Inspired by Chris Bonnington’s Quest for Adventure, a regular Canadian kid became an Adventurer.
Kirkby hooked up with Jamie Clarke, Calgary’s most famous adventurer for:
His greatest claim to fame (or greatest sufferfest) was what he called The Grande Cirque — the first circumnavigation of British Columbia’s southern Coast Range.
His best destination so far — the Mergui Archipelago of Burma, off-limits to everyone for the past 50 years.
Have you heard of the Chang Tang?
A part of the world half the size of the continental USA?
Me neither.
George Schaller made 11 trips between 1985 and 2001. I read a couple of his books so perhaps I did hear of the region.
The photographer is Galen Rowell, who’s work was admired by Ansel Adams. This was Rowell’s last adventure. He and his wife were killed in a plane crash in California.
National Geographic sponsored expedition to Chang Tang
Bruce Kirby pitched the idea to National Geographic and worked a year on the Chang Tang project. But NG went ahead without him.
1. CAPTAIN JAMES COOK
2. XUANZANG
3. SIR RICHARD BURTON
4. IBN BATTUTA
5. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
6. CHARLES DARWIN
7. FRIDTJOF NANSEN
8. YURI GAGARIN
9. MICHAEL PALIN
10. APHRA BEHN
There is no doubt Cook is the greatest of them all. His 3 voyages of discovery are unmatched.
The rest of the top 10 can be argued.
Certainly Michael had it a little easier than the rest.
I am a big fan of wikipedia. There is no better example of what can happen if you simply get out of the way. Let people do what they want.
The much publicized problems with the site? I’ve never had a glitch. The few minor mistakes that irked me, I corrected.
Wikipedia is the encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
Now I stumbled on to Wikitravel.org
Interesting. But why not simply include all this travel content in wikipedia?
In 2003, 665 million international tourist trips were made. … Western Europe is the most popular destination for international tourists: 46% of world tourist trips. At the other extreme 0.1% of world tourist trips are made to Central African territories.
Size shows proportion of world international tourist trips to that territory.
Globe Trekker (also called Pilot Guides outside the United States and originally broadcast as Lonely Planet) is adventure tourism TV. This British series was inspired by Australian Lonely Planet travelbooks and has been in production for over 10-years. It is broadcast in over 40 countries across 6 continents.
Commercial TV generally depresses me. If I had a gun I’d shoot the TV, or myself.
A great exception to the rule is this program which I love. A huge success, it is phenomenally accurate at showing what it is like to travel the backpacker circuit. No need to go yourself, actually.
Now when will we have decent hiking and gymnastics television?
Ian Wright is the face of backpacker travel. As the first and best of the Globe Trekker (also called Pilot Guides) travellers, he has already won three U.S. TV Cable Ace Awards.
None of the other travel hosts come close. Ian is the best.
I hope he stays on for a second decade with the show and visits another 50 countries.
And I forgive him that dreadful spin-off project, Ian Wright Live.
I was never a particular fan of Ewan McGregor, but he seems to be an interesting guy.
I like his 2004 reality TV show, The Long Way Round, a motorcycle road trip 18,887 miles (30,395 km), 3 months, around the world.
He even got rear-ended by a driver just outside Calgary.
A theme of the TV show was the eye-opening plight of children around the world. McGregor and his wife just adopted a girl from Mongolia, one of the regions he biked. Good on them.
Next week I will announce the besthike.com South America page. A resource for any hiker wanting to get started organizing a trek.
Best hikes & treks in South America.
My favourite photo on it was professionally published by Radek Tezaur. This is the Dientes Circuit in Patagonia, perhaps the world’s most southern major hike.
The longest hike ever?
Karl Bushby is walking around the world. 12 years. 36,000 miles.
He started in Patagonia, Nov. 1st, 1998 with about $800 in his pocket. And started walking north.
HEY, he crossed from Alaska into Siberia over an ice “bridge” on the Chukchi Sea (north of the Bering Straits).
But his expedition is in trouble. The Russians are threatening to throw him out due to problems with his paperwork. (BBC newstory April 6, 2006)
I expect after putting in 7 years on this project, Karl will find a way to finish it. Good luck.
