Albertus Zwier "Alby" Mangels (born November 16, 1948) is a Dutch-born Australian adventurer and documentary film-maker widely remembered for his "World Safari" adventure travel films (World Safari I, World Safari II, and World Safari III). November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 45 days remaining. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... Map of Africa 1890 Look up safari in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Mangels, who immigrated to Australia as a child in 1956, worked in a large variety of jobs, his last being for John Andrae in Murray Bridge doing brickwork. He set off in 1971 with friend John Fields on what was supposed to be a one-off trip. It turned into a six-year odyssey through several continents, which they filmed. The resulting film, first shown in Australia in 1981, was a considerable success and Mangels continued to travel through the 1980s, filming all the way. Two more World Safari films were made from this subsequent material. 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ...

The films featured Mangels and his constantly-changing cast of companions travelling, on a shoestring budget and seemingly with little forward planning, throughout various wild areas. Mangels took a cavalier approach, both to natural and human hazards, relying on a variety of rickety vehicles, losing his ship to fire, travelling through a number of areas where guerrillas were active, and becoming involved in a number of unusual business enterprises. Mangels discovered that audiences responded to his risk-taking behaviour and featured more and more of it in his later films. While he may have played up the risks in some cases, he and his companions suffered a number of serious accidents and injuries along the way, the most notorious being an accident during the early filming of "World Safari II." An accident resulted with his friend Piers Soutier becoming a quadripalegic and soon dying from complications. Mangels chose to continue the film. Look up guerrilla in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Mangels (and Field) also spent some time living with the local inhabitants in many of these locations, often working for room and board or just to get to know the local culture of each area.

Mangels became famous for an array of attractive female travelling companions, with a quota per film approaching that of James Bond. Mangels did point out (on-camera in his third film when meeting another one who had seen his previous films) that with the years it took to make each film the numbers were not so unusual. The James Bond 007 gun logo James Bond 007 is a fictional British agent[1], created in 1952 by writer Ian Fleming, featured in several novels and short stories. ...

Mangels also has a strong conservation theme running through all of the films. Mangels' voiceover narration for the films, as well as the many places he chose to visit, often emphasizes the need for the preservation of both wild places (such as forests) and wild animals. Conservation may refer to the following: Conservation ethic in relation to preserving ecosystems Conservationist Conservation movement Conservation ecology Conservation biology Energy conservation in reducing non-renewable energy consumption Conservation law of physics Conservation of energy Conservation of mass Conservation (genetics) in genetics Conservation (botany) in botanical nomenclature Conservation (psychology) in...

He was one of the pioneering travel advocates of the 1970s, showing the possibility of traveling as a way of life, similar to what Peter Jenkins and William Least Heat Moon had done with their bestselling travel books of the 1970s and 1980s. Peter Jenkins is a travel author who is most well known for his book, A Walk Across America, in which he spent seven years walking from New York to Oregon. ... William Least Heat-Moon, byname of William Trogdon (born 1940) is an American travel writer of English, Irish and Osage Nation ancestry. ...

After the financial failure of the third World Safari film in the late 1980s, Mangels dropped out of the public eye for several years.

Some have criticised Mangels for fabricating events during the making of his documentaries. At one point, to add drama, he threw his dog out of a moving vehicle and then attempted to say it had jumped out of its own accord, but the camera recorded what actually occurred. Others, though, consider these moments to be amusing quirks since they often appear to be deliberate attempts by Mangels to add humor to the otherwise more serious "real" events.

In the late 1990s, much of the material from the "World Safari" films was recycled and re-edited into a series of twenty-six one hour episodes called "Adventure Bound," and broadcast on the American cable network, The Travel Channel (and on other networks around the world). Further episodes of more recent travel by Mangels were also filmed and broadcast. The Travel Channel is a cable television network that features documentaries and how-to shows related to travel and leisure around the United States and throughout the world. ...

A companion book to the films, "Alby Mangels' World Safari," was published in the 1980s.

Lynn Santer recently authored Mangels's authorized biography, but has been struggling to locate a publisher. Mangels's absence from the media lately has beguiled mainstream publishers into believing there is a lack of market for the book.

External links

• Alby's Official Website
• Biographical Site, including sightings
• Petition for the Publication of Alby's Biography