guess where i went last night?! :-)
i can hardly contain my excitement so i had to share it here :-). ray mears has been a favourite of mine since his first tv series way back when.
he lives what he loves and is passionate about it - truly inspirational!
ooh, gosh, where shall i begin?
the first half of the evening took us on a photographic and story telling tour, along with tips and information about a variety of subjects from rock art, to wildlife and bushcraft in general. ray took us to the northern wilderness, one of his favourite places, the photos were spectactular so it makes you think that it would be totally awesome to be there in person (i think there is an essence that cannot be captured in even the most perfect photo. ray is an extremely talented photographer though ... :-)). we learnt about wildlife (bears, caribou, to name a couple), ecology and of course, bushcraft.
he also told the story of alfred masuzumi and how he had used exceptional bushcraft skills to survive the most extreme of extremes, and live to tell the tale.
we were also taken to africa, tasmania and australia.
the second half of the evening focussed on conservation and this was soooo interesting. he showed us studies of the duckbilled platipus that are underway to find out what it's natural state of wellbeing are so if there is any imbalance it can be detected and hopefully prevent extinction from that early warning stage. he also told us about the tasmanian devil communities that are being set up as a precaution to a facial cancer they have developed that can be spread like a cold or virus. the idea is, that if this cancer gets out of hand and wipes out the population, then the healthy communities can repopulate and prevent extinction. individuals have made this their life purpose. it is amazing stuff ...
there were also some saltwater crocodile stories with some footage of a giant croc called eric who is 4.9 metres long. he now has to live in a reptile park as he was causing quite a stir. ray explained how good conservation of the saltwater crocs means that people now need to learn to live alongside them wisely. (the number of attacks on people are going up as the population of crocs grows).
ray also answered questions from the audience, this was interesting too.
there was a strong theme of living with the land, the earth and with nature. he also said that he hoped there would come a time where we come back to that more. i hope so too.
he finished with a quote (i can't remember whose quote) 'we belong to nature, nature doesn't belong to us'.
so, a fab, interesting and inspirational evening with lots of food for thought.
i hope you've enjoyed hearing about it :-)
here are some links if you would like to read more around this post:
http://www.raymears.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reindeer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_black_bear
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly_bear
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck-billed_platypus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_facial_tumour_disease
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_water_crocodile
click here to see more about the tour.
happy weekend :-)
i can hardly contain my excitement so i had to share it here :-). ray mears has been a favourite of mine since his first tv series way back when.
he lives what he loves and is passionate about it - truly inspirational!
ooh, gosh, where shall i begin?
the first half of the evening took us on a photographic and story telling tour, along with tips and information about a variety of subjects from rock art, to wildlife and bushcraft in general. ray took us to the northern wilderness, one of his favourite places, the photos were spectactular so it makes you think that it would be totally awesome to be there in person (i think there is an essence that cannot be captured in even the most perfect photo. ray is an extremely talented photographer though ... :-)). we learnt about wildlife (bears, caribou, to name a couple), ecology and of course, bushcraft.
he also told the story of alfred masuzumi and how he had used exceptional bushcraft skills to survive the most extreme of extremes, and live to tell the tale.
we were also taken to africa, tasmania and australia.
the second half of the evening focussed on conservation and this was soooo interesting. he showed us studies of the duckbilled platipus that are underway to find out what it's natural state of wellbeing are so if there is any imbalance it can be detected and hopefully prevent extinction from that early warning stage. he also told us about the tasmanian devil communities that are being set up as a precaution to a facial cancer they have developed that can be spread like a cold or virus. the idea is, that if this cancer gets out of hand and wipes out the population, then the healthy communities can repopulate and prevent extinction. individuals have made this their life purpose. it is amazing stuff ...
there were also some saltwater crocodile stories with some footage of a giant croc called eric who is 4.9 metres long. he now has to live in a reptile park as he was causing quite a stir. ray explained how good conservation of the saltwater crocs means that people now need to learn to live alongside them wisely. (the number of attacks on people are going up as the population of crocs grows).
ray also answered questions from the audience, this was interesting too.
there was a strong theme of living with the land, the earth and with nature. he also said that he hoped there would come a time where we come back to that more. i hope so too.
he finished with a quote (i can't remember whose quote) 'we belong to nature, nature doesn't belong to us'.
so, a fab, interesting and inspirational evening with lots of food for thought.
i hope you've enjoyed hearing about it :-)
here are some links if you would like to read more around this post:
http://www.raymears.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reindeer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_black_bear
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly_bear
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck-billed_platypus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_facial_tumour_disease
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_water_crocodile
click here to see more about the tour.
happy weekend :-)