In this episode William is joined by Emily Wilson, our Tailormade Explore Team Leader. Tailormade Specialist for the Americas, Manuela De Fazio and our very first special guest, Mary Filbee from Polar Star Expeditions. The cast talk about the Polar Star, experiences in the Arctic and Antarctica and what passengers can expect to see on any of the polar tours we operate.

Bolivia is the hot topic for the second episode of the Explore Travel Bodcast. William is joined by John Telfer, Jason Beevis and Peter Eshelby, who share their expertise and experiences of this fascinating South American country. To find out more about the tour that John developed, ‘Beyond the Altiplano’, simply enter the tour code ‘BA’ in the search box at www.explore.co.uk

iTunes users can listen and subscribe to our podcast by searching ‘Explore Blogs’ or using this direct link http://tinyurl.com/yzhqadd (opens iTunes).

We’re looking for 800 human-gorillas to act strangely for a day.

FACT: There are just 720 mountain gorillas left in the wild…anywhere!

It’s a scary statistic, but thankfully organisations such as The Gorilla Organization are doing something about it, working with local communities, governments and tourist companies to redress the balance a little.

One of the key fundraising events of the year for the Gorilla Organization is their Great Gorilla Run, which takes places in London on 26th September this year.

It entails a slightly surreal, but hellishly funny run over a course around some of London’s most famous sites and sights, by several hundred people dressed, of course, as gorillas. It’s a brilliant way to spend a Saturday, and each year it raises thousands of pounds to help protect and conserve all gorilla populations.

Explore is once again a principal sponsor of this wacky event, and are trying to recruit more runners and as many as possible to run under the Team Explore banner. Anyone who signs up with us will get a limited edition designer t-shirt to wear on their run and as an extra incentive, we’ll pay £15 towards their entry fee – you can’t say fairer than that.

For even more incentive, as if any were needed, you get to meet Bill Oddie, (yes, the Bill Oddie) who turns up each year to start the run and hand out medals at the end.

And there’s more….yes, it’s unbelievable I know…you get to keep your gorilla suit afterwards.

So by day’s end you will have laughed until your head wobbles, earned a t-shirt almost certain to enter the fashion world’s top ten most sought after items, solved your fancy-dress problems for the next few years and raised enough money to ensure that this iconic, incredible, wonderful animal thrives and survives.

Now that’s what I call a good day’s work.

Check Explore’s gorilla pages for more details, and then don’t think, just act.

As a little bit of a celebration of Tour Leaders we have a mini blog series from one of our most experienced tour leaders Michele. She has written a few pieces on her recent stint of tours in April – and we also have some interviews with tours leaders coming up too.

Its great to see tour leaders get recognition for the work they do and that’s why we are very pleased for Diego Torres Garzon, who has been nominated for Wanderlust’s Paul Morrison Guide Award.