In 2014, Wanderlust had the opportunity to meet all manner of people to discuss the world of travel and exploration – actors, writers, presenters, taxi drivers – proving that journeys are as varied as the people who embark on them. We talked monkeys, space travel and tuk-tuks, and we've compiled some of our favourite – and wisest – snippets here
Read the full interview here
Julia Bradbury: "There are still so many places to explore. Travel broadens the mind and it teaches you so much. It's a wonderful privilege. You learn about different cultures and you have to learn to tolerate different cultures as well. We live in a very liberal country and when you travel to the middle east and parts of India you realise that women in India have got a long long way to go. At the moment I think in the Indian community dolphins are appreciated more highly than women. I'm all for saving the dolphins but can we put women up there as well please."
Read the full interview here
Julia Bradbury (BBC Pictures)
Michael Palin: "I cracked a rib in the Zambezi white-water rafting so I had to go to the South Pole with a cracked rib... but what I was seeing, what I was doing, was always in the end a stronger motive than everything else. And so in the depths of gloom and pain and discomfort, I would have to think that as a whole this was a great adventure and I was a very lucky person to be able to do this."
Read the full interview here
Tim Butcher: "Travel is magic because it takes us all the way from our humdrum to the spectacular. I got just as excited taking my six and eight year old down a benign river as I have on many of my more adventurous journeys because I was doing something I'd never done before: watching my children sleep under the stars for the first time, and learning to poo in the bushes. It sounds mundane, but it's just as rewarding as getting shot at in Kosovo or negotiating with warlords in Liberia. Travel is as powerful today as it was for Herodotus." Read the full interview here
Read the full interview here
Michael Palin (supplied)
Karl Pilkington: [On where in the world he would choose to live and why] "I'm always happy to get back home so it must be Britain. As much as everyone who lives here moans about it, it's still pretty good compared to a lot of places in the world. I’ve found that after a while you see a lot of similarities no matter where you are. Everyone is the same all over the world. I was with a tribe who used frog sweat to get off their head whereas we use ‘Bargain Booze’ that gives the same end result. I’m telling you, we’re all the same."
Read the full interview here
Read the full interview here
David Attenborough: "Human beings are dependent on the natural world. Every mouthful we eat comes from the natural world; every breath we take comes from the natural world. So the health of the natural world is the same as our health – and if we poison the natural world, often we poison ourselves too. That’s the simple truth."
Read the full interview here
David Attenborough (BBC Pictures)
George McGavin: [On the message he wished to convey to the audience of the BBC's Monkey Planet] "I hope that they realise that we are part of this amazing family and that we are responsible for their survival, as well as our own. Gorillas, orang utans, chimpanzees, monkeys – they have just as much right to exist, to share this planet as we do. We have to have a jolly good think about what we appreciate and what we value and what we have to do to help them survive. They’re our relatives and you’ve got to look after your relatives. If you analyze a chimpanzee’s DNA, it’s vitally us. It’s as close as makes no difference, really."
Read the full interview here
Read the full interview here
Simon Reeve (BBC Pictures)
Kate Humble: "The very sad thing is that people think that if you dump litter in the sea or on a beach it’s going to conveniently disappear and no-one’s going to care or worry about it again, but that isn’t the case. Plastic litter doesn’t just disappear. It hangs around for thousands of years and it causes untold damage. I’ve seen seals, basking sharks, tangled up in marine litter, discarded fishing nets or fishing lines."
Read the full interview here
Read the full interview here
Read the full interview here
Karl Pilkington: [On the £125,000 price-tag on a trip to space] "I don’t know why it’s that expensive as Space isn't that far away, it's only about 68 miles away, I used to drive 70 miles to Deal in Kent for the odd weekend and that costs £15 for fuel there and back. Also it wouldn’t feel like you are really getting away from it all as you’ll probably spend all the time looking out the window seeing if you can see your house."
Read the full interview here
Read the full interview here
Mason McQueen (BBC Pictures)
Read the full interview here
Mason McQueen: "Sometimes I come back I feel guilty and helpless that I can’t fix it. Simon, the director said ‘You are highlighting it.’ If you can do that then stuff can be done from that. Like a woman got in contact with me regarding Polo in that she wanted to help with his mum’s medical care so Susu can go live with them. That’s my job done mate."
Read the full interview here
Read the full interview here
Main image: Retro microphone (Shutterstock)
On why we travel...
Simon Pegg: "The more people you meet, the more you understand humanity; you understand what happiness means to them. It was very interesting to go to South Africa and stay in a central part of Johannesburg where there are lots of gated communities. We were filming in areas where there’s a lot of hardships, but a lot of smiles. Every time we came to a different location we had a partially local crew made up of local technicians. I loved the people; I found them to be really happy and welcoming."Read the full interview here
Julia Bradbury: "There are still so many places to explore. Travel broadens the mind and it teaches you so much. It's a wonderful privilege. You learn about different cultures and you have to learn to tolerate different cultures as well. We live in a very liberal country and when you travel to the middle east and parts of India you realise that women in India have got a long long way to go. At the moment I think in the Indian community dolphins are appreciated more highly than women. I'm all for saving the dolphins but can we put women up there as well please."
Read the full interview here
Julia Bradbury (BBC Pictures)
Michael Palin: "I cracked a rib in the Zambezi white-water rafting so I had to go to the South Pole with a cracked rib... but what I was seeing, what I was doing, was always in the end a stronger motive than everything else. And so in the depths of gloom and pain and discomfort, I would have to think that as a whole this was a great adventure and I was a very lucky person to be able to do this."
Read the full interview here
Tim Butcher: "Travel is magic because it takes us all the way from our humdrum to the spectacular. I got just as excited taking my six and eight year old down a benign river as I have on many of my more adventurous journeys because I was doing something I'd never done before: watching my children sleep under the stars for the first time, and learning to poo in the bushes. It sounds mundane, but it's just as rewarding as getting shot at in Kosovo or negotiating with warlords in Liberia. Travel is as powerful today as it was for Herodotus." Read the full interview here
On coming home...
Michael Palin: "I’ve only been abroad for a week and I look out of the window and I think: 'Well, this is a pretty beautiful place to live, the British Isles.' I do love my home; I love my base here, because that’s where I collect all the information I’ve gathered, put my plans together for future trips and that sort of thing."Read the full interview here
Michael Palin (supplied)
Karl Pilkington: [On where in the world he would choose to live and why] "I'm always happy to get back home so it must be Britain. As much as everyone who lives here moans about it, it's still pretty good compared to a lot of places in the world. I’ve found that after a while you see a lot of similarities no matter where you are. Everyone is the same all over the world. I was with a tribe who used frog sweat to get off their head whereas we use ‘Bargain Booze’ that gives the same end result. I’m telling you, we’re all the same."
Read the full interview here
On our disengagement with the natural world...
Kate Humble: "So many of us try to block out what’s happening in the natural world. If it’s cold we put the central heating on; if it’s hot we put on air conditioning – what a crime! We seem to want to be removed and apart from what’s going on in the natural world. That's probably why I’ve become so entranced by the idea of farming and producing food: you have to be aware of what the weather’s doing, you have to know when the sun coming up and when it’s going to go down. I love that; it makes me feel properly part of the world, if that makes any sense?"Read the full interview here
David Attenborough: "Human beings are dependent on the natural world. Every mouthful we eat comes from the natural world; every breath we take comes from the natural world. So the health of the natural world is the same as our health – and if we poison the natural world, often we poison ourselves too. That’s the simple truth."
Read the full interview here
David Attenborough (BBC Pictures)
George McGavin: [On the message he wished to convey to the audience of the BBC's Monkey Planet] "I hope that they realise that we are part of this amazing family and that we are responsible for their survival, as well as our own. Gorillas, orang utans, chimpanzees, monkeys – they have just as much right to exist, to share this planet as we do. We have to have a jolly good think about what we appreciate and what we value and what we have to do to help them survive. They’re our relatives and you’ve got to look after your relatives. If you analyze a chimpanzee’s DNA, it’s vitally us. It’s as close as makes no difference, really."
Read the full interview here
On sustainability...
Simon Reeve: [On China's devastating effect on Africa] "Forests have been logged to provide wood for Chinese sawmills, even though that wood is often turned into parquet flooring and sold on to Europe or the USA. I feel more torn now than I have done in the past. I'd only seen it as little short of evil – now I see what the results have been for people in China. It has lifted hundreds of millions of human beings out of extreme poverty."Read the full interview here
Simon Reeve (BBC Pictures)
Kate Humble: "The very sad thing is that people think that if you dump litter in the sea or on a beach it’s going to conveniently disappear and no-one’s going to care or worry about it again, but that isn’t the case. Plastic litter doesn’t just disappear. It hangs around for thousands of years and it causes untold damage. I’ve seen seals, basking sharks, tangled up in marine litter, discarded fishing nets or fishing lines."
Read the full interview here
...and how tourism can help
Jonathan Scott: "If we turn our back on wildlife-based tourism, we are making it easier for poachers. The benefit of tourists visiting Kenya is that it is much harder for the poachers to move in and do their business without anyone knowing about it. There are more eyes and ears and telephoto lenses on the ground – and the money from visitors’ park fees helps to pay the costs of protecting our wildlife. But it is a constant battle and we have to be vigilant. Even the Mara has felt the impact of serious poaching."Read the full interview here
On space travel
Simon Pegg: "I would love to do it! If I could justify spending that amount of money on myself then I absolutely would! If it ever becomes an opportunity I’ll leap at it because being a spaceman was my first career choice. I think everyone should see us from above. It will give people a greater respect for human life and the planet as well, to see it as this fragile thing. It’s a perspective I think we all need really."Read the full interview here
Karl Pilkington: [On the £125,000 price-tag on a trip to space] "I don’t know why it’s that expensive as Space isn't that far away, it's only about 68 miles away, I used to drive 70 miles to Deal in Kent for the odd weekend and that costs £15 for fuel there and back. Also it wouldn’t feel like you are really getting away from it all as you’ll probably spend all the time looking out the window seeing if you can see your house."
Read the full interview here
On finding common ground...
Mason McQueen: "In Mumbai and Cambodia, there were real little communities, just like around Bethnal Green when I was younger. You knew everyone on the street and everyone looked out for each other’s kids. There was a sense of acceptance that was nice. Always welcoming, always smiling, even though they’ve got nothing. Living on the breadline, really."Read the full interview here
Mason McQueen (BBC Pictures)
...and making a little difference
Simon Reeve: "You have to have a heart of stone not to be affected by some things. Even on this series [Sacred Rivers]... you can't avoid life as it's lived it remote parts of Sudan where people are begging desperately by the side of dirt tracks for a sip of water, or the endless suffering of poor street kids in India. That's been very tough. If I was there longer I might have had more of a chance to help."Read the full interview here
Mason McQueen: "Sometimes I come back I feel guilty and helpless that I can’t fix it. Simon, the director said ‘You are highlighting it.’ If you can do that then stuff can be done from that. Like a woman got in contact with me regarding Polo in that she wanted to help with his mum’s medical care so Susu can go live with them. That’s my job done mate."
Read the full interview here
And on the importance of earplugs
Doug Lansky: "Hostels and cheap hotels are often located next to busy streets and nightclubs. Some buses and trains have minimal ventilation and you’ll need to keep the windows open, which lets in plenty of air but more decibels than you’d care for. And don’t forget about the snoring roommate – there’s typically one assigned to every dormitory room."Read the full interview here
Main image: Retro microphone (Shutterstock)
