Speaker 1: Some days I think they're paying me to do this stuff.
Speaker 1: I've had days like that when I think, really, don't
Speaker 1: tell them. The thing about Antarctica is probably what keeps
Speaker 1: me coming down. Here is the pure wilderness. It's pure air,
Speaker 1: it's pure water, pure sound. Every day is precious. Live
Speaker 1: your best life as much as you possibly get. Don't
Speaker 1: put things off. If you want to go and see Antartica,
Speaker 1: save up, do it, you do it now.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Seas. The Yay Podcast. Busy and happy
Speaker 2: are not the same thing. We too rarely question what
Speaker 2: makes the heart seeing. We work, then we rest, but
Speaker 2: rarely we play, and often don't realize there's more than
Speaker 2: one way. So this is a platform to hear and
Speaker 2: explore the stories of those who found lives they adore,
Speaker 2: the good, bad and ugly. The best and worst day
Speaker 2: will bear all the facets of seizing your yay. I'm
Speaker 2: Sarah Davidson or a spoonful of Sarah, a lawyer turned
Speaker 2: entrepreneur who swapped the suits and heels to co found
Speaker 2: for Maiden and matcha Milk Bar. Cca is a series
Speaker 2: of conversations on finding a life you love and exploring
Speaker 2: the self doubt challenge, joy and fulfillment along the way.
Speaker 2: Beautiful people, I'm finally back from the Great White and
Speaker 2: I'm genuinely speechless, which doesn't happen very often. The Ya
Speaker 2: of Antarctica was absolutely indescribable, although as per usual, when
Speaker 2: I say there are no words, I then follow with
Speaker 2: a million words, so you'll be getting bombarded with reflections
Speaker 2: and feelings in due course. I'm sitting down with and
Speaker 2: this week to unload with a little Yez of allis Reunion,
Speaker 2: which will be coming to you much more regularly, I promise,
Speaker 2: and that will be in your ears very soon. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much for your patients, by the way, during
Speaker 2: the repeated breaks we've had this year to allow for
Speaker 2: travel and chaos and a general roller coaster now turned
Speaker 2: polar coaster of a year to keep you going. In
Speaker 2: the meantime, I was so lucky to interview many of
Speaker 2: the incredible career and passengers on the Ocean Endeavor during
Speaker 2: our travels to Antarctica, and I will compile it all eventually.
Speaker 2: There's so much audio and footage to go through. There
Speaker 2: were just so many fascinating pathways that expanded my mind
Speaker 2: in all directions over and over I literally, I'm not
Speaker 2: going to stop talking about this trip for years, but
Speaker 2: I recorded one very special full episode with someone whose
Speaker 2: story made me tear up many times, and whose passion
Speaker 2: project I'm desperate to share as far and wide as possible,
Speaker 2: and I hope you guys will be too. I gravitated
Speaker 2: towards Martin Cohen immediately because if anyone on board qualified
Speaker 2: as the team penguinologist, it's him. Although his expertise is
Speaker 2: much broader as an overall wildlife biologist, and yes, he
Speaker 2: has had drinks with one Sir David Attenborough in his time,
Speaker 2: but as time went on on the ship, I also
Speaker 2: heard the most heartwarming and heart wrenching story behind the scenes,
Speaker 2: and I hope you're as moved by Martin as I was.
Speaker 2: I won't give you any hints, as it's so much
Speaker 2: more beautiful told by Martin himself, but I will include
Speaker 2: links at the end so you can support the beautiful
Speaker 2: project he's embarked on that you'll hear all about. I'm
Speaker 2: sure many of you will be as passionate as I
Speaker 2: have become about helping him spread the word, and hope
Speaker 2: the yighborhood can get behind him. Excuse the background noise
Speaker 2: the ship was pretty loud. I think we've got rid
Speaker 2: of most of it. There's a bit of buzzing in
Speaker 2: the background, but it does give you an authentic taste
Speaker 2: of the adventure. Ladies and gentlemen, Martin Cohen, Martin, welcome
Speaker 2: to Ceza.
Speaker 1: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2: I am so excited to have you here. We have
Speaker 2: had the loveliest couple of days together. It's been a
Speaker 2: pleasure getting to know you, but now to be able
Speaker 2: to sit down and find out more about how you
Speaker 2: started is an absolute joy.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Yeah, I'm happy to tell my story. It's
Speaker 1: very nice and calm conditions as well. I have to
Speaker 1: go back a few years. Sarah, So, I'm sixty one now.
Speaker 1: So I was born in nineteen sixty one in Melbourne,
Speaker 1: in Ringwood and Malvin and my parents were battlers, I suppose,
Speaker 1: for want of a different word. The dad was a
Speaker 1: women's fashion shoe salesman, so I used to go all
Speaker 1: over the out and country Storia selling the new samples
Speaker 1: for the new season's shoes, and mum was a part
Speaker 1: time bookkeeper, housekeeper. Really, so in suburban Melbourne.
Speaker 2: I think one of the things that fascinates me the
Speaker 2: most about doing this show is tracing back all the
Speaker 2: steps of like now the chapter of your life that
Speaker 2: I walk in. Now it's this crazy adventure, but you
Speaker 2: definitely don't always start knowing that that's where you're going
Speaker 2: to be. And one of the things I got asked
Speaker 2: to most about before we left f Antarctica was, oh,
Speaker 2: my god, you get to meet a penguinologist, and you
Speaker 2: are the one who falls in the definition of a penguinologist.
Speaker 2: So from those beginnings in Melbourne to penguinology to hear
Speaker 2: tell us the story.
Speaker 1: Well, as soon as I could remember, I was fascinated
Speaker 1: by wildlife, and I listened to and watch TV Vincent
Speaker 1: seventi and there was Harry Butler and people like that.
Speaker 1: And it was also an American program called Mutual Omaha's
Speaker 1: Wild Kingdom, and they had Marlon Perkins presented, and they
Speaker 1: had Big Gym who used to go out and catch
Speaker 1: all the wildlife. And I wanted to be big Gym.
Speaker 1: Everything I wanted to do, you know. I used to
Speaker 1: go to fields out the back of Melvin they're all
Speaker 1: residential developments now, Keys were a region and used to
Speaker 1: go and look for frogs, bring back frogs and all
Speaker 1: sorts of things back home and hey, Mom, lookd I've
Speaker 1: got today Mum and go, oh, yeah great. And I
Speaker 1: brought back a snake one day. It was a copperhead
Speaker 1: snake and said Mum, And she says, is that poisonous? Man?
Speaker 1: And I said yeah, And she says, we might want
Speaker 1: to go and let that go, I think, And I
Speaker 1: think I dropped it in the house. I was having
Speaker 1: an escape anyway. My parents were very good at putting
Speaker 1: up with my crazy desires. I didn't know what that meant.
Speaker 1: So I knew I wanted to work with wildlife. I
Speaker 1: was passionate about bidlife. I don't know where that came from,
Speaker 1: but it did. And so finished school, went to university,
Speaker 1: did a biological science degree and did honors in zoology
Speaker 1: and that got me out in the field actually catching wildlife,
Speaker 1: and I thought, I really like this. And then I
Speaker 1: got off at a scholarship to go to Townsville. So
Speaker 1: a little Melbourne boy going up to the dim dark
Speaker 1: North Queensland, up to Townsvill to James Cook University. And
Speaker 1: it was there that really my eyes were open to
Speaker 1: what I could be in this field and then begrudgingly
Speaker 1: finished a PhD and did all sorts of other things,
Speaker 1: And I've worked in tourism, worked as a consultant, launched
Speaker 1: programs like Land for Wildlife, and then I fell into
Speaker 1: the BBC Natural History in it for four years, so
Speaker 1: working on a six part series called Wild Austroasia as
Speaker 1: a senior researcher and working with Dione Gilmour in the
Speaker 1: ABC in Melbourne, and it was fantastic and the BBC
Speaker 1: best Cameraman, best producers in the world and got to
Speaker 1: travel around the country filming wildlife.
Speaker 2: Gosh, it's so cool. I think one of the things
Speaker 2: that we get drummed into us, maybe a little bit
Speaker 2: too hard when we're younger, is that you are supposed
Speaker 2: to know what you want to do and then you're
Speaker 2: supposed to get there in this really linear fashion, and
Speaker 2: that you meant to have it all sorted out. But
Speaker 2: I feel like no one's career starts or ends, that
Speaker 2: very few people land where they thought they would, and
Speaker 2: that there are so many different steps along the way,
Speaker 2: Like who could have known that you would end up
Speaker 2: with the BBC, which is like the dream that you
Speaker 2: didn't even know you had it was.
Speaker 1: I knew when I was doing that two year contract,
Speaker 1: it's never going to get better than this. I mean,
Speaker 1: this mob paying me to travel around Australia with the
Speaker 1: world's best cameraman filming wildlife and relying on my expertise
Speaker 1: to help them do that. And I thought, that's never
Speaker 1: going to get any better. And in some ways it hasn't.
Speaker 1: It hasn't. I mean, that was a dream job and
Speaker 1: I loved it. And then I met this lovely English
Speaker 1: girl and working helping me work on the series. And
Speaker 1: after that contract, we went to the UK and sort
Speaker 1: of did contracts with the BBC and that's we're my
Speaker 1: favoite story of it. I did get drunk with David
Speaker 1: Attenborough at a wild screen conference once so and I
Speaker 1: was living the dream. But her name is Julia. Julia
Speaker 1: and I decided that if our careers took off here
Speaker 1: in the UK, we were never going to see each other.
Speaker 1: And we were soulmates, you know, absolutely soul mates. So
Speaker 1: we decided to come back Australia and start in Far
Speaker 1: North Queen's landing Cans and start our own business. And
Speaker 1: so that was the next phase. Start from scratch, literally,
Speaker 1: start from scratch and that was great, and we started
Speaker 1: a publishing company and we did a whole range of
Speaker 1: different jobs, and Julia's career was taking off, and I
Speaker 1: was sitting back thinking, yeah, well, I might just sit
Speaker 1: back and be stay home and write a few books
Speaker 1: and you know, articles and things like that. But well
Speaker 1: turned a bit upside down when she contracted a rare
Speaker 1: autoimmune disease and passed away in twenty eleven, so and
Speaker 1: I had to change track again and what do I
Speaker 1: do now? And where do I go? And that was
Speaker 1: pretty tough.
Speaker 2: Oh man, I can't even imagine. I think one of
Speaker 2: the things that any theory of joy and fulfillment and
Speaker 2: happiness in life also has to consider the challenges to
Speaker 2: that joy that happened along the way, and that there
Speaker 2: are times where you don't feel any joy for big, long,
Speaker 2: protracted periods of time and don't think necessarily that you'll
Speaker 2: have another drawer that you could rebuild yourself. But yet
Speaker 2: now I feel like you're one of the most positive,
Speaker 2: humanity embracing people that I've ever met. So how did
Speaker 2: you find your way out of that?
Speaker 1: It's funny because Julia. When I met Julia in two
Speaker 1: thousand and two. It pretty well re sparked my childhood
Speaker 1: passion for wildlife because she had it and reflected back
Speaker 1: to me then, and I'm still going she lit the fire,
Speaker 1: and although she's not here anymore, that fire still goes
Speaker 1: because of it, and it's sort of this is what
Speaker 1: I love, and this is what I want to do.
Speaker 1: I love telling people how wonderful nature is. And I
Speaker 1: have this, hopefully a good belief that if people get
Speaker 1: to know how wonderful nature is and they're confronted with
Speaker 1: opportunities to either save it or not, they'll choose to
Speaker 1: save it. I'm going to believe that to the day
Speaker 1: I die, so my passion. If that inspires you to
Speaker 1: want to protect it or appreciate it more, then that's
Speaker 1: my job and that's why I'm here.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you absolutely sparked that for everyone on this boat.
Speaker 2: From the first talk to the last, I feel like
Speaker 2: we've had so many opportunities to share in your passion
Speaker 2: for what started as thinking you were the ornithologist, and
Speaker 2: then thinking with a pengleinologist, and then realizing you were
Speaker 2: just the everything biologist. How did you make your way
Speaker 2: then to this incredibly remote and pristine part of the world.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's a really good question, Sarah, because I'm
Speaker 1: not sure sure how either. I mean, technically, I'm a
Speaker 1: tropical wildlife biologist and I introduced myself as that, and
Speaker 1: then people are thinking, but we're going to Antarctica. So
Speaker 1: I started getting into the expedition company a few years
Speaker 1: after Julia passed away, and I doing more and more,
Speaker 1: and I work with a company called Limblade Expeditions, and
Speaker 1: I really like them, and they liked me, and they
Speaker 1: kept giving me more work in tropical regions and that's fun.
Speaker 1: And I had a guy, a lovely guy, I'm Sean Powell,
Speaker 1: who believed in me. He said, Martin, I want you
Speaker 1: to learn our Antarctica. Who wants you to be part
Speaker 1: of our Antarctic expedition team. So, and you'll probably appreciate
Speaker 1: this transition from wildlife biologists to storyteller. And you find
Speaker 1: things that interest you, mostly wildlife, and you think, well,
Speaker 1: I can write a story from that and to engage people.
Speaker 1: And so you know a lot of ways I call
Speaker 1: myself a storyteller or a performer. Now, you know, I
Speaker 1: do the research and I prepare talks. I try and
Speaker 1: make them entertaining and have this little bit of a performance.
Speaker 1: I've come off stage, you know, big stage for talking
Speaker 1: to a lot of people, and I've gone back to
Speaker 1: my cabin sometimes like who the hell was that? It's like,
Speaker 1: who was that person out there? I was like, what
Speaker 1: happened to that scientist? And so it has been a
Speaker 1: bit of an epiphany for me that I'm a bit
Speaker 1: of a performer or you know, and telling stories and
Speaker 1: trying to engage people. And I thought back, my mother
Speaker 1: and father, I never thought about this much met at
Speaker 1: amateur theater. So and I had a very famous and
Speaker 1: successful brother who was a three times Diri Award winning
Speaker 1: producer and engineer. So he went down that industry. He's
Speaker 1: no longer with us, sadly, he took a toll, I think,
Speaker 1: all the drugs and the alcohol and the smoking, and
Speaker 1: he didn't live past sixty. But he was hugely successful.
Speaker 1: And I suppose I was a scientist. And I thought, well,
Speaker 1: now that's where I've got my sort of artistic site.
Speaker 1: And I love it. And saying that the compliment you
Speaker 1: paid me about what I've presented here, it is really
Speaker 1: important because I work hard to make them accessible to people.
Speaker 1: From all works a lot. I don't want to be
Speaker 1: a lecture. I hate the word lecture. They all call
Speaker 1: them lectures here. I like presentation and much rather presentation.
Speaker 2: I also think what's really interesting is how much we
Speaker 2: silo ourselves in thinking I'm not good at public speaking,
Speaker 2: therefore I won't do the presentations. I'll leave it up
Speaker 2: to someone else. Or I'm a scientist, so I fit in,
Speaker 2: you know, the stereotype of sit in my room and
Speaker 2: just do the science. But once you decide you're a storyteller,
Speaker 2: then you just can be that. And I also think
Speaker 2: the coolest thing is looking back, like you said, with
Speaker 2: your parents and seeing how all the dots connect. Eventually
Speaker 2: you'll work it out. You don't necessarily know in the
Speaker 2: forwards motion, but looking back.
Speaker 1: No, definitely, I had no idea, as I said, I thought, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe my photography is my artistic side. But in the
Speaker 1: last few years I realized that, you know, I'm actually
Speaker 1: entertaining people with positive information about nature. And that's where
Speaker 1: I classify myself now, is that I want to pass
Speaker 1: on my passion about nature and people really dig it,
Speaker 1: which is great, and I seem to be good at it.
Speaker 1: So I'm in a very comfortable part of my professional life. Especially,
Speaker 1: I'm very comfortable with who I am and what I do,
Speaker 1: and I just want to get better and no big
Speaker 1: people like yourself and others, And I hear how they
Speaker 1: do storytelling, and I think, how can I approve I
Speaker 1: work with these amazingly talented exhibition stuff, you know, and
Speaker 1: watch them and I think, oh, wow, you know they
Speaker 1: take little bits of what they do. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: enjoying life a lot at the moment.
Speaker 2: Oh that's so beautiful. I love it that you're truly
Speaker 2: seizing your yay right now. While from a lind Lad
Speaker 2: to here, I mean it's a very different kind of expedition.
Speaker 2: But obviously, once you've got to taste for Antarctica, you've
Speaker 2: kept coming back. So you know, coming from a tropical background,
Speaker 2: what then drew you to stay here and be on
Speaker 2: this Intrepid boat with the I mean, the team is extraordinary,
Speaker 2: Well I think.
Speaker 1: I mean, once a entar gets in your skin, I mean,
Speaker 1: you want to go back every year, so it's only
Speaker 1: a small proportion of the year I come down and
Speaker 1: do one or two contracts. The way I got to
Speaker 1: Intrepid is interesting because I knew about Intrepid, you know,
Speaker 1: and I sort of had this idea that was a
Speaker 1: good Australian company and it's got really good environmental values.
Speaker 1: And there's a Facebook group called Expedition Boat People and Sam,
Speaker 1: who I was with, Heavn trapperd and put an ad
Speaker 1: out there looking for Antarctic guides for their inaugural Antarctic trips.
Speaker 1: So I sent Sam an email and said hi Sam,
Speaker 1: you know, and gave them a list of what I've
Speaker 1: been doing. I've already had at the time three seasons
Speaker 1: in Antarctica and you know, a fair wealth of experience.
Speaker 1: And he jumped and said yeah great, you know, and
Speaker 1: we had zoom calls and said look, I've got to
Speaker 1: get you on board, and you know, he offered me
Speaker 1: the starter and this first section. It was exciting to start,
Speaker 1: you know, a new area with a new company. And
Speaker 1: that's why I'm here. And yeah, so I've probably a
Speaker 1: bitten off a bit more than I can chew this year.
Speaker 1: But because I'm crossing over to the Limblad for Christmas
Speaker 1: New Year, so I'm away for eleven weeks. I've never
Speaker 1: been away for eleven weeks before. It's usually you know,
Speaker 1: four or five, so but I get six trips for Antarctica,
Speaker 1: and that's twelve drake crossings too.
Speaker 2: We have just come off the back of a particularly
Speaker 2: rough one, so I think you're heading back into a
Speaker 2: second rough return, aren't you.
Speaker 1: Yeah apparently, so I don't enjoy those so much. I
Speaker 1: love the quieter one. We're go and be out looking
Speaker 1: at seabirds. But so, yeah, it gets on diskin There'll
Speaker 1: be a few more seasons. I'm sure it's a bit
Speaker 1: of a young man's game in some way, or young
Speaker 1: person so you ah, yeah, flattery will get you everywhere.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's a hard physically and mentally, and you know,
Speaker 1: I go back pretty exhausted and people say, how is
Speaker 1: your holiday? And I think, yeah, right, I wish it
Speaker 1: was a holiday.
Speaker 2: And of course one of the things that you know,
Speaker 2: I don't think I appreciate it until I came is
Speaker 2: that you guys are on all the time. You're living
Speaker 2: with your customers, and then you know, presenting and dealing
Speaker 2: with trying to even stand up straight all the days,
Speaker 2: and you don't get a day in between expeditions. So
Speaker 2: we will dock and they'll clean the ship, and then
Speaker 2: these guys get back on pretty much and go straight
Speaker 2: back out.
Speaker 1: I might get a few hours in ishwe where you
Speaker 1: all go to the internet cafes and get back onto
Speaker 1: the real world for a few hours. But but no,
Speaker 1: it's there's roles and you you know, it's the moment
Speaker 1: you walk out of your cabin in the morning. It
Speaker 1: doesn't matter how you feel, if you feel sad or
Speaker 1: you feel happy, or you know you're struggling or mentally tired,
Speaker 1: physically tired. They're not paying to come to listen to
Speaker 1: me complain. They're paid to come to listen to me
Speaker 1: give my pearls a wisdom, and you've got to be
Speaker 1: on it. And the good thing is that I really
Speaker 1: like the clients. I love the guests. I mean the
Speaker 1: majority of them, ninety nine percent of guests that come
Speaker 1: on these expeditions fantastic people, really passionate, you know, and
Speaker 1: I feed off that. The problem in this industry, and
Speaker 1: you probably understand and recognize this, is that you remember
Speaker 1: the one percent. Yeah, you think they're always stand out,
Speaker 1: but yeah, people are lovely and I love talking to
Speaker 1: people from all walks of life.
Speaker 2: Well, one of the really really cool things that has
Speaker 2: come out of our chats over the past couple of
Speaker 2: days is that you have obviously been through and we
Speaker 2: call these natya like the barriers to your joy along
Speaker 2: the way, and have obviously had like an incredible traumatic
Speaker 2: experience in your journey, but have managed to turn it
Speaker 2: into something that is the most beautiful legacy that you
Speaker 2: could possibly give Julia, So tell us about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is probably one of the proudest things that
Speaker 1: I've ever done from a personal point of view. And
Speaker 1: my late partner, Julia was incredibly talented, great communicator, didn't
Speaker 1: want children, but she was magnificent with children as well.
Speaker 1: We used to go everywhere together, so especially in the
Speaker 1: tropical rainfast and we have a little creature up in
Speaker 1: the tropical rainforst called a Paddy mellon. And I used
Speaker 1: to make the joke, Oh, Julia, look there's Patti o'mellon
Speaker 1: the Irish kangaroo.
Speaker 2: And she laughed.
Speaker 1: She thought I was funny. I mean, and no wonder
Speaker 1: I was so in love with a girl. One of
Speaker 1: the few people's probably ever thought I was really funny.
Speaker 1: And anyways, one day she came to me. I think
Speaker 1: it's about two thousand and nine, she came to me
Speaker 1: and she showed me a draft of a kid's book
Speaker 1: and I read it and it's like, Julia, this is unbelievable.
Speaker 1: This is amazing. And a business partner, Tim who's the
Speaker 1: partner in the publishing company, and a dear friend, he
Speaker 1: did some sketches and everything, and of course it did.
Speaker 1: Twenty eleven was when she got sick and so, aged
Speaker 1: thirty three, she passed away Christmas twenty eleven. So you're right,
Speaker 1: you know, I was shattered and broken and the grief
Speaker 1: is horrendous, and anyone listening to this it's had a
Speaker 1: tragedy in there. I will get it. And you know,
Speaker 1: everyone recovers or deals with it differently. Grief never goes away.
Speaker 1: You know. People say it's going to get better. It doesn't.
Speaker 1: He just gets easier to manage, that's all anyway. So
Speaker 1: I wanted to do this straight after she died, but
Speaker 1: I didn't have the strength. But a few years later,
Speaker 1: I think, twenty seventeen that I'm going to get this done.
Speaker 1: So I sent it to friends, got people to edit it,
Speaker 1: went to my dear friend Daryl Dixon, and she lives
Speaker 1: down in Cardboard a couple hours away. It loves wildlife,
Speaker 1: beautiful wildlife artists. She did the illustrations. I got some
Speaker 1: people to edit it, and I printed two hundred copies
Speaker 1: of this children's book called patiomellon the Irish Kangaroo anyway,
Speaker 1: so that cost me a lot of money. By the way.
Speaker 1: I sent it to all family and friends and thinking well,
Speaker 1: at least they can have Julia's legacy. And I send
Speaker 1: it to a few publishing companies the Senate to one
Speaker 1: called e K Books in just out of Sydney, and
Speaker 1: they came back and said, we love it, we want
Speaker 1: to buy it. Well, we want it. So they did,
Speaker 1: and they reform out of a tiny bit but actually
Speaker 1: improved it. And now they own it, and so Darryl
Speaker 1: and I both buy wholesale from them. And basically I
Speaker 1: just most of them. I just give them away, I think.
Speaker 1: So I don't think I make any money on it.
Speaker 1: But it's three auditions now so and it's everyone loves it.
Speaker 1: They've got great reviews. I'm friends with Steve Backshel, you
Speaker 1: know Steve's Deadly sixty and he wrote a nice review
Speaker 1: about it, and a few other people, yeah, which has
Speaker 1: been great. It's just probably, as I said, the best
Speaker 1: thing I've ever done. But the sad part about it
Speaker 1: is I wish Julia she would have been so toughed,
Speaker 1: she would have been so pleased with herself to see it.
Speaker 1: But anyway, it's out there, and I've given you a
Speaker 1: copy now, Sara, to tell the world how wonderful it is.
Speaker 2: I feel so incredibly lucky. We're just flicking through the
Speaker 2: first time I've seen it in the flesh, and it
Speaker 2: is absolutely glorious. I am tearing up just reading it.
Speaker 2: It's so so beautiful, Martin, and I feel like it's
Speaker 2: something that the neighborhood needs to know about, like everyone
Speaker 2: is looking for, like especially my generation at the moment,
Speaker 2: we're all having kids. We're all in the first and
Speaker 2: second baby phases, and you know, beautiful Wildlife Books is
Speaker 2: the perfect thing to buy for people. So guys, I
Speaker 2: will be including the link absolutely, And there's a beautiful,
Speaker 2: beautiful dedication and photo of Julia in the back written
Speaker 2: by Martin. How was it to write that?
Speaker 1: Pretty easy? Really? In between the tears, I mean yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it comes from my heart and it wasn't
Speaker 1: that difficult. And she was an exceptional It's exceptional and
Speaker 1: everything I mean, and I make a comment in the
Speaker 1: dedication that she had a beautiful smile and she was
Speaker 1: never happier than when she was talking about no wildlife
Speaker 1: or photographing wildlife or just being in nurse. You just
Speaker 1: had this passion for wildlife that, as I said, you know,
Speaker 1: reignited my passion for wildlife, which you know we'll never
Speaker 1: die now. So you know ten years we had together,
Speaker 1: and you know, the ten best years of my life.
Speaker 1: But you know, people say that's wonderful that you found
Speaker 1: your solve much and I just followed it with the
Speaker 1: ten worst years of my life. And people that get grateful, no,
Speaker 1: especially with Julia, I like in it too. You know,
Speaker 1: someone gives you the best drug in the world and
Speaker 1: gives you that for ten years, and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden someone stops and says you can't have anymore.
Speaker 1: But I'm happy with career, and you know that I'm
Speaker 1: not afraid to love again. I'm sure it will happen again. Monday.
Speaker 2: Well, I really hope that everyone in the eborhood gets
Speaker 2: around this beautiful book because it is just so so gorgeous.
Speaker 2: And I'll make sure to get all the links so
Speaker 2: that we can buy copies, and I think I'll actually
Speaker 2: buy a whole heap of copies just for the yeborhood,
Speaker 2: maybe as a giveaway or something, because I want to
Speaker 2: spread the joy of this so much. And I think
Speaker 2: you're right. It's really interesting that there are experience in
Speaker 2: your life that do give you the ultimate ultimate joy
Speaker 2: and then maybe take them away, And there has to
Speaker 2: be a way for you to find the small joys
Speaker 2: back in between all those moments. So now, how do
Speaker 2: you find little moments that make you yay in the stomach,
Speaker 2: you know that little adrenaline kind of like excitement.
Speaker 1: Well, there's two main things that come to mind, and
Speaker 1: the first one is my dog.
Speaker 2: How did we not talk about this earlier? Every presentation
Speaker 2: finishes with a picture of Malaika.
Speaker 1: So, after Julia passed away on twenty eleven, I was
Speaker 1: fortunate enough to get a superannuation payout and I was
Speaker 1: able to buy a small house in cans And so
Speaker 1: I got a house in twenty twelve, and I got
Speaker 1: eleven week old labrador puppy and she's called Malaika, which
Speaker 1: is spaheely for angel. And Julia spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time with her parents in Kenya, I knew a bit
Speaker 1: of Swyhely, so it's a little And that Paddy Mellen
Speaker 1: in the back of the book of the children's book
Speaker 1: is also the original Malaika, so I like the name.
Speaker 1: So so there's a few connections there. So when I
Speaker 1: am sitting at home in my couch watching TV or something,
Speaker 1: and Malca's in her bed next to me and she's
Speaker 1: got completely upside down and all these very strange poses,
Speaker 1: there's joy, the pure joy, the fact that she just
Speaker 1: you know that, you know what dogs are like. It's
Speaker 1: unconditional love, and I love that. The second part is things.
Speaker 1: I can go back to an example from a couple
Speaker 1: of days ago, when I'm out doing this job and
Speaker 1: something incredible happens. We had a minky whale. You know,
Speaker 1: I've only seen minky's in Antarctica a few times, and
Speaker 1: usually just a fin and a bit of a blow
Speaker 1: and the scout around the ice shelf, and you don't
Speaker 1: see a lot of them. This time, this one came
Speaker 1: up and basically he came up against the little iceberg
Speaker 1: and had a good look at it. So look at us,
Speaker 1: and then thought, that's unusual, and I've seen that before. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's incredible. And then they started swimming under. There was
Speaker 1: four zaoda X all sort of just together and we
Speaker 1: were watching and Minky just started swimming under our zadios
Speaker 1: and you could see it because the water is so clear,
Speaker 1: and then came right up next to us and did
Speaker 1: this for about half an hour. And I'm thinking, some days,
Speaker 1: I think they're paying me to do this job. I've
Speaker 1: had days like that where I think, really, don't tell them,
Speaker 1: And that was one of those days. And I'm so
Speaker 1: glad because you know, we had a bit of a
Speaker 1: rough trip with weather or on this, but people got
Speaker 1: one of the best Antarctic experiences I've ever had. So
Speaker 1: it's those moments that keep driving me saying, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I came back to Antarctica, Drake passage and all that
Speaker 1: sort of stuff. I think, yeah, but I might get
Speaker 1: another one of those days. There's like a bit of
Speaker 1: a drag, I suppose.
Speaker 2: I will absolutely admit that there was a moment and
Speaker 2: we didn't even have a rough crossing on the way over,
Speaker 2: there was still a moment where I was like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, this like the time it takes you to
Speaker 2: get there, and looking at all these leaders who have
Speaker 2: done forty eight crossings and thinking how and then you
Speaker 2: get there and you're like, this is why it is
Speaker 2: so indescribable. And if you and I thought it would
Speaker 2: be hard to find wildlife, like I thought you'd be
Speaker 2: kind of we've done Safari and you really like it's
Speaker 2: a struggle to see certain animals anyway, and out here
Speaker 2: it's like in day one, I'd seen everything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely the penguins. Of course, obviously funny that you
Speaker 1: call me a penguinologist, but the penguins are really we
Speaker 1: know where the colonies are and we know what they do.
Speaker 1: And I mean I can just pretty well put two
Speaker 1: hundred guests in front of penguins and just leave them
Speaker 1: there for an hour. I don't think anyone would be
Speaker 1: disavoided because and then you know we have got some
Speaker 1: good seal sightings. You never know what you're going to get,
Speaker 1: you know, the life is like a box of chocolates.
Speaker 1: I never know what wildlife's going to come out of
Speaker 1: the look. I've had killer whiles. We've watched them at
Speaker 1: a distance with a kill, probably a poul minky were
Speaker 1: and then they've come back to the ship and they've
Speaker 1: sort of stud performing in front of us at vocalizing
Speaker 1: just to come back and say, hey, we've had a
Speaker 1: good feed. We want to say hello and then go again.
Speaker 1: These things are just mind blowing and it's what makes
Speaker 1: Antarctica truly wonderful. But the thing about Antarctica is the
Speaker 1: thing I like the most and probably what keeps me
Speaker 1: coming down here is the pure wilderness. It's pure air,
Speaker 1: it's pure water, pure sound, it's pure wilderness. There's nowhere
Speaker 1: else you can go. I don't think in this planet
Speaker 1: where you are so far away from civilization. I mean,
Speaker 1: humans are constantly trying to completely stuff up this planet,
Speaker 1: and you go to the place where you don't see humans,
Speaker 1: you're just immersed in wildlife and wilderness. And that's what
Speaker 1: I love a lot.
Speaker 2: I think that is what makes it impossible to come
Speaker 2: here and not have some major revelation about human impact
Speaker 2: and the way that we It's very easy to dissociate
Speaker 2: from that, I think in your day to day life
Speaker 2: because you're separated from it. But here seeing how pristine
Speaker 2: it is and knowing like we've done a lot of
Speaker 2: That's why I love the presentations on this trip as well,
Speaker 2: because there's so much education that happens at the same
Speaker 2: time as seeing this Pristina. I heard yesterday there are
Speaker 2: already microplastics in the water here, and yet there is nothing.
Speaker 2: The quickest way to get here is still a two
Speaker 2: to three day drake passage on a boat. You can't
Speaker 2: fly here, and yet still plastics have made their way
Speaker 2: into the waters. So it's so huge. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of brain activity going on right now for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think you know, you can watch the
Speaker 1: wonderful documentaries of the BBC Make and David Attenborough and
Speaker 1: you can to a certain extent relate to it, but
Speaker 1: when you're actually living it, like you've just done this
Speaker 1: last trip, I think it comes home. And some wonderful
Speaker 1: educators Susie gave a great talk about plastics and talk
Speaker 1: about whales and you know, all the things that people say,
Speaker 1: we don't want to lose this, and that's that's really important.
Speaker 1: And most of the people coming down here are already
Speaker 1: on board. You know, we are in some ways preaching
Speaker 1: to the converted, but it's the converted the ambassadorship that
Speaker 1: they can go back and say, hey, Antarctica is fantastic,
Speaker 1: but you know, we need to start doing some things
Speaker 1: and anything you can do, you know, start just locally,
Speaker 1: anything you can do, please do it. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: we tell people don't buy Crewe oil stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: because we know that that's directly affecting penguin and seal populations.
Speaker 1: So even at home, and I'm sure you talk about
Speaker 1: this a lot in your field, that there's little changes
Speaker 1: can make big differences. And if we don't do it,
Speaker 1: who's going to do it?
Speaker 2: And I think those little changes, it's the same in
Speaker 2: any area any way that you want to change your life.
Speaker 2: It all happens in little changes, not necessarily the big
Speaker 2: drastic let's all. You know, I don't know, go and
Speaker 2: live off greed forever. You know, you can do smaller
Speaker 2: things along the way. Martin, this was absolutely wonderful to
Speaker 2: finish off. This is something I ask everyone because I
Speaker 2: love quotes so much. Is there a quote that you
Speaker 2: have that's your favorite?
Speaker 1: That's a good question. Look, I suppose since I know
Speaker 1: the tragedy hit by life and then I've had to
Speaker 1: bounce back, And don't get me wrong, you know that
Speaker 1: was a long, hard, difficult battle, I suppose it's now
Speaker 1: that what goes on in my head is that every
Speaker 1: day is precious. Live your best life as much as
Speaker 1: you possibly get. Don't put things off. If you want
Speaker 1: to go and see Antarctica, save up, do it, you
Speaker 1: do it now. If you want to go to the Amazon,
Speaker 1: or you want to go to Africa, or you want
Speaker 1: to go to Europe, whatever, just live your life. Don't
Speaker 1: ever put things off and say I'm going to do it.
Speaker 1: So that's not quite a quote, but it's philosophy.
Speaker 2: I suppose it's pretty much exactly the philosophy of this
Speaker 2: entire show. So that was the perfect way to end.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: For joining my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: Can you see why I fell in love with this man?
Speaker 2: The way he talks about love and legacy and wildlife
Speaker 2: just blows me away. I'm sure many of you listening
Speaker 2: will have a child in your life who could be
Speaker 2: spoiled with the magic of Patio o'melon the Irish Kangaroo,
Speaker 2: So please get behind him and grab a copy if
Speaker 2: you can. It is linked in the show notes for
Speaker 2: you directly. And Martin is just one of the many
Speaker 2: incredible expedition leaders whose brains I got to pick over
Speaker 2: our time on board, and I honestly wish we'd had
Speaker 2: longer just to sit and talk to them about what
Speaker 2: led them to their jobs in the most remote part
Speaker 2: of the world. You'll get a Reflections episode next up
Speaker 2: with and and eventually I will then piece together some
Speaker 2: more stories from the audio that we captured. I feel
Speaker 2: like this will probably be a polar podcast for a
Speaker 2: little while now, so buckle in if you have any
Speaker 2: questions too. I've been answering in as much detail as
Speaker 2: I can on Instagram, and there's a Saved Antarctica highlight
Speaker 2: that has the answers. As usual, I have written quite
Speaker 2: a few essays on some of the topics to make
Speaker 2: sure you have as much detail as I can give you,
Speaker 2: so head over there for more information. And in the meantime,
Speaker 2: I hope you're all having a wonderful week slash month
Speaker 2: slash end of the year and are seizing your yay