National Geographic and Cousteau

I saw a great bit of news the other day. The members of the Calpyso society - the guardians of Jacques Cousteau's work - are restoring the original ship 'Calypso'.

As a little kid it was our big Sunday night event. After dinner and the news, my brother and I would it down in our PJ's on each side of Dad and watch the weekly National Geographic documentary.

That famous music of the NG society would start - Da, da, da, da-dah, that yellow logo would appear and I knew I was soon to be transported to another world.

Captain Cousteau and his 'equipe' would dive in their futuristic wetsuits and helmets and take us to tropical paradises, Arctic havens and Mediterannean treasure troves.

As always the photography (both stills and movie) of the NGS cameramen was a cut above everything else. As a kid it was a dream to grow up and be a N.G.S. staff photographer.

When I had an American girlfriend few years ago, I visited her in the States several times and on one trip to D.C., bugged her to go to one special place. Not the Lincoln Memorial or Ford's theatre or the usual top ten. Nope, I wanted to go to the HQ of the National Geographic Society - still my personal 'Mecca' all these years later.

I saw stills photographs at an exhibition called ' the ones that didn't make it' - pictures that ordinary photographers would be proud to say they'd made - but they didn't have that N.G. 'something extra'.

When I got older I learned to scuba dive, travelled the world and got into photography (I now have enough camera equipment to start my own shop!), and my living room is still full of N.G. magazines and DVD's.

From that little kid sitting on the lounge room floor half a world away - thank you Cousteau and thank you National Geographic. You opened up the world to me and many others.

Perhaps somewhere in the world there are other little kids picking up a National Geographic magazine for the first time or reading about the adventures of the Calypso and who will one day grow up to be tomorrow's oceanographers or travel photographers.

Long may you both continue to explore!