Exploration Revealed Issue 1

TOP KIT TIPS

Research Associate Dr Charlene Murphy reviews one of her favourite bits of kit 4

EPIC FAILS

A stand-up paddle river escape by Michelle Ellison 5

INNOVATION IN THE FIELD

Fires past, present and future by Chloé Frommer

Trials with virtual reality in North East India by Ram Alluri and Dr. Nandini Velho 6

UNWANTED SOUVENIRS

The risks of being a terrible gift buyer abroad by Dr Eleanor Drinkwater 10

YOUTH EXPEDITIONING

14 18 20

Junior Editor Rowan interviews SES honorary award winning explorers

Reflections on the wilderness: The modern legacy of John Muir by Dr Susannah Cass ‘I came to the mountain’ poem by British Exploring Society’s 2021 Fire

EXPEDITION IMPACT

VIDEO Charting the uncharted: The volunteers putting unknown villages on the map by Rupert Allen 21

COUNTRY PROFILE: KRAKAR

Welcome to the island of no return! by Sadie Whitelocks 23

EXTREME EXPEDITIONING

Footsteps on the Gambia by Chaz Powell 26

TALES FROM THE FIELD

Hurricane avoidance for beatniks and boatbums by Rupert Allen 28

ETHICAL DILEMMAS

Is my research colonial? by Simon Hoyte 30

MIND MATTERS AND BODILY FUNCTIONS

A Gateway towards modern exploration: hands up, who needs an adventure?! by Emma Miller Optimising psychosocial experiences on expeditions by Dr Nathan Smith and Dr Robert Wuebker

EXPEDITION IMPACT

Arctic expedition tourism: participant perspectives by Joshua Powell, Doctoral Student, Department of Geography, UCL, London, UK

Net zero action: digitising field trips by Emma Askew

Exploration Revealed is a hybrid magazine that aims to advance knowledge about and provide peer-to-peer support for scientific and adventure-led expeditions. It has been created with a view to learning through support, shared experiences, and the passing on of knowledge. Exploration Revealed is a publication of Scientific Exploration Society, a UK-based charity (No 267410) whose quest is to enable the next generation of scientific explorers. Read more at www.ses-explore.org

TOP KIT TIPS

PORTABLE SOLAR POWER BANK

900000mAh Battery Charger

2USB LED For Mobile Phone

with Dr Charlene Murphy

I love it when any piece of kit I take into the field does double or even triple duty. I feel that every item should pull their weight. The Portable solar power bank Battery Charger does this and more.

It has a sturdy, compact (14 x 7.7 x 2cm (LxWxT)) and light-weight design. I appreciate that it doesn’t come with a protective draw-string pouch. This says a lot about this battery charger - it doesn’t need it. The durable cover is splash-, dust- and shock-proof and can be used in humid and rainy environments (doesn’t support full water immersion). Mine came with a heavy-duty clip-on hook that allows it to be easily attached to suitcase.

This eco-friendly battery charger includes two bright white LED flashlights with three modes (Steady-SOSStrobe), signal for help in an emergency as well as a built-in compass and solar panel (2W) making it perfect for campers, hikers and/or those undertaking fieldwork/ expeditions in areas with uncertain power supply.

Lithium polymer battery provides a safe and efficient charge for daily USB charging or emergency solar charging. The five pilot battery indicators show the status of battery charger clearly. With a capacity of approximately 900000 mah it could charger your phone one to three times. With two built-in 5V/1A (MAX) USB outputs it’s possible to charge two electronic devices simultaneously. I found that once fully charged it holds its charge well.

The downside is charge between solar to electricity, depending on sunlight intensity, can be slow. I tried mine in the UK and, surprise, it took days to build-up a full charge. The manufacturer states it should be re-charged from electrical mains for fast charging and solar charging is meant to be supplemental. Don’t let this put you off. This multi-functional durable charger deserves a place in your suitcase.

This is an independent kit review. The author confirms that she is not a beneficiary of funding or sponsorship associated with this product.

Charlene (PhD UCL) is an Anglo-Canadian Archaeologist, specializing in Archaeobotany. She has worked in South Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America. She is passionate about biodiversity and plant conservation.

Image provided by Charlene Murphy

with Michelle Ellison

EPIC FAILS: PaddleAStand-Up River Escape

Incidents only happen to other people, until the day it happens to you. Michelle shares a candid account of her first, and hopefully last, serious stand-up paddle boarding incident on the River Wye.

It happened all too quickly, giving me only seconds to react. We turned a bend in the river to see a large tree blocking the entire river. We were on the River Wye, stand-up paddle boarding the last day of our 100-mile adventure.

Quickly dropping to my knees, I repositioned my board, to be parallel with the trunk of the tree. The water forcefully knocked me off my board, throwing me under the water and the tree. I was unable to fight against the current or reach the surface.

My quick release waist leash belt, still attached to me and my board, had extended as far as it could go. I felt a jolt in the water, as it yanked into an upright position. My head finally out of the water, with me gasping for air.

The epic fail?

• We paddled down a side channel of the main river, split by a small island. At that point we couldn’t see the exit point and if it were free from obstruction.

• The water level was low for most of the journey, ankle deep at times. I wore my buoyancy aid for only 80% of the time. I unfortunately was not wearing it at the time of the incident.

• Our safety kit bag had become dislodged underwater and separated from us, as not secured with a carabiner.

I share my story tinged with embarrassment, but in the hope that other paddlers learn from the mistakes made. I like to think of myself as an experienced stand-up paddle boarder who makes good decisions. In that moment however, I was reminded of the unpredictability of nature and the need to put safety first, regardless.

We were lucky we could free ourselves (although very difficultly) and remain unharmed. It could have ended very differently.

Michelle is an adventurer who creates journeys with purpose, is the UK’s Kula Cloth retailer and hosts the YesTribe’s POD Club. She has climbed the highest point in every European country and ran the width of the UK for mental health.

“IT HAPPENED ALL TOO QUICKLY, GIVING ME ONLY SECONDS TO REACT.”

Image provided by Michelle Ellison

Innovation in the field FIRES PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

The West Coast of the United States is deep into fire season - compounded as it is by drought and a thirsty atmosphere. But with differing levels of exposure and responsibility, Westerners are finding themselves of different temporal minds in terms of adapting to intensifying climate change phenomena like wildfires.

After fieldwork with indigenous Zimbabwean rainmakers in 2012, I thought the most salient comparison for adaptation would be between them and North America’s firefighters and indigenous people who are reclaiming fire as a tool for landscape management. But what I found was that all three now rest in larger contrast with climate modelers’ coupling global-scale weather parameters with local wildfire data in an effort to inform primarily local firefighter’s and communities’ situational awareness of smoke and flame risk.

On-the-ground, nature-based practitioners in all three cases already rely on historical, situated knowledge of place, weather, and the elements to inform their percipient action on land or with weather. Whereas, climate modelers, seeking oversight with innovative tools and big data, still must play catch up with this in situ, historical knowledge which is neither easily quantified nor parameterized. As modelers themselves admit, only through “micrometereology” can their models become robust and accurate. As someone who has trained A.I.based datasets, it’s clear this data is too derivative.

In the Silicon Valley-San Francisco Bay Area, the microclimatic region where I live for instance, has many parameters salient to fire behaviour. They are parameters which are rarely measured so much as figured in historical, sensory or cultural terms. First, there is our marine-layer fog - “fogwalker” called by indigenous Ohlone and ‘Karl the Fog’ by Bay denizens. Not only does this marine layer protect against smoke settling in the lower atmosphere it keeps the soil moist against fuel accumulation. Less protective, however, is our fire season wind. Diabolo Winds are fast, hot late summer winds which arrive at our latitude from the Sierra Nevadas and are implicated Napa-Sonoma wine country fires due North. The Diabolo Winds not only down power lines, sparking fires - they force meteorologists to contend with the counter-intuitive phenomena of a “hydraulic jump” - by which the winds drive fire, contrary to its norm, to run faster downslope than upslope.

So, a thought experiment: If an individual’s sensational awareness of either the Diabolo Winds or fogwalker are fed into calculations, would the time taken to translate entail a feedback lag? And further, whose senses count?

If a historic, place-based practitioners’ sense of fire is going to count in California, then we must admit we are still in Indian Country - even with so little of it in actual indigenous tribal people’s hands. Citing 400 years of fire repression in California, indigenous Karuk, Yurok, Mechoopda tribes and Amah Mutsen (Ohlone) band members are already

Chloé Frommer

accounting for fire’s future probability: every place where industry, ranching, irrigating, mining and damming have disrupted and repressed the indigenous ecologies and allowed fine fuels to accumulate.

What remains to be seen for model makers then is not just how to anticipate fire’s future behavior, but how to parameterize the elements indigenous tribal people have always known from their pre-colonial low-intensity, purposeful and sacred burning practices. Gains arise when scientists help bridge the modern, traditional, and indigenous knowledge gaps by validating Native claims. Botanists validated Native American’s claim that cultural keystone plants require human intervention to reproduce. And we, non-natives, learned to see an endemic plant as a relative and a cultivar.

Are meteorologists, fire scientists, and hydrologists now willing to help validate the benefits of indigenous practices with fire? In speeches, zoom workshops, and conversation, the indigenous tribal people I have met with advocate for collaboration, funding, and a return to their fire practices. The benefits they claim sound worthy. They range from restoring healthy habitats for salmon, elk, and other indigenous wildlife to reversing drought. Even more significantly, low- intensity burns may even increase water quality and quantity in associated watershed whilst reducing the fine fuels.

Now that fire is adapting yet more to the West’s changed landscape with more intense weathers like the pyrocumulous cloud, it behooves us to identify not just the likely destruction but also the potential for survival and restoration.

Overleaf are extracts of paintings and photos from online workshops, helping to educate and spread awareness of indigenous knowledge of fire.

SOURCES CITED

Chloé Frommer is a sensory anthropologist who researches at the intersection of law, health, climate, technology and indigenous knowledge. Indigenous knowledge domains she has explored include ethnobotany, ethnomedicine, ethnohistory, and ethnometerology.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Science & Management webinar, brought to you by Save California Salmon and HSU’s Native American Studies Department Fire and Forests: Ali Meders-Knight Mechoopda Master Traditional Ecological Practitioner, Margo Robbins, Yurok, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Cultural Fire Management Council (CFMC) - www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG8IJM8uNT8 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_wind www.businessinsider.com/santa-rosa-fire-update-diablowinds-2017-10 www.nbcnews.com/now/video/artificial-intelligence-couldbe-the-latest-tool-in- fighting-wildfires-117537861795 eos.org/features/firing-up-climate-models www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/12/wildfirescalifornia-oregon-drought- heat-fire-cycle www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00627-y www.weather.gov/fire/ fireecology.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s42408021-00092-6 www.nature.org/en-us/magazine/magazine-articles/ indigenous-controlled-burns- california/ www.amahmutsunlandtrust.org/nls20 www.pbs.org/video/valentin-lopez-burns-forest-revivepeople-hotbmr/ eos.org/features/fire-as-medicine-learning-from-nativeamerican-fire-stewardship? 2010, Laverty, Blair Philip Recognizing Indians: Place, Identity, History and the Federal Acknowledgement of the Ohlone Costanoan-Esselen Nation, Anthropology ETD: UNM Digital Repository.

“GAINS EXIST WHEN SCIENTISTS HELP BRIDGE THE MODERN, TRADITIONAL, AND INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE GAPS IN VALIDATING NATIVE CLAIMS.“

Mount Shasta barely seen from Interstate Hwy 5 in Northern California as it is shrouded in smoke from Lava Fire, with only 85 percent containment on August 10, 2021. Image provided by Chloé Frommer.

Innovation in the field FIRES PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE CONT.

During the time of Covid-19, research and education on the indigenous knowledge of fire is more accessible through online correspondences and workshops than in situ. Over zoom, an indigenous perspective of landscapes before and after cultural burns painted by Mechoopda Master Traditional Ecological Knowledge Practitioner Ali Meders-Knight is shared (see images below).

In the Zoom workshop, Medgers-Knight argued for cultural burn practices to be framed anthropologically, as enactments of intangible heritage, before it is framed archeologically - as historical data of sacred practices in sites native people used to access.

Traditional Ecological Practitioner, Margo Robbins, Yurok, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Cultural Fire Management Council (CFMC)

In the time of Covid-19, indigenous knowledge about fire has been made accessible online. In a Fires & Forests workshop, as part of the Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Science & Management Webinar Series, Margo Robbins, Yurok, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Cultural Fire Management Council (CFMC) offers numerous benefits of cultural burns and the spiritual gift of fire.

One ecological benefit of fire is increasing both the quality and quantity of water in an area - a critical issue in drought-prone California.

Yet, Margo Robbins also acknowledges the difficulty of retaining their cultural rights to burn given the extensive oversight of Federal and State government in traditional Yurok territories. As such, Land Back (a movement advocating for the US government to return political and economic control of land, that had historically belonged to them, to indigenous people) becomes the most urgent and critical movement for California Natives, before even obtaining more data about the dangers of fire.

Cooperative burns

The Cultural Fire Management Council works with the Europe tribes. Fire engines and qualified fire fighters are on site conducting the burning. Cultural burning is not done in the traditional way but is carried out for cultural purposes.

Controlled burn carried out in Europe territory

Without the burning, hazel forms bushes, that can’t be used for weaving baskets. The baskets are integral to many aspects of daily life. Following the burning, the hazel grows back in single stems, important basket material.

Screenshots taken with permission from Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Science & Management webinar, brought to you by SaveCalifornia Salmon and HSU’s Native American Studies Department Fire and Forests: Ali Meders-Knight Mechoopda Master https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG8IJM8uNT8

Unwanted Souvenirs A PENCHANT FOR TERRIBLE GIFTS

The risks of being a terrible gift buyer abroad

I adore terrible gifts. The tackier and more hilariously horrifying the better. This obsession was sparked by a friend at university who tried to placate a flatmate by buying her “flour” instead of “flowers”. While his overtures were surprisingly rejected, his inspirational actions sparked the beginning of my own history of terrible gift buying, which has ranged from terrible llama bunting to gorilla gremlins.

However, when abroad, gift buying can cause problems (and not just the corrosion of culture with intentionally poor taste). Confusingly in many cases legislation protecting wildlife only applies to international trade. Therefore, it may be legal to buy feathers of a particular parrot species in one country, but illegal to hide them in your suitcase and bring it home without the right permits. Could this tourist trade be a problem? Well, I’d say yes. Firstly, is the issue of scale. I hate to break it to you – but that unique gift is likely to be being sold all over the country and could pose serious threats to the species

in question. Secondly is an issue of resources, if governments are having to use their wildlife trade budget to check baggage for those weird taxidermy rodents someone thought would be funny to give to their Aunt Ethel, then there is less budget to fight for serious wildlife crime.

So, if there is a takeaway, I’d very much encourage buying terrible gifts, but do double check what it is made of and if it is legal to export. Though as a warning, terrible gift buying will lead to receiving terrible gifts in return. Without care, you too may end up with a statue of something which may have once been a carved gorilla which you are simultaneously very disturbed by, but also overly attached to.

Views expressed are the author’s own.

Eleanor is an expedition leader and entomologist with a love of rainforests. She is passionate about conserving invertebrates and raising awareness about wildlife trade issues.

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Dr Eleanor Drinkwater

Images provided by the author

Ram Alluri and Dr. Nandini Velho

Innovation in the field TRIALS WITH VIRTUAL REALITY IN NORTH EAST INDIA

New camera technology can be a double edged sword. Ideally, it should improve efficiency, save time, and make life easier for filmmakers like myself. Yet a rainforest is a tough environment to test new technology in, as our film crew discovered the hard way.

My team and I brought the technologies of 360 video and virtual reality (VR) into the remote tropical forests of north east India just at the time when these technologies were opening up new opportunities for educators. We were determined to provide a first-of-a-kind nature and wildlife VR experience in the country and to offer unparalleled, immersive engagement with local wildlife for the indigenous youth living around protected areas, which are inaccessible for most people. The challenges of filming wildlife with 360 cameras made us adapt, innovate, and learn on the job.

The Pakke Tiger Reserve and Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh State, lie within the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot. Both are part of a landscape which has the second highest bird diversity in the world. Anyone who has spent enough time in either of these places would have the opportunity to encounter a variety of endemic species. Examples include the Bugun liocichla, a bird whose only known home is the land belonging to the Bugun community, or the Bompu litter frog, a blue eyed frog known from a single stream near the Bompu birding camp, in Eaglenest.

My team consisted of: indigenous film-makers from the area, a wildlife scientist, anti-poaching staff, educators and forest managers. A filming plan was drawn up for 21 weeks over the subsequent two years in February 2018, after deliberations with the team, school children and residents from both protected areas. The list of sequences to be filmed included: a few important species from different animal groups, activities of forest protection staff, and specific landscapes which we felt were important in the area.

VR at wildlife week

Wangchu Phinya removing 360 camera in Eaglenest

Innovation in the field TRIALS WITH VIRTUAL REALITY IN NORTH EAST INDIA CONT.

Ram on the banks of Pakke river

Bompu litter frog

Ram Alluri and Dr. Nandini Velho

The first draft of the list of sequences to film, was made in February 2018 . Yet, the challenges started even before we began filming. For VR to be effective, mammals needed to be within 5-6 feet of the 360 camera (Garmin Virb 360), and within 1 foot for smaller creatures such as birds and amphibians. The issue we had to tackle was, “how do we get wild animals to get this close without spotting us?”

The camera’s Wi-Fi signal, which worked up to a distance of 100 feet when there were no obstructions, would theoretically enable us to film from a safe distance.

In these forests though, obstructions came in spades, to use a good analogy. In some of the denser areas, the undergrowth allowed for less than 20 feet of signal. It was decided, after much deliberation, that the only way out of this logjam was to go higher. Up in the canopy, where the oak and maple trees branched out, the signal would have breathing space. Consequently, we built machans, which are crude tree platforms, where we could sit, wait, film from, and sleep. Sleeping in the trees had an added benefit, that of restricting our movement to and from the filming locations, which seemed to disturb our subjects in a way we hadn’t anticipated.

The animals in Pakke and Eaglenest weren’t as secure as they are now. In previous decades, these forests were devastated by poaching and logging, and though there has been recovery due to the forest department’s and local communities’ interventions, successive generations of species such as Gaur, the largest wild cattle in the world, and even Asian elephants, have learnt to be acutely wary of humans. With fresh elephant dung smeared on the cameras and our machans to mask our scent, we set to work. Six weeks, and over seven hundred hours of waiting, we had footage of elephants, gaur, barking deer and sambar deer, taken using 360 cameras.

Of the seven species of Kingfishers found in Pakke and Eaglenest, one immediately caught our attention. The Great Crested Kingfisher, with its impressive crown of black and white feathers, is the largest of all kingfishers in India, growing up to 43 cm in length. The flood plains of Pakke, during the dry months between December and May, are boulder strewn, with not a perch in sight. This changes during the monsoon season, between June and

August, when monthly rainfall can be up to 500 mm. Fallen trees which are carried down river by torrential streams get lodged, offering vantage points for the birds to fish from.

Over two weeks, we painstakingly observed the routine of one individual from dawn to dusk. Once we understood its movement, we set up our camera 3-4 inches from one of its perches. This intrusion was not appreciated. This bird would come straight for the perch at speed, and seeing the camera right before it landed, abruptly change direction and fly away. This went on for two weeks, and we knew we had to move on to other areas and subjects soon. Short of time, tactics were changed. We found a perch that the bird would routinely use every evening, before flying into an Outenga (Elephant Apple) tree for the night. This perch was covered on one side with thick vegetation, and we used this natural camouflage to hide the camera, hoping the bird wouldn’t see it right until it landed. That was exactly what happened, and we have about 4-5 seconds of the bird flying in, perching, calling in its distinctive highpitched tone, and flying away.

Between February 2018 and December 2019, there were many firsts: the first time that our film crew worked with 360 cameras and VR, the first time most of the stakeholders of this project heard of the new technology, the first time many of the species filmed here were ever viewed in a 360 environment, the first time that the local kids here were virtually transported to the worlds of their wild neighbours, and more importantly, the first time a state’s forest department had invested time and money in an experimental technology as a module for nature education in India.

Looking back, there was an occasional sense of being overly ambitious, but these thoughts were easily eclipsed by a drive to do something effective, a need to come together with governments and local communities in order to innovate, and to provide an experience that could become an integral part of nature education in the country.

Ram is a wildlife cinematographer, specialising in conservation based expedition films. A National Geographic and SES explorer, he works with both people and wildlife in remote environments.

PROJECT FUNDING AND SUPPORT

Ram Alluri (Project leader) Dr. Nandini Velho (Scientist, educator)

Chandan Patro (Camera assistant)

Paro Natung (Camera assistant)

Anti-Poaching staff at Pakke Tiger Reserve Staff of Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve

National Geographic Society Forest Departments of Pakke Tiger Reserve and Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary

Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve (SBVCR) National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)

TEAM

Leki Dorjee looking for sturdy trees to build a filming platform in Eaglenest

SES Junior Editor

JUNIOR EDITOR INTERVIEWS SES HONORARY AWARD WINNING EXPLORERS

Youth Expeditioning

My name is Rowan, I am aged 9 and I live in Gloucestershire in England. I am very lucky to be the junior editor for the first edition of this new and exciting journal.

I want to be a Marine Biologist/Explorer when I am older because it is adventurous, exciting and hopefully I can travel the world. I want to find new animals and help protect them. To do that I would have to find out what their habitat is and how it is being affected by humans and how to solve the problems. I also need to learn the skills that will help me reach these remote places.

I want to be a Marine Biologist because only a small percentage of the sea has been explored. The sea is so massive and home to lots of fascinating animals and many that are probably still undiscovered.

I would like to thank the SES Honorary Award Winners for taking the time to answer my questions as they are very busy and important people who spend their time doing things not many people would be able to do. They have given me a lot to think about and helped me to understand some things that we should learn, focus on and think about.

From speaking to two experienced explorers, John Volanthen and Steve Backshall, I have learned that even if some things look dangerous to other people, but you understand what you are doing, there is still a potential for danger but you can make that danger much smaller. If you learn how to do whatever you want to do properly, practice hard and get all the right qualifications then although you know the situation could be dangerous you know how to look after yourself and you know how to look after your colleagues and teammates, so it becomes safer for all of the team.

John Volanthen told me about how he carries out cave rescues, and said that most of the time he has to physically go and send search parties to find people lost in caves before he can help them.

Junior Explorer Rowan, aged 9 from Gloucestershire, is a future Marine Biologist who wants to explore the seas of the World to find undiscovered marine species, classify and protect them.

Hopefully cavers or divers leave messages as to where they may be. If not, he would normally search air spaces first, as this is where a caver could survive the longest. Sometimes people are just lost, other times they are injured and someone from the search party has to come out and then more people and equipment go in to rescue them.

Sometimes the rescuers have to look and see if there is a car outside the caves because usually people drive to

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BECOME A YOUNG EXPLORER

Rowan,

caves. So the first thing cave rescue look for if there is somebody missing is “Is there a car there (and is it their car)?” In very unusual situations people get flooded into caves –which is where they go into caves and for some reason water rises behind them – which is what happened to the football team in Thailand that John was involved in rescuing. As it is very difficult to contact outside of the cave you have to rely on yourself and work with the rest of your team inside the cave to carry out your mission.

It would be foolish not be aware of danger. John breaks situations down into smaller sections so he only worries about one bit at a time to ease the pressure. The most important question to ask yourself first in underwater situations is can you breathe?

If you can breathe you suddenly have a huge weight off your shoulders. Once you can breathe, if you are lost you can start to think about how to find your way out but if you can’t breathe then you get scared and it’s easy to panic. Lots of people turn round when they are uncomfortable –that’s very different to being in danger - and it’s important to understand the difference and to stop if you are actually in danger and that’s learning judgement. It’s something you learn in life, how to understand if a situation is a bit scary but you should carry on, or whether it’s actually too dangerous and you should turn back.

More often than not, caves have been explored previously, but the way in was lost, or an obstacle was encountered that could not be passed. John said he looks for where he’s likely to be able to make progress. Sometimes, it’s a case of going to the known end of the cave (usually underwater) and looking at the cave, the silt patterns and the rocks and working out where the water goes and being more observant than others to hopefully see a way to progress further.

You always need to have a team, it’s just where that team is that’s a different question. It just depends on the problem. You also need to be able to look after yourself and then have some spare energy to look after your partner and team as well. There might be only a few people who get to the end of a cave or the top of a mountain but there’s a whole team that has helped them to do that.

John said that he likes working in a team and working together to a shared goal, and also to enjoy the experience and have fun. It’s easy to make things sounds really difficult to achieve, and you do have to work hard, but there’s a measure of fun from everybody supporting each other along the way.

Whatever you choose to do, whether it’s climbing or diving or something else, you spend far more time with the people you’re working with than doing the actual activity so it’s important that they’re kind people. Working as a team, and people skills are really important. These skills are really important in life, as well as caving and diving.

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Jig Evil / Shutterstock.com

Joh Volanthen

JUNIOR EDITOR INTERVIEWS SES HONORARY AWARD WINNING EXPLORERS

CONT.

Youth Expeditioning

Steve Backshall told me that his most exciting wildlife animal encounters have been in the sea, particularly those he has had with sperm whales, large sea lion species and leopard seals under Antarctic ice – which is something he with never forget.

He also said that rainforest is the most difficult environment for animal encounters because most animals that live in the rainforest are very good at not being seen and tend to come out at night so you spend an awful lot of time hacking through vegetation in the rain and in the dark and it can be pretty difficult after a while.

Snow leopards were the hardest animals to find in the wild - he spent months in the field and he has seen one in person, with his own eyes, for no more than fifteen seconds. Mountain lion is the one that he has yet to find and again spent several months in the field and he has still not yet seen one.

Sharks are the most catastrophically threatened group of species in the world along with the old world vultures and amphibians (particularly from chytrid fungus). All those 3 groups are right on the brink of extinction and losing their numbers at a horrifying rate.

A Snow Leopard in chase in the snow

© Jeannette Katzir

Steve Backshall

Orca have become the animal he enjoys filming in the wild the most and the animal he learned the most about from seeing them hunt. Particularly the first time when he saw them teaching their youngsters how to feed by practising on an adult stellar sea lion. Once they had incapacitated it and it was three quarters of a ton of free food they just left it because they prioritise different things through their day and right at that time they were learning, not feeding and they just swam away once the animal was taken down, which is incredible.

The majority of expeditions nowadays are things that have been done before, perhaps doing them in different ways. To actually go into a cave system that has never been illuminated before ever in history, and to be the first person to turn round a corner and not know what’s going to be there is the most powerful motivation Steve knows. Those kind of expeditions are much harder to find nowadays but when you do, and when you succeed and when you stand on the summit you know categorically no one has ever been on before or paddled the length of a jungle river that hasn’t been done, or discover ancient art that is 40,000 or 50,000 years old and you know you are the first person in modern times to see it – those are the things that Steve thinks take an expedition from being something great to something exceptional and those will always be the things he gets most excited by.

The biggest and best learning experiences he has had on expeditions have all been, without exception, from things that he’s done wrong. He says that people learn so much more from their mistakes than from their triumphs and you just learn how to do things better. So he repeats that maxim to himself when he messes up – this is going to be something that makes him better in the future and that is the thing that he thinks keeps him coming back time and time again.

The morning after he nearly drowned in his kayak in the Himalayas made him get back in the kayak because he knew he had learned so much from that experience about how not to mess up like that again that it would make him a better and a stronger person.

In my interview with John, he told me that why he started his incredible caving was thanks to scouts because when he was 14 – he went on caving weekends with them and really enjoyed it. He went to a cave in Somerset which was a bit scary and the furthest they went was a flooded section called sump 2. A sump is a passage in a cave that is full of water. The instructor said how difficult that would be to get past, so he decided he would learn the skills he needed to explore that bit of the cave. It took 10 years, but that was the moment that made him realise what he wanted to do.

John is still a Cub Scout leader and takes scout and cub groups caving which he really enjoys because someone took the time to spend with him and that shaped his life in a certain direction. Now his groups learn teamwork, get a little bit scared and learn to look after each other.

I am in Cub Scouts at the moment and I really enjoy it because I have had the opportunity to take part in activities I would not normally have had the chance to try, and have learned many skills that will help me as I grow up and get to take part in more exciting adventures.

John said that being a member of the Scouts is really great and you can do lots of exciting things – make discoveries and explore and learn – but if you do it supporting each other it’s much better than competing.

Steve is also a Scouting Ambassador and has said in previous interviews how important cubs and scouts was to him because they taught him important skills that have been useful on his expeditions.

In cubs we also learn to work as a team and play sports and solve problems as a team and I think their teaching will probably be very useful in later life for me. Steve also said that the most essential piece of equipment he takes with him on expeditions a little bottle of chili sauce which spices up all the horrific dehydrated meals and I will make sure to remember that in the future!

These are some incredibly useful lessons from these honorary SES award winners, they have taught me so much and I have much more knowledge today than I did before speaking to them, so once again I would like to thank John Volanthen and Steve Backshall.

REFLECTIONS ON THE WILDERNESS THE MODERN LEGACY OF JOHN MUIR

Youth Expeditioning

130 Young Explorers from the British Exploring Society have been undertaking summer expeditions in the Scottish Highlands this year.

British Exploring Society, a world class youth development charity with a unique heritage, was founded on the belief that challenging experiences can change lives, empowering and equipping young people with the courage, skills, resilience, and determination to make the most of their future.

Young Explorers from the British Exploring Society have been undertaking summer expeditions in the Scottish Highlands this year. With the support of their leader teams, which include specialist Adventure, Social, and Knowledge leaders, these diverse groups of extraordinary young people have immersed themselves in the wilderness landscapes of John Muir’s homeland.

For many of British Exploring Society’s participants this may be the first time they’ve left home, travelled away from cities, pitched a tent or been out of 4G phone signal. It’s challenging. There’s rain, there’s midges, and there’s a lot to learn just to survive in the wild.

And yet, the mountains call us all.

John Muir was an explorer, mountaineer, conservationist, botanist, amateur geologist and writer. He was born in 1838 and developed a passion for wild places growing up in Scotland, just east of Edinburgh. At age 10, he emigrated to the United States with his family. Muir embraced all nature from mosquitoes to mountain ranges, recognising that everything is connected. His passion for wild places led to a life-long quest to protect them. Muir’s writings helped people understand the importance of wildness. His activism saved Yosemite Valley in California and helped create the world’s first national park system.

© John Muir Trust

John Muir’s words speak across the ages, providing inspiration for Young Explorers to reflect on their own wilderness experiences, expressed through their writings, drawings and group. The group is referred to as a ‘Fire’ by those that are part of the British Exploring Society.

The British Exploring Society’s founder George Murray Levick recognised the importance of working in teams while on expedition. He labelled these groups as ‘Fires’ because each group consisted of what he considered the right number of people to sit comfortably around an open fire. © British Exploring Society

Dr Susannah Cass is an Associate Lecturer in ecology and environmental science, and as a senior Science/Knowledge Leader with BES, has supported young people on expeditions from the Amazon to Iceland. Her current research looks at the role of the outdoors in developing scientific literacy.

Images provided by the British Exploring Society

Dr Susannah Cass

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”

Being out in nature helps me to concentrate on my surroundings around me after a busy day. I’m into photography and I like taking lots of pictures of wildlife. Being in the Scottish Highlands helps me to appreciate my surroundings. I have taken lots of pictures of the landscape around me. The landscape is so beautiful I will never forget how beautiful it is.

William Sharpley, 17

When I seen the mountains I was so happy and I was looking forward to climbing them. It was really nice to come from a city to mountains, I’ve had so much fun.

Nathan Hathaway, 16

“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”

You have to spend time, make time to be alone, to refresh your senses, to reflect, be aware, forgive, and focus on the present. You have to do something, a challenge to push yourself and help you realise that you’ve got a lot still to learn but there is a fire inside you - the ability to push yourself, more than you knew. It’s a realisation, a realisation of what you can do.

Nature is a beautiful getaway, one worth holding on to. For in nature, we’re just tiny aspects there, part of a bigger picture. It’s a getaway from the noise, the noise outside and around you, and in your head. To take a breath and appreciate nature’s great tidings and stillness is to release all that tension and stress and worries to be whole in oneself and focus your mind once again.

This quote speaks quite well to me as all these reflections is something I enjoy doing too, in nature. To reach a focus once again and breath in that stillness of the green, the air, the bird calls and the rain all together as one.

Sofia Antunes Trabuco, 17

Journal page and drawing by Bella MacFarlane, 15

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”

My walks in Scotland during this expedition have really allowed me to discover who I am and what I want in life - it’s given me a lot of time to think. I came here for a break and now I feel that I’m going to come out a better person.

Vince Bigas, 15

“The mountains are calling and I must go”

“Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world”

I CAME TO THE MOUNTAIN POEM

Youth Expeditioning

I came to the mountain and I heard rain,

I came to the mountain and I smelt rain, I came to the mountain and I saw a lot of beautiful nature.

I came to the mountain and I felt the wind battling me, I came to the mountain and I felt the rain.

I came to the mountain and I tasted the river water, I came to the mountain and I smelt the grass, I came to the mountain and I saw frogs hopping in the bog.

I came to the mountain and I met some excellent people. I came to the mountain and it changed me.

Inspired by John Muir, this poem was written collectively in the wind and rain atop a mountain pass by Bella MacFarlane, Farhana Hossain, Malaak-Naima Duale, Nathan Hathaway, Sofia Antunes Trabuco, Vince Bigas and William Sharpley (Young Explorers), Amy-Leigh Hatton (BES Staff), Ken Michie and Susannah Cass (BES Leaders).

CHARTING THE UNCHARTED: THE VOLUNTEERS PUTTING UNKNOWN VILLAGES ON THE MAP

Expedition Impact

A film crew found our team near the South Sudanese and Congolese Border, teaching isolated communities how to map their needs to show to the outside world. OpenStreetMap allows the under-represented to have a voice, to be seen, to become part of a global movement. Potentially, it changes everything.

Rupert Allen is a craftsman, humanitarian, and ocean skipper, researching at the intersection of technical anthropology and spatial behaviour. His interventiondesign practice characteristically embeds at deep-field community level.

CLICK TO PLAY

KARKAR: WELCOME TO THE ISLAND OF NO RETURN!

Country Profile

‘Welcome to the island of no return,’ a man said to me as he showed me his redstained teeth. We were sitting together in the back of a ramshackle van and he grabbed my cheek to give it a little tug. I wasn’t sure if it was out of affection or he was sizing me up for the amount of fat on my frame. I was in the wilds of Papua New Guinea you see, which has a history of cannibalism. Luckily this tradition has pretty much died out and the red on the man’s teeth was a mixture of lime powder, betel nut, and mustard seed – not blood. When it came to my exact location I was on a tiny island called Karkar, which I’d ventured to in a bid to find my long-lost great uncle.

There was little I could find about the place online before I arrived, other than an American ornithologist was raped and scalped there in 2016. As a kid, I’d heard lots of stories about my illustrious great uncle Noel, and his escapades in Papua New Guinea and I yearned to know more. His rather unusual surname ‘Goodyear’ meant that I managed to track down his daughter-in-law via LinkedIn. She suggested that I come for at least a month and meet my relatives. I wasn’t sure what I would meet on the other side, but I packed a small backpack and set off.

Getting to Karkar from the UK is no easy feat. I landed in Port Moresby, took an hour’s flight to Madang on the East coast, and then boarded a small rusting cargo ship, across the notoriously dodgy Bismarck Sea. That five-hour 30 km ride was a memorable boating experience, to say the least, with waves pummeling the vessel from every direction and a sticky heat embalming my body. When I finally landed on the jungle-strewn island, I met Barbara, my contact from LinkedIn and my first cousin once removed Paul, for what turned out to be a very memorable four weeks. I learnt that my great uncle, who was now based in the city of Madang due to better medical resources, ended up on this side of the world after he travelled to Australia on a work-abroad programme during agricultural college in the 1960s.

He then went on to be poached by a company to manage a plantation in Papua New Guinea and wound up buying a plot on the little-known island of Karkar. After falling in love with a local woman he never returned to England and he became somewhat of a mysterious figure to us all back home. On his arrival, this teardrop-shaped island had c. 7,000 inhabitants. Today it has a population of 70,000, with women having children from the age of 14.

Sadie Whitelocks

KARKAR: WELCOME TO THE ISLAND OF NO

CONT.

Karkar was certainly less advanced than I imagined, with no mains electricity or water supply and one very pot-holed road running around the island. In terms of facilities, there are many government-funded schools, churches and a hospital which was founded by Lutheran missionaries. I discovered from a German doctor husband and wife team deployed on the island that common ailments include tuberculosis and malaria. Head injuries are also commonplace as the result of falling coconuts.

Speaking to my great uncle on the mainland, he described Papua New Guinea as the ‘land of the unexpected’ and said he’d encountered nothing but hospitality during his time in the country. Karkar is nicknamed the ‘island of no return’ – as the man in the truck had told me- because of the women’s rumoured ability to ensnare men. Uncle Noel, himself, had fallen victim to this and he wound up having four children, with two of them, Paul and Elizabeth, remaining on Karkar.

Paul’s wife, Barbara, who I’d been in touch with, ended up on Karkar as a volunteer teaching assistant through the German arm of the Lutheran church. She ended up staying on Karkar, having three children of her own, and now helps with the Goodyear business. Today the Goodyear family have several plantations on the island growing coconuts for copra and cocoa beans for chocolate. There is only one other ex-pat family on the island, the Middletons, who also run plantations and they also used to run a big game fishing enterprise.

I visited Karkar in January, with the temperature hovering around 28° C and a sweat-inducing 80% humidity. My relatives told me that the climate was the same year-round but I’d picked the rainiest season. Indeed, the monsoon showers came like sheets of water - one evening 120 ml of rain fell - and bolts of lightning caused my bed to shudder most nights. Along with pot-holed roads, falling coconuts and electrifying bolts of lightning, another hazard on Karkar is its volcanic core. The island is one of Papua New Guinea’s most volcanic regions and a previous eruption in 1979 killed two renowned volcanologists. I decided to check the volcanic rim out and my first climb, from the east, entailed joining a group of locals led by the ever-chirpy Pastor Matei.

We hiked for 4 hours from Pine, a small community, to Gomog, a larger village. The uphill hike was sweaty but beautiful, past tucked-away bush huts with wellmanicured gardens. When we arrived at our ‘basecamp’ we had a fireside dinner and I slept with five women on the floor of a traditional bush hut.

We woke at around 6 am for the summit but after only one hour of venturing along a narrow trail, we encountered two locals. One wielded a large machete and the other, an axe. They didn’t want any ‘f***ing white people’ to climb up to the summit. They threatened to kill us or do some damage if we continued. I felt bad, as I and a young man from Germany, a Lutheran missionary, were the only white people and our skin colour meant the whole group had to return. Our mountain adventure ended. Gomog has a reputation for being unwelcoming and I later learned that this was the spot where the American ornithologist was scalped. My family reassured me that I would be safe if I tackled the volcano from the west and I put my trust in their hands.

Paul drove me to the small. Village of Mom, and I was introduced to Gilbert, Jonathan, Flora, and Daisy, who would be my guides of the day. The four of us ventured into the jungle and Gilbert kindly gave me a strong branch to use as a walking stick as the wet earth was pretty slippery. A narrow trail snaked through grassy fields, dense forest, and smooth rock riverbeds where lava once glugged downhill to the ocean. It took four hours at a fast pace to reach the volcano rim. To my relief, there were no surprise encounters and the rain stayed at bay. Once we reached the top, I was left speechless by the otherworldly view. While on Karkar I had been reading Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Lost World” and it appeared I was staring at a scene straight from the pages.

After four weeks on Karkar, meeting my long-lost family and getting to grips with island life it was time to leave. I had to admit, I was looking forward to some relief from the heat and to driving on a proper road again.

This place is somewhere that will stay with me forever and I can’t wait to return. Sadly, my Great Uncle passed the year after I visited but his legacy lives on. He’s revered by the locals for his jolly spirit, willingness to learn and cultural respect. His motto was ‘we’re not normal here’ and Karkar certainly is a place that promises to keep you on your toes.

© Joel Carillets / iStock.com

“THE ISLAND IS ONE OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA’S MOST VOLCANIC REGIONS AND A PREVIOUS ERUPTION IN 1979 KILLED TWO RENOWNED VOLCANOLOGISTS.”

Extreme Expeditioning FOOTSTEPS ON THE GAMBIA

I embarked on this journey hoping it would be a world first - a 1120km ‘source to sea’ trek along the Gambia River, formerly known as the River Gambra, a major river in West Africa. The Gambia River is the only western African river which is easily accessible to oceangoing shipping.

I set out on this expedition with fellow adventurer and expedition photographer Tim Roberts. We started in Guinea which borders Liberia and Sierra Leone to the south, Guinea-Bissou to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, the Côte d’Ivoire to the southeast, and the Atlantic to the west. We set out from Conakry, the capital city of Guinea. After a long 2-day journey we reached the source of the Gambia River in the Fouta Djallon, Guinea. The headwaters of this river start in the Fouta Djallon, sandstone highlands of GuineaConakry, the landscape was wild and rugged with steep hills and remote settlements. Paths were almost non-existent along the river’s banks, consequently we were often forced into climbing the steep tracks away from the river itself.

This was the beginning of what would turn out to be an incredible journey, one of the wildest we had both undertaken to date. We found this expedition both physically and mentally challenging as this mountainous region consists of a series of stepped sandstone plateaus with numerous trenches and gorges. It is a watershed for several rivers: Gambia, Bafing (Sénégal), Koliba, Kolenté (Great Scarcies), Kaba (Little Scarcies), and the Konkouré. We endured constant hunger, dehydration yet the hardships were worthwhile for the privilege of walking among wild animals along the river banks. Whilst there were many physical challenges en-route, we were

uplifted by the warmth and kindness of the people we encountered. We were fortunate to encounter wonderful hosts who accommodated and fed us whilst we hiked the water’s edge. I always offered to pay for the hospitality received yet most of the time these generous people refused to accept payment, indicating it was their duty to offer the hospitality.

The river gradually widened, twisted and turned. Its presence left us feeling overwhelmed as well as isolated. Walking along its wild banks, we were simultaneously vulnerable yet free. We relied on the river not just for our expedition purpose, but also for its water for drinking and cooking and for the sense of freedom it bestowed upon us with its beauty and grace. The river’s magnificent everchanging landscapes attracted a wide variety of wild animals.

The river flows northwest from the Fouta Djallon into the Tambacounda Region of Senegal, a French speaking country, where it meanders through the Parc National du Niokolo Koba. This National Park was a highlight of our walk. It is vast, just under a million hectares, located along the banks of the Gambia river. It is uninhabited and has a variety of habitats including gallery forests, savannah grass floodplains, ponds and rocky slopes containing over 1,500 important plant species, 329 species of birds, 70 mammals including elephants, lions, hippopotamuses and the critically endangered Western Derby eland. It was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. It was added to the list of Endangered World Heritage Sites in 2007.

Chaz Powell

We were nearly denied access into the park, but miraculously we managed to secure a permit at the last moment. We had hiked and skirted along the river’s edge until we reached the Park gates. Upon which we were immediately met by two game rangers who were to accompany us through the park. We commenced what would become the ‘wildest’ section of our trek. Unfortunately, during these four days I felt at my lowest. My appetite had disappeared and the combination of the heat and the lack of food seriously drained my personal energy supplies. But those two rangers got me through and made walking through this Park making it one of the most memorable moments of our source to sea journey.

The Gambia River is subsequently joined by the Nieri Ko and Koulountou at Fatoto and flows in a westward direction. It has a meandering course containing oxbow lakes. The river also divides and reunites which has created islands, the largest is called Elephant Island. When times became difficult, it was often the local people we met along the way that would lift our spirits and inspire us to keep pushing forward with our journey. People who had very little in the way of possessions but would often open their doors and hearts to us to make us feel welcome. Whilst the landscapes, flora and fauna were phenomenal, it was the people of Guinea-Conakry, Senegal and The Gambia that made this expedition one of greatest journeys I’ve ever made.

The Gambia widens approximately 100km before its mouth at the sea, becoming more than 10km in width with dense mangrove swamps fringe its banks. On reaching the Atlantic Ocean, the mouth of the river, and the end

of our 1120km journey by foot, we felt a huge sense of satisfaction, elation and overwhelming joy. We had taken forty-seven days to walk over 1.5 million steps from source to sea. As far as we know, at that point we became the first known people to take on and complete this phenomenal journey. It had been a difficult, yet humbling challenge. We saw pollution in the rivers from gold mining, deforestation but we also witnessed first-hand the hard work of the game rangers in the national parks, especially in the Niokolo-Koba National Park to protect, manage and conserve the wildlife and fauna. I managed to raise just over £2000 for the African Wildlife Foundation who do such brilliant work.

Our journey from source to sea by foot had taken us through some of the wildest regions in Western Africa and we were welcomed by all that we had met on our path. This was an adventure that will stay with me forever and one that will be difficult to compare with any of my future ‘the wildest journey’ expeditions.

Chaz Powell is an explorer, expedition leader and survival guide. His project ‘The Wildest Journey’ is all about his missions to walk the length of Afrida’s wildest rivers in his fight against wildlife crime.

“WE SAW POLLUTION IN THE RIVERS FROM GOLD MINING, DEFORESTATION BUT WE ALSO WITNESSED FIRST-HAND THE HARD WORK OF THE GAME RANGERS IN THE NATIONAL PARKS, ESPECIALLY IN THE NIOKOLO-KOBA NATIONAL PARK TO PROTECT, MANAGE AND CONSERVE THE WILDLIFE AND FAUNA.

ATLANTIC OCEAN

AREA: 20% of Earth’s surface and 29% of its water surface area SIZE: 106,460,000 km2 (41,100,000 mi2)

LOCATION: It occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Europe and Africa to the East, and the Americas to the West.

GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES: Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Continental shelves, the North Atlantic Gyre and the South Atlantic Gyre, four water masses and numerous seas such as the Sargasso Sea

Ocean Profile HURRICANE AVOIDANCE FOR BEATNIKS AND BOATBUMS

‘We decided to become boat punks and live off-grid on an old wreck we fixed up, in a life of ocean itinerance. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into’

We’d had a tiring day. Skirting the coast, in the hope of avoiding gulf stream currents against us, we made our way south across the perpetual infuriating easterly swells. From Fort Pierce, Florida, to West Palm, or more correctly ‘Lake Worth Inlet’ doesn’t look far on the chart. We’d left the Fort Pierce Inlet after a lovely restful anchorage in Faber Cove, behind Causeway Island at the start of the Indian River.

‘You’ll like Fort Pierce’, our Kiwi friends had said in the boatyard a few weeks ago. They were right, although our old paper charts had almost run us aground by showing us a filled-in channel into the City fuel dock. Luckily, the dockmaster was excellent over the radio. He’d let us tie-up there the day before whilst I cycled to the post-office and back (eight miles) to retrieve important mail items. One was an emergency distress beacon for the boat. We’d taken it easy, leaving at 9:30 am. We were paying for it as we motored in almost no wind across the shoals of the Ocalina Bank. It took forever to pass the St Lucie Inlet. The swells made us queasy, and with no wind to stabilise the boat, she rolled.

Rupert Allen

“THE SWELLS MADE US QUEASY, AND WITH NO WIND TO STABILISE THE BOAT, SHE ROLLED.”

As we went, the accompanying soundtrack was of the twenty-four hour-a-day weather forecast, with news of the advancing hurricane. It was a few hundred miles out in the Atlantic. Was it coming this way? We were in the middle of the probability cone. It might dissipate and manifest in the form of thunderstorm cells. Strong winds granted – up to fifty knots – but not 150mph plus. Fifty knots lays the boat over on its side heavily. The waves created can easily wreck you. But that’s nowhere near hurricane force. In Europe, gales exist with winds from 50 knots up, but never more than seventy or eighty.

We dodged this hurricane, scooting south, and trying to keep a safe haven available. We took no unnecessary risks, but it cost us time and money. It was the beginning of the season. If the hurricane looked set to advance, we planned to turn around, go back up the Intra-Coastal Waterway to Stuart, and the St Lucie River, a well-known hurricane hole.

This part of the coast is cursed with two impassable inlets –St Lucie and Jupiter. As we got close to Jupiter Inlet, I heard a regular splashing of the water. Looking over perhaps a hundred yards inland, I saw the great flukes of a seacreature coming down on the water. Dolphins? Surely not, as they are not known for this behaviour. Scale is the most difficult aspect of visuals at sea. I wondered if these were the flukes of a huge whale until Dorry recalled this ‘muscleflexing’ as part of juvenile shark behaviour.

Certainly, much talk existed of at least two transient great whites further north in St Augustine. I’d been the subject of consternation and admiration whilst out on a constitutional

swim past a friendly surfer, as he waited for a set. I’d splashed onward outside the line-up with my silver Seiko watch flashing away on my wrist; oblivious, or perhaps more braced by the fact that I know this is not yet my time.

Two hours later we approached West Palm. It ought to have been more leisurely than it was, but as we came into the turning basin on a racing tide, we were hailed by one of the many large freight vessels. I mistook it for the Jamaican coaster which was unloading a huge freighter laying a mile or so off the coast at anchor. It moved back and forth on a tight schedule. We spent a few tense minutes avoiding the surge of its bowthrusters, as it turned and ran out for another load.

There was a wash of shoals and currents, and a very particular route to pick through a southerly inland channel to the anchorage we’d read about in our precious guide. We dropped anchor in an area lying between two submerged cables. This anchor had to be secure if any of the ghostly weather features suddenly materialised from the radio and into our 35ft long reality. We anchored for current, not wind. We’d made the right decision. The flow was strong in the night. I was nervous about swinging so close and hard to other boats. Once again, I was glad of our oversized hook and chain.

West Palm made us realise that we were in ‘yacht world’. We left our anchorage in the morning, back north after the morning weather bulletin. It was too dangerous to continue south. The immanence of unsavoury weather did not seem to concern a casual deckhand as he polished a plastic cockpit on a superyacht, listening to his iPod, too busy, too important to return the cheerful morning wave as we chugged past. Glumly, I studied this immaculate boat: it represented a luxurious restful world which I hankered after.

This boat was a taste- bypass: ‘plastic-fantastic’. A ‘stink boat’. A ‘gin-palace’. The rudeness offended me. I mused how our world-cruising boat was much less glamorous but more capable. We had infinitely less class, infinitely more style.

There was no going ashore. It was too exclusive to tie up a dinghy or bring our boat alongside. The weather bulletin made our decision. Back north and away from Chantale, across Lake Worth and up the ditch we went, encountering a couple of gung-ho other cruisers who weren’t as worried as we were on the way. Better safe than sorry...

Rupert is a craftsman, humanitarian, and ocean skipper, researching at the intersection of technical anthropology and spatial behaviour. His interventiondesign practice characteristically embeds at deep-field community level.

Images provided by Rupert Allen

ETHICAL DILEMMAS

with Simon Hoyte

The decolonising movement is picking up pace and research needs some self-reflection. Far too frequently research projects go ahead without asking who it really benefits. Change is long overdue.

“Are you going to stop the poaching? Traditionally we don’t use guns, they were brought by Europeans and outsiders. Before, we didn’t know hunting in the night but now they do it. The problem is you!”

I remember we were sitting on a damp log in the humid heat, surrounded by small plantain trees, frogs chatting in the streams and the canopy of the forest looking down upon us when Daniel Ntoutoumou, an indigenous community member, came out with this. We were in a tiny indigenous village in the south region of Cameroon, 25km from the Congolese border, and the question took me and an NGO colleague by surprise.

Popular discourse on the illegal wildlife trade is quick to come to the conclusion that poachers on the ground are the culprits, slaughtering animals at will in order to cash in off their ivory, pelts or scales. The international community must crack down through stricter laws and enforcement, the argument goes. But did anyone take the time to sit down with communities so often considered poachers, and ask them what they think? Through Daniel Ntoutoumou’s eyes, the French, British and Germans (all of whom colonised Cameroon) alongside the Cameroon state are the instigators and facilitators of the wildlife trade, not them, the products ending up in countries they’ve never heard of or big Central African cities they’ll never visit. Oftentimes the hunter receives none of the promised cash, instead thrown a packet of cigarettes and a sachet of alcohol.

IS MY RESEARCH COLONIAL?

As a European, I thought about this for quite some time in relation to my own reason for visiting. Rest assured, I was not there to pluck the scales of a pangolin, but what disturbed me was what all this can have in common with research projects: extraction. Just as wildlife traffickers arrive with all the tools for the job (firearm and flashlight) and hurry out with the prize, so too can researchers, with potentially no benefits for the communities living there. Knowledge for research projects can be extracted just like ivory, gold and oil can, providing profits not necessarily in the form of fortunes, but rather as degrees, professorships, and journal articles. Armed with these, the cycle of ‘parachute science’ goes round again, after all, local researchers, particularly in the Global South, often have no access to funding, facilities and literature and may have starkly different knowledge systems which are not treated as valid.

This extraction is perhaps most well-known in relation to medicinal intellectual property, whereby traditional pharmacological knowledge of local flora is stolen by multinational drug companies, but it extends also to physical spaces and objects. For example, the designation of protected areas by conservationists has been criticised as ‘land grabbing’ in many cases (Fairhead et al. 2012), and the acquisition of cultural artefacts and human material by anthropologists and archaeologists can be done without proper consent.

With heightening recognition of the influence research projects can have in perpetuating injustice and inequality, researchers are being called upon to “actively challenge colonialism, racism, and oppressive structures embedded within their institutions, projects, and themselves” (McAlvay et al. 2021:170).

“THE PROCESS IS THEREFORE NOT JUST ABOUT LEARNING, BUT LEARNING TO UN-LEARN ENTRENCHED WAYS OF KNOWING AND DOING.”

So, what can we do?

Whilst decolonising is about actively recognising and addressing oppressive structures, it’s also about taking a step back. Christopher Trisos and colleagues, although looking specifically at the discipline of ecology, outline this nicely by describing five main themes of focus: decolonise your mind, know your histories, decolonise access, decolonise expertise, and inclusive teams (read more about these: Trisos et al. 2021). Taking a step back can mean ‘who gets to ask the questions?’, as Linda Tuhiwai Smith challenges us, “How can research ever address our needs as indigenous peoples if our questions are not taken seriously?” (Smith 2012:230). These considerations should take pride of place in ethics applications.

Research projects have the chance not only to address injustice but also greatly improve their scope and sustainability by designing the project alongside local and indigenous communities in the regions in which they plan to be implemented, rather than arriving with a project fully formed. This will often require greater engagement with social science methodologies and collaboration with local institutions and organisations, or ideally local community members themselves, particularly because the ways of discussing and approaching the problems in question, as well as the how to access and use the relevant knowledge, may differ hugely from the researcher’s. Indigenous storywork, for example, is a primary means by which knowledge is recorded and taught across indigenous cultures the world over, from ecology and history to law and mathematics (see Xiiem et al. 2019). The process is therefore not just about learning, but learning to un-learn entrenched ways of knowing and doing. Simply sitting down to listen to local opinions and priorities in relation to the project’s topic is the best place to start.

REFERENCES

Simon is pursuing a PhD in environmental anthropology at University College London. Through living with indigenous forest peoples in Cameroon, he’s learning about the role local knowledge and culture plays in conservation.

C. H. Trisos, J. Auerbach, and M. Katti. (2021) ‘Decoloniality and anti-oppressive practices for a more ethical ecology’, Nature Ecology and Evolution (Accessed 17 August 2021).

A. McAlvay et al (2021) ‘Ethnobiology Phase VI: Decolonizing Institutions, Projects, and Scholarship’, Journal of Ethnobiology, 41(2), 170-191. (Accessed 17 August 2021).

S. Brittain et al (2020) ‘Ethical considerations when conservation research involves people’, Conservation Biology, 34, pp. 925-933. (Accessed 17 August 2021).

J. Fairhead, M. Leach, and I. Scoones, (2012) ‘Green Grabbing: a new appropriation of nature?’, The Journal of Peasant Studies, 39, pp. 237-261. (Accessed 17 August 2021).

L. T. Smith, (2012). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. 2nd ed. London: Zed.

J. A. Q. Q. Xiiem, J. B. J. Lee-Morgan, and J. D. Santolo, (2019). Decolonizing Research: Indigenous Storywork as Methodology. London: Zed.

Mind Matters and Bodily Functions A GATEWAY TOWARDS MODERN EXPLORATION

Hands up who needs an adventure?!

It’s been a tough year and a half for the restless nomads and adventurous spirits among us. We climbed Everest by walking up and down our stairs. We became ‘armchair adventurers’ from the comfort of our living rooms. We explored the jungles of our wild back gardens. We scaled the icecaps through slipping and skating across our wintery paths. We sated our thirst for adventure with, as British explorer Alastair Humphreys describes it, ‘microadventures’ close to home.

COVID-19 was the ‘Great Pause’ for us all. In the early days of the pandemic, prolific Indian author Arundhati Roy observed how despair offered us a chance to ‘imagine the world anew, and not return to normality’ (which we so desperately long for). Arundhati stated the pandemic “is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next…[which] we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”

If COVID-19 was the ‘Great Pause’, a “portal” for us to journey onward, what does this mean for expeditioning? Will we take this opportunity to reimagine the values of exploration, and embrace a paradigm shift towards a new era of modern exploration? Or will we stay the same?

Britain’s legacy of expeditioning is well known. In the UK we grew up hearing stories of our intrepid ancestors battling the elements and [often] indigenous communities to conquer nature, peoples and attain glory. Similar stories are passed down through myth, story, and school across the world. Whether told by the fireside or state sanctioned, these tales reflect the zeitgeist of identity, culture, and sense of place, particularly during times of national, social, economic, and existential uncertainty.

However, in line with contemporary conceptualisation, the psychology, and objectives of modern expeditioning is shifting - from complicated connotations of colonial conquest and exploitation to EXPLORATION of people, environments, and the self for discovery, research, and conservation. In my positive psychology research with explorer-adventurers, people passionately asserted expedition values of connection, compassion, and objectives of pushing personal limits to become the highest version of the self. Individuals return to their families and communities a more grounded, loving, and giving person. Modern exploration can be the active participation in an Adventurous Way of Being; a lifestyle that celebrates the capacity for human flourishing, transcendence, and interconnection.

We’ve all lived in this pandemic ocean together. However, we are all in different boats - some of us are in luxury ships, others in broken down dinghies. We know the inequalities. So, how can we move forward with intentionality; to have a conversation where all needs are met (from stakeholder to beneficiary; from local/ indigenous to traveller/ guest)? How do we cultivate dialogue and collaborative practices that create

Emma Miller

an ethical and shared way forward? How can we lead from values-based aims, objectives and methodologies grounded in compassion, interconnection, human thriving, and the pursuit of the highest self and the highest good? These to me are the cornerstones of modern exploration.

The world is timidly re-opening, learning from the places where rules have been relaxed (see the BBC article on this published this summer). Those involved in expeditions can get back to planning and travelling. So how will we sail forward, and in what ship? Arundhati Roy wrote of the dilemma when we can walk through the portal, dragging our past behind us; “the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice… our dead rivers and smoky skies.” Or we can choose to “walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world.”

Roy reminds us that this is our opportunity, and as explorers who move through the world with openness and curiosity, we already know how to pack light. So, pick up your backpack, lace up your boots, and with compass in hand; how will you choose to walk through the gateway towards modern exploration?

The questions below can act as guides for our choice of ‘ship’ through Roy’s “portal” towards modern exploration. May you journey onwards with intentionality, compassion, interconnection, and with a swift wind for your sails!

Questions to explore for modern expeditioning:

• What does modern/ post-COVID expeditioning and exploration look like to me? How can I be an advocate for modern exploration that is based on highest good and interconnection?

- What will I commit to learning more about?

• What has my impact, legacy, culture been to date?

- What will I do differently?

- What commitments will I make going forward?

• What do I want my legacy regarding my exploration and expeditions?

• What are the shared values of our expedition? (Ethos, culture, team, individuals)

• How can I involve local communities/ guides/ organisations in the planning process of our expedition to ensure we are operating from the perspective of the highest good for all parties?

REFERENCES

Roy, A., (2020)‘The pandemic is a portal’. Available at https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fefcd274e920ca (Accessed: 15 September 2021).

BBC (2021) Covid-19 rules: How six countries fared after easing Covid rules. Available at https://www.bbc.com/ news/world-57796133. (Accessed: 15 September 2021).

Pandemic specific questions with which to explore modern expeditioning:

• What are the reasons for travelling at the moment?

- Do strong ethical reasons exist for stakeholders and beneficiaries and are these in the highest good for all?

- What are the values and beliefs of our expedition team around travelling during COVID-19 pandemic?

- Could our expedition achieve similar goals without me and an international team even travelling?

• What measures must I take to minimise exposure and support the health of my expedition team and the local communities we will be journeying with/ through?

- If we get a positive case of COVID-19 in our team, how will we keep the rest of the team and the communities we engage with safe and healthy?

- How can we ensure that we do not burden local resources if we do become unwell with COVID-19?

- How will we deal with the situation if we, as a team, inadvertently bring COVID-19 to the communities and people we engage with?

• If postponing the expedition is the decision for the health and safety of all involved, how can we support local stakeholders/beneficiaries until a time which is safer to travel for all parties?

Yours in exploration, Emma

Emma Miller Is a Wellbeing Specialist, Positive Psychologist Msc., Award Winning Explorer & Founder of Wellbeing Explorers. Wellbeing Explorers facilitates Your Journey of Self-Mastery, and An Adventurous Way of Being. www.wellbeingexplorers.com @wellbeingexplorers emma@wellbeingexplorers.com

“IN MY POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH WITH EXPLORERADVENTURERS, PEOPLE PASSIONATELY ASSERTED EXPEDITION VALUES OF CONNECTION, COMPASSION, AND OBJECTIVES OF PUSHING PERSONAL LIMITS TO BECOME THE HIGHEST VERSION OF THE SELF.”

OPTIMISING PSYCHOSOCIAL EXPERIENCES ON EXPEDITIONS

Mind Matters and Bodily Functions

Dr Robert Wuebker is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Strategy, University of Utah. His research and teaching focuses on innovation, entrepreneurship, and experimentation in new ventures and established firms.

STATUS: FORTHCOMING

Dr Nathan Smith is a Research Fellow in Psychology, Security and Trust, University of Manchester. His research primarily focuses on issues of resilience and thriving in high-risk occupational settings.

Expedition Impact ARCTIC EXPEDITION TOURISM: PARTICIPANT PERSPECTIVES

Joshua Powell is a conservation biologist and a PhD candidate at ZSL and UCL. He was the recipient of a 2019 SES Explorer Award.

STATUS: FORTHCOMING

Dr Nathan Smith and Dr Robert Wuebker

Joshua Powell, Doctoral Student, Department of Geography, UCL, London, UK

FUNDWORTHY EXPEDITIONS

Each year through its Explorer Awards programme, Scientific Exploration Society runs an open call for applications from pioneers with purpose and scientific trailblazers who are looking for grants to fund scientific expeditions that focus on discovery, research and conservation in remote parts of the world offering

knowledge, education and community aid. We asked SES Explorer Awards and Expeditions Manager, Nikki Skinner, to share a selection of fund-worthy expeditions from the last batch of applications. Please do contact these inspirational pioneers with purpose if you can help them seek funding for their expeditions.

16 survivors spent 72 gruelling days in 1972 on a high-altitude remote glacier in the Andes in an incredible tale of resilience of the human spirit. 50 years later, the glacier is revealing more artefacts as climate change melts it away. This expedition seeks to unravel the scientific story of survival – both human and glacier – through use of modern-day technology.

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ANDES SURVIVORS DEEP AMAZON: FOLLOWING YNES MEXIA

ulyana@scienceinthewild.com @scienceinthewild scienceinthewild

Ynés Mexia explored the source of the Amazon at the age 61. Follow your instinct, there is no age limit for great explorations! I want to track her steps and decipher the secrets of the Amazon magnificent vegetation. Support our journey and let’s spark nature’s love by exposing the delightful plants in the deepest forests.

tiaynesmexia.wixsite.com/home @alejajaramillo1302

On-the-steps-of-YnésMexia-110559921203362

Dr. Ulyana Horodyskyj

Alejandra Jaramillo

LA ABEJA: AN EXPEDITION IN THE LACANDON JUNGLE

The Mayan archaeological site “La Abeja” has been lost in the Lacandona Jungle in Chiapas, Mexico since the 1940s. We are planning an interdisciplinary expedition including a documentary filmmaker, a photographer, river explorers, an archaeologist and indigenous guides, to search for and document this site as well as the environmental threats that the tropical rainforest and communities are facing.

youtu.be/H93Ohw8Mtms youtu.be/ZY-ZrGcEUWQ @carlosherreravisual carlos@ecosistemasconsultoria.org

RAINFOREST PROTECTORS

Deep within Central America’s ancient rainforests, a new legacy is born. Just a generation ago, one rural community decimated the jaguar’s main prey source. Today, their children are the animal’s unwavering protectors. A model story of conservation success, this expedition will document the sacrifices, bravery and grit needed to protect biodiversity in our planet’s last wild places.

Carlos Miguel Herrera Tapia Lucy Kleiner

NET ZERO ACTION: DIGITISING FIELD TRIPS

Climate Sensitive Expeditioning

The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) takes place this November in the UK. The COP26 summit will bring delegates, including Heads of State, climate experts, and negotiators together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In the build up to it, non-state actors (such as regions, cities, businesses and investors) have been urged to join the Race to Zero, a global campaign to rally leadership and support for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery.

These commitments require substantial changes in the way organisations operate and conduct their day to day business. Earth Minutes, an environmental communications service grounded in science, is currently developing an EdTech solution that both addresses the accessibility of Geography field-trips, and encourages Higher Education Institutions to lead by example and provide all students with the sufficient tools to learn about the environment in a fundamentally sustainable way (i.e. low-carbon impact). The project trialling this, in partnership with Durham University is known as the Research Expedition for Net Zero and Universal Learning, ‘Project RENU’.

Field-trips act as the cornerstone to the study of Geography, as well as other science-related fields (i.e. geoscience). With this, it is important to stress that digital field-trip experiences should not replace all field-trips and they should be used as an alternative opportunity for students where a physical field-trip is not an option (i.e. due to student accessibility or external factors resulting in cancellations). There is also a lack of research and action undertaken at Higher Education level to consider the carbon footprint of field-trips (i.e. travel abroad). This is crucial to acknowledge because there is has been a significant increase in exotic (i.e. abroad) field-trips offered by universities related to the competitive nature of securing university applicants.

Project RENU involves the implementation of a digital fieldtrip experience. It has been developed by Earth Minutes and is being trialled in partnership with Durham

Emma Askew

University for their second-year module, ‘Glaciers and Glaciation’, within the Geography (BSc) degree. The key objective is to build a webpage platform over a one-year period (2020-2021), which uses engaging communication techniques (i.e. short films, 360-video/sound, animation and article resources) and follows sustainable digital practices in association with Albert (Sustainable Production Certification).

Carbon emission savings will be estimated and projected for the Geography Department and the wider University to assess carbon footprint impact.

The impact on student learning and accessibility is being assessed in partnership with organisations ‘Teach the Future’ and the ‘Black Geographers’ who are examining the impact of implementing this learning technique across the wider education curriculum and advising on development of resources that are inherently inclusive.

A full evaluation report will be published within the coming months to summarise the success in terms of the learning objectives, accessibility and inclusion, cost, and climate action in comparison to a traditional field trip. So far, our research has indicated that digital field-trip experiences could increase student participation in geography, which could go onto encourage further interest in the sustainable career sector.

We are proud that this project has also recently been selected for the ‘Enterprise’ category of the Green Gown Awards (2021) and look forward to updating readers of ‘Exploration Revealed’ on our findings.

Founder of Earth Minutes, an environmental communications service, Emma Askew is on a mission to make environmental learning accessible to all to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to live and think more sustainably.

UPSKILLING FOR EXPEDITIONS

Autumn 2021 saw the launch of the Scientific Exploration Society’s Learning and Development programme which aims to complement award winners on both their SES supported expedition and longer-term future development.

The programme centralises around a bespoke capability building tool, that identifies gaps in award winners’ skillsets. It works on a self-assessment of current and needed capability based on level required for role in the expedition, from awareness through to expert. The tool covers:

• Project Management and Leadership

• Finance and budgeting

• Communication and outreach

• Wellbeing & Personal fitness

• Legal

• Security context

• Research

• Digital technology

• Equality & diversity

• Environmental conditions

The answers of individuals can then be reviewed at a cohort level by the SES to identify group training requirements, clusters with similar upskilling needs as well as individual capability building requirements. Award winners will be able to use the tool to construct their personal development plan, addressing identified capability gaps through involvement in group workshops and 1:1 discussion with professionals in a specific field.

This programme is also open to previous award winners. If you would like to get involved in the programme, please contact charlotte@ses-explore.org. SES is trialing this with the current cohort of ward winners and is calling in past award winners to assist in helping to develop these skills.

Charlotte Austwick is an anthropologist, filmmaker, and educator. She was the 2019 SES Rivers Foundation Explorer for Health and Humanities. She is the Scientific Exploration Society’s voluntary Learning and Development Officer, helping like-minded explorers improve their skill sets.

@charlotteaustwick

Join today!

Join a community of like-minded people who are interested in learning about and conserving the world we live in. Support the longest-running scientific exploration organisation in the world and help it continue its quest to enable the next generation of scientific explorers.

• Complimentary access to all issues of the Society’s digital publication Exploration Revealed.

• FREE admission to a full and varied programme of Explorer Talks.

• Take-up opportunities to go on exciting SES Endorsed scientific expeditions.

• Attend the annual ‘Oscars of Exploration’ Explorer Awards presentation ceremony where grants are awarded to inspirational individuals leading scientific expeditions.

• Keep up to date with the latest scientific exploration news and views via the Scientific Explorer Annual Review, e-Newsletters, website, and social media.

• Enjoy discounts from outdoor adventure stores and on SES books, expedition DVDs, and videos.