Latest / The Shed Organics Show / #30 - Open Minds, Wild Lives | Karla Pound [Karla_inthewild]

Transcript

#30 - Open Minds, Wild Lives | Karla Pound [Karla_inthewild] · The Shed Organics Show

0:00
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Shed
0:04
Organics Show. This one is another awesome
0:09
special edition episode. We are out on location at the
0:14
moment in the Brisbane Mount Coutha Botanical Gardens and I'm
0:19
here to meet up with Carla Pound, or Carla in the wild Now.
0:25
Color is an amazing woman. She is a strong, powerful woman,
0:31
bringing back all of our, I guess, lost skills like
0:36
bushcraft, hunting, survival and all of these types of things.
0:42
Carla was a a contestant on the TV show alone in Season 3 here
0:47
in Australia, and she was put out into the wilderness on her
0:51
own to try and survive. And I don't know about you, but
0:55
I would find that very, very difficult, disconnected from all
0:58
of the people in our lives that we care so deeply about.
1:02
But Carla's story is fascinating.
1:04
She's got so many amazing stories of her travels, working
1:08
with different companies like National Geographic, doing tours
1:11
and things. And I just absolutely had to
1:14
have her on the podcast to have her join me and share some of
1:18
these stories. So if you're watching the video,
1:21
you'll be able to see us here in the Botanical Gardens and you
1:26
can see some of the conversation on the video.
1:29
But if not, still, you're going to get so much from this
1:32
episode. So sit back, relax, enjoy being
1:36
taken on a bit of a worldwide experience of survival,
1:41
bushcraft, and all of the above. So without further ado, here is
1:45
our conversation with Carla from Color in the Wild.
2:05
Tell me a little bit about your initial inspiration for being an
2:12
outdoors person. Where's that come from?
2:15
It definitely didn't come from my family, which people are
2:17
pretty surprised about. I didn't go up that way at all,
2:19
Not through my family anyway. But from the age of four my
2:23
parents put me into Girl Guides. So I was a dumb nut, a brownie
2:26
and a girl guide. So I did that for 12 years and
2:31
then my weekends were spent hiking, camping, AB sailing, you
2:35
know, clocking, learned to tie knots, building fires.
2:38
So that kind of got me into it. And then it was so nice to be
2:42
led by these women that were so encouraging to create you a
2:46
space to be independent and test your skills and kind of feel
2:49
things out. And, you know, I was that
2:52
typical overachiever that had the sashes or the badges that
2:55
got full, had a second sash, had a bag.
2:57
But it was great because it was everything from, like, pottery
3:00
to mountaineering to swimming to archery.
3:02
Like, it was just such a great place for a young girl to grow
3:05
up and just try so many things. Yeah.
3:08
To see what you liked. And then I feel like even now as
3:11
an adult, I never grew out of it.
3:12
Do you know what I mean? Like, I still do it.
3:13
It's like, what's next? What's the next accomplishment?
3:15
Next achievement. But yeah, definitely Girl
3:17
Guides. I I think it's contributed to
3:18
who I am today for sure. That's interesting.
3:20
I know a lot of people that have found so much value in that kind
3:22
of thing, like go guides, little like Scouts or whatever you
3:25
might call it for the for the different ones.
3:27
I did a little bit of it, but I certainly did wasn't open to all
3:31
those opportunities that you seem to have had.
3:34
Is it like something that you think a lot of people should try
3:38
and do? Like especially for kids?
3:39
I have a little boy now. So it's like, is that something
3:42
that you reckon really helps kids have an appreciation for
3:45
the outdoors, for all these basic survival skills and things
3:49
that seem to be a little bit lost?
3:51
Yeah, absolutely. Like particularly if you're not
3:53
something, it's not something that you can provide yourself.
3:56
Like if you're not in a situation where you can take
3:58
your kids out camping or can't take them hiking because let's
4:01
face it, everyone works ridiculous hours these days.
4:03
So it can be challenging. Or if you're living in a city, I
4:06
think just exposing kids to nature is something that we're
4:09
losing. You know, how often do you see
4:11
kids climb trees and make mud pies and cash type holes
4:13
anymore? It's not really a thing.
4:15
So I think having a space like that where kids can go and
4:18
interact with other kids and just create that foundation of
4:21
being in nature. And I think for mental health as
4:24
well, it's a really great thing for kids to have that escape.
4:26
Yeah. And you know, you certainly can
4:29
turn a career into it later in life, but obviously.
4:31
Yeah, for sure, absolutely. But I think it's just being lost
4:34
in today's society, you know, with technology and stuff.
4:36
So yeah, if kids have the opportunity to do a group
4:40
setting like that, because it's camaraderie and it's team
4:42
building and everything, it's a social thing as well.
4:44
So it's a big. Win.
4:45
Yeah, I think that's a really important one too, that social
4:48
thing, and then having good role models as well.
4:50
So is that something you like continued on like for a long
4:54
time and then just thought, I love these activities.
4:56
How can I find a way of making them a job or making them like,
5:00
how does it transition into what you're doing now?
5:04
So most of the drive for me when I was younger was wildlife in
5:08
particular. So I started doing wildlife
5:10
rescue from the age of about 14. So my parents, my dad in
5:14
particular was really supportive and my house was in menagerie.
5:17
I had a ridiculous amount of possums and Wallabies and piece
5:21
of birds and reptiles. It was insane and.
5:24
This is up in Airlie Beach. No, I actually grew up in
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Sydney. So I left Sydney nearly 15 years
5:28
ago, but that's where we grew up.
5:30
Awesome. So I had a bit of a Bush area
5:32
around us, but very much superbious still.
5:35
And I was really thankful that I had that passion from a young
5:39
age. And I got into zookeeping.
5:40
I studied zoology when I first left school and I thought that
5:42
was going to be me forever as a zookeeper.
5:44
That was my passion. I really loved it.
5:47
And then I kind of just fell into tour guiding.
5:50
So I started travelling through Outback Australia, just on a
5:53
road trip with a bunch of friends and I went to Uluru and
5:56
did a sunrise camel tour. I got chit chatting to the owner
5:59
of the camel farm and he offered me a job on the spot to be a
6:02
camellier and I was like. Camellia, I've never heard that
6:05
before. Yeah, so I like moved to the
6:06
desert, work with camels. I can't think of a reason to say
6:09
no. And I was mentally moving to
6:11
cans to run a zoo up there. I was 21.
6:13
It was a really great step up in my zoo.
6:14
Keep a career to run a zoo, which is like supervisor.
6:18
But yeah, I totally changed my path and I ended up moving to
6:21
the desert and working with camels and got to tour guiding.
6:24
And it's just been one thing after the next.
6:26
So I think for me and my best advice I give to people is just
6:30
be open minded. Like don't be so stuck in your
6:33
path because you'll miss the opportunities in front of you,
6:35
you know? And then from that I got into
6:37
naturals guiding and then I became a skipper and then that
6:39
led into driving airboats and then helicopters and then now
6:43
into expedition. And it's just even now at the
6:47
age of 57 next week, I have no idea where I'm going to be in a
6:50
year, 2 years from now. I just really open minded, go
6:53
with the flow, say yes, I've said yes to jobs and I'm like, I
6:56
don't know what I'm doing, but I always work it out when I get
6:59
there, you know, so. That's so cool.
7:01
Go with the flow, don't be scared to take that leap.
7:04
You seem to have this attitude that's built in that you're
7:07
like, yes, why not? Almost like not why?
7:11
It's more like, why not? And you're just diving into
7:14
these things. I don't think people innately
7:15
have that kind of openness. Like you said, open mindedness,
7:20
but willingness to just throw yourself into something a little
7:23
bit unknown, especially you're just kind of going, I'm just
7:26
going to go give it a go, let's see what happens.
7:28
Is that always been you? Is that like, how do you foster
7:33
that? How do you develop that if
7:34
someone doesn't have it? Like I'm a little bit reserved
7:38
sometimes with things not too bad, but I'm kind of preserved
7:42
in going. I have to really calculate a few
7:45
things going on. If I did this and it means I'm
7:47
losing that or if I gain this and it could lead to this.
7:50
And I'm sort of like weighing up the pros and cons and feel like
7:53
you're just like, Yep, no more thought.
7:56
Yeah, I mean, I guess the thing that I've sort of come to
7:58
realize is that I'm not scared to fail.
8:00
You know, nobody's born an expert in anything and I'm not
8:03
an expert in anything. You know, I'm a dilable trades,
8:05
I can double a little bit in lots of different things.
8:09
So I think once you get over that, like that it's OK to fail,
8:12
then that just kind of opens up the door for you that oh, well,
8:15
you know, if I make a mistake, then it's a learning curve.
8:17
And I've had mistakes in my life.
8:18
You know, I've had incidents and things that have happened, but
8:20
that's all experience. Yeah.
8:22
And when things do happen, I look back and go to what I'm
8:24
actually glad that it did happen.
8:26
It wasn't fun at the time, but I've learnt so much about me.
8:28
I know what I'm capable of and then when I do go to do the next
8:31
thing, I'm like, well, this is way easier than that last thing
8:34
that I just did to have fun. Don't live on.
8:36
True. I definitely didn't grow up that
8:38
way either. Like my my family were very
8:40
stationary. Like I went to the one primary
8:42
school, the one high school. My family holidays were an hour
8:45
away from where we grew up. Like we were very homebody
8:47
people. And I think for me, I just
8:49
wanted to break free from that. So once I got old enough to
8:53
start travelling around, I just got addicted to it.
8:56
I guess it was the complete opposite of how I grew up.
8:59
But yeah, it it can be a daunting thing.
9:00
But what I say to people, too, is like, if you do have
9:03
something you wanna do, take a job, move into state, whatever
9:05
it is, nothing in this life is permanent.
9:09
People get so built up about, you know, making that big move.
9:12
It can be in your head a lot more than what it is once you
9:14
get there. And even if you don't know what
9:16
you're doing, it'll work out. And at the very least, you can
9:19
turn around and go back to your old job, your own home, so you
9:22
don't burn your bridges, you know, leaving the right way.
9:25
Or you'll learn something about yourself.
9:27
You will. Or maybe learn that, hey, I gave
9:29
it a go, I don't want to do that now.
9:31
Or it'll be networking. You'll meet someone else.
9:33
Another door will open. I've moved into state for a job
9:36
and after two weeks went, hey, it's not the job for me.
9:38
But I then met somebody and, you know, it opened up a door to a
9:42
job that I loved, and I ended up staying there for a year.
9:44
So just give it a go. Yeah, I know it's easy to say
9:47
that. And for me, I don't have a
9:49
mortgage, I don't have kids. I don't have anything really
9:51
holding me down so I can go out and explore a bit more.
9:55
But again, nothing's permanent. Just have a crack at it.
9:58
That's really true because you can't just pivot again.
10:00
If you get into that position where it's like this is not kind
10:03
of what I thought, pivot again and like that's a skill to just
10:08
not judge yourself in terms of that I'd made the wrong
10:11
decision. Or like you say, kind of
10:13
ruminate on it a little bit and say, no, it wasn't nothing for
10:16
me, I need to pivot. But you can.
10:17
And you meet these new people, you find out more about
10:20
yourself. It's something that I've seen a
10:22
lot of in a lot of people, something I'm trying to do more
10:25
of myself. And you know, now that we've got
10:27
like family and stuff, we've got more considerations and things.
10:30
But it's as a really cool kind of mentality to have in taking
10:35
you to these different parts. Do you find that like those
10:40
experiences are ones that they obviously shape you?
10:43
Like you say you kind of it makes you who you are and you
10:46
kind of think, but it also you get to try all these things and
10:50
you get to figure out what you like and what you don't like.
10:53
And you're not going to get to the end of your life and be
10:55
like, I wish I tried that or what if this like it could have
10:59
been like that or I should have tried that.
11:01
And I feel like that's one of the biggest things that people
11:06
like you get upset about later on in life.
11:07
If you didn't give these things a go or when that opportunity
11:10
was there, you should have thrown yourself at it because
11:12
it's only a short little like as you say, not permanent part of
11:16
your life. Do you think much about regret
11:20
and these things later on in life?
11:22
Yeah, I do. You know, I think that I would
11:26
rather have a go at something and fail at it and tick the box
11:29
and go, OK, you know, I gave it a good solid crack, but I'm
11:32
satisfied that I gave it a good solid crack.
11:34
You know, I tried and it can be a hard thing to have a goal and
11:38
something set in mind and you put time and effort and
11:40
sometimes money and it doesn't come into fruition.
11:44
But again, for me, it's satisfaction in itself.
11:48
And you know, they always say that you regret things that you
11:51
don't do for sure. And I think that's just like you
11:54
said, like I would rather be on my deathbed and go, wow, I LED a
11:57
LED a really incredible life. Some parts were hard and didn't
12:00
go to plan, but God, that's a story to tell, you know?
12:02
Yeah. Yeah.
12:04
It's the only thing that I really, one thing I majorly
12:06
regret in my life is when I was younger, in my early zookeeper
12:09
days, there was a bit of a window for me to be a presenter
12:12
for. Totally wild that we all grew up
12:14
watching. I did a bit of filming with them
12:16
and they said to send a new CV and I chit chatted with them for
12:19
a little bit, but I never really pursued it.
12:21
And that was my one childhood goal.
12:22
And that sat on me for about four or five years, years that I
12:25
didn't do something that I really wanted to do.
12:28
I had my heart set on it. I mean, that time's passed now.
12:31
Telegog's not a thing anymore. But everything now for me, I
12:35
have a different attitude. If I don't have dreams, I have a
12:39
plan. And once I've shifted that
12:42
mindset, it's things that you can put in place to make it
12:47
happen. Or if I'm never feeling like a
12:49
bit lost or in between jobs and not sure what I want to do, I
12:52
have like a vision board or like a scrapbook and I just flip back
12:54
through it and go, that's right, I always want to do that.
12:57
I'm just going to look up a course.
12:58
I'm just going to go and do a workshop.
12:59
I'm just going to do 1 little tiny step towards that goal.
13:02
And sometimes it takes years and sometimes it's a short term
13:04
thing. And I don't think you can ever
13:07
have too many plans. True.
13:09
Well, whatever you want to call it.
13:11
It's like I'm I'm a bit like that with a list, you know, I've
13:14
got all these things like, oh, I'd love to do this, I'd love to
13:16
learn this or whatever. How do you pick?
13:19
Like how do you go? You're going to get a certain
13:23
amount of time, right? So how do you like choose or
13:26
what's the thought process in in that?
13:28
Is it just whatever's drawing you in that moment?
13:31
I'm very big on just following what's in front of me at the
13:34
time. So for me right now, my shift is
13:37
changing a bit from expedition work to more bushcraft and
13:41
survival and hunting, which just seems to be the opportunities
13:44
that are coming my way off the back of a lone and just doing
13:48
survival camps. So I'm like, OK, is this where
13:50
life's kind of leading me? And even when I became a
13:52
helicopter pilot, it was the same thing.
13:54
I was driving airboats at the time and the boss came over and
13:57
said, have you thought about flying helicopters?
13:59
And I was like, no, I went home and researched it.
14:02
Within six months, I was at aviation school.
14:04
So I just again, when operations come your way, I'm just going,
14:07
OK, if I just leave it to feel it out.
14:10
And yeah, I had like vision boards on my phone as well,
14:13
which I update every maybe six months or so.
14:15
And if I again feel a little bit lost, just look at it and go,
14:18
that one seems like achievable. I've only got a short amount of
14:20
time. And in terms of jobs, like for
14:24
me when I was younger and wanting to get into the outdoor
14:27
space again, being open minded and willing to move, I would
14:30
just pump my CV out to 30 different companies that looked
14:33
cool. I was like, I must do that looks
14:35
amazing. And out of the 10 that came
14:37
back, then I would start to have interviews and pick and choose
14:39
and go, well, I kind of let the universe decide a little bit.
14:42
I've applied and don't just go for that one job and and have
14:45
your heart set on it. Just put the feelers out there
14:47
and see what comes back. I like that it's kind of not
14:50
being too attached to any particular outcome, a goal.
14:53
I feel like I've been stuck in that before, just kind of going,
14:56
I really want to especially like say, music is one thing.
14:59
I want to be playing music around the world.
15:02
And I feel like maybe being so fixated on one goal might have
15:08
closed off other things that I would have noticed at the time
15:11
to go other places. Obviously that's pivoted now,
15:14
but it's a really, really interesting one.
15:17
But just kind of going back into the things that you're doing all
15:20
the time, like looking at your profile and the life that you
15:26
lead, all these stories and stuff, you know, like on
15:28
Instagram and that we typically are sharing the highlights like
15:33
the best parts of our life, right?
15:35
And I might share, Hey, I got married.
15:37
Like look how glamorous this is went on holiday glamorous.
15:42
But like your life is literally all highlights.
15:45
Well, it seems to be all highlights at least.
15:49
And you very rarely see the ups and downs of some people's
15:54
journey, right? We'll get into Alone in a second
15:57
because I feel like that was a really cool capture of those
16:00
types of things for you. But what is it like doing these
16:06
constant expeditions constantly in a different part of the
16:09
world, soaking up all these new experiences?
16:12
What's it like for you? How do you rationalize that for
16:15
yourself? And then tell me a bit about
16:18
what you are doing and where it came from currently,
16:21
expeditions, these types of things.
16:23
Yeah. So currently now I'm working as
16:25
an expedition leader for National Geographic.
16:27
So I've been with them for just over 2 years.
16:30
I've been an expedition for three years.
16:32
I worked for an Australian company before that, so I
16:35
generally work in the South Pacific.
16:36
So I do Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, French Polynesia, like
16:39
Fiji, Samoa, that kind of part of the world, New Zealand, the
16:44
Kimberley in Australia, and I do Antarctica as well.
16:47
Yeah, that's insane. Yeah, that's amazing.
16:50
Yeah, yeah. And, yeah, I guess on social
16:55
media, people's lives can look glamorous, but to be honest,
16:58
pretty great. Yeah.
17:00
And I mean, I have my issues and sometimes things happen.
17:02
And I'm now starting to share a bit more that of that on social.
17:05
But recently, I bought a 1983 Gina mug, and I had a
17:09
catastrophic brake failure as I was hitting Brisbane city.
17:11
And I was, you know, beside myself because I nearly crashed
17:15
and could have potentially killed off a bunch of people.
17:17
And I shared that story and I was in tears.
17:19
And just to show that, you know, I'm a real human.
17:22
Yeah. Things happen.
17:23
Not everything's perfect, yeah. But in terms of my job and my
17:27
general lifestyle, I wake up every single day excited to go
17:30
to work. Yeah.
17:30
And I know how lucky I am to have that.
17:33
It's such a rare thing to really down to your, your, your core
17:37
love what you do so much and go to bed at the end of the day so
17:40
satisfied with a smile on your face and amazing memories.
17:43
Yeah, but I've created that life for myself.
17:45
I was going. To say I feel like you have.
17:47
One of my mates, I used to say like, I'm so lucky to leave the
17:49
life, to leave the life that I do.
17:51
And my mate Sam was like, you're not lucky, Carla, like you've
17:53
created that. Yeah, exactly.
17:55
And it really took me a bit to take a step back and go, I guess
17:58
you're right. Like, I have like, nothing's
17:59
really falling in my lap. Like I've taken a chance time
18:02
and time again. And I've taken jobs, like I
18:04
said, that haven't always worked out.
18:05
And just having that resilience that builds up more and more
18:08
over time. Yeah.
18:10
I mean, I am lucky that I found a passion at a young age that
18:16
could build a career around which was based around wildlife.
18:20
But yeah, again, so cliche, life is what you make it.
18:23
But yeah, take a chance and and just sign up and do things even
18:26
if it scares you and always leads.
18:27
To something, it's a testament from what you're saying before,
18:30
like just being open minded, giving everything a go and then
18:33
you'll be surprised where it leads you and then you can be
18:36
living a life that you're like, what is going on?
18:39
Like how am I doing this? Like seeing you last week or
18:43
whatever. It's like somewhere amazing and
18:45
I'm just going like, she's loving it, the living her best
18:49
life type thing. It's like she's absolutely
18:52
killing it. But it's but the passion that
18:54
you have right is what brings other people in.
18:57
So if you're passionate about what you do, then other people
19:00
are going to like be affected by that, be drawn in and then it
19:04
just gets that snowball rolling. So I feel like if you do get to
19:07
find your passion less than early or whenever it is, throw
19:11
yourself at that like wholeheartedly and you'll be
19:14
able to like really make some things happen.
19:16
I couldn't agree more. And passion for me is the most
19:19
attractive quality in the human. I don't care what you're
19:21
passionate about. It could be bees, it could be
19:24
sunrises. Like I don't care what it is.
19:25
But to hear somebody talk about something they genuinely love.
19:29
Like I had a woman one day say to me after a tour in the
19:32
Kimberley, she's like, I never thought I'd be so interested in
19:34
termites. I'm like, right, they're
19:36
amazing. Like because when you share your
19:37
love and interest, it's it's contagious.
19:39
People want to listen and draw it in no matter what it is.
19:41
Yeah, very, very true. So then with these expeditions
19:46
and things, how did you kind of develop the survival side of
19:52
things, right. Because that's kind of a lot of
19:54
the things that you promote and talk about and push and things
19:57
like this. And we'll get into like the
19:58
hunting and all of that kind of thing.
20:00
But it seems like the survival sort of thing is being brought
20:06
in with more of the the shows like Alone and all of this being
20:09
more popularized and more and more people are wanting to kind
20:11
of go back to those. Roots of how we used to live and
20:15
a little bit more primal existence.
20:18
Was survival a continuation of this Girl Guides thing again?
20:21
Or is this just like you're just interested in it or is it?
20:26
It's certainly again come in like different ways throughout
20:29
my career. So I got into that Bush Tucker
20:32
and living off the land when I first moved to Uluru.
20:34
Yeah. 2012 And at Uluru behind the rock, there is Muda Julu,
20:39
which is the indigenous community.
20:41
And there was a fella there by the name of frog and he got that
20:44
name because he was a great swimmer but a shit runner.
20:46
Everyone called him frog. And yeah, we worked camel farm
20:48
one day and he started pointing out these pigeons to me and he's
20:51
like Carla, they're good eating. I was like, oh OK.
20:54
And I'm like fresh out of Sydney, like fookeeper, animal
20:56
lover. He's like, they were coming into
20:58
the farm and they were eating the seeds off the loose and hay
21:01
and chaff that were feeding the camels.
21:03
He's like, if you fatten them up, you call me and we'll eat
21:05
them. And I was like.
21:06
OK, so. Here I am for a couple of weeks
21:08
fattening up these birds and I was like, I'm going to trap
21:11
them. And I thought back to a trap
21:12
that my Nana taught me when I was about 6 or 7.
21:15
She had a little mouse that was running around her veggie patch
21:18
in Sydney. And she just a really basic
21:20
trap. It was actually the pull scoop
21:22
the, the, the net with that little piece of wood and a bit
21:25
of string. And we had a piece of bread with
21:27
vanilla essence on it and sat it underneath.
21:29
And I sat there on the porch and the mouse came in and I trapped
21:31
it. So I just used the same concept
21:33
to just did it bigger. And I trapped these birds out at
21:36
Uluru and I called frog. I was like, I've got these birds
21:39
come quick. I don't know what I'm doing like
21:41
So it was very eye opening for me for him to come over.
21:44
He bought a kangaroo tail with him.
21:46
We euthanized the birds. We plucked them, we gutted them,
21:48
we cooked them underground. And that was my first feast of
21:51
living off mammals and birds off the land as well.
21:54
And that was just like like mind boggling.
21:57
So then through that, my next job was in the Kimberley running
22:02
Bush Tucker tours up there. And I really dove into Bush
22:04
Tucker then. So that's been a passion of mine
22:06
for, you know, over 10 years now.
22:08
And then through my travels with Nat Geo, I've gone through
22:11
really remote villages around the world, third world countries
22:13
and just seeing how primitive, how how grounded they are, how
22:19
reliant on the natural environment and they are the
22:22
happiest people in the world and made me very thankful to live in
22:25
Australia and the opportunities that we have.
22:27
But I was like, I want that, Like I want to get into that
22:29
space more The. Simplicity of it.
22:31
Absolutely, and a big turning point for me too is when I was
22:34
living in Airlie Beach, we had cycle and Debbie came through
22:36
category 5 and pretty much flattened Airlie Beach.
22:39
No power, no water and the community waiting to panic.
22:42
Nobody knew what to do. I'm pretty self, you know,
22:45
resilient because I'm a camper and I live out of my 4 wheel
22:47
drive. So I was fine.
22:49
Just made me realize like, wow, people are so disconnected of
22:52
how to actually survive. Yeah.
22:54
So then I started to lean into the survival thing a bit more
22:56
and just learn things like fly by friction.
22:58
And then I wanted to get into bow hunting, and I've just
23:01
followed that more and more over the last couple of years just
23:03
with the general interest in it. And I love it.
23:05
Yeah. And then alone was the
23:07
opportunity to test those things.
23:09
Like it was things that I just did as a hobby, you know, on my
23:11
time off and then to actually be in the wilderness and test them.
23:14
And do I actually know what I'm talking about?
23:16
Can I actually survive out there?
23:17
Sorry. That was really cool to see, I
23:20
guess from somebody who's like an outsider alone as a show.
23:25
I kind of was like, I've I've seen a few of the other
23:30
country's versions. I think it's American or
23:32
whatever. And I was like, these guys must
23:35
be pro to be able to do this and like, or they must like already
23:39
have a certain base knowledge, which is right to a certain
23:42
extent, right? You have to pass a sort of pre
23:47
test screening to be able to be like, look, she's going to be OK
23:51
if we drop her and then we'll have.
23:52
To chuckle, right? She's not going to start to
23:53
death. Yeah, exactly.
23:55
So like you, you kind of go through the screening, you
23:58
figure out, did you just see the applications open and go, this
24:02
is something that I want to do. Is it again, another opportunity
24:05
where you're thinking, yeah, I would love to dive into that,
24:09
why not all of this kind of thing?
24:10
Is that what you're thinking? They actually got in contact
24:13
with me, so through my social media, they reached out to me
24:16
initially for Season 1, but I had to turn it down because I
24:19
was already doing another show. I did $1,000,000 Islands two
24:22
years ago, which is a sort of similar concept.
24:25
We had 100 Australians that were dumped on the island in
24:27
Malaysia, and we had to break into teams and build shelters
24:30
and make fire and forage for food.
24:32
And it was a bit like Survivor, like those challenges and stuff.
24:35
So it was even a social element to it.
24:37
Yeah, for sure. So I was already involved with
24:39
that. So I had to turn down Season 1
24:41
and then when you do ATV show, you're locked into a contract
24:43
for 12 months. So Season 2 came around and I
24:46
couldn't apply for it. Season 3 opened up and I went
24:48
for it and then I got it. So awesome.
24:50
They planted the seed. Initially I hadn't heard or
24:53
didn't know anything about the show to start with.
24:56
And then of course, I watched all the American ones, which I
24:58
think they've got 12 seasons now.
24:59
The American ones are amazing. Yeah, crazy.
25:01
And then a good friend of mine, Adam Kavanaugh, he's been on
25:04
Naked and Afraid a couple of times.
25:05
Well, so we're talking to him a lot about, you know, going down
25:09
that TV Rd. of survival, you know, testing his skills.
25:12
But it's on TV and, you know, there's always a risk that goes
25:14
through that as well. But I think what's so appealing
25:17
about Alone and why the viewers really enjoy it is it's so
25:19
authentic. Unlike other reality TV shows
25:22
where they can plot people against each other or they can,
25:25
you know, cut and change your, your conversations into other
25:29
moments, Alone is just you and you, it's your narrative.
25:34
You talk about what you want to talk to or talk about rather.
25:37
And even though half the time the footage is terrible because
25:40
they're walking up a hill and it's up our nostrils or
25:42
whatever. And people love that because
25:44
it's something and it's real and you can connect with the person.
25:47
You really feel like you're out there with them.
25:49
Yeah, totally agree. And that's a lot of the kind of
25:52
the insights that you get into someone's thinking and like the,
25:56
the concept of being alone. And like we kind of touched on
26:00
this before filming, but like, connection is such an important
26:04
part of our lives. And from what I understand, from
26:08
what I've learned is that aside from food and water,
26:11
relationships or connection is like another pivotal part of our
26:16
health, well-being, happiness, all that kind of thing.
26:18
And seeing some of your clips of you sort of going through and
26:23
figuring out by being on your own, you're kind of like you're
26:27
cut off from everything. You're able to really spend time
26:31
with your thoughts, right? And you did like a crazy amount
26:34
of days, right? How many days?
26:36
35 days, it's yeah. That's insane.
26:39
That's insane. It's like not only just to be on
26:42
your own for five weeks, no contact, no phones, like all of
26:45
this kind of thing, but like trying to survive, like being on
26:49
the edge of danger, like it is danger all the time, right And
26:55
seeing everyone sort of how they react to it.
26:58
The thing, the realizations that they have it is authentic.
27:02
You do connect with that kind of stuff.
27:03
You go, man, like maybe I am taking my life for granted.
27:07
Maybe I am like being too, you know, distant with people or
27:12
whatever it might be. And I loved your realization
27:14
about wanting to spend more time with friends and connect and
27:18
build those relationships. So can you talk to that a little
27:20
bit and that process? Yeah, look, I certainly didn't
27:23
go out there on the land to have an epiphany.
27:25
I didn't feel like I needed a life changing moment and I
27:28
wasn't expecting it by any means.
27:30
My job is very social. I'm a very social person.
27:32
I work in tourism. I love humans.
27:35
But for me, because my job is so social, when I did return to
27:38
Australia, I like to spend that time alone.
27:40
You know, I think he'd been fishing.
27:42
It was a way for me to recharge. Yeah, but then I think it just
27:45
got, I got stuck in it, you know, I just did it on my own
27:49
for so long because it was easier, I guess.
27:52
And I do work a lot and I don't have a lot of downtime.
27:56
And it was just the easier option to not have to arrange
27:58
plans to meet up with somebody. And sometimes plans change and
28:01
people cancel last minute and that's just what happens.
28:04
Of course, yeah. But yeah, like you said, when
28:08
you're out there on the land, you have so much reflection time
28:10
and you really start to look within of what makes you you
28:14
where you feel like you might be going in life.
28:17
And I just had that light bulb moment of I'm so lucky to have
28:20
so many incredible humans in my life and I never see them.
28:23
Yeah, my best friend in the world.
28:25
I see every two to. Three years, yeah.
28:27
True, my sisters I see probably once a year.
28:29
And I thought that being alone was gonna be my strong suit out
28:34
there. I think because my life
28:36
generally out here, I have that solitary time.
28:38
And I was like, easy, like, I'm not planning for a partner
28:40
background. I don't have kids that I'm
28:42
missing. I was like, that's going to be a
28:43
walk in the park. But it really hit me hard once I
28:45
was out there for a few weeks, I was like, why am I away from
28:49
humans so much? Like, what is what is that
28:51
disconnect for me? Why have I done that to myself?
28:54
And I still don't really have an answer why, but it I did have
28:57
the realisation of I don't think of that anymore, you know, so I
29:00
really made a conscious effort once I got off the land to spend
29:03
that time with my family. And to be honest, that was a big
29:06
tipping point for me of leaving. Like for me to tuck out at day
29:09
35 was because I knew at that stage I had lost too much weight
29:13
to win. You know, I had lost all the
29:16
body condition that I had at only 30 days.
29:18
And to win ATV show like alone it's 60 days minimum.
29:21
And I was like, I physically don't have the fat to win.
29:24
So my next goal psychologically, I was like, all right, 40-5
29:26
days. I want to stay till 45 days.
29:28
Then I was like, for what purpose?
29:30
To feed my ego. So I can say I made it to 45
29:32
days, like, who cares? It's not a win.
29:34
I was like, I can sit here and be starving, hungry and risk my
29:37
health and whatever else. Or I could go see my family.
29:40
I can be cooking in my mom's kitchen with her in Tasmania, or
29:43
I could be going catching up with my high school best
29:45
friends. And I took that time off, off
29:47
work for the show. I was like, I can't win.
29:50
I don't have the body fat for it.
29:51
I'm going to use this time the best that I can and go see these
29:54
humans and reconnect. And that's exactly what I did.
29:56
And I haven't stopped. Every time I'm back in Australia
29:58
I'm catching up with everybody that I can, even if it's just
30:01
like a cup of tea for a quick hour stopping while I'm driving
30:04
through or we go and hike a mountain, whatever it is, and
30:06
it's the best decision I've made.
30:07
That's so good. I love the thought about like,
30:10
who am I? Like what am I doing this for?
30:12
It's like the, yes, you've gone in there, you've done what you
30:16
said you're initially going to do, try your best, get to the
30:19
point of where you're going to tap out.
30:21
How many times did you think about tapping out?
30:24
Like what's that thought like? To be honest, for the first four
30:28
weeks, I was bouncing off the walls, you know, I was having
30:31
the best time ever. And even when the Med team would
30:33
come out and check on you, they're like, how are you so
30:35
sprightly? Like you haven't eaten for days?
30:37
Like, how are you like this? I'm like, it's fun.
30:39
Like, I'm loving it, you know, because this task, it's building
30:41
shelter and making a trap and looking for food and just being
30:44
in nature and. All the things you love anyway.
30:46
Yeah, I did not think about tapping out once until I got to
30:49
that day, 2829, and I was on the last of my food, which is an
30:53
eel. And then day 30 was my last
30:56
meal. And then it was cold or windy.
30:59
And I'm somebody who loves the sun and, you know, being
31:01
outdoors and having that sun on my skin.
31:03
And it had been a few days, but I knew I was in trouble when I
31:06
was sitting on my floor in my shelter and I was sitting next
31:08
to my fire. And I was like, feeling so.
31:10
Oh, thank you. I loved it.
31:12
Yeah. I worked pretty hard.
31:13
I was feeling so unmotivated. And I was like, alright, get up
31:16
and make a bird trap. We saw a bird out there
31:18
yesterday that came down close. Go get some berries, make a bird
31:21
trap. By the third day of me telling
31:23
myself to get up and make a bird trap and I hadn't really moved.
31:26
I was like, I am in trouble here.
31:27
Like my headspace just plummeted.
31:30
I was cold, it was windy, it was rainy.
31:32
I then hadn't eaten. I realized I didn't have the
31:35
body fat to win. And I'm like, don't think I
31:37
wanna do this anymore. I'm like, I've got so much more
31:39
out of this experience I could have ever hoped for, apart from
31:42
the money. The money would have been nice,
31:44
but that's not why I was doing it either.
31:45
You know, everything I do in my life is for the experience, of
31:48
course. And I just, you know, I was
31:50
satisfied. Yeah.
31:51
I was like I have and to this day I have 0 regrets of tapping
31:54
out. You know, I had such a fun
31:56
experience. I had that epiphany moment out
31:58
there of reconnecting with humans in my life.
32:00
I got to test my skills, I got to have that showcase to
32:02
Australia and now the world opportunities have come from
32:05
that as well. And I just had such a good time
32:08
and I remember the day of tapping out, it was such a
32:11
relief. I'm waiting for the boat to
32:12
come. I'm like I'm so happy, I'm good
32:15
to go. I'm so happy to have a shower
32:18
and to eat as well. It's like, do you have to be
32:22
careful with the meals that you eat, Osts coming out?
32:26
Because I imagine coming from a state of not, you know, eating
32:29
anything, you've got to be really careful about how your
32:31
body comes back to health. Yeah.
32:33
What was that process like? It is super important so you can
32:36
get something called refeeding syndrome.
32:37
So it happened to people coming out of concentration camps.
32:40
Yeah. And those that have suffered
32:41
from anorexia. Yeah.
32:43
If you go and eat carbs in particular too quickly, it has
32:45
this enzyme reaction in your body and it can be fatal.
32:48
Wow. So to start with, when we got
32:51
back into, I guess, civilization, it's just bone
32:53
broth. Yeah.
32:54
You know, you haven't eaten for such a long time is slowly
32:57
getting your guts ready to start accepting food again.
32:59
Awesome. And then really small portions
33:01
of, of protein and vegetables, no carbs.
33:04
And that's for a couple of days. And then slowly you can have
33:06
like 1 bite to eat or one little bit of carb and just slowly
33:09
build up that way. So they regulate you, they watch
33:12
you, they're testing your bloods and, and your blood pressure and
33:15
just monitoring you day and night and you're under
33:17
supervision. Yeah, cool.
33:18
Which you need to because it can be really dangerous, you know,
33:21
particularly those people that were out there double the length
33:23
of time for you know, than I was out there for two months and
33:26
eating very little. You know, I lost 18 kilos in
33:29
total over that five weeks, half a kilo a day.
33:31
You're not massive. No, yes, I'm sitting at about 62
33:35
kilos right now. I got up to 72 before I went out
33:37
and I dropped down to 54 when I left.
33:40
The land so. Yeah, it's a massive shift and
33:42
it has its effect on your body too.
33:44
Like my hair is still quite thin and I still have some issues
33:47
eating certain foods. Now it's been probably about 10
33:50
months since we filmed so your body still takes a while to heal
33:54
and most people I've spoken to that have done a similar thing,
33:57
either alone or naked and afraid, they said 12 months
34:00
minimum before your body bounces back to where it should be.
34:02
Goodness me. And like you said, yeah, you
34:04
just ease back into things and that kind of thing.
34:07
Even just socially to like for me to get my phone back.
34:10
Oh, that was overwhelming. Like anxiety through the roof,
34:12
like all the messages and emails and stuff that came in and even
34:15
just having conversations with people.
34:17
Like once I got out, I went and said stay with my mom and my
34:19
sister and they're throwing questions at you.
34:21
And one, you don't want to tell them too much and you've got
34:23
like a not a disclosure thing. You can't say too many things,
34:26
but just general conversation. I was like, just, it's so
34:29
overwhelming and I'd have to remove myself away and take a
34:32
breather and then slowly get back into the world and be
34:34
social. And it took a couple of weeks
34:36
for sure. I can imagine because you've
34:39
gone from one extreme to the other into in so many different
34:42
aspects, eating, socializing, like comfort, all of these
34:46
things, right. So the fast-paced world that
34:50
we're in where people are firing, yeah, you've got three
34:53
different people talking at once or whatever, sharing this
34:55
conversation, fast-paced. You're like, I have not heard
34:58
this for weeks and you've just been listening to the birds or
35:02
whatever, or your own voice talking and stuff.
35:04
So I imagine that that and the phone thing as well.
35:08
Like, you really realize what it's doing to us and like what
35:14
impact it has on our lives. And then there's people you just
35:17
like you're constantly on it. I'm bad enough as it is trying
35:20
to just share what I'm doing. And like, you know what it's
35:22
like you're just sharing and stories and posts and stuff.
35:25
Like, it's hard enough, but once you've been disconnected and you
35:29
kind of go, whoa, like, yeah, maybe I like, we don't really
35:32
need it. We can be connected and all this
35:35
sort of thing at the same time. That's crazy.
35:38
I know that you've spoken about Alone a lot and you've done, you
35:41
know, they have all their own content and stuff.
35:44
So I'd love people to go and check out more of that and dive
35:47
into that rabbit hole. But I want to move and talk a
35:51
little bit about hunting and bow hunting in particular because
35:53
it's something that you do, right?
35:56
Like the bow and arrow form of hunting seems to be like one of
36:00
the most primitive things. Like it's almost like a sphere,
36:02
right? You're just kind of going back
36:04
to that sort of day one ancestral eating in the form of
36:08
eating. And you've spoken about being
36:12
such an animal lover as am I, but I'm also a big meat eater,
36:17
right? And a lot of my mission is to
36:21
try and encourage people to realize where their food comes
36:24
from. Now, obviously I'm focused more
36:27
on the gardening, the soil and all of that kind of thing, but
36:29
the soil also feeds the animals that we then eat, right?
36:34
And because we're so disconnected from the process of
36:37
coming from the paddock or the wild to our plates, you, you get
36:44
to this point where you're so unaware of the process and like
36:48
you're getting a steak, which is one small part of this animal
36:52
and you don't even think twice about where it's come from, the
36:56
animal, the life it lived, etcetera.
36:58
So I'm really big on trying to work out where my meats come
37:02
from. Is it raised in the right way?
37:04
Is it like, you know, all of the above in terms of that kind of
37:07
thing? Taking that to the next level is
37:11
hunting for your own food. And traditionally in the past,
37:16
people really respect the whole animal.
37:20
It's a really big output of your energy and skills to be able to
37:26
get that animal. It's also what happens in the
37:29
wild, like it's everywhere in nature.
37:31
It's the way that the food chain works.
37:34
So everyone does get caught up on like, hey, like hunting seems
37:38
bad. You're going and killing an
37:39
animal, but it's happening so much on such an enormous scale
37:43
in way worse conditions in our mainstream eating.
37:48
So prefacing it all with that, how do you feel about hunting?
37:54
Why do you like doing it and what does it do for you in terms
37:59
of the going out there, the camaraderie with the girls that
38:04
you've been doing it with to get that animal, that feeling of
38:08
working hard, achieving, getting the animal and then really
38:11
respecting every part of it to feed and nourish you and other
38:14
people. Yeah, I think you hit the nail
38:16
on the head that there is a disconnection.
38:18
People don't understand where their food comes from.
38:20
And that's not just me, it's veggies too.
38:22
You know, you go into Woolies and you get it off the shelf or
38:24
out of the freezer. So I think for me, even though
38:29
I'm an animal lover and that has been a touchy subject for me
38:31
being in bow hunting and working for National Geographic as well,
38:35
is it's connecting not just with the animal, it's connecting with
38:39
the land, it's connecting with myself and my own instincts as
38:42
well. And I think that everybody would
38:45
be surprised if you were put in a situation out there that you
38:47
had to go and offend your own food.
38:49
Your instincts will kick in. I mean, definitely something
38:52
like bow hunting takes strategy and training and persistence
38:56
and, you know, guidance for me to get into it when I first
38:58
started as well. And I'm still pretty green in
39:00
the sport. And for me, it's like you said,
39:04
knowing where the animal has come from, you know, we now know
39:07
it's all through the media of hormones and, you know,
39:10
chemicals and, you know, chemicals of, of parasite
39:16
eradication for the animal. Just things that the the stock
39:18
have to go through for it to be paddock to plate essentially.
39:21
Yeah, it's terrifying, you know, and we're now seeing the health
39:24
issues that we're having that can be linked to these things as
39:27
well. Totally.
39:28
And as an animal lover, some of these animals, what they go
39:32
through is the stress of being mustard and stuck on trucks and
39:35
then put into feeding lots and pumped all the grain for their
39:37
weight to come up for sale. Like that's not healthy for the
39:39
animal, too. If people who are meat eaters,
39:43
you know, don't think about where that food is coming from,
39:47
if they had the chance to go and see how these animals can be
39:49
treated and the standards in Australia are pretty bloody good
39:51
compared to the rest of the world, it would totally change
39:54
their perception and likely make them a vegetarian, you know, So
39:57
for me, when I'm out there hunting, I know that that goat
40:00
or that pig or that deer has lived a wild life.
40:03
It's been in its herd, it's been grazing on natural foods that
40:06
hasn't had anything added to its life that shouldn't be there.
40:09
It has no idea that I'm there. It is a humane kill.
40:12
We won't take the shot unless it's going to be the right hips
40:15
and the animal's not put in pain whatsoever.
40:18
And that, like you said, that happens in nature.
40:20
I would rather have an arrow put through me and it's gone
40:23
straight away than be chased down by a pack of wolves or
40:25
something, you know? So it's.
40:27
It's nowhere near as graphic and as, you know, bloodthirsty or
40:32
anything that people think is there's such a stigma attached
40:35
with hunting. And I think that's something
40:37
that's really important for women in hunting now is we're
40:39
helping to close that gap and remove that stigma.
40:42
And for me to being an animal person and in my line of work,
40:46
like I've had male hunters reach out to me on social to be like,
40:48
you're the perfect person to help close that gap, open up
40:52
people's minds. And because we don't waste
40:54
anything, we use all of the meat, you know, we tan the
40:56
hides. You can use the like Achilles
41:01
tendons for string. You can use the intestines for
41:03
making cordage and stuff as well.
41:05
Trying to use every part of the animal and what's left, we get
41:08
to the dogs, you know, nothing goes to waste at all.
41:11
And it is hard being an animal lover.
41:13
The first time I took an animal's life, it was upsetting,
41:16
you know, and I did feel very like, wow, like I've just done
41:19
that. But you have such an
41:20
appreciation for that animal, and to then dress it and take it
41:25
back and eat it, you're like, it's empowering.
41:27
Yeah. Yeah, it's empowering that I
41:29
know that I can rely on me to survive out there.
41:33
And like I said before, your instincts just kick in and
41:35
something just goes, this feels right, Like this is what we will
41:38
put on the planet to do. This is how we're supposed to
41:40
survive. It's how we're supposed to
41:41
operate. We're just so removed from it.
41:44
Yeah, that's really cool. And you're also targeting like,
41:49
like pests or over invasive species.
41:51
Yeah. So that's like you're also doing
41:53
a little bit of a job to help. 100% like I'll never be a trophy
41:57
hunter. For me, it's only ever feral,
41:59
feral eradication. So it's animals that wreak
42:01
havoc, particularly things like pigs.
42:03
You know, we have millions of pigs in Queensland alone and
42:05
they spread disease and they destroy waterways and spread
42:08
invasive plants and things as well.
42:10
So to help eradicate invasive species and have a food source
42:14
and connect me to nature too. And it's not just about the
42:17
hunt. It's, you know, the Kangaroos
42:19
and the wombats that we see while we're out there or it's
42:21
the the butterflies or the sunrise.
42:24
And it's the whole experience is just about being in nature and
42:27
hiking and the people that you deal with.
42:30
So we run women's bow hunting camps.
42:32
And it's just this such a supportive environment for women
42:36
to get into bow hunting because how do you get into anything in
42:39
this life unless you know someone, unless you grew up
42:41
doing it or you have a partner that does it.
42:43
So we're just trying to create this space for women to come and
42:45
learn these sorts of skills. It's not intimidating.
42:48
It's an area that they can come and try and ask questions and,
42:52
you know, maybe struggle and fail and try again.
42:55
And it's just been such a really supportive place and just team
43:00
building, like you bond so quickly.
43:02
Some of these girls who I've met once, they're now some of my
43:05
best friends. You've only been on one or two
43:07
hunts, but it feels like you've known each other forever.
43:09
It's just so supportive. You go through something
43:11
together as well and that kind of thing.
43:12
So like if someone is wanting to try and get into it, where do
43:15
they go? Yeah, so myself and my friend
43:18
Sarah, we've started, it's called collective pursuit.
43:20
It's more Sarah's thing. I've got like a survival aspect
43:23
to it. So generally what happens is
43:25
we'll get girls that come in, never touch a bow before the 1st
43:28
day is just basic fundamentals of archery and just do target
43:31
practice. The second day we're out there
43:33
in the field, we have been doing it in the Hunter Valley and
43:36
it'll be Sarah with a girl that's done a little bit of
43:38
hunting and then the newbie watching and just observing.
43:41
So there's no pressure. You just get to watch and see
43:43
and get a feel for it. And then the next day it's your
43:46
turn and it's all guided, fully supported.
43:49
And then if you do get an animal, then we dress it, we
43:51
bring it back and we eat it for dinner that night.
43:53
Like it's just, it's the whole thing coming around and it just
43:57
builds confidence in women so much as well.
43:59
And it's not just for women. Like we can organize it for guys
44:01
as well. But yeah, it's an empowering
44:03
feeling it. Really, I think it is important
44:06
for people like yourself to do something that might typically
44:09
not be seen as something that women do to, Yeah, change the
44:12
stigma and be like, look, and we need to survive too.
44:15
We need to go out there and do all of these things.
44:17
And like, I always refer back to like, the lioness does all the
44:22
hunting and the male lion just slides in and does nothing.
44:25
So it's kind of like there are plenty of room for our females
44:28
to go out and do that kind of thing.
44:30
That's amazing. And what's the thought process
44:35
now in terms of like where you're trying to take these
44:39
things? I know you mentioned you're now
44:41
moving into more of the survival stuff.
44:43
You're doing some more like survival workshops and teaching
44:47
people and that kind of thing. Also, you mentioned that you
44:50
don't know where you're going to be in like a fair little while.
44:53
So what's the focus? What's top of mind at the
44:55
moment? And where are you trying to move
44:57
things at the moment? Again, I'm kind of just going
45:01
with the flow and what life's opportunities are coming my way.
45:04
So I'm really leaning more into the bushcraft, I guess,
45:09
instruction. So off the back of a loan
45:12
through Gordon Deadman. So he does bushcraft survival
45:15
and he runs courses just for civilians and people who just
45:18
want to learn bushcraft. So I kind of jumped on the
45:20
bandwagon with him and I'll be assisting him with those camps.
45:24
And then I think like you said before, people are starting to
45:28
feel the need and pull and drive to just reconnect to Rewild and
45:34
having these courses available for people to come out Bush,
45:37
meet like minded people, sleep under the stars and just learn
45:41
the basic fundamentals. And I don't think that people
45:44
need to be doomsday preppers or anything like that.
45:47
But just having the basic skills, it just builds your
45:49
confidence. You know, things go wrong when
45:51
you're going bushwalking, things go wrong when you're going
45:53
camping, you have breakdowns just to have that basic skill
45:56
set that should be taught in schools.
46:00
And it's becoming more and more popular, which I think people
46:02
are just, yeah, like I said, what just wanted to rewild.
46:05
And that's what I'm really feeling like.
46:08
I want to help. I love teaching.
46:09
I love sharing my passion and my knowledge.
46:11
And I think that's a really great way to do it.
46:13
That's wicked. How do you find Australia
46:15
compared to other countries in terms of like availability to do
46:22
these types of things? I feel like we're a relatively
46:26
wild country. There's plenty of things and
46:28
there's so many different species here that you don't find
46:31
elsewhere. Have you done any hunting or
46:34
anything in other parts of the world, or have you spoken about
46:39
trying to do more survival things in other parts of the
46:42
world? And here we're very lucky in
46:45
terms of the fact that the climate, you know, you're not
46:47
facing ice too much in places Like where were you for a loan?
46:53
We were Tasmania. Tasmania, yeah.
46:54
Cold, yeah. Go down to I think -2 was the.
46:57
Cold, Yeah, So cold, right? But that's not Alaska or
46:59
anything like this, right? But how do you find, yeah,
47:02
Australia stacking up in terms of the rest of the world in this
47:06
kind of these fields of outdoors adventure, that kind of thing?
47:09
To be honest, we're actually very behind, so which is
47:13
surprising for such a rugged country that has, you know,
47:16
pretty harsh elements, particularly more on the the
47:18
heat side of things than than freezing cold.
47:21
In terms of bushcraft and survival and hunting, we're very
47:23
much behind the states. We're very much behind Europe,
47:26
we're behind New Zealand, you know, particularly New Zealand.
47:29
They grew up with that being the norm of foraging.
47:32
So I think it's pretty new for us in terms of survival,
47:37
schools, bushcraft, there's not a lot going on here in
47:40
Australia. It's slowly building and
47:42
developing. I haven't done any hunting
47:45
outside of New Zealand and Australia.
47:47
I'd love to go over to the States.
47:48
That's certainly on the cards. I think in Australia we do have
47:52
the upper hand that we don't have a hunting season.
47:55
We can hunt all year round. I think people would be
47:57
surprised at how much Bush Tucker and food is available out
48:00
there. It's there's ridiculous amounts
48:03
of things out there once you know what to start to look for.
48:05
And we're seeing more and more Indigenous communities
48:09
collecting, gathering and selling, you know, off their
48:12
land as well, which I think is fabulous.
48:13
It supports the Indigenous community and we get to have all
48:17
these amazing herbs and spices and foods and treats and things
48:19
in our daily lives now as well. We're up and coming.
48:23
But this is the thing too is like, Australia is a pretty
48:26
harsh country, but anyone from overseas sees us as such a
48:30
dangerous place to be. But I think the complete
48:32
opposite. Like I think we have one of the
48:34
safest countries in the world. Like, I would happily sleep on
48:37
the ground in the Bush in Australia because nothing will
48:40
actively hunt you out. Nothing.
48:42
Like we don't have lions, tigers, Cougars, hyenas,
48:45
cheetahs. We don't have anything like
48:47
that. You know, don't touch a snake or
48:48
spider, they won't touch you. If you're in the north, stay out
48:51
of the water and the crocodiles won't affect you.
48:53
And face dingoes are somewhat dangerous as Fraser Island,
48:56
which is our own fault for that happening.
48:58
A country's really safe. That's very true, really safe.
49:00
You're right because like, you know, I grew up in New Zealand,
49:03
I lived here for a while now and originally from the UK.
49:06
So there's so many people in my life or people that I've known
49:11
and grown up with that have this idea of Australia.
49:14
And like, you know, my wife's English and she when she first
49:18
moved over as a kid, just pictured, you know, just
49:21
Kangaroos everywhere, snakes and spiders, like live hanging off
49:24
all the ceilings and stuff. But it's not like that.
49:26
And you know, somewhere like South Africa or the Amazon or
49:31
like you've got these crazy places where literally even the
49:34
plants are really trying to kill you like so much.
49:37
So you're right. And then I'm doing, I'm kind of
49:40
thinking about that Bush Tucker as well.
49:41
Like it's massive here, that indigenous knowledge that we're
49:45
disconnected from stupidly, because you know, it's, it's
49:49
everywhere. Like you could take a walk
49:51
through the Bush with an indigenous elder and they will
49:54
go, oh, that's for this, that's for this, that's for this.
49:56
And we're just walking past going that sticks and bushes and
49:59
trees and whatever. And we're missing that.
50:01
And I feel like more people that highlight that for, for
50:05
Australia, for our country, showing what we've got here and
50:08
everything just kind of builds that awareness, builds more
50:11
understanding of the land, more connection to the land and that
50:14
kind of thing. So it's really been something
50:18
that I've kind of been warming to the, the native side of
50:22
things, native plants, native animals, native Bush Tucker.
50:25
And being from New Zealand and other countries, you kind of
50:29
just come here and you go, wow, it's like not how it seems on,
50:33
you know, on the postcard or whatever it is on the TV.
50:36
It's like it is what it is. So yeah, I really like that.
50:41
And I really value your kind of contribution to all of this and
50:46
what you're bringing to everybody.
50:49
Do you see yourself now as a bit of a like a fit, not a
50:54
figurehead, but someone that people look up to?
50:56
And how do you like? I find a lot of meaning, being
50:59
able to help people with stuff, right and purpose and that kind
51:03
of thing. Do you find now that you've put
51:05
yourself out there online and kind of said like, this is what
51:09
I do and bringing awareness to this stuff, do you find that
51:11
you're getting a lot of meaning from helping others and seeing
51:15
others get into it and sharing that?
51:17
Yeah, it's been a bit of a journey and it's something that
51:20
has been sort of hard to get your head around a bit is like,
51:23
I definitely feel like sort of imposter syndrome a little bit
51:25
at times because I just think I'm an average person that just
51:28
likes to do great and figs and, you know, follow my passion.
51:32
But it really hits home when I hear, you know, maybe a woman
51:37
will come up to me, be like, can you come talk to my teenage
51:39
daughter about what you do or, you know, last night, you know,
51:42
there was a young girl like I really want to get into bow
51:44
hunting. How do I, you know, take those
51:46
first steps? It's really humbling and
51:49
beautiful that I can share my love and passion just to help
51:52
guide people in that way. It took me a little while to
51:54
sort of get my head around like, why do these people even want to
51:57
hear me talk or whatever? But it's just sharing that
51:59
knowledge, you know, and knowledge is power.
52:01
And if it helps people build the confidence to take that step to
52:05
do something they really want to do.
52:06
And in turn, that's going to help the environment, whether
52:08
it's, you know, planting native plants or or looking after
52:11
wildlife. Whatever it is, it's a really
52:14
beautiful thing. And I'm really grateful that
52:16
people care at all that I have something to say.
52:18
And it's nice that I get to share that with people.
52:20
I love it. And I'm always up for a chat.
52:21
And, you know, I'll always learn something from other people
52:24
having these conversations as well.
52:26
And every day is a school day. And yeah, it's the more people
52:29
we get involved, the bigger the community grows and the more
52:32
beneficial is for everyone. So yeah, and that brings it back
52:34
to the start of the conversation, sharing your
52:36
passion and being passionate about something and kind of
52:39
going with it. What's 1 sort of last thing on
52:43
that? What it was the decision to
52:45
start posting all of your content online?
52:50
Were you always just posting? This is what I'm doing in my
52:53
life and it kind of just eventuated into everything.
52:55
Or are you kind of going? I want to make something of
52:57
this. I'm going to start sharing some
52:58
content. No, it's definitely not that.
53:01
Like for me, it was just this is my life and it's just fun to
53:04
share what I'm doing. Even still, I'm really hitting
53:07
this with my social media. Like sometimes if I'm going
53:09
somewhere new, I'll be really on it and sharing my stories and
53:11
I'll be on top of it for 2-3 weeks.
53:13
Then I'm like, you know what? I'm sick of my phone being in my
53:15
hand. Like put it away for me.
53:17
I'm not a content creator. I don't want it to change my
53:19
lifestyle. If I can hold my phone up while
53:22
I'm doing what I love anyway or set it in the corner while I'm
53:25
making that fire, I'll do it. But I'm not going to change my
53:27
life around the camera or what I'm doing.
53:30
In saying that, I really love presenting.
53:33
I really love being in that space and you know, having, you
53:36
know, podcasts and different interviews and things.
53:38
And I do enjoy that part of it as well.
53:41
But I don't want that to control my life.
53:43
I want that to be a part of it. But then I can switch off and
53:46
just do my nature based thing. So I certainly don't want to
53:49
make my lifestyle revolving around posting and social media.
53:53
I don't have YouTube. I don't like the pressure every
53:55
Sunday at 6:00 PM to do episode. Like that's not me at all.
53:59
And my life is not structured like that.
54:01
Like my life is always all over the place overseas, constantly
54:04
stopping and changing. So it's just something that has
54:06
to fit in and around my normal life.
54:09
I'm not going to revolve my life around it, essentially.
54:12
Do you think you'll ever like stay put?
54:17
I can ask this question all the time.
54:19
Look, as I'm starting to mature, I am feeling the urge to be a
54:23
bit more grounded somewhere because I want to have chickens
54:26
and have a veggie patch and I want to go fishing and, and live
54:29
off the land essentially. If I can't sustain myself enough
54:32
hunting, I want to have my own cattle and have my own sheep and
54:34
whatnot. But I'm such a gypsy and I love
54:37
travelling so much that that's a really challenging thing for me.
54:40
So I think for me, I'm kind of leaning more towards like if I
54:44
find a partner and he has a stable base and it's somewhere
54:46
for me to come home to and that is what we grow and develop
54:49
together. But I can still like disappear
54:51
for a month every now and then and go do my gallivanting across
54:54
the world and then come back to that base.
54:56
I'm starting to crave that a bit more, which is the first time
54:59
ever that I am craving it so. So putting down your roots a
55:03
little bit, yeah. But also, yeah, you'd, I would
55:06
find it very difficult if I'm constantly on the move with
55:09
these new experiences and like, for instance, bringing it back
55:12
to music again as well. Like you see with people that
55:15
are constantly performing to large crowds or they're
55:20
constantly going out and doing these concerts.
55:23
They're going and getting this big hit of dopamine, this big
55:26
like flood of adrenaline and experience and all of that kind
55:30
of thing, which I presume is a big part of what you get as
55:33
well. Like you're going and you're
55:34
getting this big adrenaline hit from being somewhere or
55:36
whatever, and then coming back home to your sort of quiet
55:41
little house feels very unsettling, I guess.
55:46
And then when they finish their touring or traveling or whatever
55:50
it might be, there's this missing like dopamine hit that
55:55
they're not getting any more. Is that something that you see
55:58
or feel or relate to at all? Big time.
56:01
For sure. I think for me, when I'm not go,
56:04
go, go, I have really struggled to slow down, to relax, to not
56:10
feel guilty for not doing things.
56:12
You know, for me to have a down day, a relaxing day, I'm like, I
56:16
could have hiked a mountain, I could have gone kayaking, I
56:18
could have built this. I could have done something.
56:19
And it's really taken me since alone to change my perspective
56:23
to go. It's OK to relax.
56:25
Go sit in the sun, go read a book, pot around the garden.
56:28
And I really enjoy that downtime now as well.
56:30
And it's made me appreciate both.
56:32
You know, once I do have that more relaxing time, you know, I
56:35
usually only do it for a few weeks at a time and I'm like,
56:37
it's your feet, I'm ready to go again.
56:39
But it just has made me slow down.
56:42
I am a fast-paced person. I'm always chasing the next best
56:45
adventure and I still love that part of me.
56:47
But I am learning to relax and just have gratitude and yeah,
56:51
just appreciate nature and slow down and not have to be doing
56:54
things all the time. Yeah, being OK with just being
56:57
like, look, if that happens, then great.
57:00
If it doesn't, then that's also OK.
57:02
Yeah, and not feeling guilty for relaxing.
57:03
That's something that I've really had to change my my mind
57:06
on. And now I really enjoy that
57:08
downtime. Yeah, I relate to that in a way
57:10
of like being sort of go, go, go with businessy sometimes
57:13
business, but passion, you know, things that I lack.
57:16
And certainly having a little boys help that just be like,
57:19
look, if you're just sitting there staring at him for like a
57:22
few hours. Soak it in.
57:24
That's like. That's a whole experience in
57:26
itself. And I'm thinking, you know, I
57:28
could be doing this or I've got to do this or all these other
57:32
things. And whether it's, you know, he's
57:34
obviously going to take priority of everything, but whether it's
57:37
just kind of going, oh, I'm just interested in reading this book
57:40
or having a wander around these beautiful gardens that we're in
57:43
today. Like it's just those little
57:45
moments, even though they're not necessarily productive, they are
57:49
productive in a way of it's feeding your soul in so many
57:52
different ways. So I kind of like, I see that in
57:55
some somebody like you, where you're always going and going
57:58
and going and it's like it's that some pressure you put on
58:00
yourself. Or is it like just you're happy
58:04
in that life? It's probably a bit of both I
58:06
guess. Look, yeah, it's a really hard
58:07
one to answer. I don't know where it came from
58:09
of me feeling like I need to be productive and achieving and
58:12
doing things all the time. I've definitely had it since
58:14
child, but it's also my happiest when I'm at my peak of
58:19
happiness, when I'm go, go, go because I am a cheating and I'm
58:21
doing fun, cool things, you know?
58:23
So it's a really hard thing to be OK with not achieving when I
58:27
know that's where I get those endorphins in the pump and
58:30
enjoyment and whatnot. But it's yeah, it's finding
58:33
appreciation. And for me, it's slowing down
58:36
for my body, for my mind, reading a book, doing some
58:39
breath work, having an ice bath. It's finding the balance between
58:42
the two for sure. Recharging.
58:43
Amazing. Yeah, exactly right.
58:46
OK. Lastly, where can people find
58:49
you? Obviously I've found you on
58:50
Instagram, so all the links I'm going to be blinking in the
58:53
thing, but where would you like people to go to find more out
58:57
about what you're doing? And then also, yeah, that like
59:01
getting into hunting these types of things.
59:03
Where are we sending people? Yeah, probably the best thing is
59:06
just through my social media because I, like I said before, I
59:09
don't have a lot of platforms that I use.
59:11
Instagram is the main thing that I really use.
59:13
So just call it in the wild. And then through that you can
59:16
get in touch if you want to do some bow hunting or come do
59:21
expedition work or go hiking or camping or anything.
59:24
So I'm again off the back of a loan and having that epiphany
59:27
moment. I'm so open to new connections
59:29
and new friends and, and if anybody wants to catch up and do
59:32
anything outdoors, I'm keen for it.
59:34
So yeah, please do reach out and I'm going to be travelling to
59:36
your town at some point because I'm always on the go.
59:38
So yeah, always keen to do things with new people.
59:41
And well, I'm the most of it. I'm going to try and take you up
59:44
on that at one point once I'm a little bit more stabilized as a
59:47
dad, but I'm. Going to fresh baby?
59:48
Yeah. I want to take you up on that as
59:50
well, because I think it's something that we all need to
59:52
just have that moment to get out and be wild a little bit.
59:56
And you know, I'm wild enough kind of looking, but I just.
59:59
Need to. Need to go and do it myself, so
1:00:00
awesome. So there we have it ladies and
1:00:19
gentlemen, what an amazing conversation.
1:00:22
I apologize if there was any of the background noise.
1:00:26
The hard working team here at the Botanical Gardens obviously
1:00:31
have got so much work that they need to be doing constantly,
1:00:34
trimming trees, branches, mulching, leaf blowing, getting
1:00:38
it ready for the day ahead. So, you know, with a little bit
1:00:41
of. Rain.
1:00:42
We had to improvise to try and make sure.
1:00:45
That we've got a good. Spot and find somewhere where we
1:00:47
could do it and you know, try and manage all the sounds.
1:00:51
So hopefully it wasn't too bad for you and I'll try and edit
1:00:53
out as much of that as possible. But please go and check out
1:00:57
Carla's links. I'm going to put them in the
1:00:59
description in the show notes below and you'll be able to find
1:01:02
them. Go and follow her.
1:01:03
She's an absolutely fascinating person.
1:01:06
I'm so, so glad that I got to meet her.
1:01:07
So grateful for her time. And I think you guys will agree
1:01:13
that we need more women like Carla.
1:01:15
So thank you to her. Thank you guys so much for
1:01:18
listening. If you could leave the show a
1:01:20
review that helps us find more people.
1:01:23
And if you've got any suggestions, who should I chat
1:01:25
to next? Who else is fascinating in this
1:01:28
space or in gardening in nature in general?
1:01:30
Who should I have on the show? Let me know.
1:01:33
But I really appreciate you for listening, for watching, and
1:01:36
very much look forward to seeing you on the next episode.
1:01:40
Bye for now.