Field Team Blog

Here we are in the heartland of America, famously “feeding the world” with some of the most fertile, productive agriculture on Earth. And it’s utterly depressing. The formica breakfast table at our motel stands as a monument to wastefulness. Stacks of tiny individual packets surround our team:

So we are in DC putting final touches on the Middle East films. We are in the land of plenty making films about scarcity. The team has divided into two. Ben, Alexandra, Justine, Jim, and MeiMei on the task of putting together pre-production on the Mississippi films; Duff and me editing movies on

Things I Love about Jordan - Petra and the wonderful women who shared their cave with us during a rainstorm - No excess luggage charge (considering we are carrying like 20000 kg, and have been charged up to $700 US for one flight, that is quite a feat) - Desert, especially melt-in-your-mouth baklava -

So we are out of Africa and in the midst of the Middle East... We've exchanged mountains, animals and beaches for expanses of rocky desert and more vast expanses of rocky desert! And WOW what a desert- think Luke Skywalker's home planet/ or where astronauts would have come in the 60s to rehearse for

for i don't know how long it’s been about a week we have been straddling the middle eastern rift valley, rolling between the hills of jordan and israel and negotiating the landscape of human craziness... in the cradle of this lunar valley, north of the dead sea, the jordan river is a trickle of wastewater

we ate lunch at 4:45pm today. the dust and wind in the Jordanian desert felt like burning man. right now my entire focus is on: get through the next 24 hours. what do I need to write? what is the subject of the daily blog? who do we need to talk to for the story of the films? the film crew is

Just escaped from the forest of coffee cups, used potato chip packets and laptops that is the hotel suite where Jos and Duff live now... We watch them through the glass door like increasingly unkempt zoo creatures. We have fast forwarded through continents and conversations with luminaries and encounters

Three weeks down and what a corker of a time we’ve had. I’m already forlornly contemplating that looming end day of the Expedition when we all say, ‘See you next year.’ I just want to keep going... Don’t let this ride end. The Blue Planet crew has really got to know each other, especially in the

On our trip to Sexaxa, a local village in Maun, we are treated to a spontaneous dance party that turns out to be one of the highlights of my trip so far. The men play two tall drums, each instrument more than a meter tall, tilted over and grasped between their knees. Eight women sing, clap, and

We stop at a gas station on the single-lane highway during our five-hour drive back from Shakawe to Maun. While I’m in the convenience store buying some chips to snack on, I hear deep African beats. They are fantastic, and we are without music for our long journey, so I race outside to find the source.