Last December (2023) I went to the Barbican to see Simon Reeve on his ‘To the Ends of the Earth’ tour. I’m not quite sure what I was expecting, in the second half he touched on some deeply personal topics and I think it’s probably the most honest and raw shows I have ever seen of this ilk.
He’s an interesting and engaging speaker and has packed a lot into his 20-year career to date, visiting 120 countries. These days many of us try (and IMO should) be mindful of our carbon footprint. When I travel solo I generally use local travel agencies in that country, or tour companies that have green credentials and actively support local communities such as G Adventures.
In his new show ‘Wilderness’, a four-part series on BBC2 showing today (Sunday) at 9pm, rather than lament about the diminishing natural world he seeks to celebrate the last great wild areas of the planet. Simon travels to the Congo Basin in the first episode and meets the Baka people who live in the forest, where with the men are hunter-gatherers and the women basically do all the other work!
You can’t go to a place like that and avoid seeing evidence of deforestation, which he acknowledges – they drive past lorries hauling the carcasses of African Redwood trees hundreds of years old – however his main aim is to show us the scale of the forest that still exists and the exotic and rare species of animals to be found.
He goes in search for the fabled bonobo monkey, purported to be our closest cousins, and I love the way that he doesn’t sugar-coat the journey and the tough conditions the team faced. I won’t give you a spoiler if you haven’t seen it, and am looking forward to tonight’s episode where he treks across the mountains and glaciers in Patagonia, South America (on my bucket list!).
Elizabeth Mooney 