INTERVI EW L IZ BONNIN
LIVE 24-SEVEN “ 16 THE MEERKATS THINK WE’RE JUST ANOTHER
PART OF NATURE. I’M TRYING TO DO A PIECE TO CAMERA AND THIS MEERKAT JUST JUMPS ON MY SHOULDER AND JUMPS ON MY HEAD!
hearing voices singing in the background, it’s so magical you know Katie. I’ve been there and know exactly what you mean. Yes, it’s just nature, the beauty of the natural world. I’ll never forget, after a long day filming we were sitting down and there was a herd of elephants coming up over this ridge and we knew they were about to come down to the watering hole that we had parked beside, so we just turned off the engine and sat very quietly and just watched these elephants and their babies drinking and playing and splashing in the water. We didn’t say a word to each other for two hours and as the sky turned a deep purple – it turned orange and then pink and then a deep purple – with the darkness of twilight they all disappeared into the horizon. We all looked at each other with tears in our eyes and still didn’t say a word to each other and just drove back to our camp. It was one of the most beautiful, spiritual experiences with wildlife I’ve ever had. You know it moved me greatly!
You’ve had some amazing experiences with nature and wildlife over your career, if you could pick a couple of highlights, moments that stopped you in your tracks, what would they be? That’s a very good question and it’s really hard to pick, but I’ll give you my top three. I ended up going to the Russian far east to do a docu series on the Siberian tiger and basically being there is like being in Narnia, it’s the most beautiful habitat. In fact, all tiger habitats the world over are the most beautiful I’ve been to, India as well, there’s something magical about where this ultimately magical animal lives. I found myself drifting through the snow at minus 40 degrees with the most interesting scientist called Dr Victor Lukarevski; he was just the most inspirational character I’ve ever met, you know, living the dream, trying to help protect the tiger, when I studied the tiger doing my masters. That for me was very special and I really had to pinch myself, that he had given me the great honour to present that.
The second one was Botswana. Of all the places in Africa this is the most magical place in the world, we spent time in the company of elephants in the Okavango Delta – it’s almost like being in a Disney cartoon, except it’s real. It’s bright and sparkly and you’re almost
The last one was when we were in the Galapagos, this beautiful, special reef filled with scientists at the top of their game studying the various parts of the Galapagos and this ship had two dedicated submersibles. We went down to a kilometre beneath the waves with this scientist and spent seven hours there. Everything we were looking at down there… it was full of life and everything I pointed at to the scientist he was, ‘Yes, that’s a new species; yes, that’s a new species…’ we were looking at creatures that no one had ever set eyes on before! It felt like being an astronaut – the closest I’ll ever be to being an astronaut – only we were astronauts of the earth’s space as opposed to outer space. To me it was just this overwhelming experience of just how much there is left to discover and to understand on this planet and yet we spend billions of pounds trying to colonize a new planet. We’d be better of spending that money on ours, learning how to protect it. Those are three of the stand out moments, but I have to say I’ve been very, very lucky that there are many more experiences that I will always remember.
I’ve been to Africa on safari and that has made me feel…well, you firstly well-up, you have this large sense of emotion and then a sense of responsibility to look after these incredible animals; you must get that sense too? Always, always, what you’ve just said there Katie really hits the nail on the head. Absolutely it’s a brilliant way to put it. When people say how are you inspired and why do you want to protect the planet? Nature works its magic on you; it’s hard to put it into words, but you worded it beautifully. Once you are in the company of any nature in any country, nature works its magic and something happens to you that reconnects you with what you are part of; we are part of nature, we just live in a world where we’re so disconnected from it we forget that we are nature, so there’s this deep primordial connection to anything that’s wild and open and free! That includes a beautiful tree
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