“I Have a Constant Drive to See What This World has to Offer”
~ Words and image by Vickie Sam Paget, Sky Blue Content ~
He has flown over 1.5 million kilometres to over 65 countries on all seven continents. He’s a licensed pilot, a motorcycle enthusiast, an avid shipwreck scuba diver and he loves to play the guitar. When it comes to presenting travel television shows, Scott Wilson is something of a rock star. The Gemini award nominee is as comfortable in front of the camera as he is behind it. The co-host of the travel TV show Departures and the underwater travel series Descending undoubtedly has a vast skill set from which to draw. And he has some exciting new projects in the works; projects in various stages of pre-production that he’s remaining infuriatingly tight-lipped about. All he’ll share is that one is about “travelling exploration of food”, one is “a massive sailing endeavour to places that can’t be accessed by any other means” and other is “a very ambitious motorcycle adventure”. Canadian Traveller can’t help but be intrigued by the man…
If you could go wandering anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would you go?
Anywhere I’ve never been. I have a constant drive to see what this world has to offer, and although there are a tonne of places I have been that I would love to return to, there are still so many fascinating places that have eluded me thus far and I have a constant need to address that.
The easier answer? Iran. It’s a place I have wanted to go for some time now but the timing has never been right. It has always seemed like a wonderfully mysterious place of wonderful surprises for travellers. Places that might be labelled “iffy” by North American press standards have always proved to provide wonderful experiences for me in the past. Libya, North Korea, Sudan…
What is your favourite destination in Canada?
Many of my fellow Ontarians, whether summer or winter, seem to flock to and prefer the mighty west coast. While it’s an awe-inspiring place, I have always somehow gravitated to the Maritimes, and Newfoundland and Labrador in particular.
The harsher climate seems to have given a gift of natural geographic splendour. Not to mention the people and culture are a wonderful element of any trip there too. Neither of these are secrets by any means, but it may surprise some to experience firsthand just how real these particular ‘stereotypes’ of Newfoundland and Labrador are. It’s a powerful place that rewards.
Favourite international destination?
Summer is usually the only time of the year where I can take some time off from ‘work travel’ and align my schedule with my significant other. We see family in Europe and we try to do a 50/50 mix of family time and exploring new ground in eastern Europe and the Baltic every time we go.
Earliest travel memory?
My earliest travel memory is crossing Canada from our home in Ontario to Vancouver Island. My parents were brave enough to pack my brother and I into a truck and tow a fold-down trailer all the way to the Pacific and back. At five years old it was a trip filled with so many rich experiences of our country. An appreciation for the vastness of our country and watching its geography change before my eyes kilometre-by-kilometre as we drove west. That was truly when the first seed of my travel lifestyle was planted.
Best travel experience?
One of the most rewarding travel experiences was being able to stay on the Chilean Air Force Base in Antarctica and flying in and out with the Uruguayan Air Force. Every footstep I took on the continent I made sure to appreciate. It’s a place that is unlike everywhere else on earth. There are no borders and a shared sense of global importance. The remoteness also forces all participating nations to share and work together to survive. It’s a very humbling experience.
A close second would have to be the cold bottle of Bintang beer I had in Indonesia after swimming out of and surviving a plane crash. It really does taste better under those circumstances.
Your funniest travel experience?
We were invited to meet a tribal king in a remote part of Madagascar and it was polite to take gifts with us. It was not the kind of situation where a pair of socks and a new neck-tie will bail you out (like so many Father’s Days past… sorry Dad!) Instead we were told to bring animals for supper. So we did the best we could en route, stopping off the train and buying a live rabbit and live chicken at a market. So for the next few days we brought these animals with us allowing them to run ‘free range’ in our hotel rooms as we made our way to the east coast.
Upon our arrival the chicken was graciously accepted—and I’m sure became dinner—but the rabbit was not an animal they eat. We’re sure it became a pet for the local children. However, neither of the animals seemed to make much of a splash with them, so we dug into our bags and offered a bottle of vodka, which was met with great fanfare. Lesson learned… you can never go wrong with a little alcohol!
Most surprising travel experience?
I think my visit to North Korea was the most eye opening. While it was obvious that the itinerary was a specially-selected one, showing off all of the state’s ‘greatest achievements’—like basking in the grandeur of a water bottle factory!—it was the relationships we forged with our government-appointed guides and random locals along the way that broke down so many tiny little borders and preconceptions. Even with the presence of a camera, somehow treating each other with respect and interest developed a trust and the guards became friends. A few tears were shed upon leaving.
Most enlightening travel experience?
I think my first visit to India was a true eye opener. In my head I think I had romanticized about a spiritual awakening. Yes, it is indeed a spiritual place, but it is so much more. It is a Dickens’ novel… it is the best of times; it is the worst of times. After about three weeks or so in the country our team had a saying: “India wins again”. No matter what we did, how we planned, what the price, who was in charge—it never really mattered. In the end plans ALWAYS went out the window and you had to roll with the punches.
The sooner you allowed yourself NOT to fight it, the quicker you would be at peace with your Indian experience and start to grow. We had to let India beat us down and break our different world perspectives before we could come to realize how things actually work there. It’s a world of its own, filled with sights, sounds, smells, and flavours unlike ANYTHING else. From Goa’s beaches to Kashmiri mountain passes and from desert castle towns to burning cremation ghats, India changed the way I look at travel and, indeed, the way I travel.
Why do you love to travel?
Travel is, and kind of always has been, a perfect blend of school and church for me.; giving me perspective, grounding, knowledge, understanding, tolerance, patience and growth both personally and professionally. I hate to use the term ‘life skills’, but if there was ever a time to throw this term around, this is it. Learning the real world ropes.
The more I travel the more I realize: 1) The more I need to travel; 2) An appreciation for and realization that Canada is home; and 3) For the most part, people everywhere are inherently good. I owe so much of my travel experiences to complete strangers all over the world who have given me everything from a smile to food, shelter and a free ride. All of those people have built a wonderful perspective of the world for me.
What travel experiences do you still lust for?
There are a number of places that pop out and kind of call to me due to their remoteness. Usually it’s the places that get the least amount of attention that intrigue me. They are the kind of places that you can’t very easily Google and find pictures of. It involves doing travel the old fashioned way: talking to people, calling them up and finding out who to talk to and how to get there. Some are almost totally off limits, but that’s usually what drives me the most.
I’m interested in Kerguelen Island [subantarctic island in southern Indian Ocean], Tristan de Cahuna [a remote active volcanic island in the south Atlantic] and Diego Garcia [an atoll south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean].
Image: Scott Wilson
This travel interview first appeared in Canadian Traveller magazine.
