Vet at the end of the Earth

Available for over a year

Joe Hollins is a vet who's worked in some of the most remote places on Earth. After a childhood marked by the restrictions of an English boarding school, he headed first to the Australian outback. Since then he's worked in the Falklands, Tristan da Cunha and St Helena and has learned to live a life of isolation — unless of course you count the endless cast of animal characters he works with. His most beloved is a 192-year-old giant tortoise called Jonathan, who he reared for 6 years. Irene García Hernández longed to perform the ‘Danza de los Voladores’, or Dance of the Flyers, a tradition dating back thousands of years in Mexico which is typically the preserve of men. A rebel by nature, Irene was set on becoming a flyer too. She’d overcome family barriers, and her fears, to become one of the few Mexican women to dance in the sky. This interview was first broadcast on 30th September 2023 Get in touch: [email protected] or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707 Joe Hollins has written about his experiences in Vet at the End of the Earth: Adventures with Animals in the South Atlantic (Photo: Joe and Jonathon the tortoise. Credit: Kevin Gepford)