110. Rachel Gotto; From Paralysis and Agoraphobia to China, Bhutan, India, the Dominican Republic and Beyond
Release Date: 11/27/2020
125. Christmas Special 2021; Sathnam Sanghera, Lisa Jewell, Matt Forde, Anne Sebba, Olly Mann, Greenham Common and more
The Big Travel Podcast
Authors Anne Sebba on the Royal abdication, Sathnam Sanghera's dismal Christmas restaurant, Lisa Jewell's Boney M in Barbados, adventurer Jamie Douglas-Hamilton rowing to the Antarctic, satirist Matt Forde in an NYC Irish bar, podcaster Olly Mann’s disappointing LA Santa, artist Firouz FarmanFarmaian Muslim Catholic Christmas in Marrakesh, adventurer Sam McManus's ancient Spanish fiesta, Festival promoter Huw Win's Thai rainforest & Nobel Peace Prize winner Rebecca Johnson's Christmas at Greenham Common.
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124. Firouz FarmanFarmaian; Escaping Tehran, Kashmiri Houseboats, Trekking Kyrgyzstan, Rock Bands and Contemporary Art
The Big Travel Podcast
Born in Tehran, the descendent of a nomadic tribe, Contemporary Artist Firouz FarmanFarmaian's family scattered after the Islamic Revolution. He grew up trekking mountains and deserts, touring with his Indie rock band and now with his internationally acclaimed art. With a gallery in Tarifa, Spain, and a new base in Athens, he travels the globe sourcing ideas and materials with craftswomen in remote regions and will be representing Kyrgyzstan at the Venice Biennale with the exhibition Gates of Turan.
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123. On Location in Marbella Old Town with Tour Guide Javier Gonzalez
The Big Travel Podcast
A journey through the maze of Marbella's 16th Century cobbled lanes surrounding the old 'Orange Square', encountering flamenco singers and opera stars and sampling some of the coast's most wonderful tapas. With tour guide Javier Gonzalez and staying at the stunning Anantara Villa Padierna Palace, with its classical Italian design and sophisticated yet arty vibe.
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122. Matt Forde; Billy Connolly in New York, Liam Gallagher in Berlin and Nick Leeson's Worldwide 'British Scandal' Jaunt
The Big Travel Podcast
Comedian, political satirist and Spitting Image star Matt Forde talks accosting Billy Connolly in New York, 'dying' on stage in Luxemborg, pints of Carling in ex-pat clubs in Bahrain, Nick Leeson's luxury hotel dash around the world, spending 3 months locked in a first floor flat, an emotional pilgrimage to the Ghostbusters fire station, being the voice of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump (yes he does give us some excellent impressions) and posh people behaving badly on the podcast British Scandal.
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121. Sam McManus; Adventure Travel When the World Closes, Costa Rica, Green Northern Spain and the Unexpected Pull of Home
The Big Travel Podcast
Just as the world was closing Sam McManus from YellowWood Adventures took a daunting gamble and hopped on a plane to Costa Rica. We talk about how the pandemic can change travel (even for the better), tourism being potentially a means for good, eco-tourism and re-forestation, surfing, small pueblos in the green hills of Northern Spain, his wonderful travelogue about his explorations - Wax and Gold Journeys in Ethiopia & Other Roads Less Travelled - and feeling the pull of friends, family and home.
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120. UK TRAVEL UPDATE; Travel Opens Up, Vaccines, Quarantine and a Call to Action to The Government
The Big Travel Podcast
Good news at least for those people who have had two UK administered vaccines. From 19th July we can now go to amber list countries without quarantining on return. BUT at the moment this is just for UK administered vaccines meaning the country is not yet open to inbound tourism. Travel needs to be two-way! We need people in the UK to support our business too. Whilst we are aware it needs to be done safely we also need to get aviation and travel moving even further.
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119. UK TRAVEL UPDATE; New Rules, Traffic Lights, Vaccinations
The Big Travel Podcast
A Big Travel Podcast special on the latest UK Travel Update; the new rules, the changes in the traffic light ratings, vaccinations soon to be taken into account and much more. A ten minute episode of essential listening.
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118. Olly Mann; Guns On Trucks in Malawi, Swim-Up Bar Piña Coladas, Greyhounds and The American Dream
The Big Travel Podcast
Olly Mann, from Answer Me This podcast fame, his new The Retrospectors and much more, loves nothing more than researching trivia especially with travel. We talk Wrigley’s chewing gum and decapitation, leaving your baby outside a pub, people who get erections on public transport, a love for Luton Airport, the misleading American Dream, cocktails worth shortening your life for, having a bottom accident on an African roadside (yes this episode does feature the S word) and much more.
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117. Huw Wyn; Arabian Nights in Cairo, Hitching Through Nepal, Tibetan Medicine in Scotland and Tom Hardy Dropping into his Festival
The Big Travel Podcast
Into The Wild Festival promoter Huw Wyn grew up in his mother’s hotel in Wales then moved to Spain. We talk growing up feral in Andalucia, hitchhiking across Europe, fish-packing in the Netherlands, Glastonbury, Arabian Nights in Cairo, the poetic side of being a London bin man, orphanages in India, Mother Theresa in Calcutta, meeting the Dalai Lama, studying Tibetan medicine in Scotland, the remote Buddhist kingdom in Ladakh, hitching 2000 miles through Nepal, Tom Hardy at his festival and much
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116. Anne Sebba; Parisian Women and Nazis, Film Stars in Rome, ‘Communists’ in Sing Sing Prison
The Big Travel Podcast
The author of one of Lisa’s favourite books, Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s, Anne Sebba explores the lives of women ‘writers and fighters’. As a journalist and author she's worked in film-star-filled 70s Rome, moved to New York with a baby, camped in the Mexico desert with Wallis Simpson’s free-diving step-son, had her camera film thrown into the Ganges while tracing Mother Theresa and, for her most recent book on Ethel Rosenburg, to Belarus and Sing Sing
info_outlineRachel Gotto was pregnant with her first child when she saw her husband's body hauled from the sea on a diving trip in Ireland. Having lost her brother to cancer previously she was no stranger to grief however what follows is an extraordinary journey that encompasses having a supposedly terminal brain tumour, being paralysed, learning to walk again and overcoming agoraphobia before becoming an acclaimed Rapid Transformational Therapist and Clinical Hypnotherapist. She travels the world giving inspirational talks and has explored China, India, the Himalayas, Bhutan, the Dominican Republic and much more.
On this episode we cover:
Galway on the west coast of Ireland
Coming to Ireland on a boat
Her maverick father buying a Baltic trading boat
The potato farm in the south of Ireland
Heath Robinson journey
Never making it to New Zealand or the Seychelles
The boat with the nailed down sofa and an Aga
Being truly grateful for her unusual life
Her journey recovering from extreme trauma
Becoming completely paralysed
Being told she would never walk again
Pregnant and grieving the loss of her husband
Grieving the lost of her brother
How recovering made her re-train as a clinical hypnotherapist
Harnessing the power of your own mind
Harnessing the power of the body’s innate ability to heal itself
Neuro-plasticity and therapy being a powerful tool
Feeling a duty to share her story
Her scuba diving business with her fisherman husband
The fateful day her husband went out on a diving trip
Being told her husband was convulsing in the deep water
Feeling her baby lurch inside when she was told her husband was dead
The lonely birth without her husband
Starting to lose the use of her legs
Being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour
Being told to write her will
Travelling to desperately try to find a cure
Finding a maverick surgeon in Bristol who would ‘give it a go’
Becoming paralysed
Furiously willing her body to move
Learning to walk again (in black cowboy boots!)
Staring at her limbs and willing them to move
Motivated to be ‘a normal mum’
Allowing yourself to explore possibilities
Covid creating opportunities for more self compassion
How we can sometimes sabotage our happiness with anxiety about something going wrong
Holidays and travel helping bring your mind into the moment
Dicing with death on steep mountain roads in Eastern Bhutan
Spending three weeks ‘in utter terror’ visiting monasteries in the Himalayas
Staying with the nomadic Merik tribe in far Eastern Bhutan
Seeing ‘new faces’ when travelling
How smiles connects us whilst travelling
Being born with an adventurous spirit
Catching her own fish for dinner age 5
Travelling on rickety local buses in the Dominican Republic
Liking to ‘travel the hard way’
Locals writing little letters of translation for her in Southern China
Travelling helping remind you that you love home too
Agoraphobia taking hold after her hospitalisation
Learning to travel through her mind
The long journey of overcoming the mental paralysis of agoraphobia
Being grateful for the journey, despite the trauma
Digging herself out of landslide in the Himalayas on the way to the remote monastery to the song of A Horse With No Name