Please Go Away Travel Podcast
Please Go Away Travel Podcast
Exploring the Untouched Expanses of Australia's Kimberley with Peter Hillary: A Celebration of Adventure, Resilience, and Storytelling
Join us on an awe-inspiring expedition, as we wander through the wild heart of Australia's Kimberley region with our esteemed guest, Peter Hillary. A seasoned explorer with an infectious zest for adventure, Peter takes us on a vicarious journey, tracing his footprints from the rugged terrains of Mount Everest to the untouched expanses of Kimberley. With captivating anecdotes, he underscores the rejuvenating power of stepping out of our comfort zones and into uncharted territories. Listen closely as Peter recounts the breathtaking resilience of nature in the absence of human interference, a humbling reminder of our duty to tread lightly and intelligently on this Earth.
Venturing further, we delve into the rich tapestry of indigenous storytelling and my own thrilling mountaineering experiences. Discover the mesmerizing power of a well-told story - the cadence, the timing, and the enunciation. Relive the adrenaline-fueled tales from my own expeditions, which range from the perilous West Ridge of Mount Everest to the stark solitude of a snow cave perched at 24 and a half thousand feet. This episode is not just an exploration of remote locations, but a celebration of human endurance, spirit, and our shared heritage of storytelling. Come along for this unforgettable journey, where every step unfolds a new adventure and a fresh perspective.
Hello and welcome to the show. Today I'm here with Peter Hillary explorer expedition leader and all around fun guy who has been here on our expedition in the Kimberley region of Australia. Welcome to the show, peter.
Peter Hillary:Thank you, great to be here and great to be out here in the beautiful Kimberley of northwest Australia, one of the most gorgeous places on the planet and a place that really hardly anyone knows anything about.
Amanda Klimak:Yes, well, and I came here with no expectations because I really had no idea what I was going to see, but certainly this expedition has turned out to be just fantastic. What are some of the favorite highlights for you?
Peter Hillary:Well, this is my third time to the Kimberley. First time I came here it was on motorbike, so it was a terrestrial trip, and the last two have been like this one, which is coming from the sea, and there's so many places around this coastline that this is the only way to get there from the sea. There are very few roads and so you're looking into this, look, it's a primeval wilderness, you know, with the marsupials and the wildlife and the trees and these incredible sandstone escarpments, and you really feel like, in some ways, you've been transported back into the past, which is a wonderful feeling.
Amanda Klimak:Oh, that's fabulous. Now you're somebody who has done expeditions beyond anything I've dreamed. You've certainly been on five climbs of Mount Everest, you've crossed country, ski to the South Pole and you've done the seven summits. What is it about this kind of trip that really just excites you and gets you going?
Peter Hillary:Look, I think the thing about these sorts of journeys whether they're hard expeditions or coming on a ship into a remote area and landing in, you know, very exciting remote locations is it sort of refreshes the spirit, you know. It gives you a chance to look at things differently. In a way, it gives you a chance to step aside from your other life perhaps your business, family, whatever it is and just immerse yourself in something new. And I think that's really vital because it's refreshing, gives you a chance to view things differently and that, of course, has an impact on the way you deal with your life when you go back to it after the expedition.
Amanda Klimak:Yes, now I know you've also done the New Zealand coastline with the Limblatt Expeditions and National Geographic. What were some of the highlights of those trips that you've done?
Peter Hillary:Well, again, the ship took us to places that were hard to access, like in the southwest of New Zealand. You've got an area called Fjordland, and Fjordland's actually not that different in some ways from Norway.
Peter Hillary:You know, you've got huge fjords, massive cliff faces rising five, six, seven thousand feet straight from the sea up to these very sharp, rugged summits, and so you can go into these areas and visit that. But we also went down to the sub-Antarctic islands and this is a look. It's a rather uplifting experience because what a number of countries have been doing with their sub-Antarctic islands? Many of them were quite badly damaged by attempts at colonization, you know, setting up farms, the release of introduced pests, which had a real impact on the native fauna, particularly the big nesting birds. But what they're doing now is they're removing all these introduced creatures and so what you get to see is the native fauna and flora is just coming back, as if human beings had never been there and never had an impact. So it's this incredible experience of seeing the world like before human beings came along, and I think it highlights the fact that you know, wherever we go, human beings have a big impact.
Peter Hillary:And it's not to say we've got to get rid of human beings. Obviously we've got an interest in being there. But it makes us realize that we've got to tread lightly and tread intelligently, make room for nature and balance the equation. That's a very important thing. And how is that good for us? Personally, I think actually it's an uplifting feeling. It makes you realize that you've got to do things a little differently and in a way, that is a very uplifting thing. It makes you think that you're doing something positive for the planet, the country, the community, your family, what your children and your grandchildren will get to enjoy. All of those things are important and, as we face the pressures of climate change, I think it also enables us to realize that it's not just a setback, it's an opportunity. Do things differently, drive a different sort of automobile, do things a little differently so that we continue to have amazing lives, but with a lesser impact on the places that we live.
Amanda Klimak:Wow. Well now your father, sir Edmund Hillary, had introduced you to expedition. You certainly have introduced your children to expedition. What does that do in building relationships and creating bonds as a family when you're doing these kind of things?
Peter Hillary:Look, I think it's as a parent. I think it's one of the most wonderful things you can do because, look, all of us have very busy lives and you sort of say goodbye to the family or the kids and you go off to work and they go to school. But you actually need time to spend together and in many ways in most households, unless you organize an expedition of sorts, how are you gonna have that continuous time? Because we cohabitate in the house but really there's homework for the kids and you've got a conference call after work and we don't get enough time together. So I think you have to make the time and go on an expedition of some description, share time together. I've just recently been involved in the Everest 70th anniversary, so the celebrations are, of course, of 70 years ago. My father in Tensing, norge, made the first descent of Mount Everest, and we've been traveling around the world together to these different events and celebrations and, of course, some of the fundraisers for the schools and hospitals that we run up in the Himalayas.
Peter Hillary:But one of the outstanding features of it for me for example, when we were in London, we all stayed together in an Airbnb house that we were renting. All of my children, my sister and we had all that time together to be in London, have those experiences, attend the events but, most importantly, be together. I mean, how often do you have extended time with a sibling when you're an older person?
Peter Hillary:It doesn't happen very often unless you create these sorts of circumstances. So I think the thing is not only to inspire you, to rouse your curiosity, to give yourself an amazing opportunity to do something really different and exciting, but going away on a journey like this, sharing it with people whom at it, like your kids, like your family, is a really important thing to do and you've got to make time for it, you've got to prioritize it. I think that's the key, and too often we're under a lot of pressure and we convince ourselves that we can't prioritize maybe some of these things over, maybe some of the work commitments. But at the end of the day, it's sort of like when you're an old person and you know you haven't got long to go. Are you actually going to prioritize a couple of weeks with the family and some lovely experiences, or are you going to go back to the office and send in another report? I think you might go with the family and have an adventure.
Amanda Klimak:I know my answer for sure, peter. One of the things that you've done on this journey has been regaling us with some wonderful storytelling, and I think that's one of the byproducts that we often overlook when we travel, when we travel with our loved ones, with our friends, with new friends that we've just met, and you've done some fabulous storytelling along the way. Is there any stories that you'd like to share? Maybe a quick one that you think of at the end?
Peter Hillary:Well, look, I think the thing about storytelling is that's one of the things that comes out of going on an adventure, sharing an intensive time with other people. And look, I think people have been storytellers forever. I mean, we've been immersing ourselves in stories about the local Indigenous people here, the aborigines of Australia, and at one point yesterday we were under this big rock overhang and we just sat there and there were these beautiful pictures that a thousands of years old, that the aboriginal people had painted there, and we were talking about what it would have been like, you know, maybe a cyclone's coming in and the whole extended family group are crouched under there. They've got food, they've collected, they're sitting there and they're telling stories. And that's a wonderful thing to do and in a way, I've experienced that through my own expeditions, whether it's sitting in a tent with my climbing partner, up on a ledge on a high mountain, and you regale each other with stories and experiences, sort of to entertain each other. But also you know to learn about each other, maybe learn a bit about yourself and you know whether it's the old time aborigines of Australia or a modern explorer in a tent, or even someone on board a ship like this. It's lovely to tell stories and learn how to tell stories. So I guess part of my role here has been telling stories, providing some insights, and one of the things you learn is about it's about communication, you know. It's about the timing of the story telling or the enunciation to give it a bit of character and a bit of pause. And look, I think that's something you learn, but also everyone appreciates and it's certainly something I love.
Peter Hillary:Look, a lot of my stories have been around mountaineering expeditions and, of course, climbing up on Mount Everest. I've been on over 50 expeditions around the world, particularly in Antarctica, in the Himalayas, as I mentioned, five Everest expeditions, and every time there are different experiences, you know. Look, I remember when I was on the West Ridge of Mount Everest, which is one of the really difficult ridge routes of this, the world's highest mountain, and we had this camp, camp 3, at 24 and a half thousand feet, but it was prone to very strong winds, so we dug a snow cave right in the crest of this knife-edge ridge and it was a huge snow cave so the six of us could get in there. We had a huge bench where we had all the cooking utensils, stoves and bags of food and all of this. It even had a little toilet slot off the side. So it was quite a self-contained snow cave, but the six of us had put a lot of work into it. I remember coming back to it. I was out in front of the guys We've been down at the base camp and I was up front and you know, hauling myself, and as I tried to haul myself up the steep snow and ice face and into the snow cave, this bird came bursting out and it was a yellow-billed chuff and it had been in there feasting on some of our food supplies, particularly a hunk of cheese that we'd left in there, and in a way I mean of course we were frustrated that it had been-