W H AT ’ S I N M Y B A G
THE EXPEDITION DOCTOR W H E N H E ’ S N O T T R Y I N G T O C A S T A F LY, D R PAT R I C K AV E R Y C A N F R E Q U E N T LY B E F O U N D T E N D I N G T O S I R D AV I D AT T E N B O R O U G H A N D HIS BBC FILM CREWS ALL OVER THE WORLD … FROM RAINFORESTS T O S AVA N N A H , I C E L A N D T O A N TA R C T I C A . H E R E ’ S H I S A D V I C E O N T H E M E D I C A L K I T T O PA C K F O R A P R O P E R E X P E D I T I O N . Photos Patrick Avery
I
was lucky to be born, raised, and schooled in Kenya in the 1980s. Our family recreation time was generally spent on safaris exploring the wilderness areas of East Africa, camping, learning about African flora and fauna, hiking up hills, fishing, competing in the Rhino Charge - an extreme offroad driving event, and getting lots of experience fixing Land Rovers. I did alright at school and, for one reason or another, I decided to apply for medical school in the UK. The culture shock from this move was immense and the graft was longer and harder than I had anticipated but, eventually, after six years of uni and a further eight years of post grad work/study I qualified as a General Practitioner. I always felt somewhat stifled by life in the UK, given the lack of wilderness and adventure. In 2010 however, I stumbled upon the discipline of wilderness/expedition medicine and due to various fortuitous circumstances this opened up a wealth of incredible travel opportunities and experiences to me. Over the course of the last decade, alongside the extensive personal fly-fishing travel I have done, I’ve been fortunate to have worked as an expedition doc for the BBC Natural
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History Unit in a multitude of different environments worldwide. These include the rainforests of Costa Rica and Congo, the jungles of Burma, the harsh wintery wastes of Iceland, Siberia, Finland and Antarctica, and the good old African bush country of Kenya, Zimbabwe and Zambia. My role on these trips is nominally to keep the team safe and to respond to any acute medical problems that may arise, as well as mucking-in with the rest of the team, taking photos, and sneaking in some fishing where time and opportunity arise. Although my primary day job is as a GP (now based back in Kenya again), in latter years one of my most important and cherished roles has been keeping a watchful eye on Sir David Attenborough on a number of different international filming trips. A lifelong idol/hero of mine it has been a privilege to spend so much time travelling with, and getting to know the great man. I’ve been lucky. Expedition Medical Kits: what to take Expedition medical kits can be very large and extensive but for the purposes of this article I will focus primarily on what med kit I carry as a lightweight, bare minimum when heading to an equatorial African fly-fishing destination. These trips often necessitate meagre luggage allowances so the med kit has to be similarly whittled down.
W W W. T H E M I S S I O N F LY M A G . C O M
