][1]The 5pm Dining blog was recently invited on board the John Walker & Sons Voyager when the luxury yacht moored in Leith. The Edinburgh port was the latest destination in a 16,000 nautical mile trip which has seen the ship retrace the voyages that took Johnnie Walker from the four corners of Scotland to the four corners of the world.
We were there to chat with wildlife photographer Gordon Buchanan. From the Arctic to Papua New Guinea, Gordon has travelled the world over the last twenty years and you may have seen his work on shows such as The Bear Family and Me, Lost Land of the Tiger and the new series Man-eater Man Hunt for National Geographic.
When not trekking through the world’s most remote spots, he lives in Glasgow with his family.
No stranger to dicey situations, Gordon once found himself being eyed up as a square meal for a hungry polar bear.
The 5pm Dining blog spoke to Gordon about he what eats during his adventures and how it feels to have a polar bear try to eat you.
Is there are any food or drink that you always take with you on expedition?
GB: I always take whisky with me when I’m on an expedition. It comes with me on every single trip. It gives you a lot of bang for your buck, as it were. If you could powder it, that would be even better.
It doesn’t matter of you are down in swamp somewhere or up on a mountain, whisky is a liquid luxury. No matter how uncomfortable you are, you can always have a dram at the end of the day and think ‘Everything is good’.
It must be heavy to carry?
GB: We have porters to carry the heavy equipment but we have to carry our own gear. Every trip someone will pick up my rucksack and say ‘What on earth have you got in there?’ The answer is always ‘Medkit and whisky’.
When I started doing expeditions, I would have a separate suitcase full of luxury items like chocolate, ready meals and so on. Over the years, as I’ve become older and able to carry less and less, I just take one thing with me and that’s always whisky.
It’s amazing what it does for a team. Increasingly, I work with teams of people and to be able to sit around and share a whisky at the end of the day is special. It is a quintessentially Scottish product but it’s also a global product. You can’t go anywhere in the world without Scotland and whisky being married together. If you mention that you are from Scotland, whisky is the first thing that people think of.
http://youtu.be/-Gewg_P7Lz8
There is a much viewed scene of you in a Perspex hide being attacked by a starving polar bear. How does it feel when another animal is trying to eat you?
GB: Of all the big predators around the world, there are very few of them that actually see humans as food. Polar bears are the exception to the rule. There are outbreaks of lions eating people but, by and large, they are fearful of people. The one animal that does see humans as food is the polar bear.
Prior to going to the Arctic, I thought that would not be the case. Surely not every polar bear wants to eat me? Well, we saw 40 or 50 different polar bears over the course of that project and I think pretty much all of them would see you as food, if the opportunity presented itself.
They live in the harshest environment on earth. They are adapted to live in a place where human beings find it almost impossible and they can only do that by being opportunists. They can go for three months or more without eating. When they get the chance to eat, they will take that opportunity. You can’t enter their world without keeping it in mind that these are hungry animals.
Did it alter the way in which you think about food? For example, did it make you question eating meat?
GB: No, I love food and I’m a carnivore. I would find it very difficult to give up meat and fish. My wife is a vegetarian and has been for 30 odd years. Me and the kids pity her. We will be on holiday and one of the kids will say ‘Mum, I feel so sorry for you because this steak or these oysters are so delicious’. Being possible prey didn’t change my view of eating other things.
What food do you miss most when filming somewhere remote?
GB: I miss fruit and veg. I miss a balanced diet. Recently in Burma, we did a month long expedition where pretty much all we had to eat was rice and peanuts. That is fine if you are sitting doing nothing all day but we were trekking. Just to get into the location was a three day walk and rice and peanuts just doesn’t sustain you for that.
When you do something like that, you actually see how important food is. None of us in this country are actually starving. A lot of us are thinking of ways in which we can eat less. When you are struggling to find enough calories to do what you have to then it makes you appreciate what you have.
Do you find yourself eating a lot of exotic food?
GB: During the Burma trip, the locals were going into the forest and getting all these amazing herbs and plants to supplement their diet with. They thought that us foreigners wouldn’t want to eat food from the forest.
After a steady diet of rice and peanuts, we were more than happy to eat whatever they could find. We had our rice and our peanuts but every day the Burmese members of the team would go off and find these amazing mushrooms, vegetables and roots. There is no comparison with food that we eat here. There is a whole new world of flavours in those forests. If it was served to you in a five star restaurant, you would be amazed.
Where do you like to eat out in Glasgow?
GB: We try a lot of different places. The Left Bank on Gibson Street is a place that we keep going back to. It’s always been reliable and I’ve always liked their staff. It’s consistent. I’ve also enjoyed the Hanoi Bike Club. There are so many great places in Glasgow but they struggle with consistency. I tend to find somewhere new and keep going there until I have a bad meal and then I’ll find another new place.
The food in Scotland now is phenomenal, so much better than it used to be. One of the best restaurants I have ever been to is Cafe Fish on the Isle of Mull. The restaurant is on the pier and they serve fresh fish straight off the boat. It is exquisite.