Armchair Explorer

There is a state in New England where ancient mountains rise above the treeline into bare Arctic tundra, where sheer granite summits look out over oceans of forests, and where one of the fastest wind speeds ever recorded was once clocked here at 231 miles per hour. But New Hampshire is also the place where Thoreau came to reflect, Thornton Wilder was inspired to write his seminal play Our Town, and the oldest summer stock company in America stills performs in an 18th century barn. New Hampshire is art and adventure, natural wonders and quintessential charm. But most of all, like the state’s nickname suggests, it is a place to live free and to the fullest.In today’s episode we set off on a seven-day road trip through three of the state’s most rugged and fascinating regions - from backpacking in the White Mountains and scrambling up waterfalls to discovering art inspired by nature, and nature infused with an artistic eye. Get ready for the Live Free Road Trip.Highlights include:Hiking the Presidential Traverse - three days, and four peaks above 5,000 feet, including Mt Washington, the highest (and windiest) summit in New England.Discovering the ‘business class of backpacking’ staying in the Apallachain Mountain Club’s backcountry huts - three-course dinners, epic views, and cosy beds.Finding out about the MacDowell Institute, a legendary artists' residency founded in 1907, whose past guests include Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, James Baldwin, Thornton Wilder and hundreds of other world-class artists.Hiking Mount Monadnock - reputedly the second most climbed mountain in the world after Mount Fuji, with views across New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts. Hear why this was one of Thoreau’s favorite hikes!FIND OUT MOREProduced in collaboration with Lonely Planet: LonelyPlanet.comFind inspiration, itineraries and everything you need - including how to book this exact road trip - at visitnh.gov (Visit New Hampshire) or follow them on social at @VisitNHThank you to our guests:Marielle Fibish, senior outdoor guide at the Appalachian Mountain Club.Find out more at: outdoors.orgBen Cote, Newport local and outdoor fanatic. Connect with him at tracylibrary.orgMichelle Stahl, Executive Director at the Monadnock Center for History and Culture. Find out more at monadnockcenter.orgKnow Someone Who Needs This?If this episode lit something up in you, do me a favour — send it to just one person. One friend, one family member, one person who needs a little wonder in their life right now. Or go old school and tell someone about it over a cheeky pint. Every single share genuinely moves the needle.FOLLOW US:Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcastFacebook: @armchairexplorerpodcastCONNECT WITH US:If you enjoy the show, please subscribe on whatever podcast player you're reading this on right now. It helps us grow the show, and continue to bring these stories to you.Armchair Explorer is written and presented by Aaron Millar. Audio editing and sound design by Charles Tyrie. Produced by Armchair ProductionsMentioned in this episode:Check out the Smart Travel PodcastThis week's show is supported by the new Smart Travel Podcast. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Check out Smart Travel at the Link below:Smart Travel PodcastCheck out all of our other travel podcasts from around the worldThis podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world’s best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape.com. For advertising or sponsorship opportunities across the network, see the link below.Voyascape Podcast Network

“The medicine man sits before a pile of hot coals spread out on the compacted red earth floor of his Hogan – the traditional home of the Navajo. “This is Native American church,” he tells me, pulling shiny black arrowheads and Golden Eagle feathers from his wooden medicine box, and twisting a thick translucent crystal before the flames.Sweat beads on my forehead: medicine men are believed to see premonitions in the burning coals that divine the nature of a patient’s affliction. His eyes dilate – “I see a spider,” he says, “I see a dead man.” A few miles away we are surrounded by the detritus of modern America but here, in Navajo country, it’s as if I’ve slipped through the cracks into another world entirely.”In 2013, I spent a week living on the Navajo reservation with three local families. I wanted to understand the real Native America, beyond the caricatures and cliches so often portrayed in popular culture. One night, I was invited into the home of a Medicine Man to take part in a traditional healing ceremony. It was one of the most powerful and moving experiences of my life. This is the story I wrote about that experience, and I dedicate it to those three families who welcomed me into their lives and trusted me with the honor of sharing it with you. FIND OUT MOREDiscover Navajo: if you want to visit the Navajo Nation is a way that benefits the local tribal people economically and through employment this is a great resource. It’s got lots of great ideas for native led tours and experiences that will really make the culture of the navajo Nation come alive. discovernavajo.comIra Vandever, my guide and host, is involved in various Navajo community projects and is one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met. Connect with him on Instagram: @navajohemp2020 NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTHThis episode is the first in our month-long series celebrating Native American Heritage Month. Over the years, I’ve been lucky to have so many incredible experiences with indigenous peoples around the world. I’ve learnt so much from them, and wanted to do something that will hopefully inspire you to visit tribal owned tourism businesses and be inspired too. Find out more at: NativeAmericanHeritageMonth.gov#NativeAmericanHeritageMonth#NativeAmericanHeritageFOLLOW US:Instagram: ⁠@armchairexplorerpodcast⁠Facebook: ⁠@armchairexplorerpodcast⁠Newsletter: ⁠armchair-explorer.com⁠CREDITSArmchair Explorer is produced by ⁠Armchair Productions⁠. Aaron Millar wrote and presented the show, Charles Tyrie did the audio editing and sound design. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices⁠.Mentioned in this episode:Check out the Smart Travel PodcastThis week's show is supported by the new Smart Travel Podcast. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Check out Smart Travel at the Link below:Smart Travel PodcastCheck out all of our other travel podcasts from around the worldThis podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world’s best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape.com. For advertising or sponsorship opportunities across the network, see the link below.Voyascape Podcast Network

Botswana is the Africa in our heads, the one we see in nature documentaries, and think of when we say the word. It is a vast and untempered land filled with one of the richest concentrations of wildlife on the continent. In a single game drive you could see up to 50 different species: elephant, lion, buffalo, leopard, hippos, baboons and more. But beyond the wildlife there is something else too. Africa is our home. They call her the ‘Mother’, the place we all come from. And if that’s true, then Botswana is her beating heart. Taking us there is safari guide and author Peter Allison, who has been guiding in Botswana and elsewhere in Africa for nearly 30 years. He’ll tell us the story of his ultimate Botswana safari, traveling from Makgadikgadi Salt Pans to the Okavango Delta. It’s an adventure filled with wildlife, wisdom and more than one of his crazy stories.Get ready for an adventure into the Africa of our dreams.Highlights include:Learning to track wild animals with the San Bushmen, one of the oldest continuously surviving cultures on Earth.Walking on the surreal landscapes of the largest salt pan in the world - three times bigger than Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni.Going on game drives in the Okavango Delta, a vast network of floodplains that draws one of the highest concentrations of wildlife in Africa.Finding out what it’s like to be stalked by a lion in the pitch black of night with only a kerosene lantern for company.Discovering the story of Salvador the elephant, and one of the most magical wildlife experiences you can ever imagine.Hearing about the time a leopard walked into Peter’s cabin, with him inside it. It’s OK, he survived to tell the tale.FIND OUT MOREA lot of our episodes are about huge expeditions and epic adventures.This one is about something you can actually do. We’ve partnered with Peter’s safari company Natural Selection Safaris, and tour operator Africa Endeavours - two of the most highly regarded sustainable operators on the continent - to create our dream Botswana itinerary. And it’s a trip you can actually book and do yourself.To find out more go to AfricaEndeavours.com/Armchair and you will get $500 off your next trip. Even if you’re just dreaming about going one day, checking out what they do is a great way to support the show.Follow Peter on Instagram @peterallisonsafariFOLLOW US:Instagram: ⁠@armchairexplorerpodcast⁠Facebook: ⁠@armchairexplorerpodcast⁠Newsletter: ⁠armchair-explorer.com⁠CREDITSArmchair Explorer is produced by ⁠Armchair Productions⁠. Aaron Millar wrote and presented the show, Charles Tyrie did the audio editing and sound design. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices⁠.Mentioned in this episode:Check out all of our other travel podcasts from around the worldThis podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world’s best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape.com. For advertising or sponsorship opportunities across the network, see the link below.Voyascape Podcast NetworkCheck out the Smart Travel PodcastThis week's show is supported by the new Smart Travel Podcast. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Check out Smart Travel at the Link below:Smart Travel Podcast

Today, we’re sharing a special episode honouring a true explorer who we lost last week. Dr. Jane Goodall was a pioneering primatologist, and conservationist best known for her groundbreaking work with wild chimpanzees in Tanzania. With no formal scientific training at the time, she began observing chimpanzees in 1960 and soon made discoveries that redefined our understanding of animals — including tool use, emotional depth, and complex social behavior. Over her lifetime, she became a global icon for wildlife conservation and animal welfare, and her work continues to inspire millions to protect the planet and live in harmony with nature.Unfortunately, we were never able to get Jane on the show – that would have been a dream come true! So, it’s not an episode directly about her. But it does raise some themes that were inspired and borne from the work she did … and it does feature chimpanzees, as well as Mountain Gorillas, who as primates are our distant ancestors too. Today, we’re going to follow Praveen Moman, one of the world's leading primate conservationists, into the Virunga Mountains of Rwanda in search of the critically endangered mountain gorilla, and to the Kyambura Gorge, in Uganda, in search of a lost troop of Chimpanzees.Seeing mountain gorillas, or chimpanzees in the wild is one of the rarest and most inspiring wildlife experiences on the planet. There is an immediate bond, a sense of connection. And what we’ll discover is, when you look a mountain gorilla in the eye, you see yourself reflected back.Highlights include:- Trekking in the Virunga Mountains of Rwanda in search of the critically endangered mountain gorilla- Hearing what it feels like to sit quietly among the troop, as babies come curiously up to explore, and the 400lb male silverback brushes past - Walking into the Kyambura Gorge as the lost troop of Chimpanzees comes down from the canopy and surrounds you on all side- Being inspired by Praveen's story, a refugee of Uganda who returned to his beloved homeland to help rebuild one of the most war-torn regions on the planet FIND OUT MOREJanegoodall.orgvolcanoessafaris.com gorillafund.org FOLLOW US:Instagram: ⁠@armchairexplorerpodcast⁠Facebook: ⁠@armchairexplorerpodcast⁠Newsletter: ⁠armchair-explorer.com⁠CREDITSArmchair Explorer is produced by ⁠Armchair Productions⁠. Aaron Millar wrote and presented the show, Charles Tyrie did the audio editing and sound design. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices⁠.Mentioned in this episode:Check out the Smart Travel PodcastThis week's show is supported by the new Smart Travel Podcast. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Check out Smart Travel at the Link below:Smart Travel PodcastCheck out all of our other travel podcasts from around the worldThis podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world’s best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape.com. For advertising or sponsorship opportunities across the network, see the link below.Voyascape Podcast Network

Bhutan is the last of the great Himalayan kingdoms. Still largely untouched by outside influences, shrouded in mystery and magic, this Buddhist country, hidden for centuries on the roof of the world, is like nowhere else on the planet. Follow British Travel Writer of the Year Emma Thomson as she explores the culture and majesty of Druk Yul, Land of the Thunder Dragon, as it's known by its people. Shunning the usual group tour, Emma stays with local families miles from the tourist trail and discovers, because of that, a glimpse of the real Bhutan most travellers will never see. But this is more than just an adventure. Cut off from the rest of the world until 1974, and surrounded by virtually impenetrable Himalayan peaks on all sides, Bhutan has remained culturally intact for centuries. It is a real-life Shangri-La, a kind of fabled mythical kingdom hidden in the mountains, where spirituality and happiness are more important than money and economic development. Intrepid travellers whisper its name in hushed and reverent tones for a reason. Bhutan is, perhaps, the most enlightened country on Earth, and when we visit some of that wisdom and inspiration becomes a part of us too.Highlights include:• Staying with two local Bhutanese families in remote rural villages, far off the usual tourist trail• Experiencing real Bhutanese daily life: tending the fields, bathing in hot stone baths and helping to prepare the meals - fresh dumplings, curries, chillies and cheese• Exploring Punaka Dzong, the most beautiful of all of Bhutan's fortress temples• Trekking to the Tiger's Nest Monastery, which clings to the face of a sheer cliff and is the holiest site in the country• Visiting Bhutan's head of astrology, which is usually forbidden to tourists and discovering a surprise message there that might just shake your scepticism. • Be inspired by the peace and serenity of the most enlightened country on Earth, and learn how to take that wisdom and stillness into your own life tooCONNECT WITH OUR GUESTInstagram: @emmathomsontravelsMentioned in this episode:Check out the Smart Travel PodcastThis week's show is supported by the new Smart Travel Podcast. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Check out Smart Travel at the Link below:Smart Travel PodcastCheck out all of our other travel podcasts from around the worldThis podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world’s best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape.com. For advertising or sponsorship opportunities across the network, see the link below.Voyascape Podcast Network