Don's Place with Don George

Travelers looking for adventure travel tips can now get adventure travel advice from experienced adventure travel writer Don George. Don George, one of the top adventure travel experts, has a new space “Don’s Place” on adventurecollection.com. Don’s Place includes: Don’s adventure travel blog, an area to ask Don adventure travel questions, adventure travel advice, adventure travel tips, family adventure travel tips and stories about travel adventures. Don George also offers sustainable adventure travel tips and ecotourism tips for travelers interested in environmentally friendly travel adventures. Don’s Place is also a forum for aspiring adventure travel writers to display their adventure travel writing by relating stories of their adventure travel trips, or to find a published piece of adventure travel literature. Don’s adventure travel blog provides an opportunity for people to ask don adventure travel questions and receive adventure travel advice from various adventure travel experts, adventure travel tips, family adventure travel tips, links to adventure travel writing, adventure travel writers and adventure travel literature. Don’s adventure travel blog also allows visitors to ask Don adventure travel questions related to travel adventures that take care of the environment including ecotourism tips and sustainable adventure travel tips. Travelers can reply to Don’s adventure travel blog and not only ask Don adventure travel questions but post their own adventure travel tips, family adventure travel tips, adventure travel advice, adventure travel writing and stories of their own travel adventures. Ecotourism tips and sustainable adventure travel tips are welcome and adventure travel writing, adventure travel writers and adventure travel literature recommendations are encouraged. Don’s adventure travel blog will also include adventure travel advice from various adventure travel experts. Adventure travel experts will reply to and ask don adventure travel questions on Don’s adventure travel blog as well as discuss adventure travel advice, family adventure travel tips, adventure travel writers, adventure travel trips, ecotourism tips, sustainable adventure travel tips and adventure travel tips. Don’s Place will also highlight adventure travel literature put together by Don George himself. Don George is one of the most respected adventure travel experts in his field with a special flare for adventure travel writing. He’s gained the respect of his fellow adventure travel writers with his numerous contributions to adventure travel literature. Like his fellow adventure travel experts Don George specializes in adventure travel advice, family adventure travel tips, sustainable adventure travel tips, ecotourism tips and adventure travel tips. For adventure travel experts, adventure travel advice, family adventure travel tips, adventure travel trips, travel adventures, adventure travel tips, sustainable adventure travel tips, ecotourism tips, links to adventure travel writers, adventure travel writing and adventure travel literature visit Don George at Don’s Place. Ask Don adventure travel questions and read Don’s adventure travel blog for the best in adventure travel advice. We want to take an unforgettable family odyssey before our kids get so old they don't want to travel with us anymore. Where should we go?See the answer in <a href="http://donsplace.adventurecollection.com/FAQs.php" target="_blank">Ask Don.</a>   One of the greatest gifts of travel is connection: Time and again, people journeying to distant lands and cultures find commonalities that they never expected, and that end up transforming their lives.  The members of the Adventure Collection know this phenomenon well. In addition to their own rigorous preservation and conservation efforts abroad and at home, the member companies have contributed immeasurably to the global good by forging connections between their travelers and their destinations, connections which have subsequently inspired those travelers to undertake extraordinary philanthropic activities on their own. I asked each member of the collection to share one such tale of connections they have been instrumental in forging. Their answers below illustrate the grand vision, inspiring energy and exemplary ideals that characterize the clients who travel with the AC -- and the companies themselves.   <a href="http://www.backroads.com/" target="_blank">Backroads</a>Experiencing new and extraordinary cultures, engaging in exhilarating physical activity, and stepping out of your day-to-day boundaries bring a joy and richness that is simply undeniable. And sometimes, it goes beyond enlivening and into life-transforming.Take the case of Eric Hemel and Barbara Morgen, who traveled with us to Vietnam in 2003. “While walking through a number of rural villages,” says Eric, “we learned that a considerable number of school-age children were not attending school for economic reasons. It was unclear to us at the time why, exactly, this was the case. But, regardless, we viewed it as tragic that children were not receiving a full primary education when their lives could be so greatly enhanced by even a few years of additional schooling.” On their return home, Eric and Barbara embarked on an exhaustive mission to determine how they could help. Less than a year later, they launched a scholarship program through the East Meets West Foundation (the largest American non-profit in Vietnam) aimed at keeping impoverished children in school.  “Traveling to faraway places can change both your perspective and your role in the world in unexpected ways,” says Eric. “The Backroads mode of travel – getting away from crowded tourist spots – provides insights that would not be remotely achievable otherwise. We feel very grateful to Backroads for having started us on a path that is both intellectually challenging and emotionally rewarding.”  For more information about the East Meets West Foundation and its various programs, visit <a href="http://www.eastmeetswest.org/" title="http://www.eastmeetswest.org/">www.eastmeetswest.org</a>.  <a href="http://www.bushtracks.com/" target="_blank">Bushtracks</a> While enjoying trips in the world’s most unspoiled places, Bushtracks’ largely American travelers have seen firsthand the challenges children face in developing nations. The following effort exemplifies the results of these encounters, and has been incorporated as a highlight of our Family Adventures program.    Bushtracks and Ebenezer School in Livingstone, Zambia, have an ongoing relationship that began almost two years ago. Livingstone is a focal point for many Bushtracks trips, since it is close to Victoria Falls and also home to a Bushtracks office. While Bushtracks had assisted other Livingstone schools previously, Ebenezer School came to our attention in January 2007 as particularly needing our assistance. The school is a part of the Ebenezer Child Care Trust, which provides services to orphan and vulnerable children in Livingstone. The primary school has 350 students affected by HIV/AIDS.    Prior to Bushtracks Family Adventures’ departures, our travelers’ children are matched with children of a similar age at the Ebenezer School and begin a penpal relationship. During the trip the children and their parents visit Ebenezer School, the penpals meet and exchange gifts, and then get to know each other through activities including a soccer match.  Many penpals remain in touch after the visit. Through Generosity in Action, a US based charitable foundation, a designated fund has been established for the school, and Bushtracks’ travelers can direct their donations toward improvements in the Ebenezer compound, including a babies’ home, a security wall, a medical center, school buildings, and administrative offices. Our travelers have been very excited about the ability of meeting the people and visiting the place their donations have transformed.   <a href="http://www.geoex.com/" target="_blank">Geographic Expeditions</a> Travelers on Geographic Expeditions trips have been moved to give back to the people and places they have encountered in a wide variety of ways. Some have returned to volunteer teach at local schools or help out on local building projects; others have singlehandedly given the funds needed to restore monasteries or fund health programs in remote areas.  Inspired by their example, GeoEx this year has begun pledging 1 percent of our net annual tour sales (as opposed to profits) to organizations we’ve carefully vetted in order to reduce the natural and cultural footprint of our office, our marketing, and our trips, including the carbon footprint of all trips. The initiatives we are supporting include a wide array of  conservation, cultural resource protection, education, and health care organizations, including the Central Asian Institute, the Snow Leopard Trust, the American Himalayan Foundation, the Solar Electric Light Fund, and the Trust for Public Land.    <a href="http://www.expeditions.com/" target="_blank">Lindblad Expeditions</a> In 1997, Lindblad Expeditions established programs for its guests to contribute directly to local conservation projects in the Galapagos Islands that will preserve the islands for generations to come. The full amount of the donations received is allocated by an independent Board of Advisors to various conservation and education or social projects implemented by the Galapagos National Park and/or the Charles Darwin Research Station.   Since the project’s inception, as of December 2007, Lindblad Expeditions in conjunction with its guests had raised more than $4 million for conservation projects in the Galapagos.  Some of the projects that have been supported include helping to eradicate feral pigs and goats on the archipelago, prioritizing the restoration of native plants throughout the islands, and tracking giant tortoises.   The donations our journeys have inspired span a tremendous range. Multiple donors have given more than $10,000; equally significant and in some ways even more moving, a recent 13-year old traveler decided to have his bar mitzvah gift be a donation to Lindblad’s Galapagos conservation efforts. As always, the generosity and goodwill of our travelers inspire us to re-double our own efforts.   <a href="http://www.micato.com/" target="_blank">Micato Safaris</a> While many say that charity begins at home, for Bernard Wharton and his family, it actually began in Africa.  While on a safari to Kenya with Micato Safaris last July, Bernard (or B., as he is commonly known), along with his wife, Jennifer Walsh, and their four children visited the Mukuru district of Nairobi through Micato Safaris' Lend a Helping Hand on Safari program.  Inspired by that experience, B. and his family decided that they wanted to help the many women and children affected by the HIV/AIDS virus who call Mukuru their home. B. contacted Micato upon his return and offered his long-term assistance to their nonprofit arm, AmericaShare.  When he learned that AmericaShare was working to build a new multi-purpose facility, the Harambee Home and Women’s Centre, for the inhabitants of Mukuru, B. offered to underwrite the entire costs for the construction and furnishing of the facility.     An architect and partner at Shope Reno Wharton Associates, B. recognizes perhaps more than most what kind of impact a new structure can have on a community.   An unprecedented endeavor in the heart of the country’s largest informal settlement, the Harambee Home and Women’s Centre was custom-designed to provide many much-needed resources at its multi-purpose facility. The three core buildings will be utilized as a dormitory for 32 AIDs orphans while they are home from boarding school during school holidays, as well as a community centre where all are welcome.  The complex will also house AmericaShare’s women’s group food program, a prime example of self-sustainability. The food program contributes greatly to the community at large by supporting upwards of 450 people twice a week, many of whom are either living with HIV or living with an affected family member. The opening ceremony for the Harambee Home took place in June of last year; B. and his wife were there for the dedication.    <a href="http://www.nols.edu/" target="_blank">NOLS</a> We like to think that Thomas Cavanagh exemplifies the effects that NOLS can have on its participants. Cavanagh has participated in three NOLS programs: Baja Sea Kayaking, Semester in the Rockies, and Wilderness First Responder.  Now he is the financial and technical manager at Amazon Watch, a nonprofit outreach and advocacy organization for the Amazon rainforest and its indigenous people. Cavanagh’s role is one of oversight, to serve “as a glue for Amazon Watch campaigners, indigenous communities, legal teams and the press,” he says.   Amazon Watch monitors large-scale industrial development projects (oil and gas pipelines, power lines, roads) in the many Amazonian countries, but its larger role is pressuring for change in social and environmental policies in relationship to those projects. One of the organization’s main objectives is to give voice and opportunity to the indigenous peoples of the Amazon to protect their own rights to the land. “The indigenous communities think of us as partners,” says Cavanagh. “We don’t go in [to help] unless we have a partnership with the community first.”  Atila Rego-Monteiro, program manager of the NOLS Semester in the Amazon, confirms evidence of development and deforestation in some of the regions where NOLS operates in Brazil. He reports, “On our drive to the river section [of the course], we basically pass through the transition zone of savanna land that has been converted to large-scale agriculture. Then we pass through the area that is recently denuded rainforest where they leave standing only one type of tree in a whole hectare, the protected Brazil nut trees. We generally see active burning while en route to the put in.”   Development in, and the consequent deforestation of, the Amazon is very much a local and global issue. Rego-Monteiro’s impression is that by witnessing firsthand such an immediate issue, the student experience on a NOLS Semester in the Amazon is strengthened overall.   To learn more about Amazon Watch and the development projects currently underway in the Amazon, visit <a href="http://www.amazonwatch.org/" target="_blank">www.amazonwatch.org</a>   <a href="http://www.oars.com/" target="_blank">OARS</a>Last year OARS ran an 8-day rafting/sea kayaking/cultural tour in Fiji for a group of 21 fathers and sons. As a result of the places visited and people met during that trip, the group was inspired to solicit the donation of 1,639 books from classmates and friends in the States.  Together with Air Pacific and the Save the Children Foundation, OARS successfully shipped the books to Fiji, where they were delivered to the villages of Nakavika and Navunikabi  in the Namosi province on the island of Viti Levu.  The books were all textbooks and children's reading, and they are now being used every day in the classroom. End note: The imaginative and energetic traveler behind this book donation program, Frank Headen, wrote a letter to George Wendt, the head of OARS, describing how the project came about. That letter is so inspiring in and of itself – and such a great example of the way a chance encounter on a trip can change lives and bridge continents – that I have reproduced it in the Responsible Travel section of Don’s Place. Please give it a read. And consider the profound effect every traveler can have on this planet we share.        An extraordinary combination of photographs and words portrays the challenges and possibilities of Southern Africa in an inspiring new light.  The efforts to preserve and sustain wildlife in Africa are confounding and often contradictory. The rights of the human and animal inhabitants often conflict. Well-intentioned conservation projects – providing readily available water year-round for animals, moving herds of elephants to better protected parks – can have unintended and disastrous consequences.  “Wild at Heart: Man and Beast in Southern Africa” is an extraordinarily beautiful, moving and provocative book that explores these issues and celebrates the wild treasures that are the focus of these efforts. Photographed by National Geographic’s Chris Johns, with insightful background and commentary by Zimbabwe-born journalist Peter Godwin and a stirring foreword by Nelson Mandela, the book presents a rare synthesis of image and word. The photographs present fresh perspectives on man and beast –  from Bushmen and other regional tribes to lions, elephants, cheetahs, wild dogs and more – and are striking in and of themselves; coupled with Godwin’s learned text, they become teaching tools, portals into the traditions and challenges of Southern Africa.  “Wild at Heart” penetratingly portrays the enormous challenges facing those who are determined to conserve and cultivate Africa’s wildness, but it also signals some optimistic examples that suggest pathways to future success. With each chapter simultaneously stunning, informing and inspiring, “Wild at Heart” is an enabling and ennobling triumph.   [Wild at Heart: Man and Beast in Southern Africa; photographs by Chris Johns and essays by Peter Godwin, with a foreword by Nelson Mandela; published by the National Geographic Society; hardcover; 176 pages; $65.]   <a href="http://www.adventurecollection.com/">Adventure Collection</a> members <a href="http://www.bushtracks.com/">Bushtracks Expeditions,</a> <a href="http://micato.com/">Micato Safaris,</a> <a href="http://www.geoex.com/">Geographic Expeditions,</a> <a href="http://www.nathab.com/">Natural Habitat Adventures,</a> and <a href="http://www.backroads.com/">Backroads</a> offer a wide range of trips throughout Africa. For more information on their itineraries, visit their web sites or the Adventure Collection’s <a href="http://www.adventurecollection.com/searchTrips">Trip Finder.</a> For more books on Africa, visit <a href="http://www.adventurecollection.com/resources/info">Longitude Books.</a>   At the beginning of a week-long cruise in Mexico's Baja California Sur, Don George is graced with an inter-species play date.  MAGDALENA BAY, BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR, MEXICO; ABOARD THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SEA BIRD -- I wanted to touch a whale. At heart, that was my entire reason for traveling to Baja California to cruise in Magdalena Bay and the Sea of Cortez last month. In 30 years of world-wandering and 25 years of living on the Northern California coast, somehow I had managed to miss seeing, much less touching, the largest animal on the planet. And on my life list of Things to Do, touching a whale was near the top.   Of course, it would have been foolhardy to predicate the success of an entire trip on such a mission; that would almost guarantee failure. So I told myself that just seeing a whale would be enough. And I told myself that even if the whales inexplicably failed to show up, there would be other rewards that would more than merit the trip.    But I have to admit that after my first morning’s whale-watching excursion -- motoring around the choppy seas of Magdalena Bay for two hours in a rubberized Zodiac peering whalelessly into a cool, cottony fog -- my heart had sunk about as deep as a bottom-feeding gray. These depths were plumbed again at lunch, when passengers from other morning excursions breezed in with tales of whales swimming right up to their Zodiacs; quickly an invisible divide grew between those who had and those who hadn’t.    While this was only the second full day of our cruise, I knew that the Zodiac outings were the only opportunity we’d have on the week-long trip to get close enough to whales to touch them, and I knew that I had only two more Zodiac outings – at 4:00 that afternoon and 8:30 the following morning -- to realize my dream. To pass the time after lunch, I tossed and turned in my bunk, stared blankly at my journal and scanned the implacable horizon.    At 4:00 seven of us clambered into our Zodiac with a naturalist and a local whale guide on board. The local guides are essential: They know the waters and the ways of the whales, and they ensure that we are complying with rules established to protect the whales in the region. (In fact, these local guides are the only individuals who have the official Mexican government permits that allow whale-watching.)   As we bounced over the waves, the fresh air and sea spray swooshing our faces, Carlos, the broad-smiling, big-hearted, encyclopedic Mexican naturalist on board our ship, reviewed what we’d learned so far: Every year gray whales make a 5,000-mile migration south from the frigid waters of the Bering and Chukchi Seas to the comparatively tropical waters of Baja California. The whales arrive here around January, and in these gentle, protected waters, they give birth and raise their young.“Blow at 2 o’clock!” he suddenly yelled, and Lucinda the Zodiac driver shifted toward the spout of whale-spray that had materialized on the horizon.The area we were approaching – Carlos pointed toward the now invisible blow -- is known as “the nursery,” a protected stretch of water near the Boca de Soledad’s narrow entrance from the ocean to the bay. This is a favorite place for whale mothers to give birth and to train their calves, Carlos said, teaching them how to swim against the strong currents at the mouth of the bay.  When they’re ready, they embark on the long migration north again, in March and April.“Rolling!” Lucinda shouted, pointing ahead. In the distance we could see a massive gray arcing shape mottled with whitish spots slowly rising out of the water and seeming to turn over on top of an even larger gray mass beneath it.   “That’s the baby rolling over the mother!” Carlos said. “They love to play like that. Whales are very tactile creatures, and touching is an important way for them to communicate and to bond.”  As we bounced closer, Lucinda slowed the Zodiac and we could clearly see two massive humps – one twice the length of our Zodiac, the other so much larger we couldn’t see its head or tail -- swimming side by side. The mother spouted and with gigantic grace flipped her flukes up and then dove into depths we couldn’t fathom. The baby dove after her.  We floated, scanning the blue sea surface for whale “footprints” – smooth oval stretches of water created when the whales propel themselves with their tails underwater. We searched for spouts or sleek gray humps breaking through the waves. Nothing.“Carlos,” I asked, “when a whale flips its flukes like that – can you call it fluking?”He cocked his bald head, smiled. “You can call it that if you want to.” “Look out! Nine o’clock. Coming right for us!” Lucinda shouted, and rising toward the surface a huge gray-white shape sped toward our Zodiac. The baby!  “He’s coming to check us out,” Carlos said.  “Splash! Splash!” a passenger named Thuy said, and immediately she and another passenger bent over the side of the Zodiac and began to slap the surface of the water with their hands. “We learned this morning that this might help attract the babies,” she explained.  Suddenly a four-foot-long gray head appeared just below the surface of the water a few feet off our Zodiac. The baby whale turned and swept its eye over us, then swerved away. “Keep splashing!” Thuy encouraged us.So I got on my knees and leaned over the Zodiac’s rubbery side and began pounding the water for all I was worth.   “Momma at three o’clock!” Thuy’s husband Mitch said and nine heads simultaneously swiveled. A blue-white undersea giant as least three times longer than our Zodiac serenely swam by us.“I think she’s checking us out to see if we’re suitable for her baby to play with, “Carlos said.  “Send out good whale vibes.” Our Zodiac erupted into cries of “Come here, Baby! We love you, Baby! Momma, your baby is so beautiful!” accompanied by a chorus of splashing. “Here comes Baby!” Carlos said and the now familiar snout surged toward us, swimming right up to our Zodiac, lifting itself out of the water so it could touch us. I dove forward with the other passengers and stretched my arm as far as I could. Contact!  Sleek, smooth, soft, rubbery whale-skin – cool and pliant and living and unlike anything I’d ever touched before – was flowing under my fingertips. Baby seemed to give a little smile and then pushed away.   “Woohoo!” I shouted and high-fived Mitch and the Zodiac resounded with Woohoos and All rights and Wows. Even the two teenagers among us seemed impressed.  But Baby wasn’t finished. It swam right under our Zodiac – I felt its bulbous back slide lumpily beneath my knees – then surfaced  and made a run for our other side. Like cartoon characters, we all leaped to that side. And again, Baby swam right up to us, lifted its head out of the water and seemed to welcome – to initiate -- our contact.Again I leaned over as far as I could and trailed my hand in the cold whirling water and again the cool sleek touch of baby whale skin electrified me. Double whale contact!  For the next half hour we floated in an otherworldly orb of whale-ness. Baby and Momma circled around our Zodiac, spouting, rolling, diving, swimming side by side, skimming up to us and then plunging playfully under us. A few times Baby swam up to us as if we were a rubber ducky in its bathtub and pushed us along with its snout.   We were all whooping and laughing and calling out to Momma and Baby and for a half hour it was as if we were having an inter-species play date.I didn’t think it could get any better than that, but shortly before Momma and Baby swam away into the depths of the bay, Momma sent her own message. She had been swimming warily but serenely at a distance from the Zodiac the entire time, content to let Baby play with us, just monitoring that we all behaved.But at this moment, she swam straight at us, a blue-white underwater mammal-bus hurtling our way. She swam right up to the Zodiac and turned gently over as she approached, so that her eye was out of the water, looking up at us. As she cruised under the bow of the Zodiac, where I was straining forward, she passed right under me. I arched and extended my arm and felt her cool, sleek cheek. I stroked it for a few seconds and in that time she looked straight into my eye and I looked straight into hers.   And plunged into a pool of understanding and wisdom older and more far-reaching and of a different order than anything I’d encountered before. She knew. She knew things I could never know – about the age and evolution of the earth, about her vast underwater world. And in that instant she communicated something that I can only convey as peace and understanding, and that surged through me as an all-knowing, and somehow pardoning, blessing.Call it projection if you want, but I know what I felt.And it flukes in the deep blue depths of my being, even now.       ########## Don George journeyed to Baja with <a href="http://www.lindblad.com/">Lindblad Expeditions</a>. For more information on their Baja itineraries, click <a href="http://expeditions.com/Destination44.asp?Destination=287">here</a>.  The following Adventure Collection members also offer trips to Baja, visiting a variety of areas and offering a variety of activities: <a href="http://www.backroads.com/">Backroads</a>, <a href="http://www.nathab.com/">Natural Habitat Adventures,</a> <a href="http://www.nols.edu/">NOLS,</a> <a href="http://www.oars.com/">OARS </a>and <a href="http://www.offthebeatenpath.com/">Off the Beaten Path.</a>   A conversation with the Editor in Chief of National Geographic Adventure magazine DG: What initially drew you to the job of editing an adventure publication? JR: I was a young city magazine editor back in the late '70s, enamored of the New Journalism and magazines like Rolling Stone and New York, but I loved the kinds of adventure and environmental stories that writers like Tim Cahill, Ed Abbey, and Randy Wayne White were doing.  They would put themselves in amazing situations -- exploring for lost cities in the Andes, marooning themselves on desert islands, things like that -- and then write incredible narratives that were full of humor and heart and great storytelling. And their stories always had an underlying conscience and soul.  To me, Cahill felt like an older brother who would take you along with him and show you the ropes...but also screwed up a fair amount.  As a writer he was heroic but very approachable. These were modern voices creating a new kind of adventure genre.     When did you join National Geographic Adventure, and what were your goals when you took over as editor in chief? I came on to launch the magazine in 1999. I wanted to bring that kind of modern spirit and approachability to a National Geographic publication, but also adhere to the unrivaled standards and values of the Society. And, of course, to be connected to all the great work that was and is being done there. National Geographic has always been about groundbreaking exploration and deep research, and of course great photography, but its storytelling hadn't changed over the years.  Today writers are expected to have a voice and personality and point of view. National Geographic has done a great job of reinventing itself over the last few years. They are still THE magazine of record in our world, but they are also more relevant than ever. We have more freedom to be quirky and focused and personal.How has the world of adventure changed in the years you’ve been at the magazine, and how has the role of adventure in people’s lives changed? I think the whole notion of "armchair adventure" -- the idea of reading about places you will never get to visit -- has gone by the boards, or at least changed very dramatically. People are much more willing and able to go out and explore the world for themselves. You can go virtually anywhere in the world, and there are fantastic guides and infrastructure to help you do it. Twenty-five years ago, if you wanted to explore the Antarctic peninsula by sea kayak, you literally had to mount an expedition yourself.  Now you can sign up and do it with an outfitter in Berkeley.   How has the magazine changed in those years? In the ten years Adventure has been around, I think we have completed the transition, as one futurist put it, from the "age of exploration" to the "age of conservation".  Ten years or so ago, back in the days just prior to "Into Thin Air," a lot of the focus of adventure was about personal accomplishment -- can I get to the top of Everest, and back down, alive?  I think Jon Krakauer's book put that egocentric attitude in its proper, somewhat empty, perspective. And the world has changed.  All our stories now have a conservation and sustainability angle, without exception.  They are still great stories, and they are not overwhelmed by finger-wagging and gloom and doom, but you will not finish a story in Adventure, whether it's about Easter Island or the rhinos of Namibia, without knowing the issues and what's at stake.   What do you see as the principal challenges of adventure travel now? Until recently I've been a bit sanguine that as places like Easter Island and Angkor Wat become heavily touristed, new frontiers open up elsewhere.  But realistcally, places like that are an incredibly scarce resource. And  we're about to see a tidal wave of global tourism, as hundreds of millions of middle-class Asians really get out and explore the world -- as they have every right and reason to do.  And, to coin a phrase, globalization is sweeping the planet, and everywhere you turn the last wild places are being logged, farmed, and developed. People have been saying this forever, and will likely keep saying it forever, but from the point of view of the individual, you should really see the wildest parts of the world now, not later.   And what are the principal challenges of creating the magazine -- and content shoot-offs such as its web site -- in 2008? Adventure is a high quality, expensive magazine to produce, and getting to the places we need to go to write and photograph our stories will always be an expensive proposition.  We need a fairly big audience and substantial revenues to do that, and for many magazines these days, ad revenue has been migrating to the web.  We're lucky to be getting our share of that.  And also very fortunate that we have a format and content and relationship with our readers that works best in print.  I'm sorry, but there's nothing like sitting down with a magazine you love and experiencing that world in words and beautiful pictures on nice paper.  We love the web and are doing some great things on it, such as our Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth database, that are unbelievably well suited to the web.  You click on your destinations, activities, price points, and things like "spirit of adventure", and our tool comes back with the best companies for you, as rated by our editors. It's deep and current and fair and very valuable to the users and the companies themselves, and something you could never do economically in print.   As an editor, what are you proudest of? I honestly think we've discovered a few writers who might not have broken through otherwise, and put them together with topics that might not have been covered, and they've come up with unique, compelling, memorable pieces that millions of readers have enjoyed and been inspired by. We kind of operate out on the fringes of mainstream media, which at times can be a bit frustrating; I don't think you've seen the name "Obama" more than a couple of times in our pages, if that.  On the other hand, we are not dealing with commodity news, sports, or business news that will be covered anyway, one way or another, by somebody -- and covered very well.  Adventure can really be a content creator in the full sense of the word. It sounds a little crazy to say this, but in some small way the world would be a slightly different, less rich place if we weren't around, and hadn't inspired and changed people along the way.   Where do you see the magazine going; how will it change and adapt in the next few years? We'll continue to try to focus on doing the right things in print, and the right things on the web.  That's always going to be a work in progress. But now that we've been around for a while and established our content niche and our business, I think we can take a few more risks, think a little bigger, and expand the definition of what adventure is for people.  A great adventure changes you, teaches you about yourself and the world. How you'll handle challenges, adversity, new situations.  There's no doubt about it.  My daughter, a suburban New York 15-year old, just got back from two weeks backpacking and climbing in the Rockies. One night her group got up at midnight to climb a 14,000 footer.  Several of the kids turned back with injuries or altitude-related things, but she did great and made it to the top. She tested herself, and was proud of herself and amazed at the world out there, in a way she couldn't have done otherwise. Of course, there are a lot of enriching experiences in life beyond having great adventures, but having them is one of the great things in life, for sure. How about yourself as an adventurer: How have your activities and goals changed in the past decade? I've stuck a bit closer to home, I guess, as my life has changed.  And when I get to visit new adventure destinations it tends to be connected to work. But I really enjoy the little things that are still adventurous in their way.  When I go out in the mornings for a bike ride on the North County Trail near my home here in Westchester County, NY, there's something thrilling about it every day. Which of your own trips has had the biggest influence on your life, and how and why? That's a hard one, but a trip to Bhutan in 1987 might be it.  Bhutan is a small, spectacular, isolated, beautiful but poor Himalayan country, and when I was there it was just starting to enter the modern world.  There were monks and old ornate monasteries everywhere, and wild-looking tribal people, and fantastic, elaborate archery contests.  And the mountains were virtually empty and unspoiled, and the trekking was phenomenal.  But what gave it extra resonance and perspective for me was traveling through Calcutta to get there. Calcutta was seething with people and motion and a kind of desperate energy that came from its poverty. I found it really compelling.  Calcutta and Bhutan were two sides of the coin of human survival and determination, and I'll never forget it.   What’s the juice for you, now, of editing National Geographic Adventure? The thing about adventure, small a, is that it's a powerful and surprising factor in people's lives. By definition, an adventure is something new, challenging, and surprising, and sometimes it's life and death. Surviving a shipwreck, like Robinson Crusoe, is an adventure -- but so is surviving cancer. You learn things about yourself and other people and life itself when you're having a real adventure -- lessons that you don't learn otherwise. And what people learn about themselves -- how to focus, the importance of relationships in a crisis -- is absolutely applicable in other situations.  I love it when I see my young editors realize, hey, the stories we're telling here are metaphors for life -- this is a great canvas we're working on.   What would you like your legacy to be? Personally, temperamentally, I'm not the most naturally adventurous person out there.  Editors by definition are always tinkering, reconsidering, second-guessing everything in front of them.  That's our job. So I'm a coach, not an athlete. I'd like to be known as the guy who pulled all these great stories and story-tellers together and helped them see the bigger, richer picture in what they were doing and writing about, and helped them share those things with lots and lots of readers.  And I'd hope that all of us would come away a little better for it.