. The Maldives' waters, particularly the shallower parts near properties, should be filled with festoons of glorious verdant seagrass, and there's a reason we should all demand it to be saved from the underwater lawnmower.

Speaker 6:

One of the main things that is massively important and one of the main reasons why guests can actually really love the seagrass is that it plays host to many different big, charismatic animals like turtles. So green turtles eat the seagrass, sharks hunt in the seagrass and stingrays again also hunt around the seagrass. So by having seagrass meadows right around our villas and you guys may have been lucky enough to see maybe a turtle, a stingray, a shark right off of your villa without the seagrass they wouldn't be there, we wouldn't be seeing those animals anywhere near the villas. And so already, straight away, that's an incredible big value add to guests, because guests love to see those rays come under or a turtle come up to breathe near their villa. Additional to that is that the seagrass meadows are a juvenile habitat for many juveniles, a nursery habitat for many juvenile fish. Many of those fish grow up and they live on our house reef or they become a commercial or they are a commercial fish species. So therefore, by having healthy seagrass meadows, we actually have a better populated house reef and better fishing around the atoll as well.

Speaker 6:

So again, that's massively important. It helps the populations of fish be very healthy. And then, finally, if those reasons aren't enough on their own, which obviously, obviously they should be, even if those weren't convincing you, seagrass meadows and other blue carbon habitats are incredibly efficient at sequestering and storing carbon. Obviously, you guys are all very aware of the current climate crisis and we're releasing too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and I'm sure you guys are aware that, obviously, plants are doing a huge job of sequestering and storing this carbon. But the amazing thing with seagrass meadows is they can actually sequester and store carbon up to 40 to 60 times faster than a terrestrial forest can, so they're doing this storage much, much faster and more efficiently than terrestrial forests, so it's a habitat that should be at the top of our list to protect.

Speaker 1:

Marteyne knew it would take a strong story to convince people to stop cutting seagrass, and so she decided to turn guests into researchers to help them see the beauty in the grass.

Speaker 2:

We made a piece of paper that sort of said you know, we're trying to do some research. If you have an opportunity and you sit on your deck and you see turtles, could you mark it on this sheet of paper and then, before you leave, let us know how?

Speaker 2:

And so, all of a sudden, people started looking at their ocean and seeing turtles, seeing sharks, seeing rays, seeing. So, all of a sudden, what was initially a focus of hey, there's seagrass and I don't want to be in the seagrass areas now became hey, there's seagrass, and there's some really healthy marine life in there.

Speaker 1:

That afternoon I headed out into the water myself, snorkelling hand, and explored the glorious underwater meadow that lay beyond. In just half an hour I saw turtles. In just half an hour I saw turtles, a baby reef shark, a stingray and tons of fish. The grass itself is like a magic eye picture the more you float and look at it, the more you see. I came back to dry land ecstatic that Marteyne had made a pledge not only to stop cutting their seagrass but to encourage other resorts to do the same. In just a few weeks they'd got 37 to sign up for the Protect the Maldives Seagrass Initiative. That was nearly a third of all the resorts at the time, and they're about to relaunch the campaign again to hopefully persuade more to join them.

Speaker 1:

But it's not only the seagrass that is championed here in Laamu. The team at SHELL are acutely aware that, amid the growth of tourism, there is an urgent need to engage locals and give them financial incentives to make all daily practices better for the environment. As such, six centres here run a sustainable fishing programme called Lamasilu Masavaria meaning exemplary fishermen which so far has seen 30 locals sign up to it. With it they get paid a premium price for their catch but have to follow four rules.

Speaker 6:

They're only allowed to fish in certain areas, so we identify areas that we don't want them to fish because of a particular species being there. The second is what equipment they can use. So they can only use pole and line or hand line to catch the fish. There is obviously a species take list and a species no take list. So there's certain species we encourage them to fish that we know are highly resilient to overfishing. Healthy populations mature fast, reproduce fast, things like that. The fourth sort of main code of conduct rule is there's a size limit for every species. There's a very specific minimum and maximum size, so this means that we are not fishing out juvenile fish.

Speaker 1:

The programme here in Laamu and Six Senses has worked so well in allowing overfished species to bounce back whilst keeping guests happy that there's still fish on the menu that the Blue Marine Foundation they work with are now rolling it out to more resorts across the Maldives. What I love, and what I think works particularly well, is that the locals are involved in setting the rules and implementing them and are paid extra for fishing sustainably, something that is key. That night I watched delighted guests tuck into their dinners guilt-free while fishermen headed home with decent wages. It seemed to be a perfect solution. Another NGO based on Laamu is the Olive Ridley Project that protects endangered turtles. Scientists have noticed that on a neighbouring island, despite it being illegal, people were still harvesting turtle eggs from a key site. Their solution? Hire a local to not only monitor and survey the island, but also run education programmes to change perceptions on the practice. The results have been astounding.

Speaker 5:

In 2022, before we started, we had about 60% of the nest had been taken illegally, and then in 2023 it was 2%.

Speaker 1:

I was lucky enough to see many turtles when diving in Laamu, even though I wasn't really looking for them. I was actually there undertaking a unique Maldivian specific PADI certification my Manta specialty. Before we went in the water, we had a classroom session with Miriam, the project manager of the Manta Trust, who runs the course, who hit me with a monetary value of just how much manta rays are worth to the Maldives.

Speaker 6:

There's an estimation of $8 million per year just for the Maldives alone through manta ray tourism.

Speaker 1:

If we compare that number with the mere couple of hundred dollars a fisherman might get for poaching one, it's easy to understand why education is so key, both for tourists like us doing this diving course, but also for locals to prove that they are worth more alive than dead.

Speaker 1:

Once we'd end up on these gentle giants, learning all about the threats that they face, how they feed and how they socialise, we headed under the water to photograph and help ID them. We saw several over the couple of days that we did this, even finding a new individual, not on the local Manta Trust database, which we named Junebug, in case you want to look them up. But while we were under the waves, I did notice that two of our party were actually ignoring the mantas and instead focusing more on the coral. They were both Maldivian and I soon learned that the first was Coco, aka the Coral Godfather, who's a marine biologist conducting studies both underwater and in tanks at SHELL on Laamu, involving growing and spawning new coral to try and mitigate its huge decline. The second was a girl called Tua, who is an intern here, a programme which Laamu purposely exclusively opens only for Maldivians, Thinking back to Hussain's remarks on sustainable tourism, who I met right at the start of all this. I asked her how popular it was to pursue a career in conservation for locals.

Speaker 7:

I think it's a bit more common now, but when I was younger it wasn't really common. What do you think?

Speaker 1:

has driven that change, that more people are interested. Are there more job opportunities, or is it just more awareness of the job or the career paths you can do?

Speaker 7:

I think it's the awareness mostly because everybody is accessed to social media now. They can see everything and how bad, like, for example, the bleaching now, and, um, how badly we've been impacting the environment and stuff like that. So I feel like they know the consequences of what we do and stuff and it just makes them, you know, like want to make a change. Yeah, yeah, that's what, that's how I feel, that's what I wanted, you know, and when I was 10, I wanted to become a marine biologist for such a long time and I'm almost getting there and I'm like, you know, like, oh, I'm getting there, I'm finally getting there. So it feels really nice, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And is it quite popular for girls or women to go into it, or is it more commonly Maldivian men who go into it?

Speaker 7:

I didn't really meet someone when I was younger who was in the field, but I grew up watching Nat Geo Wild a lot and that made me want to. One of the reasons why I wanted to get into it was because my grandfather he was my biggest supporter he was like women should go fishing, women should go diving, and he was always like that. So I was like, ok, yeah, let's do it.

Speaker 1:

From more Maldivian women getting into conservation to locals backing sustainable practices and resorts proudly allowing their seagrass to bloom. There is definitely change afoot in these islands, and behind it all lies one thing, according to Hussain tourism and that's where we come in, because it's by opting to stay at places like the Six Senses Laamu, who are actively investing in the future, providing jobs for locals, making sustainable practices pay and, of course, allowing their overwater bungalows to stand proudly above meadows of seagrass, that we can affect change and encourage more resorts here to follow suit.

Speaker 2:

As Marteyne says, we only protect what we know, and so the idea sort of is let us teach so that people know, so that they can protect.

Speaker 1:

So if you're thinking of booking a trip to the Maldives, there really should be only one question you ask your accommodation. Before you book it, say it with me Got grass? That was me reporting from the Maldives, a place known for sun, sea, sand and hopefully now grass. A visit there, especially to the Sixth Sense Laamu, really opened my eyes into the power we have as travellers when we demand change. I hope that in the not too distant future, every single resort will let their seagrass thrive. Now I will admit that going to the Maldives in the British summertime, that's June to August, like I did, means cheaper prices and less crowds on the ground, but it can also mean afternoon storms, meaning that sometimes you're forced to stay on land and seek shelter. To honour this, I decided to dedicate this episode's travel hack to help you best pass the time when weather-bound in a paradise resort. First of all, check the forecast.

Speaker 1:

The UK is globally known for its wildly inconsistent weather, but that's not the case in many travel destinations During the wet seasons. Storms often arrive in the afternoon, leaving the morning for exploring and the afternoons for mooching around. So what are our travel hacks for the weather? Firstly, it's mooching around. Jokes, or maybe not. That book you bought from the airport. Was it my Wayfarer book, by any chance? Well, now there's an outside chance of getting it. Read One fiction, one non-fiction, and then, if it's really wet, something random from the book exchange. In non-English-speaking countries, bookshops often carry the classics in English. Take time to brush up on the school text of Middlemarch you've been putting off forever.

Speaker 1:

Now could also be the time to hit the treadmill. This is the perfect opportunity to burn off the buffet breakfast you've had for the fourth day running. The rainy days are also great opportunities to visit museums, places of worship and galleries that you would normally have overlooked, even some that are there in the resort. Pick one at random. The beauty of these places is you're often surprised by the conversations they spark. Travel is about the unexpected, putting yourself in an unexpected location and triggering learning. Along these lines, talk to the hotel staff too. Learn about their lives, what it's really like to live in the Maldives year round and what they do on a day off during the rainy season.

Speaker 1:

Or we can embrace the rain, as long as there's no lightning sparking from the sky. Spend 10 minutes in nature's hottest shower. Kids embrace the rain as long as there's no lightning sparking from the sky. Spend 10 minutes in nature's hottest shower. Kids love the rain Time for you to remember what it felt like. Or hit the water Again, not in lightning. On a recent trip to Cornwall in summer, I had a surf lesson in a hailstorm yes, in summer, but I was wet anyway and I didn't spend a lot of time above the water.

Speaker 1:

One of the best hacks, however, is to get the camera out. There are photographers out there who swear that photos taken in the rain are some of the best. You need to protect your gear, the camera on your phone, but look out for reflections, especially at night when neon colours scatter across the water or road surface. Finally, I suggest opening the curtains and watching the rain come in. Storms can be spectacular, strangely relaxing and part of nature's cycle and remember to take a walk around straight after the storm. The gardens in the Maldives come alive after it. Just remember your umbrella.

Speaker 1:

That was my Wander Woman travel hack, the advice I give you each episode to ensure that your travels are always safe and sound. Now, speaking of sound, have you ever considered the impact that noises have on our travels? How the melody of the call to prayer can instantly transport us in our minds anyway, back to Morocco or the Middle East, or how the distinct chuckle of a kookaburra can instantly send you to the Australian outback. Well, someone who does is TV bushcraft expert Ray Mears, who so believes in the power of sounds that he has teamed up with tour operator Exodus to promote a series of tours based on their soundscapes. I caught up with him in Hampton Court Palace for the launch to ask him what drives him to travel and what sound it is that truly defines adventure. Everyone knows you for your bushcraft. Did you find that your love of bushcraft and the outdoors took you into travel, or was travel something that you sort of sought anyway?

Speaker 3:

It definitely took me into travel, travelling in search of knowledge, and I still do that. Now I can't travel and just go and sit on a beach. I mean, I've got to have a reason to go somewhere and a large part of that actually is it really fits today. A large part of my interest is plants and their uses and, uh, you know, as I'm speaking to you, I'm looking at one of the horse chestnuts there and pine and you know they. These are really useful things that they can help us.

Speaker 1:

One of the things we're promoting here is sound. How important do you think sound is when you're travelling or when you're out in the outdoors?

Speaker 3:

It's very important, obviously, as a filmmaker, I've made documentaries in Britain and in remote, far-flung places and the difference is staggering, because when you're recording, the microphone picks up all sounds and when we talk to each other, as we are now, we filter out anything we're not interested in. But the microphone can't do that. So if a plane goes overhead in, you have to stop recording. But when we're filming in remote places, that doesn't happen because the sound is so unpolluted and and then you start to notice things. You notice little sounds, little birds. You might hear the falling of something and you look for it and then you find there's a seed falling and you follow the trail and then you see the bird that's doing it.

Speaker 3:

So sound's really important. I mean, if I hear a loon, it takes me straight back to Canada and solo trips, because when you're travelling solo, a loon will come right up alongside you. When there are two of you in a boat that doesn't happen, and I think that's because you're quiet. So sound is a two-way thing there's silence and sound, and it's one of the things I like about travelling on my own or being on my own outdoors is to sit quietly.

Speaker 1:

And you mentioned the loon before. Are there any other standout sounds that transport you instantly back to a place?

Speaker 3:

Well, there are certain sounds I listen out for in the UK the sound of turtle, doves and nightingales. I love nightingales. I'm lucky. Where I live in Britain we have a lot of nightingales and the first nightingales that we get are travelling further north and you'll only hear them call for a short while and then they're gone. And then a week later we get the residents and it's just spectacular. It's like the sound of running water. It's so beautiful. It's like something out of Lord of the Rings.

Speaker 1:

And here today with Exodus, they're obviously promoting sound and there's a playlist that's been created with you of the different places. I think there was one of the Maasai Mara, there was one of Vermont, there was one of a harbour town in Finland. Is there any one of those in particular that's particularly kind of evocative for you?

Speaker 3:

I think they're all evocative. I think it's a really clever idea. I mean, Exodus are celebrating 50 years this year, which is brilliant, and drawing people's attention to the different sounds of our planet is really important. I've travelled an awful lot and, while I love my country and this is my tribal home, I feel as though I'm a citizen of planet Earth. I feel as though I'm a citizen of planet Earth and while we sit here now in my mind, I can travel to different continents and see the faces of friends I have in different places, some in tribal communities, and I can hear in my head the sounds of those places, Even if it's the coughing of people waking up in an Aboriginal camp at dawn.

Speaker 3:

You know, these are the unique sounds of places and I think it's a really good idea to draw people's attention to that, because when you're travelling, it's too easy to get locked into your travel guide, your itinerary. Where have we got to be next? We all need, when we're travelling, to take a moment to be with the place and to drink in the total ambience, and not just the sounds but the smells too. I mean, my favourite scent is honeysuckle and this year, because of the weather locally to where I am. The honeysuckle struggled a little bit.

Speaker 1:

And.

Speaker 3:

I kind of miss it.

Speaker 1:

Have you found yourself going back to a place you've been to before and say, like you said, waking up in the morning and you hear a sound and go go. Oh yes, I forgot about this sound.

Speaker 3:

Yes, this is so this place yeah, very often that's the case, particularly in the rainforest. So a month, just over a month ago, I was in on borneo and I was lying in my hammock and there were some hornbills above me and I think they were pairing up and there was some bill clapping. It was very tender sound and that was lovely and I couldn't see them, but I knew they were there you can.

Speaker 3:

You can see with your ears and you need to see with your ears and listen with your eyes. So when you see something and you can hear the sound, you watch and you record the sound. So the next time you hear it you don't necessarily need to be able to see it.

Speaker 1:

I've just had a tour on the garden with the designer who's been telling me about the sustainability which is now such a buzzword in travel. Has the idea of, obviously, the climate crisis? Has that changed any way that you travel at all?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, wherever I can, I'll use public transport. Definitely it changes that. Yeah, but I don't travel gratuitously anyway, so there's always a reason. I think more and more people. I think actually the tourist industry largely is pretty good and there are more and more ecologically based things. From early on, even even uh, hotels were looking at, you know, at thinking about water usage and washing and things. They've been in the vanguard of that actually, and it's exciting to see what will come along.

Speaker 1:

And what do you think other travellers can do to kind of mitigate their footprint on a place when they travel?

Speaker 3:

In your opinion? I think if people traveled more as I travel, which is very low energy, low maintenance, I mean I've traveled a lot, so when I was young, you know, I might have an outfit that was very complicated, and now it's really simple. Focus on what's truly important and at that point everything simplifies. Simple is good and it's hard to explain, but there are a lot of things people do with the traveling they don't really need to do. It's just that. Keep it simple and actually you take a lot of the stress of the luggage and the baggage out of your mind, as well as physically, and you can rely much more on local resources, and that's good for local economists and if you had to sum up adventure in a single sound, what would that sound be?

Speaker 3:

the sound of adventure is a scream of joy I love it that's somebody. That's somebody jumping off of a remote cliff into deep water and, just you know, just celebrating the joy of being alive and final question that I always ask everyone.

Speaker 1:

I'm interested in your one. What is the one piece of of gear, the one item that you would never travel anywhere?

Speaker 3:

without it's a sense of humor. Things go wrong and if you can laugh at them it makes makes life so much easier. But you know, adventure travel and travel in general, but particularly adventure travel is about filling life. We are gifted with an unknown minutes of life and you never get that second or that minute back again. So fill it to the full.

Speaker 1:

That was bushcraft legend and survival specialist and, as we've now heard, collector of sounds, Ray Mears. It's always a pleasure to talk to Ray, especially when we start chatting about the natural world, of which he is like a walking encyclopedia. When it comes to the natural world, we know that some wildlife species are thriving, whereas others are on the brink. Think of the turtles and the manta rays in the Maldives, who really do need our protection. So this episode I wanted to shine a light on some of those species who are deserving of extra attention and that you should consider supporting conservation initiatives now, either by donation or considering a visit to one of the centres who look after them next time you're in a country where they are. So here are 10 of the most endangered species and where to find them. At number 10, it's the rhino. There are only about 80 individuals of the Javan rhino left in Ujung Kulon National Park, Indonesia. For the black rhino, smaller than the white rhino, there are about 6,000 dispersed across the savannahs of southern Africa. A third of the population live in Namibia. The Save the Rhino Trust works in collaboration with tour companies to join the rhino rangers. At nine is the Galapagos penguin. No prizes for guessing where you can see them, but tours to the Galapagos Islands are today highly regulated, with much of the money being poured into the conservation efforts and funding the Charles Darwin Research Station. It's also home to the giant tortoise and the endangered sea whale. At eight it's the elephant. The African forest elephant is critically endangered, as is the Sumatran elephant, while the African savannah elephant and the Asian elephant are considered endangered. Namibia and the Kavango-Zambesi Transfrontier Conservation Area, known as KAZA, that covers Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, has the world's largest population of elephants, at around 228,000. So time to book that responsible safari.

Speaker 1:

At seven, it's the chimpanzee, our closest cousins who share 98% of our genes. Most of the population lives in East and Central Africa. The easier to access locations to see chimpanzees in the wild include Uganda and the Mahali Mountains National Park in Tanzania. In at six is the turtle. The sea turtle and the green turtle are endangered, and the hawksbill turtle critically. So Much of the conservation for turtles is run locally and you have to find an ethically run place to see them and observe them at a distance. Run place to see them and observe them at a distance. Sabah, Costa Rica, panama and Mexico are great places to see them hatch, but always go with a charity.

Speaker 1:

At five is one of the most famous the Eastern Lowland Gorilla. Nothing quite prepares you for seeing those creatures in the wild. Rwanda or Uganda are the best and safest places to see the gorilla, with responsible tourist infrastructure and well-known travel companies putting on tours. At four is the whale shark, the biggest fish on earth. They can be seen across the world too, in the Maldives, but also Mexico and Western Australia. The latter has the Ningaloo Reef. With tours and even spotting planes leaving from Exmouth. Be sure to pick the right time to go. At three is another famous primate the Prangutan. These highly intelligent creatures live in lowland forests in Borneo and Sumatra. Perhaps visit a rehabilitation centre such as Camp Leakey in Tanjung Puting National Park or the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary in Sabah.

Speaker 1:

For number two, it's the tiger. There's as few as 3,900 left in the wild. Jim Corbett National Park in India is probably the best bet to be able to see them, with more than 200 roaming free. It's also home to the Indian elephant. You'll see them readily in Madhya Pradesh, India, thought to be the setting of Rudyard Kipling's classic the Jungle Book. And finally, at number one, it's a species smaller than you might expect but beautiful in every way.

Speaker 1:

The endangered monarch butterfly. These incredible creatures travel well over 1,200 miles from the USA and Canada to the forest in central Mexico where they hibernate. They land in the leafy mountains of Mexico between January and March. It's one of the most spectacular sights on Earth and is sure to leave you and your heart all in a flutter. That was my regular top ten. I hope that, by championing the literal underdogs and other species, we can work together to help save them by supporting them, donating to the charities that look after them and, of course, ensuring, in the words of Ray Mears, that when we travel, we tread lightly. Now, one thing that will help you tread lightly on your next adventure is good footwear, particularly, it has to be said, if you're headed somewhere warm, like the Maldives.

Speaker 1:

Sporty sandals. Love them or hate them, they are a key way to get the air to your feet whilst tackling pretty much any terrain. I love my sandals, and I'm not talking about the fashionista diamante heeled variety, as it will be of no great surprise. I'm talking outdoor activity sandals, aka sports sandals or, as I like to call them, Spandals. Feel free to adopt this term or never speak of it again, as you see fit. I can be seen dusting mine out of storage as soon as the frost of winter is over, and I do try to wear them well into the autumn too. So as a buyer of these nifty accessories, I feel I can offer some key advice as to what makes a good sandal for all your travels.

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The first thing, like any gear for adventures, is weight. Lighter is better, but do make sure that the light weight is not compromising on the next key aspect, which is, of course, comfort. Try them on before you buy them barefoot. Be sure no rub points are present on the straps. Avoid between the toe models and anything with unnecessary extras or patterns or insert annoying fashion device here. The best spandals are simple.

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Look at the number of straps too. Less is more, but remember your foot will need to be supported, especially if you'll be doing something very active in water, for example kayaking. Check out the underside of each strap. You want them without lines in the fabric, something that's smooth and will not rub. The roped.

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Rough and ready design may look outdoorsy, but in reality anything with bumps and has the propensity to cause blisters, especially if you use them for hiking. Don't forget to turn them over and check out the sole too. You want a thick wedge of something like recycled rubber, aka Vibram, that offers cushioning on the top for your foot and underneath to stop sharp stones sticking to your sole. And look for grip, as in the set of lugs that are on the bottom, as these will help grip in mud or wet sand, but also stop debris building up on longer walks, causing you to slip over. All in all, remember comfort is king and though a good pair may cost a little more, it's always worth it to keep your feet in good walking order wherever you wander.

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That was my much loved gear section ensuring that you are equipped with the knowledge to get the best kit for your next adventure. Now, speaking of knowledge, my next guest, Isabelle Tompkins, has dedicated her life to learning all about the reserve her parents begun rewilding in Southern Africa and, crucially, the people who live there too, to ensure that, when it comes to saving the environment, she involves locals for sustainability on every level. Intrigued to hear how she's done it and transformed a former farmland into a wildlife-rich tract of land, into a near-complete ecological puzzle. Listen up.

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We're located in the Karoo, which is an area the size of Germany within South Africa. It's a semi-arid region and really the heartland of South Africa. So, to look at it from the perspective of an easy viewpoint, we're about a nine-hour road journey from Cape Town. If we go back millions of years, this area was sort of an inland sea on a geological time frame, a geological time scale rather, and now it's a semi-arid region. So it really just gives you an indication of the type of global change that takes place.

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But a few hundred years ago what you would have seen is the landscape would have been more or less as it is today, which is these beautiful plains, flat plains leading up to these stunning mountains, often with flat tops, so with beautiful grasslands on top, and really the key differentiating factor would have been the amount of wildlife you would have seen back then. So 300, 400 years ago, we had what was known as sort of the largest land-based migration probably in the world, which was the migration of the springbok, which is South Africa's national animal and which was said to rival even the migrations in East Africa that most people know of through National Geographic and the like, and millions upon millions of springbok, accompanied by other antelope and by now extinct zebra which is was called a quagga, which had almost no stripes. They would wander through this region and um and be accompanied by, you know, lion and and cheetah and and wild dog. So it really was a sort of wildlife spectacle which sadly has is no longer and what changed what?

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what made that go from being this wildlife hotspot into somewhere that wasn't?

Speaker 4:

Well, it was human beings for the most part. So largely the sort of arrival of the colonial powers at the Cape and sort of the domestication, really, of what was a wild landscape into a landscape crisscrossed with fences, with the advent of agriculture and sort of small stock, livestock farming, sheep and goats, and also hunting. There were a lot of, you know, colonialists who came out here and hunted and they would brag about how many lions they could hunt in a day, how many antelope they could hunt in a day. The elephants were totally eliminated for their ivory. So really it's a question of human expansion into this. What was a wilderness?

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And tell me about what Samara Karoo Reserve has done, then how they kind of you know because it was your parents who came, wasn't it?

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And what they saw and what they decided to do with it. So, essentially, samara was born about 25 years ago, when I was five years old, and my parents my mother is South African, my father's British and they wanted to become involved in South Africa again after the first democratic elections in 1994. And they wanted to be involved and, to you know, buy a farm and to do something um kind of significant in in the country. And they were actually uh. They were visiting another part of south africa, um called uh kwa zulu natal, which was the site of battles um between the zulus and the british, and they were sitting around the campfire listening to these tales and happened to bump into a chap from the Karoo and, as it turned out, this man was an estate agent, which obviously should have set alarm bells, but it maybe it did, maybe it did. But long story short, he, he told them about the Karoo and my mother, having grown up in South Africa, knew of it. But it was really a sort of in-between place. It was the kind of place one drove through to get from A to B but one didn't really stay, was really a sort of in-between place. It was the kind of place one drove through to get from A to B but one didn't really stay in, and he sort of spoke about these migrations and and the beauty of the land and the fact that you know, there were all these really interesting characters and has quite an interesting history as well, and they basically fell in love with this idea of recreating something, returning, I suppose, the land back to a born-again wilderness.

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And so that's how it all started, really 25 years ago, and they started off buying one farm, and one farm in the Karoo, because it's a semi-arid landscape, doesn't go a particularly long way, so they ended up buying 11 farms in order to have a, to create sort of a reserve that would have an ecosystem that could more or less look after itself. You know you need scale for conservation to be effective, and that's really where it all began. And they started reintroducing well, first of all, removing all of the livestock the sheep and the goats and the cattle that had been here and to a large extent it had been poorly managed on the land, so it was quite overgrazed. A lot of the sort of vegetation had been removed. Alien species had been planted in their place in order to act as fodder for the livestock.

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So, really, it was quite a long process to get it back to sort of square one and then start rehabilitating the land, you know, taking down the internal fencing, removing all of the old farm infrastructure and bringing the wildlife back, and it's taken a long time. So, um, they started off with the herbivores, bringing back the antelopes that used to be the zebra, the buffaloes, um, then the rhinos, then we actually, in 2003, introduced the first wild cheetah back in this region in 130 years, and um, and so that was quite a milestone, and by that point, I was I think I was about 13, and I think I realised that this was really what I wanted to do with my life as well following their footsteps. And then, most recently, we introduced elephants in 2017 and lion in 2019, to really bring back all the pieces of the ecological puzzle.

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So what sort of things have you done to help the local people of the Karoo?

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So there's a holiday in South Africa called Heritage Day, which is the 24th of September every year, and essentially it's designed to sort of celebrate the various cultures that we have in the country. South Africa, as an example, has 11 official languages, so you can kind of get an idea of the extent to which there are hugely diverse cultures. And that encompasses art and sport and all sorts. So we we took that as a sort of conduit to launch a program for school-going kids in , which is about 40 miles drive away, and basically we it's a netball and football tournament to make sure the kids, to get the kids off the street, basically to give them something to work towards, to live for.

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There are huge problems of alcoholism, teenage pregnancy, gender based violence in these communities, and it was really just one small step and don't get me wrong, there's a lot more that can be done in those communities but one small step to to sort of contribute to creating solutions. Um, and the other thing is really again the employment of women, and I'm quite passionate about it myself, being a woman. You know the it's quite a patriarchal society in many ways. Um, or there are different, there are many different societies within south africa, but many of them are very patriarchal. So actually giving women the opportunity to earn their own income, to gain their independence and to become the breadwinners for their family has been a really quite an important thing for us to do.

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What do you think the biggest challenges were for your parents when they first started it, and what is your biggest challenges today?

Speaker 4:

It's a it's an interesting question. Um, I don't know exactly what I think. To be frank, both, both of us have faced similar challenges because, um, to a certain extent, we've been in the landscape for 25 years, but we're still the new, the new guys in a way, um, and I think the challenge that really that they felt, that that I've also felt, has been trying to do, trying to be the first person to do something, pioneering something in a region where, um, the farmers were very happy with their, their livestock, um, farming and the idea of bringing back wildlife was totally against what they you know what they wanted. I mean, we had one neighbour who, who sort of said well, why on earth are you bringing the cheetah back? My, it was my great grandfather who shot the last one. You know what is. What is the reason for this? And and I think that's been probably the most difficult aspect for, for, whether it be my parents or me as well, because I'm involved in a lot of the animal reintroductions and the strategic direction that we take from a conservation perspective, that's my, my true passion and, yeah, it hasn't always been easy.

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I think, when, when, when you, especially, as we've lost we've sort of lost our connection to nature as human beings. You know, we we sort of think we're apart from it. We have this idea that nature is something over there and we don't want it to come and bother us over here. But actually we're part of nature. We are just one species within an ecosystem, if we think about it. And because we're a species that clearly has an outsized impact, we have a responsibility to protect those ecosystems and to try and make them function as best we can. And I think that mindset is slowly changing.

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It's taken a long time, but one thing that's been really good to see is that, even though you know a lot of the farmers who've been here for generations, ever since sort of the I was talking about, sort of the colonial advance into this area, a lot of these farmers are of European origin, yeah, but they're well-educ, well educated, they understand the concept.

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But I think when it impacts you know, when it potentially impacts your world view, it becomes quite a quite a difficult thing to to buy into. But what's been really rewarding is to see the move towards a more regenerative form of agriculture. So you know they're not saying oh well, great, we're going to put lions on our land now. But they're saying, okay, well, let's manage the land in a way that is more environmentally friendly. Let's not, you know, set traps for what we deem to be, you know, vermin or pest animals like jackals. Let's actually try and work with nature rather than against nature. And I think they're starting to see the benefits of that, and that certainly is, in a way, testament also to the the increasing awareness of why conservation is important.

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Have you managed to persuade any of them to do similar things to you, to actually rewild the land and kind of get on board with the reintroduction of species?

Speaker 4:

It's in progress, so that's one of our projects at the moment. So our bigger vision obviously we've rewilded over the past 25 years 67,000 acres, which is Samara itself. We have a much bigger vision working with local stakeholders to create several million acres of land under conservation, and that'll be done by linking together three different national parks, which all quite well, relatively speaking, quite close to one another. And Samara is the biggest stepping stone in that project and it really it's been something we've been working on for a very long time, but it's only now, post-covid, that sort of everything seems to be aligning in the right way and the momentum is really starting. So we're hopeful that we'll be able to certainly to do that in the years to come.

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That was my hidden hero, the person in travel doing incredible work behind the scenes to make a real difference in the community in which they work. And already it's nearly the end of the episode, so time for me to share with you my utterly incredible Wander Woman of the month. I hope you've enjoyed what you've heard. Please do subscribe so you never miss an episode and please, please, please do leave a review. It means so very much. You can follow me on instagram @@phoebe smith Go to my website, website, . p. com you can sign up for my occasional newsletter and, of course, me a mea message. Now this episode. We the USA U the usa, where a woman is about to face down the barrel of a gun, all in the name of conservation.

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It's April 23rd 1903. The waters of the Mississippi River are rapidly rising 20 inches now over the high water mark, a rise that has been happening for days. The lumbermen are armed with the tools of their trade axes and saws, and one carries a rifle. Stood opposite them is a woman. She is wearing the austere clothing of a V Victorian. Her name M Mary ary mary hannah gibbs. A lumberman with a rifle speaks threateningly at the people gathering on the banks. He says I'll shoot anyone who puts their hands on these levers. The brained lumber company needs the high water levels to float their logs downstream, but the waters are already damaging the virgin cedar and pine forests on the shores of Lake Itasca, minnesota, the source of the entire Mississippi River. Someone had to pull the levers and open the dam. That's when Mary stepped up, looking down the barrel of a gun and saying I will put a hand on there and you will not shoot it off either. And she did. With the help of six men, the sluice gates were opened and the lakeshores were saved.

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Mary Hannah Gibbs was born in Atwater, minnesota, in 1879 and was one of nine children. Her father was appointed the superintendent of Itasca State Park in 1901 and took his family to the region. Mary worked with her father as the park secretary, but when he died unexpectedly in 1903, she took over as superintendent. She was already writing all her father's letters anyway and was deeply involved in all aspects of the park and state legislature. She became the first woman to hold this position and the last to hold a similar post in the government. For 82 years.

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Logging was, by some distance, the largest industry in the state. During the winter, lumber companies felled red and white pines. Without any thought of re-establishing these trees, the logs were taken by sled to Lake Itasca and deposited in water to be taken down the Mississippi to the sawmills in Minneapolis, 480 miles away. The lumber companies were immensely powerful, with many of the state politicians involved with them or even owning them. A week after the skirmish Mary was demoted by the governor, she refused to accept and resigned. Instead, the lumber companies continued their plunder of the state's natural resources until it was almost completely depleted. Mary's stand, however, was part of a slow realisation that the landscape of the United States was changing beyond all recognition. The widely reported meeting between President Theodore Roosevelt and naturalist John Muir at Yosemite National Park happened the same year Mary made her stand. This was the moment when the wheels of preservation in the US began to gather momentum.

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Yet outside of her state there are few who know her name. Charlie Maguire, a folk singer who wrote an album about the state park in its 100th year, researched and wrote about Mary Gibbs. He said as John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt met to protect the lands, there was already a woman at Itasca, he said. We know little about Mary's life after this, but we do know she returned to live with her mother, susan, in Minneapolis, then, after her death, moved to Alberta, canada, to be with her sister. She married a home builder named William Logan and together they developed 50 acres around the Shaughnessy region of Vancouver, with many of the houses they developed still standing today. She died aged 104 in 1983 in Vancouver, british Columbia.

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So while the work that John Muir did was important, why has Mary's name been forgotten? She deserves to be remembered. She deserves recognition as someone daring to stand up against the industry, even with a gun pointing at her. We need these inspirational stories now more than ever. We need everyone, in their own way, to stand up for the world around them. Thank you, mary Gibbs, for your trailblazing bravery. That was my ever-inspiring Wander Woman of the Month, the hidden heroine that's been lost to the history books all because of her gender. I hope next time someone praises John Muir, you offer her name as part of the ongoing conversation In the next episode of the Wander Woman podcast.

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How long is your commute to work? I head to Banff in Canada to meet the people who work in two of the oldest tea houses high in the mountains and learn what it takes to get to work when the only things coming in and out have to be transported on your back. I'll also be chatting to adventurer Aldo Kane about why he never intended to end up in front of the camera and how jungles excite him the most. I'll also be meeting the woman celebrating Garifuna culture in Belize through the hand-making of dolls, and I'll help you find the perfect day pack for hiking, whether to tea houses or mountaintops or even just touring a city. See you next time. Wander Woman out. The Wander Woman podcast is written and edited by me, phoebe Smith. The producer and writer of additional material is Daniel Nielson. The logo was designed by John Summerton. A final thanks to PADI and all the people I met on my journey and were willing to talk to me. It's because of you that this podcast is able to happen at all.