Wander Woman: A Travel Podcast

Making Waves

• Phoebe Smith • Season 2 • Episode 6

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Strap on your eco-friendly gear and prepare to be immersed in tales of transformation, recovery, and the relentless pursuit of a better world. Join adventurer Phoebe Smith in Egypt's Red Sea (literally) where she meets the resort cleaning up its act - and the ocean. Red Sea Safaris in Marsa Alam (one of the first PADI eco-dive centres in the world) firmly pushes back against the mass tourism model, and empowers divers to be part of the solution by offering the Dive Against Debris course free of charge, alongside other conservation first initiatives, and in doing so improves both the land and underwater world for everyone. 

Also coming up:

How to travel sustainably on a budget; Discover the top 10 places to try diving; I meet ultrarunner and co-founder of Black Trail Runners Sabrina Pace-Humphreys to discuss why Lanzarote is just like running in the Sahara desert and why she never travels without her running shoes. In our regular gear chat we consider the most eco-friendly snorkelling kit;  be awed and humbled by child solider turned artist Peter Oloya, who is using his talent to empower other survivors in Uganda; and in our Wander Woman of the Month - learn about the woman who made waves becoming the first scuba instructor in the USA - Dottie Frazier.

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

Speaker 1:

On this month's Wander Woman podcast.

Speaker 2:

It was dark grey. I thought it's dolphin, so I started to swim towards this thing and then I realised that it's a big plastic bag.

Speaker 1:

I journey to Egypt's Red Sea to visit the resort that is cleaning up its act and the ocean. I also speak to author and ultra-runner Sabrina Pace-Humphreys about near-misses when running around the world from the Alps to the Sahara Desert.

Speaker 3:

I came to a narrow path and I lost my footing and I slipped and was hanging onto the side of a mountain.

Speaker 1:

It was almost a vertical draw and I was screaming for my life and I catch up with East African artist Peter Oloya who, after being abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army and forced into being a child soldier, escaped and turned to art and decided to use it as a skill to teach others to help with their trauma.

Speaker 4:

The only thing I was left with was my art, so I decided to

Speaker 1:

Also coming up. My regular travel hack reveals how you can travel sustainably on a budget. In my travel gear chat, discover options for eco-friendly snorkelling kit; explore what lies beneath the waves with my top 10 places to try diving. Finally, I'll be revealing this episode's Wander Woman of the Month, the traveller whose name is lost in the history books. You're listening to the Wander Woman podcast and audio travel magazine with me, adventurer Phoebe Smith, exploring off-the-beat and track destinations, wild spaces, wild life encounters and the unsung heroes behind conservation efforts. Come wander with me.

Speaker 5:

Don't touch the turtles when you're taking photos. Don't use flash and don't use a selfie stick. Don't use underwater sound systems, as it can stress them out. Don't feed the fish or any animals. Don't litter and if you see any rubbish, make sure to bring it back up with you.

Speaker 1:

I'm in Egypt, suited up, ready to dive in the Red Sea, taking part in some citizen science, creating what's called baseline data about the number of green turtles in the area. It's a species known to be endangered worldwide, but their numbers are little known in reality in this country. As someone who visited her garden way back in 2008 and was shocked at the mass tourism, single-use plastics and lack of regard for environment and animals, to the point where I swore I'd never return, I was relieved to see that things are slowly changing for the better. I began in a place called Marsa Alam with Red Sea Diving Safaris, a family-run business who had just been recognised as the first paddy, that's professional association of diving instructors eco-centre in the country and one of only 11 in the world. At the time there I met one of the managers and talented diver, Sarah O'Gorman, who explained the origins of their three properties in this little-known area just south of the tourist strip.

Speaker 6:

Marsa Alam originally was a military zone. No civilians were allowed to come here. There was no tourism. We're talking only about 30 years ago, which was when Hossam Helmy came to the area, so he got special permissions to come here. His father was chief of the Coast Guard so therefore he was able to come and explore this area whereas other people wouldn't have had the chance. So he was very fortunate to be in that position. So he was the first one really in this area, apart from a small community like a few bedouins and a small community fishing community in Marsa Alam, and he's the one that explored all of the bays and the reefs in this area.

Speaker 1:

After seeing the beauty of the reefs here and suspecting tourism would soon develop, Hossam decided he had to act to protect it Before sustainability was even a buzzword. He decided that his accommodation would be built to the number of guests that the reef could take, not vice versa. He wanted to take care of the place to ensure future generations could enjoy it.

Speaker 6:

He's constantly meeting with government authorities, constantly fighting against development and not necessarily fighting against development, but fighting against mass tourism development and trying to make people realise that if you invest now, in 30 years you could have a really good business, like he's done, and you don't need to just build all of those rooms, spend all of that money, have people come in and in five years time the reef is trashed and no one gets to see anything and then they won't come again anyway because there's nothing to see. So he's trying to educate people.

Speaker 1:

As well as booking the high occupancy trend, Hossam has pioneered other groundbreaking initiatives. For instance, when fossil fuels were heavily subsidised, they booked the trend of taking advantage and instead implemented solar power to reduce their carbon footprint. Now that the subsidies have gone, they are benefiting from free energy, having multiple solar farms across their resorts. And while other places simply wax lyrical about the beauty of the coral in the waters, they run a number of conservation programmes to help empower divers to contribute towards the protection of the underwater world while they enjoy it. And I was here to undertake my Divers Against Debris course, a certification that they offer to all divers free of charge.

Speaker 2:

Well, the Divers Against Debris programme. It's a programme designed by PADI to help people to understand the meaning of the debris and how you treat it and the bad effect of it, all right, and where it comes from and how we can fix it and prevent having it and after this, how to report the result and then we can publish it and, of course, it's something very nice for the marine life and our environment, like the Red Sea or somewhere else, to protect the marine life, to keep the life stable and, for a long time, for the next generation, you know.

Speaker 1:

Every day they do the house reef cleanup. As part of the Adopt the Blue programme, Padi runs encouraging centres to own their patch and do regular clean-ups and monitoring to effectively gather data to form part of a picture of the state of the ocean and allow campaigners to target manufacturers of common debris items as well as companies who may inadvertently be causing the problem, because around 70% of all debris entering the ocean sinks to the sea floor. What's the most common thing that you find in the water?

Speaker 2:

Plastic bags. Plastic bags and the waste of the boat, like some parts of the engine, batteries, some stuff like this, but mainly plastic bags.

Speaker 1:

You said you went either diving or snorkelling the other day and you thought you saw dolphins, but it turned out to be a really big plastic bag.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah yeah. It was a really big plastic bag around and I thought it's like something to cover a car or something like this, and it was dark grey. I thought it's dolphin, so I started to swim towards this thing and then I realised that it's a big plastic bag and there I found a lot of frogfish stuck there and drifted with the plastic bag.

Speaker 1:

After learning about it in the classroom, it was time to put the theory into practice. We spent an hour in the water collecting all we could. On one hand, it was quite fun competing with each other to fill our bags with the most rubbish, but on the other, it was sobering to see just how much there was. When we emerged, it was time to sort and log what we'd found. So I set about talking to the other divers who'd done this with me. How does everyone feel that we picked up this amount of trash on one single dive?

Speaker 3:

It's very sobering, particularly when you're seeing like a ray shooting by underneath. You're seeing little fish mouthing around, particularly the tiny microplastics.

Speaker 7:

And so, yeah, pretty shocking. I think what's most surprising is what kind it is. That it's mostly kind of crisp packets and I don't know things from sweets and biscuits, and yeah, it's just surprising the type that it is. For some reason, the pictures that you often see are like almost all plastic bottles, which then seem easy to collect, but this stuff was actually difficult to collect because it would just break into smaller and smaller pieces. What are your thoughts?

Speaker 8:

It's literally a drop in the bucket. So like, yeah, I mean, Do you feel

Speaker 1:

good that we've collected it.

Speaker 8:

Yeah, you could tell. Yesterday we made a noticeable difference by the time we got on shore compared to when we first went out there. A noticeable difference, but it just makes you stick to your stomach of how much is actually out there.

Speaker 1:

You're gonna keep doing dives against debris.

Speaker 8:

Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely. I've cleaned up trash in some of the most remote places on the planet, no matter where you go, even in the middle of the Bering Sea, close to Russia, between Russia and Alaska. We picked up 1,000 kilograms of trash out there, and the only thing that lives there is birds, and you find everything from Japan, from Russia, from you know, or out in Indonesia, like in the middle of Rajahampa, the most remote islands out there in Asia. You always find this, so the best you can do is clean it up, since its original inception by Paddy more than 10 years ago.

Speaker 1:

The program has seen over 100,000 divers participate in dives against debris in 120 countries around the world, recording the collection of more than 2 million pieces of rubbish. The data uploaded is given to the Ocean Conservancy, which reports on global beach debris, and CSIRO, the Commonwealth of Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, world Leaders in Marine Debris Research. It creates a whole picture of the marine waste issue that has been used to direct waste policy globally After our rubbish pickup. Something I was really impressed with was that the result wasn't shying away from the fact there is trash in their reef. It wants to try and affect change by helping divers be part of the solution.

Speaker 1:

Next, it was time to undertake another conservation course and learn about something much more beautiful that lies beneath the waves the sea cow, aka the dugong, a creature who lives on seagrass and is vital for the health of the ecosystem. I met Professor Shawky, the man responsible for writing a special course for divers to take to help monitor their numbers here in the Red Sea and help give these beautiful creatures the protection they need. And why is collecting this data so important for you?

Speaker 9:

Now, if you visit IEA in Red List we have different categories of personas for different species, and now the dugong is very, very vulnerable and recently last year, in December 2020, 2022 in Montreal, they declared that dugong in West Africa become critically endangered.

Speaker 8:

Yes, yes.

Speaker 9:

Now some point the rank went from vulnerable to critically endangered.

Speaker 1:

And the data basically helped you build a case to fight for greater protection.

Speaker 9:

Yes, at least something we call something called Dogong Protected Area. We need to protect the dogong, like other areas, like sharks or coral reefs and so on, because it's very, very shy animal that's easily by catching it in it, it's very easily to die.

Speaker 1:

We journeyed out with Professor Shawky and managed to find and monitor one such sea cow, spending a full tank of air, photographing and recording data about it as it munched away at the sea grass, raising to the surface occasionally for air before coming back down and finishing its gardening. It was humbling to swim alongside it A few miles north at Red Sea Safari's sister site, Marsa Shagra. I learned of other initiatives being undertaken to make not just the diving but all their resorts as eco-friendly as possible, including the use of a reverse osmosis solar-powered water purification plant, a farm that grows fruits and veg to be served in the restaurants at all their properties, and free-range chickens who lay the eggs served at breakfast. Any waste food feeds the animals, making it a mini-circular food economy.

Speaker 6:

At the moment. We've got aubergines, we've got courgettes, we've got peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, but like, for example, in the beginning, we filled it completely with cucumbers. So after three months we were producing 300 kilos of cucumbers every four days, which is quite a lot, yeah, and it covers about. I checked the other day and it's about 40% of our vegetable needs for the three restaurants.

Speaker 6:

So, yeah, of course the lack of the other 60% is vegetables that we either can't grow here or haven't started growing it. But of course that number of cucumbers is too much for us. So we can sometimes sell them in the local market, or we can give them to bedouins or, you know, donate them to other places or other hotels if they need them.

Speaker 1:

I love the sharing economy that Sarah and her team has set up here. It is lowering food miles, producing organic, pesticide free crops and creating local jobs too. Surely, that's what sustainability is all about. With so much happening here, it would be easy for the team to sit back and be smug, but for Sarah, there is still a lot she wants to do.

Speaker 6:

We hope that we can kind of set an example to other diving centres. And you know, maybe some of our guests are looking to go to Indonesia, for example, and they might say, oh well, shagra and Nakri and Lahmi are paddy eco centres and that's so if we look for another place in Indonesia, we might look for another paddy eco centre, because we know that they reach the same, they have the same beliefs and the same mindset. So, yeah, we might be in competition with other diving centres or destinations in terms of business terms, but at least we can kind of encourage them to do something similar in terms of protecting the environment and conservation.

Speaker 1:

That was me and Marsa Alam, Egypt, at one of the first Padi eco dive centres in the world. While every aspect of the trip there may not have been yet 100% eco friendly, the initiatives that Red Sea safaris has already invested in are hugely inspiring, and visiting places like theirs, rather than the mass tourism centres, shows others that by changing their practices to be greener, they will win visitor dollars too. And, as we all know, money talks. Speaking of money, we all know that a huge barrier to being sustainable can often be cost. That's why this episode's travel hack of the month focuses on how to travel sustainably on a budget. Want to save cash and the planet, stay tuned. Much like buying organic produce.

Speaker 1:

There is a perception that travelling sustainably is more expensive, and while, yes, sometimes you can fly to southern Europe for half the price of a return train ticket to Oxenholme, the Lake District here in the UK, with a bit of planning, travelling sustainably can not only be affordable, but the cheapest way to travel, especially when you factor in where you spend your money Is it going into the coffers of huge corporations or directly into the pockets of locals? Here are our top tips for travelling sustainably and for cheap. Avoid flying is the obvious choice. Sometimes it will be unavoidable, but, where possible, the train is a much more sustainable option and, yes, if you book ahead, can genuinely be a bargain, especially once you're in country. In Europe, inter-railing is still a bargain, especially if you're taking the kids on an adventure, and in Asia and North America, too, there are many options, including the bus. Hopping on a long distance bus anywhere in the world is usually cheap, frequent and easy, and, in places such as Argentina, a much more comfortable experience in flying, better food too, and you get to meet and mingle with locals. For accommodation, large hotels are costly to maintain and often not the most sustainable option, although many are getting better and better. Try a home stay instead. Not only is the money you spend mostly going directly to the local communities, but you're also living with a family, learning their culture and, most likely, making new friends.

Speaker 1:

Choose your excursions carefully. Needless to say, we're fans of the self-powered adventure. Walking, running, cycling and kayaking are our favourite ways to get to know a country. It's slower, more thoughtful and there's more chance to integrate yourself with the local community than, say, ramming up a sand dune in a four by four.

Speaker 1:

At the most fundamental level, destination is everything. Ask yourself can you go somewhere? Your money can go further. Can you book a place that directly benefits the local economy? Yes, everyone wants to visit Paris or New York, but how about choosing somewhere off the beaten track, especially in those countries that are beacons for green travel, such as Estonia or Slovenia?

Speaker 1:

Be careful where you eat, as that also has a bearing on your carbon footprint. Fortunately, choosing a restaurant wisely usually means a better, more authentic meal. A continental menu in a hotel is likely to include plenty of imported and out-of-season food. Picking up a taco in Mexico City or a pad thai from a street vendor in Bangkok is always, always going to be the best option. And there you have it.

Speaker 1:

Follow these hacks and you'll find your travel experiences are enriching on every level. I'd love to hear about your hacks or experiences for traveling sustainably on a budget. Find me on Instagram at Phoebe R Smith and share away. That was my Wonder Woman travel hack the hard-won knowledge I impart each episode to make sure your adventures are that much better. Now, speaking of adventures, my next guest is the unstoppable Sabrina Pace Humphreys. She's a mother, a grandmother, a motivational public speaker, presenter, a trail running ultra runner, an author, a social justice activist, co-founder and trustee of the community and campaigning charity Black Trail Runners, as well as a run coach and personal trainer. Well, just saying all that, I'm exhausted, but hearing about her global running adventures is completely re-energising. Join me as I catch up with her to chat running the marathon, desabs getting too close to the edge in the Alps, and why Lanzarote is just like the Sahara Desert.

Speaker 3:

I started running because I was suffering with really extreme postnatal depression. I had never run before, never done anything like that before, didn't see myself as a runner, didn't feel like a runner, didn't feel as though I looked like a runner, and I was so severely depressed that my GP suggested that I do something like jogging. And that was in 2009, after the birth of my fourth child. And it just it gave me such that first run of 45 minutes, which I think I only covered a mile because, you know, I was in my painting gear, I was in a pair of old school Dunlops, I had a bottle of mineral water in my hand. It gave me such mental freedom from the dark thoughts that I was having about myself, my life, my place in the world, and so that's kind of how I started running and that's how I was very much a road. Well, I stuck to the roads because that I didn't know about trail running. So I stuck to the roads for years and years. And it was in 2016, when I was I had gone into recovery for alcoholism and I knew that my 40th birthday was coming in 2018 and I knew that I needed to do something. That just because of what I've been through in life that I wanted to do something. That was a kind of celebration that I've made it to 40. So I signed up to do a race. This is the kind of type A personality I am called the marathon de sables, which is an ultramarathon in the Sahara desert where you carry everything on your back that you need and it's 250k over five days, self-sufficient. You've only got yourself to look after. So in 2016, when I signed up for that, that was the first time I'd ever trail run.

Speaker 3:

I come from a very poor background. I didn't go abroad until I was 17,. I didn't go on an airplane until I was 17, I grew up in a single parent family, so these photos of places that trail running have taken me, the Sahara desert being the first one. Like I only ever saw those places in picture books and I never anyone listening to this. I never, ever believed that I would be there. It wasn't my family's experience, it wasn't generation, my grandparents experience. We didn't do stuff like that.

Speaker 3:

So the first time I saw the marathon de sables was again when I was in early recovery and I was in on a Saturday night when I'd normally be out partying or whatever it might be. And I was watching, clicking through the channels on Saturday night, as you do, and I came across the Discovery channel and it was this documentary and it was James Cracknell, the Olympic rower, and the footage was showing him bringing up vile, hooked up to IVs, running in this just barren kind of place. And then it had James Nesbitt's voiceover saying you know, this is Olympian James Cracknell, and you know this is James, you know, competing in the toughest foot race on earth, the marathon de sables. And I was horrified and gripped like what would make an Olympian be like this, be in this state. And it was a documentary all about him taking on the marathon de sables and his training and being out there. And it was.

Speaker 3:

It was horrific and I was like, oh my god, why would anyone run with like up to 10, 15 kilos on their back, have no support, carry all their food, their medical equipment day after day after day, sleep at night in an open-sided base piece of material with seven strangers. Why would anyone do that? But in it, because I was. I knew that my life would have to change in terms of how I chose to spend my free time. There was just this little thing inside me that only after a couple of days came out, which was I wonder if this is the thing. I wonder if this is something that I could do.

Speaker 1:

And how did you go about preparing yourself for the warm weather? And running on sand? I mean, even walking on sand is really really tiring.

Speaker 3:

I'm telling you right now, running on sand is so hard as anyone that has done it knows, especially running on sand in the Sahara, on sand dunes. It's very different running on sand dunes that your feet are disappearing in sand up to your knees than it is running on compact sand on a British beach. It's just very, very different. So 95% of my training was done here in the UK on trails. Yeah, that's not.

Speaker 3:

It's only really kind of 10% to 15% sand dunes. Most of it is very dry, rocky riverbeds and jebbles, you know, mountains in the desert. So actually the proportion of sand soft sand that you're running on isn't as much as you think it is. So in terms of your training in the UK or my training, it was very much on ground that was soft, that did have give, but was also rocky. It was also on like mountainous terrain, hills, etc. Because you're doing that in the Sahara desert, it's not just sand. So I think that's the reason that you surround yourself with people that know, people that have been there and also I went to Lanzarote. So Lanzarote is the nearest place that replicates what it is like running in the Sahara because of the terrain. Yeah, so I went and I did a week training camp in Lanzarote in January, before I went to the Sahara, and I did heat training.

Speaker 1:

And how did you find it? Once you got there, what was your experience of the race itself?

Speaker 3:

Oh my God, it still to this day was one of the was probably the best experience of my life. I was so ready. I was scared. Of course I was scared. I'd never done anything like that before. I was also fundraising my child's autistic and I didn't. At that time I didn't know she was autistic, but at that time my niece and nephew were one of them severely autistic and another one that kind of different parts of the spectrum, so I was raising money for them as well.

Speaker 3:

So you know what they say about these big races and any woman. That's kind of training for training for her own challenge. Just getting to the start line is the win, because we've gone through so much to get there without managing kids, managing work, managing social life, managing everything that goes with what it is to be a woman, and just making it to the start line. I can remember standing there and looking around me at these amazingly athletes and also there weren't many women there and certainly there weren't many women of color there. But just looking around and thinking you know what I've made it and I'm here not only for myself, but I'm here to show women mums of four grandmothers that you know we can do hard things and I crossed the finish line.

Speaker 3:

As 11th British woman, I'm always looking for experiences that allow me to see the world, to see parts of the world that I've never seen, and if I can run when I'm there, then job done. So you know, my kids and husband is like when I'm a holiday I'm like, well, you know, am I going to be able to run there? Because I want to explore. I want to explore these places because for so long in my life I didn't go abroad, I didn't go and see the world, and running has allowed me to see parts of the world and travel as a woman in parts of the world with using my own body that make me feel free.

Speaker 1:

At this point I asked Sabrina if she had ever had any near misses when running.

Speaker 3:

I was running along, I came to a narrow path and I lost my footing and I slipped and was hanging on to the side of a mountain. It was almost a vertical draw and I was screaming for my life. My hands were in snow, it was melting, screaming for help and five male runners, white, presenting past me as if I wasn't there, Couldn't hear my screams. They didn't reach down to help me and I thought I was gonna die. You know, as I talk about in the book, you know I thought this is it and I just I screamed until I couldn't scream anymore and all I could think about was my husband and my children back home and how I might never see them again if I didn't get help. And, by the grace of God, the sick man he was an Italian couldn't speak English, I couldn't speak Italian, but he, with all of his might, reached down, was signaling to me what to do with my legs, eventually pulled me up and, yeah, I crawled over to the place of safety. And yeah, as I talk about it in the book, because I felt it was a really important part of my journey that I really thought I can't do this. I cannot put myself in a situation where, because of how I present, because of the race that I'm in, because there's, you know, is it because you know? My lived experience tells me, you know, if I had been a white woman blue eyes, blonde hair that I would have got the help I need. Because that's my personal experience.

Speaker 3:

Growing up as a mixed black, mixed race girl in the country, I experienced a lot of rural racism, I was othered, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 3:

So it really made me think about my place in trail running and women in trail running and women of color in trail running, and are we safe here?

Speaker 3:

And that led me onto a journey which nine months later, led to me co-founding black trail runners Last year. You know, our first highlight, big event of the year was called Black to the Trails and it was the most diverse trail running event that the world has ever seen 70% people of color, 70% female participants, which is again another real lack, a real small majority area in trail running. And what it went to show with Black to the Trails, which we didn't call it a race, it was a trail running carnival, an event. We had running distances from one K for the kids through to 10 K. It took place in Dunstable Downs, and what it showed is that when events, when initiatives are led by people of color, people that you're aiming to attract, in terms of that diversity, even if you're focusing on one area so we were focusing on the, you know, people from the black community it can't help but bringing in diversity in other areas.

Speaker 1:

And then for the final question, really quick, is when you travel, you said you always look so hard to run. Is there? What's your one piece of kit you always take with you wherever you go in the world. Would, it be your running shoes, or is this something else?

Speaker 3:

There is always running shoes. Because I live in athletic wear, I mean that's my thing. So I want to be able to. If I, if I'm, if I'm traveling, if I'm traveling to business or pleasure, I want to be able to explore on my feet. Always, it's always a pair of running shoes. I mean I'm lucky. I used to wear high heels a lot of the times when I ran my. I ran my business for 16 years and now I'm just always in trainers, you know. So I've always got a pair of running shoes, whether they're trail specific or not. But yeah, it's always a pair of trainers and I'm ready to go.

Speaker 1:

That was Sabrina Pace- Humphreys, an utterly inspiring woman. Her excellent book Black Sheep" a story of rural racism, identity and hope, is available now from all good bookshops. I encourage you to plunge into it and her incredible story. And of course, now we're on the topic of plunging, one of the best things I ever did in my life was learn how to dive. It helped me overcome fears, gain confidence in the water and on land too, and realize the power I had by simply breathing, tempted to take the leap or giant stride.

Speaker 1:

Listen up for this month's top 10 for the best places to try diving around the globe. At 10 is Greece easy and cheap to get to from the UK and we've all seen the color of that water. Greece is a great destination for your first dive and there are plenty of options, with 240 inhabited islands rich in sea life and wrecks to explore. The crystal clear Konduras reef in the east side of Kea Island is a particularly good place to start Staying in Europe for number 10 and we're hopping over to the Canary Islands. Gran Canaria is particularly good for diving, especially near to the shore, where stingrays, trumpet fish and angel sharks can all be seen. At 8 it's Thailand. There are huge amounts of options in this country and the place to go for your big fish. Whale sharks, manta rays and leopard sharks are all widely seen, especially through its clear waters. There's also a wide variety of diving locations, including wrecks, reefs and caves, and the best thing is it's great year round In.

Speaker 1:

At number 7, we're headed to Central America and Costa Rica. The Pacific coast especially has abundant sea life, including sharks and manta rays. The protected reefs also make it great for beginners On land. It's also one of the most biodiverse places on earth. At 6, we're heading to the Philippines and in particular, the Luzon region near Manila, which is great for scuba newbies. It's known for easy access straight off the beach and as a place for divers to get certification. Alongside World War 2 wrecks, you'll find coral reefs and turtles.

Speaker 1:

At 5 is the Maldives, known for its unbelievable beaches. Diving among these islands in the Indian Ocean is characterised by caverns and overhangs and rich sea life Think whale sharks and huge manta rays attracted to the nutrient rich waters. At 4, it's the Micronesian state of Palau, frequently sighted among the top places to dive in the world, including on this podcast. There are more than 1,400 species of fish and 500 species of healthy coral to spot and you'll definitely see plenty of mantas. At 3, we're going to Belize, whose waters are home to the largest unbroken barrier reef in the western hemisphere. It's also where you'll find the famous blue hole, but generally you'll find other Belize dive sites quieter than elsewhere.

Speaker 1:

At 2, we're in Africa with Tanzania, one of the world's best scuba diving locations. It's not just the Serengeti, but also the Indian Ocean to the east and the Great Rift Valley lakes inland. And at number 1, it's the UK. Yes, the waters are murky and the sea life well, a little silvery grey, but if you're listening to this podcast, there's a good chance. You live here. No, not all of you, but I'm sure you'll want to visit. Join a dive club, learn the ropes in a pool. It's here where you'll be able to hone your skills, find like-minded friends and then plan a trip abroad to the places we've just mentioned. Plus, there are still plenty of wrecks, coves and seals alongside dolphins, basking sharks, catfish and lobsters, and once you learn in the cooler watch of the UK, you'll be skilled enough to dive anywhere.

Speaker 1:

Trust me, that was my top 10 places to dive in the world Since I learned in 2018. I have found the opportunities for new experiences on my travels have really opened up. If you haven't tried already, I highly recommend it. But even if you're not yet ready to don a tank of air, there's always snorkeling easy for all of us and a great entryway into the world beneath the roofs. You should know, though, that not all snorkel gear is created equal. In keeping with the episode's theme of sustainability, this episode's gear chat is all about the most eco-friendly snorkel kit on the market. Curious, I was.

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Snorkeling, swimming and diving are truly incredible activities which literally submerge you in a destination, but you cannot help to notice the abundance of plastics and chemicals involved in the kit you have to use. It can seem like there's no way to get around the environmental impact, but that's not true. You just need to know where to look First up your swimsuit. Look for fabrics that are recycled. Speedofit, instance, has pledged that its entire range will be made from 100% recycled polyester by 2024. Using plastic bottles and fishing nets to fashion the product, rash guards, t-shirts and shorts from Swimsuit material can also be made from recycled nets and ocean waste, so keep a look out for those too.

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In colder climates, you'll be thinking wetsuit, the usual neoprene is not only made from petroleum and non-renewable material that also takes hundreds of years to decompose. It's very bad for the environment. Instead, look to brands such as Picture and Finisterre, who use Eco-Prene and Yulex, natural and renewable rubber, which produces 80% less CO2 in production compared to neoprene and biodegrades at the end of its life or can be recycled. For your feet, you'll need fins, or flippers as some might call them, instead of single use plastic. Look for companies such as Fourth Element, which are made from reclaimed plastics and upcycled rubber, keeping trash out of the landfill.

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Then there's the all important mask and snorkel. Look for ones that use as little plastic as possible and when they do that, it's reusable both pre and post its life. As a snorkel, the aforementioned Fourth Element offer straps used from recycled fabric rather than single use plastic. That is way more durable and eco-friendly. Finally, don't forget that any sun cream and anti-fog spray for snorkels should be certified reef safe so that it doesn't contain any nasty chemicals that can destroy the underwater ecosystem. And remember, as with anything eco-friendly reuse, reduce and recycle should be the motto. If you can borrow someone else's gear and stop buying new, do it. That was my regular gear geek out. I really hope it's inspired you to think about sustainability on every level, not just destinations, but down to the materials that make the clothes and kit you wear and use.

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When it comes to using recycled materials, my next guest actually features some as well as environmental messages in his work. Born in Uganda in 1976, Peter Oloya was abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army while still a child and brutally forced into being a boy soldier, but managed to escape after being wounded in a bush battle, with his home town ruined and his family suffering great losses. He remembered the teachings of his grandmother and, with great determination, used art as a way to educate himself and to heal the emotional wounds the violence created. Carving curios and working as a DJ to pay first to school and later as university fees. Oloya has set up his own charity to help other boy soldiers and abducted girls through drawing and sculpture. On his most recent visit to London to showcase his work, I caught up with him to ask about his traumatic past and how it was helping shape his inspiring future.

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I was born in Kitgum district. I grew up in Kitgum as a child until my childhood, but I come from a childhood of Northern Uganda region and my village is Lemo, by which village and I belong to the clan of Lemo Pakor In Northern Uganda, we had a long period of war, over 20 years. There was war and most families, including my own family, were removed from their home and put into a camp. They called it internal displaced camp, but in my opinion, and what we have witnessed is a concentration camp that was very difficult to live in. Now, in the camps we never had access to food, enough food, because the litter we had in the camp got spelt or used up. So that is what got us out of the camp to go to the villages and to our garden and then look for food. That one faithful day we went to the garden and we were visiting they called it the same, I think and they brought us there and we were taken, me and my mother. My auntie and cousin were picked up from the garden. When we were picked we were separated from my mother and auntie. The boys were taken to a different camp where we met many other children the boys there. So my mother was taken to a new camp. In that event, the camp where my mother was was attacked by the government troops. In news reached there a camp where I was that my mother was killed. So that haunted me for some good time.

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So after two, three months in after an incident, one of the captives was brought in, among others. But I knew him. I knew him and before we were separating with my mother, at a point we were beating, I got some wound on my head and then my mother got wound on her breast. She was bleeding profusely and someone helped, as I was witnessing, to tie it up. Now these new captives brought in that I knew.

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I saw him in the morning and in the evening. I wanted to talk to him so I got close to him. He is the one who revealed to me that my mother was alive. I didn't believe it until he told me. I asked him how did you know? And then he said he came back home. I trusted that and then until he said she came back home but she had a terrible wound, the way. I was the one when he talked of the breast having the wound. Then I knew he was telling the truth and that was the best news I had. That's the beginning of my plan to escape here to come back and see her.

Speaker 1:

Wow. And when you did go back and find her, I believe, reading your story, that you then turned to art as a kind of therapy. Is that right?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, true.

Speaker 1:

And what inspired you to do the art? I think I read, your grandmother potentially was the person who inspired you to do art. Is that correct?

Speaker 4:

You know, as a child I've been part of my life. It was fun, not even art. I didn't know what art was, so from making my own toys and it was something I loved to do using until clay and things like that.

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So my grandmother was a potter and every holiday I would go and stay with her and I enjoyed whatever she cared for as well. Yeah, but I always do so. One of the things she used to do for a living was to make those pots. She makes the pot for sale. So my getting close to her was to get clay to do what I used to do. But when I got close to her I loved to see her do the thread and build on the pot.

Speaker 1:

And I believe you also have set up a charity as well. Is that right?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 1:

Can you tell me about that charity and what it sets out to do and how it helps people?

Speaker 4:

That charity also had its own story at the beginning, because when I came back , as always, to go home and visit home. And then when I went the first time, I remember very well I couldn't reach even on our own home because our home became a military barracks, because we were living next to a river, at a crossroad. But I think they found it more convenient for them to be there. So I ended up in the IDP camp where I met my friends there and they were living in the sorry state. I remember each time I go home I will give out my shorts and my trousers and I will leave only the one I am wearing because they don't have anything to do there. So the challenge was they were all being fed by the World Food Program and forever grateful to the World Food Program for what they have done to our people. And even then the food was worth enough, because some of the food people ended up in ended up being bartered, to exchange it for something that was lacking, or sold for money to buy other things. So at the time I was really carving in the road for some money.

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After losing all my clothes to the relatives in the camp, the only thing I was left with was my art. So I decided to teach them my skill. I take it to Kampala. I find the talent among them. They can work together and I take them work and sell in Kampala and bring the money. And when we started it some few had some talent to polish, others had talent in painting, so I had to.

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I used to buy acrylic paints, cut it, declay, but I could not accept the one we had at home for a little tour the area so I could bring it up and then we do the workshop together to discover the talent and see what we can do. So I take the work to Kampala and exhibit them in Kampala. Some people buy them to give support to the people and I invite the Lydians to come and preside over it Somewhere. Ministers, other MPs, they would give some money, go back and share with them equally, no matter who sold. So we share the money equally. That was the idea. So that was the basis of the charity I started.

Speaker 1:

I love the way that the art has helped you and then you kind of have passed on that skill to help other people.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, it makes me also. It's rewarding to me as well to see someone pick up on that. That's what I wanted to get it sorted for, to have it help someone else, that's what all I could give in the camp at that time.

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That was Ugandan artist Peter Oloya. What an incredible story. I am truly in awe about how he has made something truly awful that happened to him into a positive helping others overcome trauma through artwork. I urge you to check out his work, and already it's nearly the end of the episode, so time for me to share with you my utterly incredible Wander Woman of the Month. I hope you've enjoyed what you've heard. Please do subscribe so you never miss an episode, and please do leave a review. It means so very much. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @PhoebeRSmith. Go to my website, phoebe-smith. com, where you can sign up for my occasional newsletter and, of course, send me a message. Now this episode

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We head to California in the 1940s to meet a young woman pioneering a new sport in the underwater world. It's summertime in the year 1922 and in Long Beach, california, a couple called Francis and Laura have just welcomed their daughter into the world. Francis, a sailing obsessive, repeats his mantra learn something new every day of your life. To his newborn, who they've called Dorothy or Dottie. She clearly listened. By the age of three she could swim by six. She was often out alone on a rowing boat, and sometimes her father would come too and throw a coffee pot to the bottom of the lake five meters down and get her to retrieve it. And she did without any problems. At the age of ten she was a proficient free-diver, plunging to the depths by just holding her breath. She also became handy on boats, knowing her way around engines as she got older.

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The ocean for Dottie was not just a hobby or an escape, but also a larder. She used to free dive for her dinner, spearfishing, hand grabbing lobsters and abalone. She studied marine biology but struggled to compete against men in that field. After the Second World War she was a founding member of the Long Beach Neptune's, an early diving and spearfishing club, still going strong to this day. When scuba diving equipment started to appear in the US in the early 1950s she complained it was for people who couldn't hold their breath long enough to catch their dinner. But she soon saw the advantages of scuba equipment, namely for going deeper and for longer into the blue. She enrolled to be a scuba diving instructor, but she got a response saying it was just for men. She went anyway, demanded to be taught and became the first female diving instructor in the world. She spent her life in the diving business, developed the first wetsuits cut for women, and later supplied the US Navy with her dry suits. Throughout her life, she continued to spearfish and spent so much time in the water that her friend had to wave a flag when it was time to go back to the beach and breastfeed her sons. She was married three times and had four sons.

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She was a woman full of life, love and adventure. She dredged for gold, loved her motorbikes, surfed, sailed and skied Off the shores of Mexico. One day she became trapped in the unenviable position facing a great white shark. She scared it off by swimming directly towards it. In case you were wondering, on another occasion she found herself between a seal and its dinner. The result was four broken ribs. The seal got its food.

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When she died in 2022, aged 99, she had been inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame and, at 97, was a recipient of the US Historical Diving Society's Diving Pioneer Award. Two years before she died, she sold the last of her motorbikes, but kept wearing the t-shirt that read assuming I was like most old women was your first mistake. Her biography Trailblazer the extraordinary life of diving pioneer Dottie Frazier couldn't have been a more apt title, although she was shooting for a hundred, she lived a beautiful life to the end she said a lot of the original divers had made it to a great age. Being underwater does things to your spirit, whether you have the calling for the ocean or not. Dottie Frazier's spirit is an inspiration to us all For her remarkable achievements in a male dominated world, her skills on boats and spearfishing and the crowning glory of becoming America's first female scuba instructor. All down to her own ambition and perseverance, Dottie Frazier is unequivocally our Wander Woman of the Month. That was our incredible Wander Woman of the Month. I for one will remember her name going forwards and think of Dottie blazing the way for all us women divers.

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Next time I head under the waves In the next episode of the Wander Woman podcast, I head to Hokkaido in Japan to discover a trailblazing tiny town that could provide the blueprint to the country's future cities. I meet the man who is working tirelessly to protect the endangered Blackhorn rhino in Namibia. My travel heart will consider how to learn a language fast and my travel gear chat will discuss insect repellent for keeping the little biters at bay, and I recommend the ten best places to watch whales around the globe. See you then Wander Woman out. The Wander Woman podcast is written and edited by me, phoebe Smith. The producer for this episode and writer of additional material is Daniel Nielson. The logo was designed by John Summerton. Thanks to all the people I met on my journey and were willing to talk to me. It's because of you that this podcast is able to happen at all.