Journey of a Lifetime
The Journey of a Lifetime Award, given by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), in partnership with BBC Radio 4, offers you the chance to make a 'journey of a lifetime' and to tell the world about it in a memorable piece of radio documentary-making.
The award offers a £5,000 grant for an original and inspiring journey anywhere in the world. The award recipient will receive training in radio broadcasting from the BBC and will record their experiences for a BBC Radio 4 documentary.
Deadline
4 October (each year)
Apply
Journey of a Lifetime Award guidelines (PDF)
Research Ethics and Code of Practice (PDF)
Video by Dave Waldman
This year's recipient
2013: Will Millard
Downstream: A journey by raft through the heart of Sierra Leone and Liberia’s Peace Park
In spring of 2013 Sierra Leone and Liberia combined their portions of the Gola forest to form one of the largest and most ecologically important National parks in West Africa. Will Millard will packraft 100 miles down the remote Mano River, through the heart of the newly formed ‘Peace Park,’ meeting the local people, ecologists and unique wildlife on an extraordinary journey at the very frontline of African conservation.
Follow Will's journey:
The BBC Radio 4 programme will be broadcast at 11.02am on Monday 23 September 2013.
Journey of a Lifetime award recipients
2012: Jas Jhalli. Indians and Cowboys
Travelling to Argentina to learn about the gaucho way of life, Jas Jhalli lived on an estancia and travelled on horseback with Argentina's legendary cowboys, the gauchos, to the southernmost tip of the Inca Empire. Growing up in an Indian home in Wolverhampton, Jas draws on her experience of living between two cultures and considers the gauchos’ dual European and indigenous ancestry, and subsequent exclusion from both communities.
2011: Jane Labous. The Sand-diggers of Mali
Jane Labous travels to Mali to meet the men and women who face hardship every day as they eke out a living digging and diving for sand and gravel from the bed of the River Niger, for the growing construction industry.
2010: Nick Hunt. From Riches to Rags: Dubai to India
Nick Hunt follows the journey of Indian migrants, from Dubai back home to India, having lost their jobs in Dubai’s construction industry due to the economic downturn.
Dan Box attempts to reach the Carteret Islands where a mass evacuation is taking place as the sea level rises due to climate change.
Emily Ainsworth travels to Mexico to join a family circus, Circo Padilla, where she becomes dancer Princess Aurora.
David Waldman travels to Kenya's rift valley to live and run with the Kalenjin, the world's fastest long distance runners.
2006: Jessica Boyd and Bill Finnegan. Deep into the Rubbish with Cairo's Zabbaleen
Jessica and Bill journey to Cairo’s biggest rubbish tip to meet with the Zabbaleen community, originally of rural Egypt, who make money out of Cairo’s waste.
2005: Chris Brown. The high snows of Ladakh
Chris Brown travels to Ladakh and encounters the coldest winter for 30 years. Travelling with nomadic peoples, Chris seeks out a great friend he met on a previous journey.
2004: Luke Freeman. Cattle roads and motorcades
Luke Freeman fulfils his dream to drive a herd of cattle along the old drove-paths of Madagascar and ends up jetting around Africa as chief speechwriter to the President.
2003: Andy Home and Grigori Gerenstein. Land of black snow
Journalists Andy Home and Grigori Gerenstein visit Russia's most polluted town where the snow is black and life expectancy is 10 years below the national average.
2002: Damian Welch. Hoping for a miracle: Tokelau
Damian Welch travels to the tiny atolls of Tokelau in the middle of the South Pacific. He meets with the Tokelauan people, skilled fishermen who run a co-operative so that their catch is shared fairly amongst the population.
2001: Tessa McGregor. By rocket to Tigerland
Tessa journeys into the heart of Sundarbans, the wildest tract of mangrove forest in the world and the only forest of its kind inhabited by tigers.
About the Award
The award, established in 2001, is a joint collaboration between the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) and the BBC generously supported through a private donation. The award aims to support informed travel and learning, through experience rather than scientific research, and to discover new radio talent. The outcome of each of the journey's culminate in a BBC Radio 4 travel documentary.