Most people would think twice before launching a solo mission into jungle where man-eating tigers have been picking off villagers with relative frequency.
The same might be said for exploring a country during a violent revolution, or bivouacking in rainforest where the malaria is even thicker than the jagged vines that lurk in the undergrowth.
To be fair, Alan Carle had second thoughts too, but decided the payload was worth the risk every time.
And besides, he had a flimsy Chinese mask strapped to the back of his head to protect him from predators.
"Danger's part of life ... and sure, I've had some hairy predicaments," he says.
He wasn't seeking gold, diamonds or priceless ancient artefacts.
It was fruit he wanted — delicious, sticky and otherworldly fruit with fluorescent tentacles and bubbly flesh that folks back home had never even heard about, much less tasted.
His adventures into the wilds of more than 40 nations are responsible for a fair chunk of the exotic cornucopia that's available in Australia today.
New York to the Daintree
Calling someone the Indiana Jones of anything sounds quite trite — but in Alan Carle's case, the hiking boot fits.
He's been seeking out the remotest rainforests on Earth for more than half a century to discover fruits and nuts that might be viable in a Far North Queensland climate.
He and his wife Susan even have their own "lost ark" to complete the analogy — an eight-hectare private research garden on the edge of the Daintree Rainforest with about 3,000 species of plants, fittingly called The Botanical Ark.
And to think, they both grew up in the US state of New York, where banana saplings would sooner shrivel up and die than brave even the mildest winter's morn.
"I was born in the wrong country. I knew where I belonged when I was a little kid, but my parents wouldn't move here," Mr Carle says.
"So as soon as I was old enough, I bought a one-way ticket … and I've been here for 53 years now."
A movement begins
The US expat's botanical odyssey began shortly after he arrived in Australia in 1970.
"We'd go to the nurseries to buy fruit trees in those days, and you could get mango and avocado, and jack fruit if you were lucky," he says.
"We lived in the tropics and they were trying to sell apples, pears, peaches and grapes."
He contacted the quarantine department to learn the intricacies of importing tropical seed varieties.
Previous attempts dating back to the late 1800s had been made by the Queensland Acclimatisation Society, and later with trials of mangosteen and other crops by the Department of Primary Industries in Kamerunga in Cairns.
"Basically all of them failed," Mr Carle explains.
"But there was this impetus with a whole new generation of people keen to try new fruits and new crops."
His passion snowballed into a movement after he called the first meeting of the Rare Fruits Council of Australia in Cairns in 1979.
Within a few years, there were thousands of members across dozens of branches.
"We had meetings where a couple of hundred people came just to hear about new fruits," Mr Carle says.
"It was amazing."
But rainforest delicacies thus far alien to the western palate were never just going to reveal themselves.
Expanding the palate
The couple's first major collecting trip followed the fruiting season across the Pacific, down through Central America and into the Amazon, with a brief interlude in Florida.
It lasted 11 months.
"In that year … we were able to introduce into Australia about 80 new species of fruits and nuts that had never been here before," he says.
Mr Carle has since set off on more than 100 collecting trips (and counting) to some of the most isolated spots on Earth.
He counts finding and establishing several varieties of sapote and salak — known as snake fruit because of its scaly skin — among his proudest accomplishments.
"There are things from Madagascar that most people would never have heard about, which are unpronounceable by European-speaking people.
"It's been a very interesting life."
But it hasn't been without hazard.
Big cats and big flowers
Mr Carle had a decision to make.
It was the late 1980s, an hour-and-a-half outside Bukittinggi in Western Sumatra, and he was in pursuit of a wild population of Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the titan arum lily or "corpse flower" due to its rancid scent.
It would be a spectacular sight, but a far cry from the sumptuous delicacies he typically sought out.
He was nonetheless committed — even if he himself happened to be more edible than the plant.
"That forest area had known tigers in it that were killing people in the local villages," he explains.
"That year … something like nine people had been killed."
The locals refused to step foot in the jungle, but Mr Carle had a trump card up his sleeve … or so he hoped.
A Chinese friend had told him a tiger would never attack someone who was looking at it.
"So I bought a Chinese mask and put it on the back of my head," Mr Carle says.
Maybe it worked, maybe it was just dumb luck, but he found the titan arum lily without leaving his own corpse behind to augment its foul perfume.
Strife in Guatemala
"The only thing I'm really frightened of is people with guns," Mr Carle says.
The horticultural hoarder had plenty of opportunity to exercise his adrenal gland when insurgent guerillas waged a violent revolution attempt during Guatemala's 36-year civil war.
Machine-gun bursts and mortar rounds were a consistent companion in city areas — but most of the activity was nocturnal.
Mr Carle recalls someone yelling "get down" in Spanish during a daytime mission into Guatemala City.
"We hit the pavement real quick and bullets flew over our head.
"Because of the unrest, the military had guards on every diagonal corner of every city block."
On another occasion, he walked around one of those corners and felt something poking him in the guts.
"This young chap with a semi-automatic rifle had fallen asleep, and I walked straight into the barrel of the gun."
It wasn't all peril and strife.
Often the most memorable moments were quiet encounters with local tribespeople who welcomed him into their lands and their homes.
"I've worked very closely with traditional owners overseas," he says.
"You need to really get their permission before you can collect things and bring things back.
"From the Pygmies and the Fulani in Central African Republic to local people in Madagascar and Indians in the Amazon … they have so much to teach us."
Garden of Eden
Bringing strange seeds into the country is more difficult now than when Mr Carle began his rainforest pilgrimages.
Even during those early days, he worked with quarantine and primary industry officials to ensure the risk of pest, disease or weed importation was minimal.
"If it does [become a problem] we have to notify them immediately," he says.
"It's all about risk management, but it's also about establishing new industries in tropical Australia."
The Botanical Ark is the Carle family's personal take on Shangri-la — a research garden where thousands of bizarre species from Singapore to Sierra Leone are allowed to flourish or fail, as the climate dictates.
His forays have become less frequent now that he's in his 70s, but Mr Carle doesn't expect them to end any time soon.
"It's been a lifelong journey that sort of got away from us. We just wanted to feed our family."
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