The Explorers Page #2

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above it a year earlier

we were still not able to

determine whether

in fact, this was the great

falls of the Tsang-po

that Kingdon-Ward had been

looking for

And there was the sense

that

unless you went down to

the falls itself

we would never be able to

answer or resolve that

question

The jungle thickens

The terrain gets

even steeper

Then, finally

in the distance

they hear the river falling

All of the Tsang-po

pouring into the energy

Unbelievable

A century of speculation

is over

They have filled in

one of the last blank

spots on the map

These are, indeed, the

great falls of the Tsang-po

They name it the Hidden

Falls of Dorje Phagmo?

after the region's

most powerful goddess

What this discovery of

the waterfall has done

actually, is to evoke from

people

almost a subconscious

need that

we all have for magical

places in the world

for a sense that there are

still places to be discovered

I don't understand

why people think that

exploration is finished

For me it's really just

started

I think there's plenty of

places to explore

A lot of those places are

gonna be the most

difficult places

to really sustain yourself

within and make

a real contribution

I love this expression:

The last place on earth

And that's what I'm really

trying to bring back

The best explorers

have always brought back to us

with their words

with their pictures

that last place on earth

When the film Congorilla

opened on Broadway in 1932,

audiences flocked to the theater.

Most people had never seen

moving pictures of such exotic animals

You are going to see

and hear the first pictures

in natural sound

ever made in the jungles

of Central Africa

There will be the roar

of the lion

herds of elephants

millions of flamingos

and rivers alive with

the vicious crocodiles

The film was made by Martin

Johnson and his wife, Osa

In 1917, they quit the

Vaudeville Circuit

left their New York home

and began two decades of

exploring and filmmaking

When they began

shooting Congorilla in 1929

wildlife was so plentiful they

needed only to drive into the bush and

turn on their cameras.

The abundance is long gone

To capture what remains, it took

National Geographic photographer

Nick Nichols

weeks of brutal trekking

through the jungles of Central Africa

I have no interest in

wildlife photography for

the sake of it

It's just not justifiable

in this time when

we've got so many habitats

and creatures that are

endangered

In our case,

we're going out in

an unexplored part

of the African forest

We really know

what's out there

but we want to come back

and show everybody and say

"Let's save it."

The job that I do is

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