Wander Woman: A Travel Podcast
The monthly Wander Woman Podcast frequently charts in 'Travel and Places' in over 147 countries around the world. It is the first travel podcast to take on a magazine style - rather than the format of just an interview – and has been listened to and downloaded everywhere from the UK to Australia and beyond, by hundreds of thousands of people. It has been selected as “Best of” travel podcasts by The Telegraph, The Guardian and The i newspaper, Globetrender and Tech Times - to name a few.
Every episode, award-winning broadcaster, travel writer, author and photographer Phoebe Smith offers a behind the scenes journey to a different destination which features interviews with locals, audio clips and vivid descriptions to make the listener feel like they are there too - without having to leave home.
The main ‘destination’ story weaves together her passion for finding off-the-beaten track places, undertaking quirky and unusual activities, discovering wild spaces in unlikely mass market destinations, watching wildlife and meeting the unsung heroes behind conservation efforts.
Additionally the Wander Woman Podcast’s regular features a celebrity interview; Best Travel Gear for a life on the road; Travel Hack of the Month; Top 10 in Travel; Hidden Hero; and the Wander Woman of the Month - the traveller whose name is lost in the history books.
Wherever you find yourself - come wander with her…
Wander Woman: A Travel Podcast
Whales, Wallabies, and Re-Wilding
In the land Down Under one island in Western Australia is in the midst of a bold project to return it to a pre-European state. The Dirk Hartog Island National Park: Return to 1616 initiative has seen sheep farming (the mainstay for the single resident family for over 100 years) be replaced by eco-tourism. All cattle has been removed, invasive species have been culled and slowly, the vegetation and biodiversity is bouncing back. Given that the Wardle family used to earn around AUS$2.5million from their merino wool enterprise adventurer Phoebe Smith decided to pay them a visit to see how the less lucrative tourism industry was being embraced by them and undertake their inspiring hiking trail - Walking with Whales. Come wander with her...
Also coming up:
- An interview with cookbook and travel author Caroline Eden
- Travel Hack: Survive a long haul flight in economy class
- Top 10 European Islands to visit
- Meet Mariko Wallen a sustainable seaweed farmer in Belize
- Discover the value of a good pair of multi-activity socks
- Learn all about our Wander Woman of the Month - Truganini - often thought (incorrectly) to be the last Aboriginal Tasmanian woman
www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith
On this month's Wander Woman podcast.
Speaker 2:Imagine what this place is going to look like in 10 years' time. You know it will be a wildlife sanctuary, an ark for all these endangered animals, and you'll be able to come here and view them.
Speaker 1:I head to Dirk Hartog Island / Wirrawana, the place in Western Australia that's part of a huge project to return it to a pre-European state. I also speak to sustainable seaweed farmer, Mariko Wallen, who has been teaching women to harvest this in-demand product in an eco-friendly way to allow the Belizean native species to recover.
Speaker 3:Well, in the past in Belize, we only know it's good in a seaweed milkshake. It's an aphrodisiac, it's good for the men's potency, but nowadays we understand that it's a superfood.
Speaker 1:And, speaking of food, I chat with the author of Cold Kitchen and the forthcoming Green Mountain, Caroline Eden, about how enriching cuisine can be on your travels.
Speaker 4:I think it's the expression of a culture and it can capture an era and a place like nothing else
Speaker 1:Also coming up how to survive a long haul flight in economy, in this month's Travel Hack, in my top 10, I count down the best European islands you should set your compass for, and in my regular gear chat, I help you work out the secret of a good pair of socks. Finally, I'll be revealing this episode's Wander 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. Now
Speaker 1:. This is going to sound crazy. I am the first to admit this, but I think I'm being followed. You heard that right.
Speaker 1:While walking along the cliffs of an island in Western Australia known as Dirk Hartog / Wirrawana, I found myself being pursued. Someone, or rather something, was on my tail. In normal circumstances, being stalked on a hike would be a nerve-wracking experience, but here on the clifftops, this was actually the point of my entire stroll. I was undertaking a self-guided one-day trail called Walking with Whales, and my stalker was a particularly fine humpback just offshore. It's the brainchild of the only residents of Dirk Hartog Island, Kieran and Tory Wardle, who have lived on this remote 50-mile-long patch of land, about the same size as the Caribbean island of St Lucia, since the 90s.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've been coming here since I was six years of age and first came here with my parents, and my grandparents bought it in 1968, 69.
Speaker 1:I'm going to stop Kieran here to point out that, yes, you heard that right. People could at one point actually buy this entire island, but not the island itself, rather the leasehold, so that they could run a business which, for Kieran's family, was sheep farming.
Speaker 2:It was totally different to what we see today. There was no here at the lodge. There basically was an old homestead and it just you open the door and you're on the beach. It was a beach shack and so now we've improved it dramatically, put on suites on the rooms and all of that. But out on the station, yeah, my first job was looking after the sheep and I'd drive out there and there'll be like 7,000 thirsty sheep looking at me, going where's our water, and lots of goats, you know, running around and the vegetation taking its toll over the 100 odd years of being a parcel station, and so to see it turn into a national park now and the vegetation regrowth in the last 10 years has been awesome.
Speaker 1:As you can hear, it has massively changed since, and that's because, in 2009, the government realised the significance of this island in terms of its history. This was actually the spot where Europeans first set foot in the country. In this case, the man was a Dutch captain called you guessed it Dirk Hartog, on the 25th of October 1616. He was following a newly devised, faster spice trade route to reach India from Europe and marked his discovery with a plaque on the north end of the island, known today as Inscription Point. The government also realised the potential of this island in terms of its biodiversity and its potential to be rewilded back to a pre-European state, safe from any outside interference, given that it's surrounded by sea on all sides. So it was made into a national park, with the idea being to remove all cattle and invasive species, namely feral cats, which had killed off 11 of the 13 endemic critters, as local marine biologist Ed Fenny explains when he took me by boat to the start of my easy walk.
Speaker 5:The first task was to remove the livestock and feral animals, so the sheep were fairly easy. I actually still remember in 2011, the last barge load of sheep came off the island. So they had these big sheep barges and a boat from town would tow it over to Cape Bronson. I'll show you where actually.
Speaker 5:The old, rusty ramps are still there. Park it up next to the cliffs and they'd walk the sheep off this little ramp into the, into the barge, and then they'd tow that back to Denham. So the first, last shipload of sheep came off in 2011. The goats became a bit more of a challenge.
Speaker 4:Were they feral the goats.
Speaker 5:Yeah, goats were feral and they caught a lot of them by the same method as the sheep. It's called water trapping. So there was watering points around the island which were fenced off, but at usually two or three different locations. On the fence that fenced off the water there was trap gates, so one-way gates essentially. So the sheep and goats would push their head to get in and it closed behind them, so then they couldn't get out, and then the farmers would come with the trucks and put them in the trucks and then ship them off.
Speaker 1:And then the other problem, of course, was the feral cats.
Speaker 5:The feral cats are public enemy number one and they were the most challenging to eradicate, firstly because they're very, very cunning. Also due to the size of Dirk Hartog Island 88 kilometres from one end to the other. Trying to pin a few cats down and eradicate them was a huge, huge task. The government spent $4.5 million in eight years eradicating cats on the island.
Speaker 1:How did they get here then the cats?
Speaker 5:The cats were introduced, most probably by the pastoralists, to stay on top of the mice around the homestead. There is actually a school of thought now that the cats were introduced by came over on Dutch ships, maybe even well before the English settlement in the 1800s. It could well and truly have been from the Dutch or even the French that were here in the 1600s and 1700s.
Speaker 1:By 2017, Dirk Hartog Island was declared cat-free and the native species, free from grazing animals, began to bounce back.
Speaker 5:By removing the livestock, you revegetate, because the livestock were damaging to the local shrubs, and the local shrubs, particularly the acacias, the saltbush that creates the habitat for the animals they were wanting to reintroduce onto the island. So you get rid of the livestock and the island revegetates. Then you get rid of the cats, which are the predators, and so then, end of 2017, the first reintroduction was conducted, so 24 rufous-haired wallabies and 24 banded-haired wallabies were released onto Dirk Hartog Island and, due to the overwhelming success of those first 48 that had already started breeding within the first six months last year, so 2018, they released another 200 Bannan hare wallabies and 200 ripper's hare wallabies onto the island as well, and the idea is, there's 17 different threatened marsupials and mammals that are local to Western Australia that will call Dirk Hartog Island home.
Speaker 1:When Tory and Kieran had their sheep farm taken away and it's worth noting here that the wool their flock of merino cattle produced was valued at around two and a half to three million Australian dollars annually they had thankfully already been looking to tourism as an alternative income.
Speaker 1:They converted the old shearing shed into a six-room eco-lodge, with recycled rainwater for showers, organic, bio-friendly toiletries and reusable water bottles placed in the rooms. They created a campsite for visitors who wanted to bring their own four-by-four vehicles onto the island limited to eight at any one time and they developed the walking route that I was about to hike. I was picked up by biologist Ed before being dropped off at Cape Ronsonnet to walk along the coast to Surf Point where, not long after, I spotted my first whale. Given Western Australia's long history of whaling from the early 1800s until as recently as 1978, plus the fact that humpbacks live for about 50 years or more, I felt sure they would be too timid to come close to the shores where so many of their ancestors were killed. But by the time Tori and Kieran came to pick me up at the end of the day, I was ecstatic with how many whales I'd spied.
Speaker 5:There's so many humpbacks out there Most of them would be humpbacks that you're walking with occasionally the southern right, and also the turtles, and the occasional dugong and sharks and plenty of dolphins.
Speaker 1:And it wasn't only the marine life that came out to play. On the way back to the Eco Lodge, one of the aforementioned reintroduced rufous hair wallabies jumped in front of our 4x4 and even stopped and posed, allowing me to snap a photo of it. I felt honoured, especially when asking Kieran how many times he'd seen them.
Speaker 2:I'd only seen them once before. Well, sorry, twice the night we let them go back in I think it was 2017, was the first ones we let go, and then once earlier this year with my son driving out in the middle of the night, and then now with you. Like we timed this beautifully.
Speaker 1:The next day I met Ryan John, a helicopter pilot from Carnarvon, Western Australia, who was bringing some new tourists over to the island and would take me back to Monkey Mire, the point on the mainland most tourists have heard of due to the friendly dolphins who visit daily. Proving what a small world it is. When I mentioned my spotting of the wallaby, he told me he'd played a part in their reintroduction, flying them over to their new home from another island where numbers are dwindling.
Speaker 6:I was part of the program that transported them from Burnier and Dorre Island all the way to Dirt Hartog, so they were very lucky. They got a helicopter flight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, normally you pay a lot for that. So they were treated to some luxury and you're going to be bringing some more over.
Speaker 6:Yes, we're going to be doing it again at the end of this year to get more numbers on the island because the growth has been unbelievable.
Speaker 1:And you must come to Dirt Hartog a fair bit, flying people for scenic flights and that sort of thing. What do you find special about the island?
Speaker 6:Just how remote it is and how beautiful. You can be out here for hours and not see a single person, so you really get it to yourself, which is unbelievable.
Speaker 1:And what sort of wildlife do you get to see from the air? Because I mean we've seen mantas, we've seen dugongs. What do you get to see from the air? Because I mean we've seen mantas.
Speaker 6:We've seen dugongs. What do you get to see on a day-to-day basis doing this? Turtles, yeah. Manta rays. You get stingrays, eagle rays, sharks, from tiger sharks all the way to reef sharks, whales at this time of year dolphins and dugongs. You see it all really.
Speaker 1:And what's your favourite part of the island? Do you have a favourite part?
Speaker 6:Probably the homestead actually, because it's just a beautiful view. You can wake up from your accommodation and you just walk onto the beach and Kieran and Tory are just unbelievable hosts.
Speaker 1:That they were. I thought to myself as I feasted on Tory's incredible home cooking while gazing out to the sea. It's funny to think that just over ten years ago, the island named after Dirk Hartog would have been unrecognisable to him from the place he left in 1616. Now, after all the restoration work, the dedication and passion by Kieran and Tory Wardle, and acceptance that change had to occur, resulting in them losing huge amounts of income for the good of biodiversity, it is beginning to look more like its wild best. The hope is it will provide a blueprint for other rewilding projects across Australia, as Kieran said to me before I left.
Speaker 2:Imagine what this place is going to look like in 10 years' time. It will be a wildlife sanctuary, an ark for all these endangered animals, and you'll be able to come here and view them. It's something really unique.
Speaker 1:I can't wait. I'll see you then.
Speaker 2:See you then.
Speaker 1:That was me in Western Australia a little while ago now. You'll be pleased to know that Tory and Kieran are still there and have added wellness retreats to their roster, which continuously sell out. They've also seen the numbers of the reintroduced wallabies skyrocket since I visited, with sightings now occurring frequently. It was a perfect demonstration of the fact that, given time, the right project and lots of dedication, any species can just like the rufous hair wallaby, bounce back. It's certainly the success story I needed to hear right now and is testament to the good things that can happen when passionate people commit to an environmental project, putting nature and its longevity above profits, and are in it for the long haul. Now, speaking of long haul, for most of us, a visit to Western Australia means just that, and if, like me, you can't afford business class, you will definitely want to listen to my travel hack how to survive long haul in economy class?
Speaker 1:Yay, long haul, we're going somewhere exciting. And then the realisation that, despite the guaranteed thrill of the destination, there's going to be hours measured in double digits where you'll be trying to find the right angle for your legs, getting irrationally annoyed by the someone prodding the screen on the back of your chair and getting stressed about having to wake the person in the aisle seat up so you can go to the toilet and also wondering how the person in said aisle seat can sleep so deeply and for so long, and when is that drinks trolley coming around again? So, given this episode in large part features Western Australia, perth to Paris, a cool, sweet 17 hours and 20 minutes away, you can see where this hack is going. We're not going to get you to miraculously bend the concept of time or physics or bag you a free upgrade a virtually impossible undertaking in our experience but we can help you make things much more comfortable or, at the very least, help you look a little smug despite being stuck in economy.
Speaker 1:The first hack is simple and so often overlooked Bring your own food and snacks. There's little else we can say about airline food that hasn't already been said, although we do like the little pretzel snacks with a gin and tonic. But you can bring your own food For a smug factor above eight. Crudités and hummus are going to be your healthy options. Heavy food never goes well with a long flight, so think light and breezy Fruits are a great option, with the bonus of keeping you hydrated. Just leave on the plane. If headed to Australia or New Zealand, though, a very large water bottle filled before you board is essential, and don't be afraid to ask them to refill it on the plane. We're also a fan of nibbling on dried fruit, but nuts these days are a no-no. Think fibre, too, because well you know.
Speaker 1:Second, bring your own pillow. There are dozens of hilarious examples available online, ranging from something your neck is already flinching at to something that looks like a cat basket on your head, but the best I've found is the pillow from off my own bed. Yes, really bulky, perhaps Impractical, undoubtedly, but the scent of my house takes me back home and helps me nod off much more easily than any one of these newfangled travel models. While we're on the subject of pillows, why not treat yourself and, admittedly, all those people around you, to a dab of albis oil or lavender spray, which is said to help with sleep, certainly helps mask the ever-growing scent of your neighbour's socks and BO, which is definitely no bad thing? Why not, too, make your own amenity pack? It's environmentally friendly and I do, and yet I'm basically a nightmare to sit next to, why?
Speaker 1:Mine includes compression socks and slippers. I keep a thin pair. I got free in a hotel ages ago. Earplugs, a silk eye mask stops wrinkles, apparently, and prevents dry eyes too. Toothbrush and paste. A change of underwear and top for arrival, pjs to sleep in, no really proper pyjamas, face and hand moisturiser and lip balm. Hey, these planes are effectively a desiccating machine.
Speaker 1:Essential, essential, essential, however, are noise-cancelling headphones. They are a gift. Forget the in-flight entertainments and the ones they provide you with, and instead download a good variety of films and TV shows on your tablet phone or laptop, which you can then sync your headphones to. And don't forget a good audiobook, wayfarer by Phoebe Smith, or perhaps a few episodes of this wonderful podcast. We should also say something like you'll sleep better without a gin and tonic and two little bottles of wine, but it is one of the few joyful moments of the long haul, so we'll leave that decision up to you.
Speaker 1:I know what I do. You could even upgrade to some bubbly and pretend you're in business class, make friends with the stewards, and you can often bag this for free. Whatever happens, remember, no matter how it feels in reality. The plane ride will not last forever, but your memories of the experiences once you land will. So it really is worth the agony. I promise that was my Wander Woman travel hack, the advice I offer every episode to help you stay comfy, hydrated and, in the case of long-haul flights, well-fed. Now, speaking of food while traveling, this is something my next guest knows plenty about. Caroline Eden is a travel writer who specialises in food and drink. She's author of Red Sands, Black Sea and, soon to be published, Green Mountains, and when I chatted to her Cold Kitchen, I caught up with her to ask what sparked her fascination with food.
Speaker 4:So I'd say it was Lonely Planet actually, which is obviously a brand that we all kno w. Back in probably. Well, I first went to Central Asia in 2009. And Lonely Planet as much as I love them and know the guys who worked on the on the Central Asia guide, but they were quite disparaging about the food and they said you know, you're probably going to go hungry. You know that there wasn't much tourism infrastructure, to be fair, in Central Asia back then, so it wasn't the country's fault. It was more like there weren't cafes or restaurants. They were. They sort of weren't geared up for tourism in Uzbekistan, which now has entirely changed.
Speaker 4:So I wrote Samarkand back in about 2013, 2014,. Because I wanted to show another side, because what I found when I was traveling in Central Asia was that when you stay in people's homes, you actually eat very well. It's just that the tourism infrastructure wasn't there. So if you went to sort of a Russian style canteen, it probably wasn't the best food in the world, but if you stayed for the family and you got to eat the delicious fruit and vegetables which grow around the Fagana Valley it's a really lush area. You know the area around Samarkand. You ate wonderfully.
Speaker 4:So that book really was just a right, a wrong and to show another side, yeah, and we had lots of debates since about you know, how food in central Asia has changed and stuff, but that that was how it started. And then I thought, well, actually, you know, food reflects the landscape and it shapes it, and there's lots of other things you can talk about when you use food as a lens, uh, into a region and was there a certain dish that sparked this all for you, like a certain meal that you had that made you think, yes, this is what I'm going to do now.
Speaker 4:I think it was probably Plov, which is the sort of pilaf type rice dish which is sort of becoming more familiar. There is a Plov restaurant on Regent Street now in London which, blows my mind, called Osh Paz. When I had Plov for the first time'm not a huge meat eater, um, and it normally does come with like mutton uh, but it's a delicious rice dish and if you spent time in india, like I had before I went to central asia quite a lot of time, um, my food was always like the rice-based dishes, the biryanis and things like that. And clove is different. It's very lightly spiced, so you've got some cumin in there, maybe a little dash of paprika or cayenne, for some is different. It's very lightly spiced, so you've got some cumin in there, maybe a little dash of paprika or cayenne for some heat. But it's about the herbs. It's about the quality of rice.
Speaker 4:Rice grows in Kyrgyzstan which not many people know, um, and it's this very short grain, almost sticky type rice, and then you've got lovely carrots through it and, um, it's cooked in layers and sometimes it's it's. There are many different ways of cooking it and many different variations, but occasionally there are quail eggs on the top, which is amazing quince. So it's one of those dishes. It's a multi-layered dish and the more you eat it in different regions you start to see the the sort of the differences and the similarities. So I'd say that's the quintessential Central Asian dish and it's probably, in many ways, the most interesting one too.
Speaker 1:And how integral would you say? I mean, I can probably guess, given your history with your books, how integral is food to our travel experiences?
Speaker 4:I think it's really integral, because we all eat three times a day. When you land somewhere, the first thing you tend to do is go out and find somewhere to have breakfast, if you're not having in your hotel. Um, it's the expression of a culture. I think that's that's what most people understand food to be, especially nowadays, because I think there's this huge trend in gastro tourism. And, I have to say, my region is, um, the area between Eastern Europe and Central Asia, so I don't stray beyond that. I I'm a sort of return traveler.
Speaker 4:I've been traveling to that region for a long time and I have seen the changes and the developments in cities like Tbilisi and Almaty and I think, yeah, I think it's the expression of a culture and it's sort of it can capture an era and a place like nothing else, maybe other than music.
Speaker 4:You can capture an era and a place like nothing else, maybe other than music. You know, you sit in a chaikana and chaikanas have existed in Central Asia for centuries and you get a sense of what it was like once and you go to the Spice Bazaar and you go shopping and you chat to people, and I think it's, I think it's a really easy way in, but then once you're in, you can go as deep as you like, because you know you can tell a city's history through its food, or again, like the agriculture or the farming, ecological issues. In my book Red Sands, I talked about going to the biggest walnut forests in the world in Kyrgyzstan, which are under threat from climate, our climate emergency, so you can talk about that. There are many different things and I think it's it's a reminder of how interesting the ordinary is Like. We think of it as an ordinary thing, but it's not at all and.
Speaker 1:I love the way as well food can transport you back to a place which is very much in your new book called kitchen. It's about being in your kitchen at home and, and by making things or smelling, it's taking you back sort of almost, uh, nostalgic travels, just from one room, as it were. Um, but how did you so? You know, you seem like you're very into your, but how did you so? You know, you seem like you're very into your food, but how did you get into the travel element? What started travel off for you?
Speaker 4:Probably wanting to escape from Reading where I grew up in the 80s, I went. I spent a long time backpacking in India. I knew about the sort of mogul architecture that you find in um, in Delhi and and other cities in India that I'd visited, and I wanted to sort of trace that back to Central Asia and see where it'd come from. So that put me on the path to Central Asia and I'd been working for a guidebook company too, called Odyssey Guide to a base were based out of Hong Kong yeah doing PR, marketing and some editing for them, and I worked on this 900 page book on Tajikistan when I was working as a bookseller in London to earn some extra money.
Speaker 4:So when I finished that book I thought I have to go and see Central Asia and I just took myself off on a solo trip without a word of Russian, and it was like a baptism of fire. It was like India India could be challenging sometimes, travel wise, but Tajikistan going up to the High Pamirs and then coming back overland going into Samarkand. I'm definitely a traveler before I'm a food person. I am happiest on the road. I love a journey. I am very, very happy in airports and train stations and places of transit. I just feel more alive. Like many of your listeners will relate to that, being being away and having new experiences, um, so my, my travel life has been. It's been rich and I'm very lucky for that.
Speaker 1:Um and then, and then you said before about the, the parts of the world that you tend to travel to, um, so, like you said, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, the Caucasus, Baltics, you know, what do you think attracts you to those places over other, more, I guess, easy places to hit the road and go travelling.
Speaker 4:Well, I suppose when I started back in 2009, Central Asia was really not a common travel destination. Islam Karimov was in charge of Uzbekistan. It was a dictatorship. It was a police state. It's still a police state, but they're rolling out the red carpet for tourism now, and I think it was the clash of the Soviet-Islamic mix which really appealed to me, because they didn't seem easy bedfellows to me, and it was fascinating that you could stand in front of you know the shahrazinda in Samarkand and then go to a completely Russian style canteen two streets away and pass larders and brutalist buildings and in tourist style hotels, and I just thought this is so interesting.
Speaker 4:And it wasn't easy to travel back then. You had to register with the police when you got there. You had to have a chit every time you checked into a hotel. The KGB were definitely keeping an eye on foreigners. You weren't welcome. Basically, you were given grief at borders. But I was like this is for me, that's travel, it's it's. I like an element of it, I like a challenge and I do like an element of adventure. And it wasn't just me, of course. There was always tour buses of French people in Uzbekistan always the.
Speaker 4:French have always been there because they love the e-cap fabric, like it's very chic, and they kind of had this understanding. It's interesting and Indians have always traveled um to Central Asia as well, but Central Asia is a big area, it's obviously not just Uzbekistan and, yeah, you know, I do think adventure is still possible there and I do keep going back and it is changing and I wrote about this in in red sands. I researched it in 2019, um, and I said that one of the reasons for doing that book was to capture it at that time, because I could see this slightly rapid tourism development that was happening especially in Uzbekistan, but also in Kyrgyzstan and a bit less so in the other three countries.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and tell me the inspiration behind cold kitchen and the latest one which, as we said, takes place starting in your, your home kitchen in Edinburgh and whisking you to other places, and it's a glorious mix of sort of memoir, history, food, obviously, adventure, what, what, what inspired this one?
Speaker 4:so it's. It's because all of my other books have been set far away from home and they don't come home at all. So you know, we're off around the Black Sea or in Central Asia or the Caucasus or whatever, and my food is in the territory and my, my work is in the territory of food in the far away and for cold kitchen. I thought it would be nice because I have a course or group of readers who are either people who are interested in the former Soviet Union and will read anything on that, like I'm one of those people or cooks and like armchair travelers. So I thought it'd be quite nice to bring people home into my kitchen and to sort of use the kitchen as a portal to then travel in and out. So there's 12 chapters.
Speaker 4:It's quite a short book. There's 12 chapters and the book, each chapter, travels out to a different place and tells a different story through the dish that I'm preparing in the kitchen at the time. So the first one, for example, it's a super simple recipe. It's just for for a melon, feta cheese and mint salad, and through that I tell the story of winter melons in Uzbekistan and Turkey. And then there's another chapter. It's kind of I wrote it sort of around the time of the full scale invasion of Ukraine, right, yeah, and Ukraine's another place I've spent quite a lot of time in. So there's a chapter on Russia.
Speaker 4:When I took the, I was lucky enough to take the Trans-Siberian back in, I think in 2016, and that's a melancholic chapter because I don't know if I'm ever going to go back to Russia and obviously I don't know if I'd want to go back to Russia and, um, you know, I talk about the characters that I met and how wonderful that journey was.
Speaker 4:And there's a recipe at the end for the little Russian hand pies, the proroshki. Yeah, and the book ends in Ukraine. So it ends in Lviv, which was the last Ukrainian city I went to before the full scale invasion. I have been back during the war, but I went to Lviv for the first time in November 2021. And I talk about Lviv and how I try to tell the story of the city through a particular hotel and the wonderful cake shops that are in Lviv. So it's a meandering book, um, and I think that the joy of travel is stepping into the unknown, but there's also that wonderful thing of coming home
Speaker 1:That was cookbook author and traveller Caroline Eden, whose search for a decent plate of food has led her on decades worth of adventures overseas.
Speaker 1:Now, speaking of seas, after beginning with a visit to one of the most far-flung islands in the world, or at least in Australia for my top 10 segment, this episode, I've decided to dedicate it to the best islands across Europe where you can enjoy some outdoor escapades. So grab your seasickness tablets and climb aboard.
Speaker 1:At 10, we're staying in the UK and hopping on a ferry from Ilfracombe or Bideford, to Lundy off the North Devon coast. It's only three miles long and half a mile wide, but the puffins who make this island home don't seem to care. There's also some great rock climbing and diving, with around 200 wrecks offshore yeah, 200. We're heading a little further north for Rathlin Island, off the coast of County Antrim, at nine. It's the northernmost point of Northern Ireland, a dramatically rugged land known for its walking routes and a vast seabird colony protected by RSPB, Rathlin West Light Seabird Centre. At eight, we're getting warmer most of the time with Ilha do Corvo, Azores. The Azores archipelago is Portuguese and due west of Lisbon, but it is still far away from the mainland and often forgotten. Ilha do Corvo is the smallest and northernmost of the eight islands, around 17 square kilometres, yet it is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that's excellent for hiking among the craters and birdwatching. The water around it are also protected and boast seagrass, rocky reefs and underwater caves.
Speaker 1:At seven is Gozo. Arriving from Malta, gozo is the wilder, rugged brother. This is the place for scuba diving and it has some of the best sites in Europe, replete with caves, arches and wrecks. The Blue Hole is a famous dive site with remarkable light effects and swim throughs. At six is Ushant, or in French, a remote island off the coast of Brittany and the kind of place usually described as windswept. It is wild in a good way, with cliffside trails, huge waves, and it's home to one of the most famous lighthouses in the world, Le Jument 'the mare', captured in a photo by Jean Guichard when a storm was breaking behind it while the lighthouse keeper stood in the doorway.
Speaker 1:At five is Gökçeada in Turkey. Take a ferry from Çanakkale to arrive at Turkey's largest island. It's a well-known spot for wind and kite surfing, with rentals all along the coast. Inland trails lead to hidden waterfalls and Ilyas Hill. The highest peak, 673 meters. At four, it's Gotland, sweden. It's a flight from Stockholm or ferry from Nynäshamn, but when you get to Sweden's largest island, you'll be immersed in Viking heritage with its medieval ruins.
Speaker 1:The best way to explore the island is on two wheels. There are hundreds of kilometres of bike-friendly routes, including the 500-kilometre Gotlandsledden cycle trail that circles the entire island. At three, it's , off the coast of mainland Croatia. This is one of the most remote places in the Adriatic and the only way to get there is by private boat from Vis or . But once you're there, it hits so many superlatives, from diving to stargazing, birdwatching and some pristine beaches. It's simply beautiful.
Speaker 1:At two is the island of Mull in Scotland, easily gained by ferry from Oban or Craignure. In the middle of the island is the hulking Ben More, a Munro that rises above all around it. However, our choice would be to explore by sea kayak, with the hope of spotting adorable sea otters, or hiring an e-bike to explore its furthermost reaches Coming in. At one is Senja, Norway, and wow, what a place. A short drive from Tromso you'll be among Europe's most dramatic peaks, almost unnaturally spiky. This is a place for slowing down and taking in the scenery, watching sunsets on the beach and, frankly, spending a lot of time thinking how good it is to be alive. That was my regular top 10, a time to reflect on some of the most incredible places, dishes, creatures and activities we have in this wonderful world of ours.
Speaker 1:Now, speaking of activities, it won't come as a surprise when I tell you that good footwear can make the difference between an experience you remember for the right reasons and the wrong ones, and key to that is the humble sock. But with so many options out there, how do you find your perfect pair that's up to the job? Never fear, as it's the subject of this month's gear segment. Listen up... ah
Speaker 1:Ah. Read most gear publications and they will wax lyrical, for issue after issue, about the value of a good pair of shoes or boots. They'll talk features and value for money, but the hidden bit of kit which can make or break a pair of footwear and your feet themselves is socks. I knew someone who would spend hundreds on a good pair of boots but flat out refused to invest in a good pair of socks, and it meant she always got blisters. That's why I've decided to dedicate this episode's Gear Geek Out to the humble, multi-activity sock.
Speaker 1:First things first, you need to look at fabric. You can get cotton, which is great at home, but not good when you're hiking or city sightseeing, when your feet sweat, causing them to wrinkle up and cause blisters. So instead opt for either merino wool, which naturally manages moisture and regulates your foot's temperature well. It also absorbs sweat and moves away moisture from your skin, keeping your feet dry and less prone to blisters. They're also comfortable in warm and cold temperatures, and they have the bonus of being odour resistant. The only problem can be that they are the more expensive option. Otherwise, there are synthetic fabrics such as nylon and lycra, which tend to offer a snug fit and can be designed with extra support at key pressure points. Also, look for Coolmax polyester or Wickspun, which, like merino, are designed to wick away moisture from the foot. It's also worth considering that you can get socks that are a combination of the two fabrics natural and synthetic which can harness the best of both options. It's worth trying the different ones to see which is best for you and your feet.
Speaker 1:Other features to look out for are minimal seams, and those that are there should be flat locked to minimise potential friction points that cause blisters. There's cushioning pads, which can be really useful if they're on heels and the balls of your foot, but too much can make your footwear feel a bit too tight. Look for elastic at the top of your sock as well, obviously, for a very good fit. Some models synthetic usually offer mesh venting for better breathability, but do be aware that this can create rub points. Others boast arch support, which again can suit some feet shape, but for others can make them a bit tight or again cause rub points.
Speaker 1:It's all a case of getting a few pairs to try before you do the hike or activity you intend to use them for, to ensure that your next adventure you can focus completely on the moment instead of worrying about where on earth you're going to buy blister plasters. That was my regular gear section, where I help ensure you have enough info to literally weather any storm with my kit advice that comes from years of spending extended time expeditioning outdoors.
Speaker 1:Now another woman who spends as equally large amounts of time out of her house is my next guest Mariko Wallen, a sustainable seaweed farmer and a coral practitioner in Belize, who trains and empowers other Belizean women to help look after the seas whilst making a living in the guiding off-season.
Speaker 3:Well, seaweed, more popularly known as sea moss, is in demand, big demand. It's estimated to be a multi-billion dollar industry in the next few years. We have it as one of our natural resources, so we're trying to tap into that industry. Being a tour guide, tourism is seasonal. Fishing is seasonal as well. Fishing stocks are being depleted, so this is something else that we could have as a supplementary livelihood or maybe an alternative livelihood to those other industries.
Speaker 1:And what is it that people are using the seaweed for if it's in so much demand? What's it used for?
Speaker 3:Well, in the past, in Belize, we only know it. It's good in a seaweed milkshake. It's a aphrodisiac. It's good for the men's potency. But nowadays we understand that it's a. It's a super food um people um use it in pharmaceuticals. It's um good for a lot of um health benefits. It has a lot of um nutrients and minerals that the body needs, so it's very beneficial to the body altogether and we all think of seaweed when I say all layman's, think of seaweed as well.
Speaker 1:It's just growing everywhere, naturally, so why? Why farm it, and what does that involve?
Speaker 3:So in the past and even now, people are harvesting from the wild. People call it wild crafted, think it's better to harvest from the wild. But it's not sustainable. Seaweed in such a big demand in commercial quantities, we're gonna. We've already lost most of our wild stock. It's not sustainable. Seaweed is in such a big demand in commercial quantities We've already lost most of our wild stock. It's really scarce. So we have to go probably close to 50 miles to go for seed stock, what we call seed stock, our starter stock, which back in the mid-'80s, early-'90s, you could go maybe 20 miles out to find it. Early 90s you could go maybe 20 miles out to find it. So, um, farming sustainably, um is is a way that we can always have this industry and how?
Speaker 1:how does it um? How do you farm sustainably? Because obviously, whenever you hear the word farming with anything in the water, obviously people think fish farming, which is known to be really bad for the environment. How does it differ doing seaweed?
Speaker 3:So seaweed farming is actually ropes that are submerged underwater and the seaweed itself, and also the ropes after they grow algae on, it becomes a little mini nursery for the marine creatures. So it provides a lot of benefits to the ecosystem itself. As long as you're environmentally conscious because there are criteria for site selection to put your farms so you don't damage the environment it would be beneficial.
Speaker 1:And what sort of seaweed is it that you're growing? Is there a particular type?
Speaker 3:There's a couple types in Belize. The type that I have right now is the and the Ikooma is the prize species, the real native species. I only have a little bit of that right at the moment, but that's the my intended species. So I'm a certified seaweed farmer and also a seaweed farmer trainer and a trainer's trainer. So what we do? Of course there's site selection criteria. We have to choose the area that's suitable to put down our farms.
Speaker 3:We have a lot of farm preparation, which is because everything is ropes. We have to cut and tie ropes on land, burn it in, so it's a lot of tedious, time-consuming work. Before we get into the water, In the water we have submerged, we put down plots, so we transform these pieces of ropes into plots, stake down with steel pegs. So the standard size is a 50 by 50 foot plot and you can add additional plots onto the one, the first one set down. So on each plot we have 20 lines, lines. I've put down 31 lines to maximize space and um also monitoring that there's no negative impact on the bottom.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and on each product. For the , we have 40 pieces of seaweed on each line. For the akuma, we would put 70 pieces of seaweed on each line and once a month, we would put 70 pieces of seaweed on each line and once a week we would have to come and maintain these lines. Maintaining means cleaning all the algae off of the lines because the algae would block if it's around, the seaweed itself would block the sunlight, kill that piece and the seaweed would fall off the line where it is. We would pick up any pieces that have fallen off and reattach them on to the line because we have a quota for our plot. We would want to get that and the more falling off. We won't have that um estimated. We won't get to have that estimated quota yeah and um.
Speaker 3:Also, beside that, the training includes a lot of learning how to tie um. A lot of times we start people off that are new just by cleaning, scrubbing lines, because when it comes to tying, setting up the plot, yeah, we have certain lines and installing the cultivation lines, we have certain ties, just so that we can unloose them and tie them up quickly. Underwater, afterwater, after a month, if you don't loosen the line, there's this encrusting algae that grows on it and then it becomes really difficult to pick at the knots to try to loose it, to readjust your lines. The same thing with the raffia which we tie the seaweed onto the cultivation lines. There's a couple different methods. The type we use is more efficient for us, however, the knot has to be the right knot or else it will be a lot more work afterwards it sounds like so much goes.
Speaker 1:It's a lot of work. How long does it take from sort of planting or placing those, those first lines, so it being ready to harvest?
Speaker 3:so the the idea would be like for the kuma it's every three months, that's the . For the it's a month and a half now. In the beginning you would think you put down one plot and then in three months time you would harvest that estimated 100 pounds of a thousand pound of weight off of that plot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, in three months time and um and then and then so forth. But it doesn't really work like that because at the end of the day there's some pieces falling off, some people, some pieces are smaller. So what we've been um doing is every week we bring in a quota to to soda. It adds up to the final quota for the month. So every week we would bring in a certain amount, process that so that makes it profitable for that trip, and then we gradually increase.
Speaker 1:And so going into the water for a snorkel. Now is this something you normally take tourists to go and do, and see what you're doing under there it's not something I normally do.
Speaker 3:I have done it and see what you're doing under there. It's not something I normally do. I have done it and I have gotten a very good feedback from it and it's something that I think we can build a the tourism industry and the seaweed industry in Belize. I think it's something that can actually complement each other. I'm excited to have seaweed farm tours or a seaweed farm experience tour, and I'm excited for that to provide more jobs for tour guides and also to expose the seaweed industry in Belize and throughout the world so that it does bring in money.
Speaker 1:That was this episode's Hidden Hero, the person doing incredible work in the communities they work in to preserve culture, wildlife and community. Incredible work in the communities they work in to preserve culture, wildlife and community. I love how Mariko is really looking to offer an income stream to other tour guides, especially the female ones. That is not only good for the environment, compared with fishing, but also is an idea that could be rolled out internationally. I love meeting passionate people like her and sharing their ideas with you, 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 at @Phoebe R Smith, find me on Blue Sky or go to website ,phoebe-smith.,phoebe-smith tome c d where you can sign up for my occasional newsletter and, of course, send me a episode. this episode. We head to Tasmania's Bruny Island to meet a young Aboriginal woman on the cusp of European invasion. The year is 1812. The location Resercha Bay, on the extreme southeastern corner of Tasmania, today an island state of Australia. Just under 20 years before our heroine was born, explorers had temporarily set up a scientific observatory in this bay and made friendly contact with the Tasmanian Aboriginal people. Mangana, the leader of a band of the South East tribe, gave birth to a baby daughter who she named Tugunani. As a child, tugunani would have lived as much of a traditional life as possible, but even in her early years the spectre of British colonisation was already forming. The story of her life is the story of a nation, of its struggles, of the darkest possible stories the Australian continent has ever experienced and ultimately, many, many, many years after her death, one of reconciliation. The story of Tregonini is complicated in its complexities, both in its winding, often contradictory chronology, but also in any retellings, the common retelling of it as the tragedy of Tregonini mythologised and deeply symbolic. But this narrative is now considered to do this remarkable woman a disservice. The full retelling in the widely lauded biography Trogonini Journey Through the Apocalypse by Cassandra Pibus removes the tropes and tells a story of humanity. It's both a beautiful and devastating read. But here we'll tell the abridged story of one remarkable woman. We rejoin Trogonini in 1816, still a very young child. This is where the horror begins. A group of British sailors, raided the camp where she lived and stabbed her mother to death. Her father took another wife who cared for her, but 10 years later, in 1826, her two older sisters were abducted and sold to sealers on Kangaroo Island. Then, in 1829, her stepmother was abducted and taken to New Zealand. Still just a teenager, tuganini was raped and saw her fiancé murdered in the most brutal way. Cassandra Pibus described the sustained horror as an apocalypse, and it would have felt like it. In 1829 she met George Augustus Robinson, an English builder and evangelical Christian. She was now on Bruny Island, a beautiful island off Tasmania. Robinson recognised her sharp intelligence and employed her for friendly missions to persuade the clans to accept the British invasion and Christianity. Truganini was an interpreter and as the only swimmer she found seafood for the group and pushed their rafts across the rivers they encountered.
Speaker 1:we 1830, the Black War, or Tasmanian, between British colonists and Aboriginal Tasmanians that lasted between the
Speaker 1:mid-1820s and 1832 was reaching its climax. At the beginning of the war, there Pybus up to 7,000 Aboriginal people on Tasmania. In 1832, there were just 220. By 1847, there were 46. 220. By 1847, there were 46. In 1839, robinson took Tragannini to Victoria and then Melbourne, but soon abandoned her. She made money by selling baskets and through prostitution.
Speaker 1:In 1941, tragannini and a group of five sought revenge on a colonist called William Watson, whom they believed shot her friend's husband. They set fire to his house and shot Watson, but not mortally. Two of the group later mistook two whalers for Watson and his servant and beat them to death. Truganini and the group became outlaws, being hunted,R R Robinson obinson more than a month. The two men were publicly hanged and Truganini was sent back to Tasmania, to Oyster Cove, an Aboriginal facility. The 15 men, 22 women and 10 children lived in a dilapidated former convict facility. The conditions were miserable, but they were afforded some freedom to hunt and travel to Bruny Island. Nevertheless, alcoholism and prostitution pervaded the survivors. By 1861, there were only 14 of them left in the facility, and by 1873, it was only Tricanini.
Speaker 1:She was moved to Hobart and died there in 1876. There was one indignity left, however. Despite pleading with authorities for a respectful burial, her body was mutilated and two years after her death her skeleton was exhumed and put on display in the Tasmanian Museum, where it remained until 1947. Only in 1976, almost 100 years after her death, was she finally cremated and scattered according to her wishes. In 2002, some of her hair and skin was found in the Royal College of Surgeons of England and returned to Tasmania for burial.
Speaker 1:Truganini was not the last Tasmanian speaker, as often attributed, nor was she the last Tasmanian Aboriginal that was believed to have been Fanny Smith, who died 30 years after her. Today, descendants of the Aboriginal Tasmanians are working tirelessly to become visible once more and celebrate their culture, which hasn't died out. There's the establishment of trails such as the Wukalina Walk. Listen to season one, episode three of the Wonder Woman podcast to hear all about that and the inspiring young people who are reclaiming their ancestral heritage. Evidently, chaganani was the victim of a great tragedy, of seeing death at every stage of the worst of humanity, but she was also a great observer of life. She moved effortlessly among the environments of her home, tasmania, and she brought great solace to the displaced people of Tasmania. And, above all, she sought peace, and that is why, among everything happening in the world today, we should remember her name and learn her story, and that's why Tragunani is deservedly our Wonder Woman of the Month. That was my ever-inspiring Wonder Woman of the Month, the hidden heroine that's been lost to the history books as more travellers take an interest in indigenous culture. I do hope her story will become better known, not just in Australia but worldwide, in the next episode of the Wonder Woman podcast.
Speaker 1:As the network of free-to-stay-in-mountain huts known as Bothys celebrates turning 60, I take an uninitiated friend to stay in one of the newer structures in the network in the Lake District and look at what has changed in the 10 years since I wrote the very first guidebook to British Bothys. Book of the Bothy. My travel hack will help you make friends on the road safely. I'll be sharing the 10 best Wander places around the world to escape the crowds and catch up with Guidebook founder Hilary Bratt to share her stories from 50 years of life on the road and off the beaten track. See you next time, wonder Woman out. The Wonder Woman podcast is written and edited by me, phoebe Smith. The producer and writer ,T Tasmania material is Daniel Nielsen. The logo was designed by John Somerton. A final thanks to 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.