UPDATE: 06 February 2007
FALL/WINTER 2006-07
Welcome to earthroaming.com!
This Fall we have several great new destinations to feature! First of all, we have pictures from newcomer Nathan's hunting trip to Argentina – the first trip to South America for this high school student from Atlanta. Additionally, we have several new essays with lots of pictures from our veteran reporter Todd Drummond who is currently in the US working on his PhD, but has spent most of his adult life in Central Asia.
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Nathan - Dove hunting with Dad (Argentina) | ||||||
| Todd - Early Christianity in the Black Sea area
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| Todd - Khiva: The ancient city in the Steppe (Uzbekistan) | ||||||
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Todd - The ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand (Uzbekistan) | ||||||
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Todd - Turkembashi the Great (Turkmenistan) |
What else is new? Well, I added several new book reviews to the Travel Writing section.
During the past two years as I've been cooling my heels and enjoying the excitement of raising my little girl, I've relied on books, movies and television to get my earthroaming fixes. As I considered who to feature in the 4th installment in my series on the world's great earthroamers, I couldn't help but think of late great Steve Irwin...
STEVE
IRWIN: THE CROCODILE HUNTER - THE WILDLIFE WARRIOR
How is it
that a boy who grew up in a trailer in rural Queensland, Australia came to have
a television show that was aired in 120 countries? Some critics would claim that
the lure of fame and fortune fueled Steve's success, but I don't think you could
come to that conclusion after listening to the man - really listening to the man
- and hearing his life story.
Steve was focused: "My job, my mission, the reason I've been put on this planet is to save wildlife."
Steve was
born into a middle class family in suburban Melbourne, Australia, but spent most
of his childhood living with his parents and two sisters in a tow-behind camper
trailer in rural Queensland. His parents were staunch environmentalists years
before it became cool to hug a tree, much less a crocodile. They gave up the
security of their jobs in Melbourne to start up a reptile refuge in the absolute
middle of nowhere. The family earned a modest income by charging admission
to their reptile refuge-turned-park and for capturing crocodiles and relocating
them to remote areas away from people.
Steve's
parents nurtured his passion for animals, giving him a 12 foot (3.6 m) python
for his 6th birthday and allowing him to wrestle his first crocodile at age 9.
He had an unconventional upbringing to say the least.
Somewhere
along the way, Steve met the only woman on the face of the earth who could
come close to matching his enthusiasm for dangerous animals. Terri Raines grew
up Eugene, Oregon where she and her parents owned a wildlife refuge for cougars.
Her fateful vacation to Australia in 1991 and a chance encounter with Irwin at
his family's reptile park (renamed Australia Zoo) led to a wedding 6 months later. Their friend John
Stanton filmed their crocodile hunting honeymoon which became the first
episode of a new television series The Crocodile Hunter that aired first
in Australia in 1992 and in the US in 1997.
Fueled by
Steve's endless enthusiasm and quirky affection for deadly animals, the show's
popularity took off. Steve and Terri began traveling all over the world to
raise awareness about the conservation of animals endangered by land clearing
and loss of habitat. They filmed shows everywhere from the Himalayas, to the
Yangtze River, Borneo and the Kruger National Park. They even filmed an episode
on rattlesnakes right here in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
Five
hundred million people around the world watched The Crocodile Hunter. Five
hundred million people saw him pick up slithery critters with venomous fangs and
say things like, "Ain't she a beauty!"
There's earthroaming - which I love and believe in for its own sake and the value that comes from gaining deeper understanding and bridging cultural boundaries one person at a time - and then there's earthroaming with a purpose. Steve had a mission to educate the world and leaves an incredible legacy for Terri and his children to continue. His 8 year old daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin, is already on her way, hosting her own show on Animal Planet and having recently been quoted as saying, "I don't want Daddy's passion to ever end. I want to help endangered wildlife just like he did."
If you'd
like to know more about Steve's passion for wildlife conservation, you can
visit Australia Zoo's Wildlife
Warriors Worldwide on-line.
As always, if there is a place you live or have visited that you would like to tell us about, please send your photos and commentary to me at any time. In the meantime, check out my blog: Observations of an Earthroamer.
Thanks,
Kim Price, editor-in-chief