Sunday 19th September 2010

October, November then December and we're over halfway through September already.  This year is fading quickly. 

It's on a Sunday, usually after a few drinks or similar, that I wake up wanting an adventure.  Sunday's the best day for that but I don't have time to set an expedition to Antarctica - to me the most amazing place on this planet - so I have to do with the TV.  It's amazing what putting a DVD into your DVD player can do.

This morning it took me to the edges of the planet and David Attenborough was my guide.  I know Planet Earth as a series is a few years old and now its likely been preceded by LIFE as the the ultimate voyage of discovery the TV has to offer but to me it's still a big favorite and I will still one day, if it's available, by it in Blu-Ray to experience it even further. 

I watched the first episode this morning which started in Antarctica with the King Emperor Penguins huddled together as the eternal 4 months of night settled in, in temperatures of minus 70C, and then it whisked us to the Arctic where spring approaches the Polar bear roles out of it's mound and down the mountain.  It's so happy to be free of the 4 months of darkness that it comes out of its hole and slides and rolls down the hill side in triumph, shortly followed by it's two month old cubs.  It's a sight to behold.  It's a wonder of nature.

We think we have it hard but we don't and that's one of the reasons I need to sit and watch the wonder of nature and this planet so that I can realise how minuscule our problems and survival are compared to these beasts of the snow.  Gracious, even cuddly I would not knowingly walk into one's path!

The episode then continues to follow the flow of the planet as spring then summer comes and goes.  We fly into distant forests one of which houses a third of all the worlds trees.  They start off like conifers, needle like leaves that can't really support much of life but can survive the harshness of a proper winter and we move into a forest with much more edible fauna, that whilst only covering 3% of this planet (3% is pretty big on a planet wide scale by the way) houses over 50% of it's wildlife.  All that nature together in one spot, amazing and scary.

Scary because as a population we're destroying it and in some cases just killing it meaninglessly.

My second DVD of the morning was the Long Way Round Episode 6.  That's the one where Ewan and Charley travelling through Russia come up against the Road of Bones.  I wanted to put a picture here but because I don't own my own images I'm worried about copyright.

During their journey in this episode they have to work with the camera crew and other truck drivers passing through to get along the roads, its amazing and really shows the harshness of this land.  Why is it called the road of bones?  Simply put the Road of Bones is named because wherever a prisoner died building it, they were buried - not taken back - just buried where they died along the road.

I talked earlier of meaningless killing and this episode shows the harshness of that.  As a black bear is killed and skinned for its skin (worth $600 to the skinner) and its Gall bladder sold too.  They leave the carcass to rot beyond that point, they can't eat the meat in these parts - it's poisonous.

Ewan and Charley both have things to say on this and whilst Ewan is 100% against it Charley isn't but also for the right reasons.  He believes that if you kill something to eat that's fine - I agree - but anything else is pretty damn cruel, killing something for it's skin is murder lets face it.

If you feel like an adventure on a Sunday morning I can't think of better shows to watch but it makes you realise how big and scary this world really is and how much beauty it has.  We need to keep it that way however hard that seems.