Excess Baggage Podcast
1) The point and the pleasure of travel
In the last Excess Baggage, John McCarthy talks to three inveterate travellers: Sara Wheeler, who has written on Africa and the Antarctic, explorer Benedict Allen who has travelled in Siberia and New ...Show More
2) Africa - Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan
John McCarthy discusses travel to the African countries of Rwanda, Uganda and to the world's newest country, South Sudan. With his guests, doctor Rob Summerhayes, paramedic Franz Opitz and forensic ac...Show More
3) Lake Titicaca - Manchester, Bolivia - Malaysia
John McCarthy meets the former debutante Meriel Larken who fell in love with Peru and rescued and restored a Victorian steam ship on Lake Titicaca. He is also joined by Chris Smith and Liz Peel who we...Show More
4) Wildlife travel
John McCarthy explores wildlife travel with naturalist and tv presenter, Mark Carwardine, who has spent thirty years travelling around the world to observe and aid conservation of a huge range of spec...Show More
5) Iceland
Sandi Toksvig goes to Reykjavik to look at aspects of tourism in Iceland and discovers that the volcanic eruptions and the financial crash there may not have been so bad for the country. As well as re...Show More
6) Family Travel
John McCarthy takes a look at family travel with novelist Gill Lewis, who has taken her daughters spotting wildlife both abroad and in Scotland and Cornwall and Ben Hatch who toured Britain with his y...Show More
7) Black Prince - Wine trade in Medieval Europe - Lourdes
John McCarthy meets a writer who followed in the 14th century footsteps of the Black Prince through SW France; an historian who has followed a medieval wine trail through Gascony and a novelist who wa...Show More
8) Russia - Crimea - Ukraine
Sandi Toksvig discusses the 'Wild East' - Russia - with the BBC's former Moscow correspondent, Martin Sixsmith. Actor Michael Simkins relates his adventures on a rail journey from London to Kiev and o...Show More
9) Medics abroad; The Oscars
Sandi Toksvig hears about medical work abroad from Dr Marie Charles who runs an organisation which places volunteer doctors and nurses in developing countries to impart their skills to local medical w...Show More
10) Ashoka's India; Undesirable Places
Sandi Toksvig hears about a lost Emperor of India: Ashoka ruled the subcontinent about 2,200 years ago and left many pillars and rocks carved with his edicts. Historian Charles Allen went in search of...Show More