Born to Explore: Richard Wiese on Cultural Exploration and His Hardest Expedition Yet--Fatherhood

Photograph courtesy Born to Explore/ABC

Some people seem to have exploration hard coded into their DNA. This is true for Richard Wiese, whose globetrotting parents took him to some of the world's most far flung places starting at an early age—including climbing Kilimanjaro at age 11. We spoke to Wiese, former president of the Explorers Club and a lifelong adventurer and field scientist, about his new TV show, Born to Explore (Saturdays on ABC, check local listings). Once admittedly fueled by testosterone, Wiese is now a family man, and it shows. Here he explains his shift away from adrenaline to a slower, more deliberate approach to experiencing the Earth's amazing places, cultures, and creatures. Tune in this week to see Australia's rugged Northern Territory (see a preview below).

Adventure: By the time we publish this interview you’ll be Iceland. What’s going on there?
Richard Wiese: We're shooting episodes of Born to Explore about volcanoes and looking into Viking ancestry. Iceland is very interesting because the Mid-Atlantic Ridge goes right through Iceland, so y ou have the North American plates and the European plates colliding or spreading apart from there. So everything in Iceland is predicated on volcanoes. In fact, the term "geyser" comes from Icelandic.

A: You’re kind of a volcano hunter, aren’t you?
RW: I actually studied geology at Brown; I've done quite a few projects with volcanoes—and quite a few active ones: Cotopaxi in Mexico when it was erupting; Etna in Sicily, Italy; Soufriere Hills in Montserrat; Kilauea in Hawaii. Volcanoes seem to chase me around ... or the other way around.



A: Which volcano would you recommend for a first-time lava trek?
RW: Kilauea in Hawaii is probably the most active and the safest one to go up to. But Etna is interesting, too, because you are in Sicily. There are more complex volcanoes out there, but they are beyond the Volcano 101 trip.

Sanctum: Making the 3-D Cave Diving Adventure (Yes, a Gigantic Fish Tank Was Involved)

Photograph courtesy Universal Pictures

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Alister Grierson, director of the new adventure film Sanctum, had never donned flippers and an oxygen tank before he signed on to join 3-D pioneers James Cameron and Andrew Wight's underwater thriller about a cave diving expedition gone wrong. The premise (which Wight describes in this interview): The world’s largest cave system is being mapped by divers when a tropical storm dislodges rocks that block the entrance. The team, which includes two tagalongs who are not experienced cave divers, is forced to find another way out, if they can survive. This study of human behavior under pressure is something that fascinates Greierson, who made his first film Kokoda about a WWII invasion in Australia, to great box office success. Here Grierson gives a fresh take on the submersive, high stakes world of cave diving and how they replicated it for the film (yes, a 130-foot fish tank was involved).—Mary Anne Potts

ADVENTURE: What did you know about cave diving before this movie came along?
Alister Grierson: Very little. It’s one of those sports you hear about, but usually you only when someone dies in a cave. Then you say to yourself, why the hell were they down there?

Tell us about going diving for the first time?
It was before pre-production had begun. We all agreed I needed to get into a cave to have the experience and translate that for the film. But I wasn’t a diver at all, so I had to learn to scuba dive. I did a two-day intense course with John Galvin, who wrote the screenplay. He’s a master diver and he taught all the actors to drive. On day three they put me in the cave in a place called Mount Gambier in South Australia.

It must have been shocking to go from learning to dive one day to dropping into a cave the next?
I have always been adventurous and keen to try new things. So I was willing. I was very confident that it would be safe, that they wouldn’t push me to do anything too risky. I mean cave diving is inherently risky, but I knew I had a good team to look after me. I picked up on the diving pretty quickly.

Cobra Boxing in Thailand? Worse Wipeouts? Nat Geo AMAZING Shares the World's Bizarre-But-True Tales

By Alexandra Gordon

Nat Geo AMAZING! will air for a second time this Friday on NGC at 7:00 p.m. EST, showcasing the bizarre, fascinating, and outright weird events around the world. This episode of the 10-part series takes you to King Cobra Village, a small town in Thailand where cobra boxing is almost as commonplace as walking your dog. While the cobra snakes are a protected species, this doesn’t stop the villagers from trying their luck at facing one in a fight--hardly a fair match.

If slithering snakes aren’t really your thing, the program also puts together a “Top 3” segment. Witness bruises, bumps, and scrapes while watching the top three motorcycle wipeouts. You may want to consider wearing a helmet, or even avoiding bikes all together after seeing riders tumble through the air. Bridge jumping, sword swallowing, and extreme kayaking are also on the list, along with more thought provoking facts and footage. In print version, Nat Geo AMAZING! 100 People, Places, and Things That Will Wow You details the world's 100 most fascinating people, places, and things in its pages. So, now that you know about flying cars and city-dwelling penguins, breaking the awkward silence over a couple hot dogs may be a little easier.

Adventure Town: Austin - A Local's Guide to SXSW

It’s true that Austin (pop. 782,967) is different in at least one way from the rest of Texas: It’s the lone blue outpost in an overwhelmingly red state. But in every way that counts, the state capital is pure Lone Star. Austinites, like all Texans, two-step to Willie, accessorize in cowboy boots, and know how to spell “y’all” (never “ya’ll”). Tacos filled with scrambled eggs are customary for breakfast, and salt-encrusted margaritas suffice for electrolyte drinks. I migrated here from Dallas a decade ago and then, like a lot of UT grads, figured out a way to stick around. Mid-March is the time I’m especially glad I did: Temps hover in the 70s, and the South By Southwest Festival brings 1,900 bands to town.

Confessions of a Travel Addict: Ewan McGregor

If Betty Ford treated wanderlust, actor Ewan McGregor would be the first admitted. The 38-year-old gets his travel fix by working on multiple movies (coming up: Amelia—opens this Friday, Oct 23—and The Men Who Stare at Goats), then taking off for extended motorcycle tours across Africa and around the globe. For our annual travel issue, we asked the actor to share his hard-won wisdom. All of it, by the way, applicable to non-movie stars. —Ryan Bradley; photograph by Ron Gaunt/Getty Images

Go Far Out
I’d never considered traveling to out-of-the-way spots before I visited Churchill, Canada, to make a documentary about polar bears. Then I was hooked.

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David de Rothschild: Environmentalist, Author, Explorer, Now TV Host

Text by Daniel Grushkin

For Eco-Trip: The Real Cost of Living, de Rothschild investigates how everyday items can be environmentally destructive. The eight-part series premiered April 21 on the Sundance Channel.  

ADVENTURE: After watching a few episodes, I’m certainly more hesitant to eat salmon, but what’s the larger goal of this series?

DAVID DE ROTHSCHILD: Simply put: If you don’t know where something comes from, don’t buy it. Our role as consumers is to ask a lot of questions, to the point of being annoying. 

A: Isn’t that putting a lot of responsibility on the customer?

DDR: Yes. Being a responsible shopper means more than buying a pair of natural fiber jeans or an organic low-fat muffin—there’s a false sense of security in that. When the Greenland ice sheet slips off, organic moisturizer is going to be as useless as a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.

A: That’s awfully dire.

DDR: But I’m an optimist. I wouldn’t be doing this if I weren’t.

Read about David de Rothschild's upcoming Plastiki expedition, when he will sail 11,000 miles in a plastic-bottle boat from San Francisco to Sydney.

Headliners: Adventure in 60 Seconds Election Edition!

A roundup of the latest adventure news, by Mindy Zacharjasz

Final showdown: This two-year, multi-stage ultra-marathon has challenged top endurance competitors in enough battles to K.O. Mike Tyson. Need a refresher? Now it’s down to two major contenders and the finish line is finally in sight, as is the much anticipated prize--the Presidency of the United States. In this special edition of Adventure in 60 Seconds, we turn our attention a few adventure-worthy tidbits of the Presidential election.

Some 39,000 raced in the New York City Marathon on Sunday and more than a few took the opportunity to show their politics, despite the sweat. And there’s never lack of creativity in campaign gear. Case in point: This year’s Barack Obama bike and Sarah Palin hockey puck.

It doesn’t matter if you’re red or blue, just vote green–-or at least that’s how some groups are trying to steer the vote. No doubt green issues and opinions are everywhere, and so are the campaign funding boosts by environmental, alternative energy, and coal mining groups. And of course there’s big oil which has contributed well more than $20 mill this go 'round. How will the next president really handle all of this, not to mention other talking points like global warming and terrorism? Time will tell, but here’s a physics lesson that one professor thinks could do just the trick.

And now for that election public service announcement you knew was coming: You can drive, walk, bike, or carpool, or travel in some adventure of your own, just make sure you get the polls Tuesday and vote.

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Survivor: Gabon—Authentic African Drama in High Def

Text by Andrew Burmon

Photograph courtesy of Jeffrey R. Staab / CBS

A cloud of malarial mosquitoes is never kind. Jeff Probst knows this, having spent the better part of three months inside one to film the 17th season of Survivor. So before he takes the stage at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles to emcee the 2008 Emmy Awards this Sunday, Probst may spend a little extra time in the makeup room. Don’t blame him. Blame the Wonga-Wongue.

Probst has been living in the remote Wonga-Wongue Presidential Reserve, a tract of rain forest on the coast of the central African nation of Gabon. The park, which was established through the efforts of National Geographic's Explorer-in-Residence Mike Fay, attracted an advance team for Mark Burnett, the reality television hegemon. Untouched beaches, roaming gorillas, impenetrable jungle—if they could just get Probst and the cameras in place, the season was bound to be a success. But reality has a way of impeding Hollywood's best laid plans. The very inaccessibility that makes Wonga-Wongue a perfect place for a reserve also makes it the most difficult conceivable setting for a television show. After accidents, mishaps, and few close calls, it fell to Probst to get the production back on its feet. No easy task in knee-deep mud.

Next Thursday, when Survivor: Gabon: Earth’s Last Eden finally debuts on CBS, audiences across America will probably be too caught up in another season of treachery and action to give a second thought to all that went into the show's production. That's just fine by Probst. It is supposed to look easy. ADVENTURE spoke with Probst while he was stationed in Libreville, Gabon.

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Not a Drop to Drink: Flow Reviewed

Text by Andrew Burmon

Flow, the new documentary by French filmmaker Irena Salina (watch the trailer), is not the first attempt to alert the international community to the looming worldwide water shortage ... and it will not be the last. Over the last few years the debate over the future of water has begun to edge its way toward center stage, but failed to step into a spotlight already crowded by war, elections, and the scandal du jour. By surveying the many facets of the water debate, Flow effectively advocates for the importance of addressing water issues now, before it is too late.

Much of Flow’s appeal comes from Salina’s thoughtful reframing of old issues. In one of the film’s more interesting segments, she documents the conflict between community activists in Stanwood, Michigan, and Nestle's Stanwood bottled water plant, which sucked so aggressively that it created a localized drought.

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