Where are all the female travel presenters?

Ok, I’m not normally the sort of person to rant. But after having watched yet another TV travel documentary hosted by a middle-aged male presenter, I feel I must nail my colours to the mast on behalf of womankind. This autumn the UK screens seem to be awash with travel documentaries but I’m left asking “where are all the female travel presenters?”

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So many middle aged male comedians!

Last night it was writer and comedian Stephen Fry tootling around America in his oh so very British London taxi. Then writer and comedian Paul Merton was in India trying out his batting at a cricket club for the blind.

Check out my adventures in India in this article

Competing with him on the same night was writer and comedian Griff Rhys Jones trying to sing Gospel in New York as part of his Greatest cities of the World series. Can you see a pattern emerging? Is there a conspiracy out there to get all the aging male comedians on our screens in one week and then flog us their coffee table book for Christmas?

I blame Michael Palin, the grandfather of them all for starting the trend. I’ll even admit to having his videos and books on my shelf.

But where are all the female TV travel presenters? I’m longing to see some attractive and intrepid gal getting up to something adventurous in somewhere exotic. My husband is getting fed up of hearing me moan about it too.

Too many female stereotypes!

The closest we’ve got recently is Tribal Wives. The formula is to take an English women in need of a life change to stay with a remote community. Then, line them up for a prospective romance with some unfortunate local. No stereotypes there then!

Bruce Parry

I’ll make an exception of course for Bruce Parry, who brings a charming if slightly mad brand of enthusiasm to everything he does. I can’t forget the sight of him leaping naked over a row of cattle in an initiation ceremony in Ethiopia. And at the prospect of taking the hallucinogenic drug Ayahuasca, which will make him vomit uncontrollably before giving him weird dreams, he can’t wait!

When I was in Ecuador our guide told us a fairy tale of two travellers who mysteriously disappeared into the rainforest. But unlike Hansel and Gretel there was no happy ending. Eventually it was discovered that they had died after overdosing on Ayahuasca but the locals had hidden their bodies for fear of the trouble they’d be in. After that I decided to pass on the Ayahuasca.

Check out my adventures in Ecuador in this article

The Medicine Men

Then there are those Medicine Men, the identical twins Chris and Xand, with such a lovely bedside manner. They agonise over whether they should treat sick children using western medicine or leave them to the herbal remedies of the local shaman. The scene where they found a tapeworm in a piece of roasted monkey was especially appetising.

Where are all the female travel presenters?

But there’s something missing for me – where are all the adventurous female TV travel presenters? I know the women travellers are out there because I read their blogs. But why aren’t they on TV?

Here’s my vision for the next hit TV travel series.

Intrepid lady sets off to explore the unspoiled wildernesses, penetrate into the deepest rainforest, stay with the nomadic peoples of the desert and bring us her stories from a woman’s point of view. No powerful motorbikes or other boys toys will be involved!

Check out my adventures on the Tour de Mont Blanc in this article

Or how about this scenario?

Hip and gorgeous babe scours cities from Istanbul to Marrakech, Berlin to Beijing, searching out the most secret and cool haunts with the help of the local blogger in each location. By the way, I’m past thinking of myself as that hip and gorgeous babe, but I could always be her fixer.

What do you think? Any collaborators out there?

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com

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