Bitten by the bug
Travel is — exploration, adventure, experience…
And, it’s probably all this that motivated travellers of yore. We read about people like Fridtjof Nansen, who in 1888, left the warmth and comfort of his home to traverse Greenland’s ice cap — and in doing so, claimed a first for himself. He also sailed farther north in the Arctic Ocean than any man before him. His adventures include enduring nine winter months in a hut made of stones and walrus hides, surviving solely off polar bears and walruses.
Then you have the pair, Lewis and Clark, who led an expedition of 50 men to chart the north-western region of the United States after the Louisiana Purchase (It was the acquisition of the Louisiana territory by the United States from France in 1803). They travelled from 1804 to 1806 and were the first Americans to set eyes on the Columbia River.
Women were not far behind when the travel bug bit them. Lady Hester Stanhope, the third daughter of the Earl of Stanhope set sail for Athens, and on to Egypt but was shipwrecked in Rhodes. Here she discovered that Turkish men wore rather comfortable clothes and quickly got rid of her own cumbersome frills and laces. She moved on to the Middle East, fought bandits and finally met the ruler of Egypt.
Try out this memory game; every time you score a hit you get to read a tidbit about the traveler.