Book Review: The Natural Explorer

What does it mean to be an explorer in the age of Google Earth? When, unlike Magellan or Amundsen, we can not venture into lands uncharted or unmapped but rather known with a sometimes deep history, how can we still explore?

Those are the questions posed in The Natural Explorer by Tristan Gooley, author of The Natural Navigator. In what will surely become recognised as a classic of the genre Tristan reclaims the word for all of us.

Tristan (*) approaches the word in two directions. Firstly by suggesting we appreciate more the journeys we take by seeing how even the simplest path interacts with layers upon layers of information and knowledge.

Keep you senses, heart and mind open to the world around you. Be aware of the plants, the animals, the soil, the coastline, the hills and mountains, the sky, light and weather, waters both still and flowing, trees, woods and forests, geology and history, humans, cultures, food, drink, possessions, language, religions, beauty, music, art and so see the richness of the world.

As an example of this philosophy Tristan offers us the great German explorer Alexander von Humboldt who relished this greater treasure and his writing was valued by many not just of his time, like Charles Darwin, but also today.

For Humboldt also shows a way forward for exploring, as an act of communication. Those that gained the label of great explorer are almost by definition those that told the world of what they found.

And the modern explorer can do the same, for communicating what he or she finds is actually more necessary as the amount of information we could possibly know becomes an overpowering tsunami.

Filter data for knowledge, select stories wisely to tell truths, these are the tasks of the modern day explorer.

Another great read, well written and thought providing.


(*) full disclosure: Tristan is a sailing friend of mine

Picture from: Amazon

Sea Change by Michael Martin

The tides are an ever present reality for those sailing in the waters around Britain. We have some of the greatest ranges in water level in the world and it has a dramatic impact on the coastline as shown in these photos by artist Michael Martin.

Sea Change is a series of pairs of photos, one at high water and another at low water, exploring how the landscape is changed and how that effects how us humans behave. Most were taken during springs when the contrasts are at their greatest.

A beautiful and strangely moving set of photos, and I look forward to seeing the exhibition in September.



Photos: by Michael Martin from here.

The Patagonian Expedition Race 2012

I did another trip to the gym this evening and had that nice warm healthy feeling, but then I read about the Patagonian Expedition Race and that put my 25 minutes in perspective.

The "Last Wild Race" as it is also known, involves competing teams of four biking, orienteering and kayaking their way across remote parts of Patagonia including Tierra del Fuego and the Strait of Magellan. Each year's course is different and no GPS is allowed, just old fashioned compass and map reading.

Over around 10 days they will navigate across between 500 and 1000 km of incredibly beautiful yet hard landscapes.



There is a wicked part of me that thinks "Across the Andes by Frog" but that's probably because I'm jealous of the experiences they will have - if, that is, they finish it, as the drop out rate is around a third.

Anyway, good luck to the British teams and in particular Nick Gracie who is looking for his fourth victory!



Map of 2012 route: from Patagonian Expedition Race

The boat races and the fishy fish

Two stories from Putney to end the week.

First up the news that from 2015 Putney will no longer be the start of a University Boat Race - rather there will be two University Boat Races, one for men and another for women. About time too, many will say.

The second news is from the soar-away Sun about the record 10 lb rainbow trout caught by an angler on Putney Embankment.

However today doubts have been raised, with an expert pointing out that the rainbow trout is not indigenous to the Thames and that it had marks that could be signs of it being frozen.

Hmmmm...... something smells not right about that story.

Ah well, at least now have a whole weekend to ponder about there being a tide in history etc.


Picture from: The Telegraph here.

MONSTER lurking in Olympic river

Der-dum, der-dum, der-dum!!!

London's geese have another thing to worry about on top of it being the season to roast them. An unknown KILLER is on the loose on the river Lea and it is grabbing geese and pulling them underwater to their DEATH.

The River Lea seemed placid enough when I saw it where it joins the Thames at Trinity Wharf but before that it goes through east London, looping round the Olympic site, and that's where the ATTACKS occur.

So what is the aquatic fiend? Could the MONSTER be an ALLIGATOR or a CROCODILE - or even an escaped PYTHON? Or maybe its a giant pike, terrapin or mink?

Truth is no one knows so watch the skys waters!

Der-dum, der-dum, der-dum!!

America will see all episodes from epic Frozen Planet series

I've just watched the seventh and final episode of the BBC's series Frozen Planet, and what a wonder it has been. David Attenborough (officially a national treasure) has for most of my life been presenting great natural history programs and this must rank as one of the best.

It has humbled as it has amazed and fascinated, leaving us the viewer awestruck, and every week has been a gem, especially when seen in the HD it deserves. I'm glad I managed to see every single episode, and will feel its absence next Wednesday.

But not everyone will see all seven, for some countries will only see six episodes, rejecting the final one, the one that talked about the polar regions warming.

Warming is an observation, what the team (and others) have seen. Such as the difference between the picture above of a glacier in Shackleton's days and the same one more recently, below:

Other observations are again just that, such as that military in their submarines have noted that the Arctic ice is in places half the thickness it was in the 1980s. Another is that the polar regions are heating many times - up to 10 times - that of the rest of the planet.

It is also a simple fact that the Larsen B ice shelf collapsed in 2002 and afterwards glaciers sped up six times.

But initially the Discovery channel in America said it would only transmit the first six, reluctant to broadcast those facts - or maybe it was those two dangerous words that David Attenborough said, namely "global warming".

Fortunately its been announced just in the last few days they will after all show the final episode, so Americans can decide for themselves, but its crazy it was even an issue.

Earlier this year I reviewed Simon Winchester's Atlantic including the catastrophic over-fishing of the Newfoundland Grand Banks which I described as "rather stupid".

I fear that we humans are about to be "rather stupid" on an epic scale.

When rats attack! ... or the rat matador and other stories

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man ..... oops, slight distraction there. What meant to say it's well known that JP doesn't do frost-biting.

Or at least hasn't - there are plans, wheels within wheels, the game's afoot etc - but more on that another time.  So without anything boat related here's the first of three London tales, starting with a long grey tail.

Yesterday I saw a rat, a big one, and it saw me. But rather than running away (it that is, not me) the darn thing charged straight at me. Fleet of foot I jumped to one side like a rat matador only to see the little blighter swing round and have another charge.

Hello, hello, hello, thinks I, what's all this? I remembered an urban myth about squirrels in Brixton getting addicted to crack after digging up drug dealer's stashes and wondered whether I was facing a rat having a bad trip or just your everyday demonic possession.

Thinking on my feet I crossed the road and in the swirl of traffic it got distracted and was last seen squatting in the middle of the tarmac chattering to itself (probably something on the lines of "I told you it was a bad idea running a budget deficit of 4% of GDP at the height of a boom" but I don't speak rat).

Maybe it was just hungry but it didn't look thin: rather plump actually. I'm told that rats were considered a delicacy on board naval ships in the time of Nelson, but today you can get many things at your local farmer's market, such as pheasants (above), but not rat.

I know this for sure as today I went to my local one in Barnes and jolly good it was too, especially at extracting £20 notes from my wallet. I got some fish, some naughty but nice chocolate thing, some soup and some bread from a stand very like this one from the Bursledon Blog.

Then back to JP HQ and a quick trip to YouTube to watch again that sketch from Armstrong and Miller called "The Farmer's Market".

Then for some reason checked out the trailer for Ratatouille......

Season of mists on the Thames

Its the season where you seem to get all sorts of weather in quick succession.

One day you need coat and umbrella, the next the skies are blue and the talk is of Indian summers. Its also seems to be the time of year when mists roll down the Thames along with the tide.

Its rather poetic, as the bridges at Putney dramatically rise from the clouds (above). Lighters are unmasked, glimpsed briefly and then the curtain is drawn across again:

Wraiths, columns of air and suspended microscopic droplets of water, stalk down river.

Then the sun bursts through, evaporating these apparitions and imaginations, and it is time to get back to work.

Frozen Planet, Epic Viewing

This weekend many of us in the northern hemisphere got an extra hour and I spent it watching the BBC's new series, Frozen Planet, about life at the highest of high latitudes, the poles.

It was an hour of saying "wow" and the occasional "effing wow".

Landscapes that make the Lord of the Rings look wimpy, waterfalls dropping a mile through the ice sheet, explosive birth of icebergs out of glaciers, a polar bear hunting for a mate, wolves taking down a bison, whales blasting through bait balls, sea lions surfing under a wave trying (and failing) to catch a penguin, humpbacks leaping from the water, killer whales deliberately making waves to crack ice or knock seal prey into the water then using bubbles as a smoke screen, underwater wood lice the size of dinner plates, ice caves around the volcano Erebus, rock formations carved from 200 mph winds, the Mars like dry valleys ..... the spectacles continued non-stop.

It was narrated by the national living treasure that is David Attenborough (who is a dot somewhere in the picture above).

For those in the UK I hope you are watching. For those outside prepare to be amazed.

Shark tows kayak

I like kayaking, don't get me wrong. It's just you have to keep paddling, like, all the time. So big thumbs up to Devon vet Rupert Kirkwood who has found an alternative - get a tow from a shark!

Ok, it was unplanned and he's yet to work out how to direct it, but the idea is definitely worth further study. As reported at the BBC here, he went out in his sea kayak to go fishing, caught himself a tope shark and then it towed him half a mile or so.

So what's it like being dragged out to sea by a shark in a little plastic kayak? "Fun" of course, though he did admit its nose "came to within inches of my sensitive parts."

Hmmm..... further research definitely required into the safety implications of this form of propulsion.

Swimmer survives the Thames

Yup, comedian David Williams successfully made it 140 miles down the Thames despite the yucky water and in the process raised one million pounds for charity.

And a side benefit has been to highlight why London really really needs that super-sewer - for example Mayor Boris in today's Telegraph.

Until its built I'd be reluctant to swim in a week in which the Bubbler has been out.

Thames Water advises against Thames water

The water company for London, Thames Water, is advising comedian David Williams to cut short his swim along the length of the river.

He is approaching the tidal Thames which has recently received 500,000 cubic metres of raw sewage thanks to heavy rain overflowing a system designed for Victorian England.

Hmmm.... not sure I'm really selling the capital as a great eco-friendly city. Honestly, London is one of the - if not the - greenest city around and the Thames is thriving.

However I must admit that at times of overflow the Thames only is kept oxygenated due to repeated injections by a fleet of Bubblers (above). Come on - just build that super-sewer already!

See more here on a highly scientific experiment to discover how clean Thames water really is.

Comedian finds Thames water no joke

Comedian David Williams is attempting to swim 140 miles down the River Thames from Lechlade in Gloucestershire to Big Ben in London to raise money for charity.

It is not going well, with the actor from Little Britain (to be honest not one of my favourite shows) suffering from "severe vomiting and diarrhoea". Apparently he swallowed something while swimming that disagreed within him.

Oh dear, not exactly the five star water quality we hope for, and this is before he gets to the tidal Thames (as above, at Putney) which receives millions of tons of sewage a year.

Someone should warn him that a pair of Thames Bubblers have been patrolling the waters today doing their fzzzzzzz!!!! routine as they squirt oxygen into the water.

But its for a good cause: David Williams has raised £ 350,000 for sports aid so far and has just reached Berkshire.

Oh do keep up

I'm being squeezed time-wise at the moment between work, family chores and the second re-write of that novel so struggling a bit on the blogging front.

However I liked Tillerman's idea to post the best of September and coming up this month we have the Thames Festival then the Great River Race on the 17th,  Talk Like a Pirate Day on the 19th followed on the 25th by World Rivers Day.

That's saying nothing about a writing challenge or a directing challenge which will probably drop off the to do list (sorry).

But not tonight.... its been a very wet and blustery day and the nights are getting noticeably longer.

The "most improved" Wandle River

A bit of good environmental news for once. The River Wandle (above) in south west London is one of Britain's top ten "most improved" rivers, according to the Environmental Agency.

Once merely a sewer, this urban river has been turned round and is now packed with wildlife. I remember stopping when I saw a [sorry bit hopeless at species of water fowl, probably a coot or cormorant] struggling with an eel almost as long as it was.

On last year's kayak down it the water was clearly good and filled with growing things. The only slight qualification was that it was packed with litter and needed a good clear up, but even here the Wandle Trust is doing its bit (I should go along to their events too).

More background at The Guardian and The Telegraph.

Drumming and the Heron

Summer has come to London early.

Tonight I gave myself a treat between work and family commitments, and went the QEH on the South Bank for a performance of Steve Reich's Drumming. It was totally, epically, brilliant.

Drumming is one of the greatest works, if not the greatest, to come out of the minimalist movement, full of hypnotic repetitions and phasing between players, here on drums, marimbas and glockenspiels, plus three vocalists / whistlers / piccolo.

Its tribal music: not from those dancing around open fires on the plains of Africa (though inspired by that), but for the urban tribes - those who live in communities of steel, glass and concrete.

Outside the evening was still warm, t-shirt weather in April, and the space outside the South Bank complex was filled with people while above us turned the London Eye.

On the way home, along a path lit by the moon (ok and also the odd street light), I lingered to watch a heron go fishing, its beak flashing into the dark waters.

I love this city.

A sense of scale

I've been feeling overwhelmed by the scale of the planet, and its not just the sight of O'Docker's yacht in the midst of the wide seas.

I've been walking the streets of London imagining raging waters the height of three story buildings blast everything in it's path, racing up the Thames swallowing bridges and house boats with ease.

Then there's the picture above. It's a famous one, called the pale blue dot. And that one pixel is us; it's Earth.

In fact we are not even a single pixel, maybe 0.12 of a pixel. At this scale even if the whole of Japan has been shifted 2.4 m (a mind blowing concept) it would be invisible.

But what is even more amazing is that we can engineer a craft to travel 6 billion km away, command it to turn round, take a picture, then radio it back to us - and then be alive and conscious, able to wonder at it.

We might be tiny compared to the world, but as they say: size isn't everything.

Terrifying Tsunami

I've been watching the videos of the Japanese Tsunami and pretty terrifying they are too. Reminded me a bit of my dream. Apparently the quake was 1,000 times the recent one in Christchurch.

Updated: the pictures are getting worse every time turn on the TV. Thoughts and prayers with those in range of this horrific quake and the tsunami.

Holy Crepe!

So did you celebrate pancake day yesterday? As you can see above I most certainly did, and fab they were too.

A couple of equally quickly consumable stories:
- Nautical chart with "Giro bay" gets the thumbs down
- Sea levels rising even faster than previously thought - think 475 gigatonnes per year
- Four men on a raft blown backwards with update here

This is not a navigation post

I was going to post a review of a book tonight, but will have to delay it until tomorrow, as it is a book about navigation.

Unfortunately it seems that reading endless (ok about 42) navigation posts has already caused Tillerman to retreat leaving a paranoid android call Marvin Arvin to take over the Proper Course. It also caused O'Docker to complain of unfair practices in me apparently flooding the blogsphere with navigation posts in order to win a book I already own.

So I won't explain how you can navigate your way to Hawaii by lying on your back on the foredeck, head to the mast, so you could use it as a pointer to Arcturus, which should spin its way directly overhead: you will just have to simply admire the beauty that is the night's sky.

And I won't explain how the Egyptian King Necho II sent an expedition of Phoenicians to sail from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean the long way round, which found its way by simply keeping turning right, so you will have to watch Dylan's Keep Turning Left instead.

Instead I'll simply post a picture of the daffodils which are currently opening in the parks nearby.

And there can't be any navigational information in daffs coming out where JP lives on the 28th February - can there?