Tag: volunteer Malawi

Peter Thoem, a retiree from Canada, has participated in six expeditions so far. ‘I have time in my life, the health and the resources – so why not’ is his go-getter attitude in all this. This is why he started with expeditions and what he experienced on them.

Since 2018 Peter has tracked snow leopards in the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan, studied biodiversity in Kenya’s Masai Mara, Arabian oryx in the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve and whales & dolphins on the Azores archipelago.

‘Back in the day, when I was thinking about joining my first expedition to the Tien Shan mountains to study snow leopards, it was the opportunity to get into a really wild area. I could see that few westerners would ever get to see or experience the Tien Shan mountains and that the expedition might yield exciting results’, recounts Peter, ‘it was simply too good an opportunity to miss.’

And since then? ‘Tien Shan was just so thrilling’, says Peter, ‘and then the year after – in 2019 – there was the chance to do something equally useful in places as fascinating as the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve and Kenya’s Masai Mara. It deeply interested me’. So off he went to the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve first and then a few months later to Africa for back-to-back expeditions in 2019 and 2020, just before the Covid pandemic brought everything to a standstill for a couple of years.

His most recent expedition was to the Azores archipelago, studying whales & dolphins from a catamaran.

When asked about lessons learnt on expedition, Peter’s answers are swift and precise, showing his enthusiasm. He believes that with good planning, an open mind, health and resources, you can do it, because ‘it’s a fascinating world out there’. And further that even if ‘our western comforts make us think that everywhere else is scary, it’s not. Yes, some places can be risky, even dangerous, but not everywhere else.’

When asked to summarise his experiences, Peter takes some time to think, smiling to himself and then says: ‘Sometimes it’s rigorous – we have work to do and protocols to follow, we have to understand what’s expected. We have to coalesce as a team and appreciate each other’s strengths and not-so-strengths. Then we have to find ways to work with the less committed – some are day-dreamers, others are bloggers who don’t always contribute much.’ But it always works out in the end: ‘We come from all corners of the world, some of us have even met before, because we’re committed to the Biosphere Expeditions ethic. And when I return, I always feel richer and profoundly privileged for having been to places and done things that I used to believe only existed in an Attenborough world.’

Peter’s most abiding memories include standing on the slope of a remote valley in Kyrgyzstan with a clear blue sky. ‘It’s just warm enough to unzip my jacket. I’m surrounded by yellow expanses of spring flowers, there’s rushing meltwater cascading off snow-draped mountains around me and I had to pinch myself. Is THIS really me? Am I really here?”

Or there is the time when Peter was on his middle-of-the-night-shift keeping watch over a waterhole in Kenya’s Masai Mara. There are elephants around and hippos lie in the waterhole, but it’s quiet except for the odd grunt, splash or snuffle. Then from across the valley comes a strange upside-down bark, like indrawn breath “EEeeeeYiP”. What’s that, Peter asks the ranger. ‘Hyaena’, the ranger replies and Peter’s spine tingles.

And most recently, in 2024, on the expedition boat off Faial, one of the islands of the Azores archipelago: ‘The sea is lively and we have to hold on white-knuckle tight’, remembers Peter, ‘we’re all doing our tasks as assigned when a blue whale is sighted. We slow down and carefully approach – again everyone does as instructed – gathering data: time, water temperature, sea-state; taking photos, watching, counting and more. And then we’re spell-bound. There in front of us, all but immersed, visible yet almost invisible is the world’s largest mammal. It blows a couple of times, then dives to depths that take it out of the realm of human comprehension.’

With all those experiences, what impact have the expeditions had on Peter’s daily life, away from expeditions? Again, Peter does not hesitate: ‘I’m seen and known for having just come back from another exotic place. Where are you going next, people ask. I have a greater understanding and appreciation of the value of citizen science’. An appreciation that has contributed to a structured long-term project on bird populations close to Peter’s home (now in its 10th year).

And what about Peter’s connection to nature? Has this changed through the expedition experiences he’s made? ‘My connection with nature has always been strong’, Peter responds, ‘and I feel that I have a reasonable understanding of how the balance of nature all weaves together. The expeditions give me the chance to see some of those interactions and inter-relationships’. And Peter adds an example of this: ‘With Alan, our expedition scientist in Kenya, we watched a small group of impala ingesting mineral-rich soils. Alan was ecstatic, it was, he said, the first known-to-science example of geophagy (animals eating soil, usually for its mineral content) by impalas. My photos made it a publishable observation‘.

The interview ends with the question of what Peter would tell others who are thinking about joining their first expedition. Peter laughs and just says: ‘If it appeals to you, then set aside your fears and just go do it’.

Find an overview of all upcoming expeditions here.

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Also see Peter’s birding blog entries for Kenya and Arabia

In his fifties, Neil Goodall felt the familiar urge to get away from it all and out into nature. Yet when he took the leap into expeditions, Neil discovered more than a new world – he found a new path, and a new lease of life.

Neil Goodall never expected to find himself in an acacia bush.

‘We were tracking leopards in Namibia, and had to set traps,’ Neil explains. ‘So I volunteered to crawl into the bush, and put the smelly carcass in the trap – and I thought, I’m an accountant!’

Since his first expedition in Namibia, Neil never looked back. Thailand, Malawi, Tien Shan: Neil traversed swamps, crossed deserts, and returned with a different perspective on life. ‘The contrast between this and working at my desk all day was just amazing. My colleagues couldn’t believe it. Gradually I became known as the Scat Hunter!’

Yet he wasn’t always an adventurer. Like many people, Neil found himself isolated from the natural world.

‘I always liked nature but never found the time for it,’ he says. ‘I was in my early 50s. Busy life. Two kids, family, and a very busy job – as a finance director for a public organisation.’

To get closer to wildlife, Neil followed what seemed to be the only option – safari, spending five days in the Serengeti.

‘Afterwards, I thought, I loved that, but a couple of things nagged me: you’re a tourist, you’re stuck in a vehicle, you can’t interact, and when you do see wildlife, they’re surrounded by tourist vehicles…it all felt a bit contrived.’

Signing up to be a citizen scientist with Biosphere Expeditions gave Neil the immersion in the natural world that he couldn’t reach in his everyday life – and then some.

‘It was everything that I’d hoped for: structured, but with a sense of liberation. We could go out into the wild, and as long as we did our tasks, we were free to do as we pleased. Wildebeest, giraffe, springbok – all close enough to smell them.’

Yet there was a crucial distinction. Neil wasn’t just close to the wildlife; his participation in the expedition enabled him to contribute to their conservation, shoulder to shoulder with dedicated scientists out in remote wilderness. On his first expedition, in Namibia, part of the project’s purpose was to change the narrative.

‘The farmers blamed the leopards for killing their livestock. Our work was helping to protect the cats. Collecting data, but properly in the wild – it’s such a purposeful interaction with wildlife.’

Part of what makes the expeditions so meaningful is because they’re not a holiday – they’re challenging, as Neil attests.

‘It’s hard work,’ he agrees. ‘You’re up early, active from the off, but when you look back at the end of the day, shattered, you think – but what have I done? All day in nature, encounters with wildlife, collecting data with a team of people who were strangers a few days before. It’s hard, but it’s also one of the best things to experience because it connects with a lot of deep drivers that are rare to find in everyday life. But Biosphere Expeditions gives you confidence: you’re well briefed, well fed, and you know what you’re doing: solid foundations to go out of your comfort zone!’

And, like many expeditioners, Neil found himself not just out of his comfort zone, but far beyond it. His experiences across the world have been so out of the ordinary that they’ve changed how people see Neil as a person.

‘On my third expedition, I went to Peru – the first person in my family ever to go to South America. I found myself taking the boat from Iquitos down the Amazon, and I remember pinching myself – literally pinching myself – going, I’m on the Amazon. How!?’ Neil says, laughing. ‘People at work see me as the accountant. But it changes people’s perspective of you. They react ‘Wow, you did What!?’’

Judging by his stories, this amazement is justified.

‘One night, in a remote region of Malawi,’ Neil begins, eyes lighting up in recollection, ‘We were observing a goat carcass to see if it attracted predators in the dark. We set a camera trap 10 miles from camp, but on the way back, we got stuck in the rutted road. Imagine: three of us, in the pitch black dark, somewhere in the middle of Malawi…and we had no choice but to get out of the car and push it out of the ruts. And you feel the danger,’ Neil admits. “We could radio for help, we knew we were safe, but it’s so far beyond everyday life. You come back and think: Wow!’

Ultimately, though, Neil’s experiences on expedition have given him more than just memories. They’ve given him new skills, opened new opportunities, and have made him an active protester for change. Inspired to put his new skills to use, he attend his first protest march – Restore Nature Now – in London in the summer, alongside 60,000 other nature lovers. Neil says, “I thank Biosphere Expeditions for giving me the confidence and the compulsion to protest for what I believe is a just cause, something I had not done before in my 68 years. And I will do the same again if the march is repeated.”

‘It changed my idea of what’s possible,’ Neil reflects. ‘I’ve always had it latent within me – but when are you going to get the chance, sitting in the office?’

Sixteen expeditions later, Neil the office accountant, has been transformed – and it hasn’t gone unnoticed. So who has Neil’s new sense of purpose influenced most? Neil bursts out laughing.

‘My sons – who see me as a boring old dad – they can’t believe what I’ve done!’