I've spent much of today re-watching my favourite travel and adventure documentaries, in search of some inspiration for my own trip. As a big fan of the genre, I've grown up loving everything from Michael Palin's endearing supported-trips to Benedict Allen's eschewing of any crew, and from Werner Herzog's beautifully mad portrayals of peoples and cultures to the even more obscure expeditions that have only been shot on amateur cameras.
Undoubtedly though, my favourite documentary of all time is Cannibals and Crampons. For those of you that don't know it, it charts the expedition of two ex-army officers as they try to climb the south face of Mt Mandala in New Guinea. One is the adventurer Mark Anstice, and the second is explorer Bruce Parry, who went on to greater fame in the BBC shows 'Tribe' and 'Amazon.' Why's it so great? Well it's just a proper, proper adventure. They set off into deepest Indonesia, without permits, any form of support or any real knowledge of what might face them - just armed with the little research it was possible for them to do (given the lack of exploration of the area) 90kg packs of gear each and a heck of a lot of spirit. They film it themselves, and trek through the jungle for months before finally climbing the mountain (without any ropes.) They face, and overcomes things you wouldn't even dare to imagine, and to me they embody what true expeditioning is all about. It's very, very different from my trip obviously, but I hope I can draw some inspiration from their remarkable achievement. So that's my favourite, a hard choice to make in such a exciting genre. What's your favourite? Anyone agree with my choice?
7 Comments
11/29/2009 09:24:46 am
Cannibals and Crampons! I haven't seen that in years! I think my fave adventure documentary has to be Benedict's Edge of Blue Heaven about his travels in Mongolia.
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11/30/2009 05:22:56 am
Still really want to see this one - where did you get your copy?
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Leon
11/30/2009 08:48:18 am
Good choices!
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Jinty McGinty
12/2/2009 03:24:42 pm
Best adventure film? Beavis and Butthead do America!
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Dominic Hayes
1/19/2011 02:40:02 am
Saw C&C last night. Pretty amazing stuff. Another thing that makes it special is the two extremes: hot jungle and cold mountain and that they have to carry the gear for both environments - extra tough. Respect to Bruce too as he learned to speak a local language. As you say, a proper proper adventure.
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I totally agree Leon! C&C is hands-down my favorite travel documentary. Have you seen the deleted scenes? There is 35 minutes of footage that never made it into the final documentary. I actually managed to gain access to this and uploaded it to YouTube. Just search YT, it's the first that comes up :)
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