Hi everybody welcome to AdoramaTV,
I'm Mark Wallace here with Doug McKinlay
and we are in the Royal, tell me
the name of this pub? We're in the Trafalgar
pub in the Royal Borough of Greenwich in
London. Trafalgar pub. It’s pretty
spectacular. We just had lunch, well we
are here to talk about the differences
in the style of our travels and tell us
a little bit about your history of travel?
Well I started out as a young
photojournalist many, many moons ago and
I continue to still work that way.
My kind of travel, nowadays is, I do a lot of
travel stuff for a lot of newspapers,
magazines, so a lot of what I do is kind
of taken care of for me I don't have to
worry about hotels flights etc. ground
transportation which is very unlike the
way you're traveling. Yes I've been to
40-something countries now around the
world but I'm doing, originally I did two
years on planes, trains, took, tooks you
know, boats all that stuff and now for
the last year I've been on a motorcycle
by myself and so it’s, it's liberating
because I can go anywhere I want
whenever I want, for the most part but
it's very restrictive because everything I have
has to fit on a motorcycle.
What's it like, what's the sort
of logistical problems you run into
with a motorbike?
Well a few things
because the, you can only have so much
weight, not really for any legal reasons
but because it's a motorcycle. You don't
want to be able to be weighed down so,
weight is a big consideration
and then also you
want to be small, inconspicuous and so
size also matters and so I'm looking
for gear that I can fit in a very, very
small bag, that doesn't look like it's
really expensive, so people aren’t going to
come and steal it and then also I want
to make sure that,
I can lock it down if
because I'm by myself, so if I'm going to
a border, one of the big challenges is
okay I have to leave the bike alone and
then go in and get my visa and all that
kind of stuff, and so I can't have
anything that's not locked down so it’s,
that's the challenge, yes.
I'm very different especially this last 10 years
I usually have a fixer who does
everything for me, it gets to the point
where I'm so spoiled that I can't do any
for myself.
It becomes freeing but at the same time
can be a little bit cumbersome, as well.
I'd actually like to spend a bit of
time traveling the way you do. What's the
one thing that you'd advice people
to bring with you?
You know, you can bring anything
of course; bug spray, malarial tablets if
you're in that kind of thing,
pills for diarrhoea would be very important.
Even just the things that your mom would say, you
know, don't forget this. Other than that
it really depends on how you want to
travel and what you want to accomplish,
so if you're shooting for a news
organization obviously you're going to
have to have your gear because that's
why you're going. If you're going with
your family on a vacation and that's the
point then I would suggest not bringing
a bunch of camera gear bring an iphone
or a small 'point and shoot' camera
and enjoy the time with your family. Right.
Because that should be the focus so,
you know, if you're looking at what camera
should I buy to go travelling with?
First ask what do I want to do with those
pictures? Are they family picture, are they
news pictures, are they scenic photos?
Right. What is it and that really will
determine what you bring.
Okay interesting
as I said before everything
is more or less taken care of for me and I
work off of assignment,
so what I have to do is,
if I'm going to a certain part of
the world it's very seasonal specific so
if I'm going to work in the Arctic, I'm
going to bring a lot of Artic
clothing with me. If I'm going to work in
a tropics, well it's down to
shorts and t-shirts.
So in that regard because it is
short and sweet,
I'm going out really quickly and
coming back really quickly, I can really
focus in what I'm going to bring with me
but with you, you're traveling long
distances you have to sort of work for,
work against things like the rainy season
or the hot season. Yes. So you have
to vary your clothing.
So I have a kit that works for
almost any climate because climates
change for me radically and really
quickly, you know, like I was in Lima and
then went to Cusco and there's a massive
difference in elevation so I went from
nice and, you know, not hot but okay to
really, really cold sub-freezing
temperatures and the Andes and then down
into the city I was just in Nairobi, not
even two weeks ago I think,
where it's summer
and shipped the bike from Nairobi, here
to London. Where it's not summer. Where it is winter
and everything I have with me I brought
with me from my Nairobi, so I have some
coats that, they shrink down into really,
really small packages and I can fit my
pantiers. Right.I've got a big
waterproof duffel bag and so really what
I do is they take my winter gear and I
stuff it in there. Right. When I'm in
a hot climate and then the opposite is
true when I'm in a cold climate I bring
it out, but I have also things like a
3-liter camelback which is a you know so
I can drink water while I'm driving.
I don't need that when I'm in London or
zipping through most of Europe right
now and so that will then go in where my
cold weather clothes used to be which
like I'm wearing right now usually this
is in a duffel bag on the bike, I don't
take it out unless it's cold. Right.
So the other thing I often run into
when I'm working is visas. Some
countries make you get a visa, others
don't but because I'm going from 'A' which
is London to 'B' which could be anywhere
I just usually have to worry about that
one country but if you're going on a
long distance trip with a motorcycle you
must have to go through
a lot of visa problems?
Yeah the visa for me is not the
big challenge,
because I'm a US citizen, it would be,
and that's one of the best passports
you can have for travel because you can
go almost anywhere and the visa on
arrival program is in place for most
countries. You just show up, you get a
visa and if they don't have that you can
get it online and you show up with the
printout. There are exceptions to that
you know China and Iran and places
like that, you've got to plan ahead.
The difficult thing is getting the
motorcycle into the countries and so.
Tell me a little bit about how you get
it from, say from Tanzania
to Kenya for instance?
So the, from
Tanzania to Kenya, I have a carnet.
So a carnet is a document
that's sort of a passport
for a vehicle or goods and if you're
traveling with a lot of expensive gear
you need a carnet for that gear. If you're
a professional film crew that kind of
thing but that's the planning that I was
doing, so for Africa I did all of the
paperwork and the planning
in South America
so when I was in Buenos Aires I was
there for about six weeks, because I had
to get the carnet, had to get it approved
had to have it delivered. I had to make
sure that all my visas were in order, do
all the research and then once I got
there, then it was just a matter of getting
across the borders. So it didn't present
a problem that you were applying for these
carnets in a country that wasn't your home?
Right, well it's not a, it's expensive
so I had to apply to the agency in the
United States. Okay. And then they, I had
to Fedex and courier all of my
paperwork and I have a friend Craig
Bolton who I have a huge thank you to
Craig if you're watching this. He supervises
a mailbox for me, you know, in Arizona
Okay fantastic.
And so what he does and other
friends, I'll send them documents
and then they will forward them on
and so without friends I certainly
couldn't do it, but then yeah this stuff
has to then be fedexed or couriered back to
wherever I am, in fact right now my carnet
is at Heathrow Airport with a shipping
agent but they're really expensive so
they've got an eight thousand dollar
document right now.
Wow, will you get some of that back correct?
You get eighty percent of that back
assuming that you haven't broken any
laws or done anything, so it's pretty
expensive and any changes to the carny
so I need to add asia and australia in
the future. Right okay. Just to make those
changes it's nearly a thousand dollars
that you don't get back. Wow so after all
that travel through all those continents
you must have a few anecdotes that you
might want to share with our audience
here? Some that I can actually tell? Yes.
I mean a lot of,
first of all a question a lot
of people ask me is; what's your
favorite place? Where is, what's
your favorite place and for me it's not
much about the place as much as it is
the people and so really anywhere you go
there are people that are really
enjoyable but if I had to choose
Columbia is at the top of the list, I love
Columbia, love Mexico, Latin America
really is is great but
I really, really, really loved Columbia.
I loved South Africa Capetown
has its own vibe and then Joburg
and Pretoria, those guys have their own vibe
which I really enjoyed and then
Australia so those are really at the top
of my list. Yeah. I kind of think,
for me when someone asks me that
question I just say 'Where am I going to
next?' Yeah I don't really know,
I couldn't say I've got one
favorite country there's lots of
countries I like, places I like but I
can't, I don't think I can put my finger
on to say this is my actual favorite.
It's all about the experience. Yeah, yeah
it's all about what happened while you're there.
I'm a little bit I've always got the
itchy feet, you know, I always want to go
to the next place, constantly,
constantly, just when I get
back from a job all I want to do is
process a picture and send them in,
and go somewhere else.
That's sort of always
on the foreground of my mind.
So I just get on with it keep going and
it's like Mark says it's about the
people you know it's about, yes the scenery is
great, the the histories are great, the
you know, the, maybe the architecture is
fantastic but it boils down to what the
people are like.
Yeah and I'll tell you a story,
so this is a normal experience for me.
I was in Panama and I was going to
take a ship boat from this little town
in Panama down to Cartagena but wasn't
leaving for a couple days and so I was
riding from the eastern side of Panama
to the western side and I didn't have a
hotel, I had nowhere to stay and so what
I wanted to do was
get a hotel so I
ride across the country, it is like an hour,
I find the starbucks, it's brand new in
this little place but I have my bike and
I have all my stuff on it and so I have
to park where I can physically see the
bike. Of course. Because it'll be at risk of
being stolen so I'm zipping around the
parking lot and I can't find a place and
I see this guy and he has on a sort of
this apron, I guess and he's working with
some concrete. These guys are working in
concrete, it's a brand new place, so I thought
he's a construction worker and he
waved me over and says like 'come on you
can park right here' and as I get closer
I realized that there's another BMW
motorcycle brand new 2016, this is, last
year and it's exactly the same as mine
and so in Panama it's really
rare so I parked and he said wow you
have a motorcycle just like my
motorcycle, I'm like this is your
motorcycle, he's like yeah it's the only
one in all of a Panama. That's
fantastic and I'm hot I'm sweaty the guy
says 'well you look hot and sweaty why
don't you come down to the restaurant
I'm the chef there' and I realize he's
not a construction worker, he's a chef.
so we walked down and it's
just like a Michelin five-star place.
I'm like, I shouldn't be in here because hot
and sweaty and smelly and as soon as we
walk in the whole place snaps to
attention because the chef is there
and I realize he's not just a chef he's the
owner of the place and I get served like
a five-star meal for free, because he's a
fellow overland traveler we started
talking, next thing you know we're making
plans to do some trips we've become friends,
and we've been friends ever since. Wow!
And so we're planning a trip to
Australia, but that happens all the time
were you just thinking, I just need to
get to a hotel the next thing you know,
you have a friend for life. Wow! Over and
over again. Wow, not quite the same with me,
because I go in hard and fast and I'm
on limited amount of time and I'm
usually work in 18- 20 hour days because
the briefs are so specific. I make
fast fleeting friendships that last
about three or four minutes, so I can get
the images. I don't have the luxury of
waiting around to talk to the chef or
talk to the local person. It's very rare
that I get that chance because I'm on
such a tight schedule usually. I need to
get the pictures. I need to fulfill my
brief and that's the foremost thing in
my mind the whole time, yes, I want to
talk to the people, yes, it's great when
they're accommodating but unfortunately
the way I work it's not always that easy
to get to have that time to really make
a connection with a local person which
is a little bit disappointing.
Join us for more on this fascinating
travel discussion between Mark and Doug
in part two Doug and Mark talk about
their scary wildlife encounters and
includes their must-have gear
for travel photography.