Journey Of A Lifetime

Episodes

EpisodeTitleFirst
Broadcast
RepeatedComments
2009: Dan Box. The Sinking Islands20090904In 2009 Dan Box was awarded the Royal Geographical Society (in association with the BBC) prize for the most enterprising dream travel idea.

The Anglo-Australian journalist's Journey of a Lifetime is a visit to the remote South Pacific coral atoll group known as the Carteret Islands, part of Papua New Guinea. But these low-lying islands rise barely a metre above the level of the surrounding ocean.

Rising sea levels are threatening Carteret Islanders due to the threat of King Tides and global warming. The previous winter's great storm resulted in the islands being badly flooded, with their productive soil rendered useless by the salt in the water.

This left the locals with no way of growing crops in their plots, or 'gardens' so local authorities started a process of mass evacuation. Eventually thousands of men, women and children will be resettled in the neighbouring island community of Bougainville.

Dan Box was determined to watch the world's first organised exodus as a result of climate change as it got underway. But first he had to negotiate the tricky journey - diplomatic as well as physical - that would take him to these tiny spikes of coral amid the vastness of the Pacific Ocean.

Producer: Simon Elmes

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2009.

Dan Box visits the Carteret Islands, where evacuation is taking place as sea levels rises.

Following the travels of the winners of the annual BBC/RGS's dream journey competition

2011: Jane Labous2011090520190505 (R4)Each year, the Royal Geographical Society in association with BBC Radio 4 organises a competition to choose the top dream travel assignment. The 2011 winner is Jane Labous, whose destination of choice was the west African nation of Mali. Her goal: to meet the men and women who face hardship every day as they eke out a living digging and diving for sand and gravel from the bed of the River Niger.

Tradition in Mali has meant that houses are made from mud, which bakes hard in the searing African sun. But today the available solidity of concrete means that mud homes are less desirable and there is an ever-growing demand for sand to help fashion the concrete structures sprouting all over the capital Bamako.

Jane travels to the little town of Koulikoro 50 km north of the capital to talk to the sand-diggers who spend back-breaking hours in 40-degree heat dredging tons of sand and gravel from the riverbed to satisfy the relentless hunger for aggregates of Bamako's builders.

But at what cost? The fishermen are outraged by the way the river waters are disturbed and their livelihood threatened; as for the sand-diggers themselves, the natural perils of the Niger - crocodiles, hippopotamus, not to mention the river-genies who must be appeased - are now compounded by the dangerous deep trenches in the riverbed that make diving ever more dangerous. Now the locals have taken out an order to ban the diggers from the shallow waters close to Koulikoro's centre where the town's children love to play.

But with bandits threatening the north of the country, the other big question on Jane's mind today is whether she'll make it to the regional capital of Djenn退 safely for the traditional annual renewal of mud-coating on the city's grand mosque....

Producer: Simon Elmes

Travel competition winner Jane Labous meets the people of Mali who make a living from mud.

Following the travels of the winners of the annual BBC/RGS's dream journey competition

2012: Jaswinder Jhalli2012090320190512 (R4)Each year, the Royal Geographical Society organises in association with BBC Radio 4 a contest to discover the most imaginative and exciting dream travel project. Jaswinder Jhalli was the 2012 winner and her goal was to visit the gauchos of Argentina and discover to what extent the reality of their lives tallies with the romantic image of prairie horsement that they have always had.

Jaswinder writes: 'The wistful gaucho myth of a proud, well dressed, virtuous individual, free to roam the Pampas and work as he choses, has little connection with their history. It reminds me of how the Indian community is portrayed. You get the impression all we do is arrange marriages, dance in unison and eat chicken tikka masala. Of course every culture throws up it's own clich退s. But this kind of typecasting always forced me to feel I was an outsider. Constantly struggling to escape the elusive cultural stereotype that seemed to precede me everywhere I went. I want to break down these myths and find how today's gauchos view these caricatures.

Producer: Simon Elmes

Prizewinning traveller Jaswinder Jhalli explores the lives of the gauchos of Argentina

Following the travels of the winners of the annual BBC/RGS's dream journey competition

2014: Peter Geoghegan. Wrestling With The Future2014091520190506 (R4)The winner of 2014's BBC/Royal Geographical Society award for a dream travel project is Irishman Peter Geoghegan. His ambition: to learn the physically exhausting skills of traditional Mongolian wrestling, on the ground in the depths of the Mongolian countryside. But with the nation's economy undergoing a phenomenal boom, this mineral-rich nation, now an industrial powerhouse, must face uncomfortable choices between tradition and change.

Mongolia's wrestlers are world famous; they eat prodigiously and grapple fearlessly for hours in the searing sun. To be a wrestler is not just part of manhood's rituals, it's an integral part of being a Mongolian, indissolubly linked to the people's old traditional life as nomadic herders: a Mongolian nomad must possess the strength to bodily lift his beasts. Each year the national Naadam or games brings together the country's greatest wrestling champions, in exhausting contests of bodily strength and guile. But today, as Peter Geoghegan discovers when he joins a band of three dozen men at one of their training camps, they now arrive in sleek new four-by-fours and often work in western-style jobs in the traffic-choked capital, Ulan Bator.

As the falcons wheel over the steppe, Peter nurses his many bruises and ponders the future of a nation at a critical crossroads between a cherished past and a lucrative future...

Producer: Simon Elmes

In Mongolia Peter Geoghegan grapples with the great wrestlers of a rapidly evolving nation

Following the travels of the winners of the annual BBC/RGS's dream journey competition

2015: Rhiannon Adam. Three Months On Pitcairn2015101920190519 (R4)Each year, the Royal Geographical Society organises, in association with BBC Radio 4, a contest to discover the most imaginative and exciting dream travel project. Rhiannon Adam was the winner in 2015 and her goal was to visit one of the world's smallest countries, Pitcairn Island.

Rhiannon grew up on sailing boat in the Atlantic reading romantic stories about The Mutiny of the Bounty and Pitcairn Island as final resting place for the renegade mutineers. She wondered about this far flung piece of the former British Empire and, as a wandering Brit, whether she might have something in common with the descendants of the mutineers.

The tiny, remote British territory of Pitcairn lies in the Pacific between Chile and and New Zealand. It is home to about fifty people and its remoteness has raised questions about its future as it needs to attract more settlers in order to survive. The romantic image of the island was challenged a decade ago when a number of men on the island were imprisoned for sexual abuse of young girls.

In this very personal account, photographer Rhiannon Adam explores the romance and reality of Pitcairn Island on her 'Journey of a Lifetime'.

Producer Neil McCarthy

Rhiannon Adam offers a very personal account of her visit to the remote British territory.

Following the travels of the winners of the annual BBC/RGS's dream journey competition

2018: Karen Darke. From Source To Sea Via Me2018101220190429 (R4)Winner of this year's prestigious BBC/RGS dream journey award is Paralympian Karen Darke who rides along the length of Australia's Murray River on hand-cycle

Fresh from competing in the para-triathlon at this year's Commonwealth Games, Rio gold medallist Karen Darke heads for Australia's Snowy Mountains and the source of the 'Mighty' River Murray. On hand-cycle she takes a very personal journey down along its 2000 miles from source to sea.

She reflects on the challenges facing the river as it flows through a drought stricken landscape and she also sees the river as a metaphor for her own fragility- Karen is paralysed from the chest downwards - as she contemplates the end of her athletic career.

Burnt out by the pressure she's experienced in pushing herself to achieve, this cycle journey alongside the powerful and vulnerable Murray River makes her more aware than ever of her own vulnerability. Can something be learned from the river and it's people about how to maintain the ability to flow and flourish whilst still delivering?

About the Journey of a Lifetime award

Are you passionate about radio and podcasting? Are you excited about finding new ways to tell original stories in sound? And are you itching to explore and understand the world around you?

Then we have exciting news for you. The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), in partnership with BBC Radio 4, is offering a £5,000 grant to help you make a journey - near or far - and a radio programme telling the world about it. You will be given BBC training and ongoing support from a BBC documentary producer.

If this sounds fun to you, you can find out how to apply by clicking on this link: http://bit.ly/1wBNKHB.

Paralympic winner Karen Darke takes a very personal journey down Australia's Murray River.

Following the travels of the winners of the annual BBC/RGS's dream journey competition

Mountains, Mules And My Mum2019101320191104 (R4)Redzi Bernard is this year's winner of the 'Journey of a Lifetime' travel bursary where the RGS -in conjunction with Radio 4 - awards £5000 to someone with a brilliant idea for a radio adventure.

Redzi recreates a journey her mother made in 1968 through the Ethiopian mountains to the holy city of Lalibela, often referred to as the 8th Wonder of the World.

She begins in the capital Addis Ababa where her parents met and after night of Ethiopian jazz she hits the road north, avoiding ethnic clashes along the way. With guides and mules Redzi embarks on an arduous trek into the mountains to find a vertiginous landscape, gelada baboons and children - who've never seen foreigners before - fleeing on sight.

Her destination, Lalibela, is a complex of Ethiopian Orthodox churches all hewn out of a single piece of rock below ground level. She arrives to find a scene of pilgrimage and devotion unchanged for centuries. Redzi reflects on her own pilgrimage and struggle as well as that of her mother, who is suffering from cancer.

Producer Neil McCarthy

Redzi Bernard recreates her mother's journey to Lalibela in Ethiopia fifty years on

Following the travels of the winners of the annual BBC/RGS's dream journey competition

On A Mission2022102420221104 (R4)Lynne Anderson is this year's winner of the 'Journey of a Lifetime' travel bursary where the Royal Geographical Society -in conjunction with Radio 4 - awards £5000 to someone with a brilliant idea for a radio adventure. Details on how to apply below.

Lynne used to be a missionary in the Mormon church. The church became an integral part of her life until she left it years later, having suffered a faith crisis. Returning to Salt Lake City 20 years on for a reunion of her former mission sisters, Lynne is forced to face her past and lay some ghosts to rest.

Travelling onwards through the US state parks of Utah, whose modern history is intertwined with the Mormons, she finds inner peace in the majesty of nature. Ending up in Las Vegas, the chaos of Sin City is a far cry from the conservatism of Salt Lake City and the sublime landscapes surrounding it.

~Journey Of A Lifetime Award

Each year the BBC - in partnership with the Royal Geographical Society - offers an award of £5000 to somebody with a winning idea for a dream adventure in any corner of the globe. And they get to turn their ‘Journey of a Lifetime' into a documentary on Radio 4. The award isn't meant for holidays or expeditions, but for storytellers with inspiring ideas which involve the pursuit of exploration and knowledge.

If you'd like to apply for this exciting award, you have until 12:00 Noon, Monday 14 November 2022. Applicants must be aged 18 years or over and all the information you need, including how to apply, is on the link below or here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1Q9z4N0NQXlHxj5WwjS4mv6/journey-of-a-lifetime-award

Producer Neil McCarthy

Photo credit Lynne Anderson

Former Mormon Lynne Anderson returns to Salt Lake City to face her past

Following the travels of the winners of the annual BBC/RGS's dream journey competition

On The Trail Of Algerian Exiles And Pacific Settlers2023110620231108 (R4)In the last ever Journey of a Lifetime, an award given by the Royal Geographical Society, the French-Algerian journalist Chahrazade Douah travels from her parent's former home in Algeria across the world to the Pacific islands of New Caledonia, off the east coast of Australia. A brutal version of the journey was taken in the 19th century by Algerian exiles, forced to leave their north African homes after uprisings against French colonial rule. The survivors who made it to the Pacific settled and are now part of a complex New Caledonia society.

Chahrazade was first drawn to the story of these Arab exiles by the stories told to her by her Granny. The Royal Geographical Society prize gave her the once in a lifetime opportunity, not only to travel to New Caledonia, but to begin to understand the complexity of a people trying to establish themselves in exile with yearnings and memories of a land half a world away. She hears from Algerians with stories to tell about their ancestors who were taken to the Pacific, and to Pacific Islanders who carry the ancestral memories of a life back in Algeria. Names, religion and customs have survived and been given a Pacific Island twist, but in a unique island ceremony, Chahrazade becomes a part of the connection between peoples separated by force over a hundred years ago.

Producer: Tom Alban

Chahrazade Douah follows in the steps of 19th century Algerian exiles to a Pacific Island.

Following the travels of the winners of the annual BBC/RGS's dream journey competition

French-Algerian journalist Chahrazade Douah retraces the steps of Algerian ancestors exiled thousands of miles from their North African home to the Pacific Islands of New Caledonia

012004: Cattle Roads And Motorcades20081113Luke Freeman drives a herd of cattle along the old drove-paths of Madagascar.

Following the travels of the winners of the annual BBC/RGS's dream journey competition

01Mum Says 'you're A Long Time Dead'20130913Will Millard is the winner of this year's BBC/Royal Geographical Society award for a dream journey project. Will's goal is to descend the Mano and Moro Rivers, which divide Sierra Leone and Liberia, with only a tiny inflatable packraft in which to do it. With the Sierra Leone portion of the forest already part of the Gola Rainforest National Park, the river boundary will, it's hoped, shortly become the heart of the Trans-Boundary Peace Park, straddling both countries. Local villagers, however, are divided about the merits of this significant conservation project.

Having survived the near termination of his project by local bureaucracy, Will treks through the rainforest on foot to the river's edge, inflates 'Shostakovich' (thus is his raft called) and sets out downriver. Meeting his faithful guide Sakpa once more he hears from the local chief how his villagers would prefer good medical help and a half-decent road as much as a ecologically-sound conservation project like the Peace Park.

More pressing problems for Will are the sequences of boulder-strewn rapids that dot the river, a torrential rainstorm that threatens his camp and blistered hands from the African sun that make paddling the raft hard-going. He's been warned too about a massive set of falls... But he finds the only way to negotiate it is by paddling right across the face of them - as he strikes out across the white water, he remembers his mother's old saying: 'you're a long time dead'....

Producer: Simon Elmes.

Will Millard descends the Mano River on the Sierra Leone-Liberia border by inflatable raft

Following the past winners of the BBC/Royal Geographical Society's travellers' competition

022005: Looking For Tashi20081120Young photographer Chris Brown won the 2005 BBC/Royal Geographical Society's annual competition for travellers who want to fulfil their dream journey to the back of beyond. He joined the nomadic Rupshu tribe of Ladakh in their long annual trek at high altitude. But as the country endured its worst winter in over 30 years, the journey became highly treacherous.

Chris Brown joins the nomadic Rupshu tribe of Ladakh in their annual trek at high altitude

Following the travels of the winners of the annual BBC/RGS's dream journey competition

02The River Wild20130920Will Millard is the winner of this year's BBC/Royal Geographical Society award for a dream journey project. Will's goal is to descend the Mano and Moro Rivers, which divide Sierra Leone and Liberia, with only a tiny inflatable raft in which to do it. With the Sierra Leone portion of the forest already part of the Gola Rainforest National Park, the river boundary will, it's hoped, shortly become the heart of the Trans-Boundary Peace Park, straddling both countries. Local Liberian villagers, however, are divided about the merits of this significant conservation project.

Meanwhile, in the heart of the rainforest, having survived the death-defying waterfall where we left him last week, Will finds time to observe at close quarters a troupe of Diana monkeys and catch his first fish of the journey. But perils are literally round the next bend in the river, as he encounters an encampment of illegal diamond hunters and hits another disastrous sequence of rapids in which his life is again in danger... He's also not feeling good: a badly infected hand is making paddling the packraft difficult and, weak with exhaustion, Will suspects he may have contracted malaria... But medical help is at least two days' trek away.

Producer: Simon Elmes.

Will finds time to observe at close quarters a troupe of Diana monkeys.

Following the past winners of the BBC/Royal Geographical Society's travellers' competition

032006: Living With Rubbish20081127Philosophy graduate Jessica Boyd and environmentalist Bill Finnegan were the 2006 winners of the BBC/Royal Geographical Society's annual competition for travellers who want to fulfil their dream journey.

This programme follows them as they visit the outskirts of Cairo, home to a community of 23,000 people whose livelihoods depend on the city's waste. The Zabbaleen came as pig-farmers from Upper Egypt 60 years ago to form a thriving and complex economy based on what others throw away.

A visit to an extraordinary community on the outskirts of Cairo.

Following the travels of the winners of the annual BBC/RGS's dream journey competition

042007: The Nandi People2007100120081204 (R4)Runner David Waldman won the BBC/Royal Geographical Society's 2007 competition for travellers who want to fulfil their dream journey.

This programme follows him as he fulfils his ambition to meet the Nandi people of Kenya's Rift Valley and discover just what makes them the greatest endurance runners on the plane.

The 2007 winner of the BBC/Royal Geographical Society's annual competition.

Following the travels of the winners of the annual BBC/RGS's dream journey competition

052008: Emily Ainsworth2008082920081211 (R4)The latest winner of the BBC/Royal Geographical Society's annual competition.

Following the travels of the winners of the annual BBC/RGS's dream journey competition

072010: Nick Hunt20100910Each year, the Royal Geographical Society in association with BBC Radio 4 offers a prize for the best adventurous dream-travel idea. This year's winner is Nick Hunt and his award-winning project is to investigate the little-heard-of lives of the migrant workers - mainly from the Indian subcontinent - constructing the steel and glass towers of Dubai.

Says Nick: 'Beneath the gleaming skyscrapers of downtown Dubai, twenty Indian men huddle on a rooftop under a torn plastic sheet. Homeless, jobless and far from their families, some have been trapped here for years, victims both of the economic downturn and the systematic exploitation of migrant labour. I follow in the footsteps of one, ex-construction worker Ramu, who has managed to make the journey home to a remote part of rural Andhra Pradesh. Ramu's story is the story of how the Dubai dream turned sour, and of the hardships faced by migrants when boom turns to bust...

Producer: Simon Elmes.

Nick Hunt follows recession-hit migrant Indian workers in Dubai back to their villages.

Following the travels of the winners of the annual BBC/RGS's dream journey competition

122016: Nina Plapp. A Cello In The Desert2016102120180326 (R4)Winner of this year's prestigious BBC/RGS dream journey award is Nina Plapp who sets off from the Isle of Wight with her cello 'Cuthbert' en route to India via Transylvania in a search for the roots of gypsy music.

Nina is a cellist from a large musical family and the energy and rhythms of gypsy music have always mesmerized her. Cuthbert, now 167 years old, has played in many an orchestra and was most recently under the guardianship of Nina's great aunt Bebe.

After a family send-off, Nina and Cuthbert head east on an adventure into the rich musical landscape of the gypsies. They first visit a family in Romania where she immerses herself in the wild rhythms and melodies of the Roma in rural Transylvania. Then they continue to India to seek out the original gypsies. On their way they join a chorus on the train through the desert, get locked inside a cupboard with singing girls in a Rajasthani village and play with the gypsy musicians at a wedding.

If you'd like to apply for next years Journey of a Lifetime Award and make a feature fore Radio 4 about your adventure you have until 2nd November. Look for Journey of a Lifetime on the Royal Geographical Society website. www.rgs.org/journeyofalifetime

Producer Neil McCarthy.

Nina Plapp takes her cello Cuthbert to Rajasthan in search of the roots of gypsy music.

Following the travels of the winners of the annual BBC/RGS's dream journey competition

122017: Nicole Bennet Fite. Finding The Woman Of Stone20171002This year's winner of the Journey of a Lifetime Award, Nicole Bennet Fite, travels deep into the valleys of Tajikistan to find a shrine devoted to womens' resistance.

Nicole is a student of anthropology at Stanford University, California and a young radio maker. For six weeks this year she travelled around the small Central Asian republic of Tajikistan and visited the remote and beautiful Yagnob Valley.

On her first big solo adventure as a young woman, her aim is to hear about the experiences of women on her path through Tajikistan.

Crossing glaciers and skirting herds of goats, she makes her way to a shrine at the end of the valley. This sanctified place, deep in the forest, is the preserve only of women. Inside it is a boulder said to represent a Yagnob woman who turned herself to stone to avoid rape by Mongol armies attacking the village 800 years ago.

At the shrine, Nicole has her own epiphany.

About the Journey of a Lifetime award: Are you passionate about radio and podcasting? Are you excited about finding new ways to tell original stories in sound? And are you itching to explore and understand the world around you?

Then we have exciting news for you. The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), in partnership with BBC Radio 4, is offering a £5,000 grant to help you make a journey - near or far - and a radio programme telling the world about it. You will be given BBC training and ongoing support from a BBC documentary producer.

If this sounds fun to you, you can find out how to apply by clicking on this link: http://bit.ly/1wBNKHB.

Nicole Bennet Fite treks into the valleys of Tajikistan to find a shrine devoted to women.

Following the travels of the winners of the annual BBC/RGS's dream journey competition