Explorers are in fact the lineal descendants of those hunter gatherers who went in search of new game and plant rich areas. They were curious, flexible minded and courageous. Courageous because they were going outside the comfort zone of the tribe.

Guest writer number 9 is a British explorer named Robert Twigger and a very British one. His philosophical text below is funny, very interesting, gives a perspective and really touches the subject exploration. He is a writer and explorer who in
2009-2010 was the first person to walk across the great Sand Sea of the
Eastern Sahara. He has a website www.roberttwigger.com and his latest book is
Dr Ragab’s Universal Language.

What is Exploration?

It is quite simple to say who an explorer was in the past- he was someone who went where others had not been and brought back information. But in fact this is a modern definition, the scientific definition so to speak. In fact, if you look at explorers from Marco Polo to Richard Burton they were people who ‘tried to get places’. No more articulate than that really. They wanted to get to a new place by a new route, a shorter one usually. Their motives were usually economic. Or territorial- claiming land for their own country.

We forget all that now and teach in school that explorers were like modern scientists but in funny clothes. The fact that modern scientists, with aeroplanes and helicopters and skidoos and special clothing can go where any of these old explorers, who suffered such hardships, went, makes the scientists imagine they are cut from similar cloth. Not a bit of it.

The old explorers brought back news, information about things they found, rocks, plants, lost cities- but all this was by the by. They simply wanted to go somewhere no one had been before or get somewhere by a new route, a route no one else had used before. Or no one from their culture has used before.

Explorers are in fact the lineal descendants of those hunter gatherers who went in search of new game and plant rich areas. They were curious, flexible minded and courageous. Courageous because they were going outside the comfort zone of the tribe.

There is survival value in going outside the comfort zone- whether it is psychological or physical. This, is, in fact, what explorers do. They explore regions beyond the culture’s comfort zone. They may or may not bring back their discoveries in a form that is currently called ‘scientific’.

I used to find it odd that Buzz Aldrin shut in his space suit and tiny rocket capsule and Ranulph Fiennes making the first polar circumnavigation of the planet could both be labeled explorers. Yet they are: both have gone outside the comfort zone of the culture.

Maybe the journey involves an interior path too. Becoming initiated into a remote tribe counts as exploration- with both and internal and external journeying out of the usual comfort zone.

It is a slippery concept, exploration, especially in a world that many, wrongly, believe is fully explored. But what does ‘fully explored’ mean? That it has been photographed for Google earth? That someone has flown over it in a jet plane? That it was driven over in a jeep? We confuse map making with exploration. We have great maps of places that remain unexplored. My own view is that somewhere is not explored until a human being has looked at it closely and moved over it at walking pace. I have been in desert wadis where there are no vehicle tracks. The valley is unexplored- by any definiton- and I was the first person, since the previous wet period 5000 years ago – to visit such a place. That a car passed within two kilometres of this valley but didn’t see it and stop means nothing. They might just have well not have been there.

Maybe the journey involves an interior path too. Becoming initiated into a remote tribe counts as exploration- with both and internal and external journeying out of the usual comfort zone.

The other form exploration in the modern world takes, is to do an old route in a new way, or to link up several old routes. To do it using less gear and in a less complicated way counts as exploration- why? Because this is a more intimate way of experiencing the landscape. You find out new things about yourself. You necessarily leave the comfort zone. In the challenge, say, of towing a sledge solo to the North Pole in winter, you discover, because you are the first to summount this challenge, a whole range of new solutions. That is the discovery element of this exploration.

Discovery without challenge- for example buzzing around Antarctica on snowmobiles looking for dinosaur bones- though fun is more science than exploration. When there is no challenge, physical or psychological, the results obtained don’t ‘change’ the discoverer. He hasn’t ‘earned them’ in the way an explorer has. I think we are drowning in information these days we haven’t earned.

Captain Kirk, of course, summed it up rather well, “To boldly go where no man has gone before!”

You can read more about Robert at his hilarious and enjoyable blog at www. theexplorerschool.com!

Why do we explore? Is there still white spots to be discovered on the global maps?

Lately I have had a lot of emails regarding, why do we explore? Is there anything left to explore? And who is an explorer? It has been a hotly debated issue. It is the second most read report I have written. I am also in favor of a new view on Exploration. Therefore I will republish this article below here as well, after receiving plenty of attention from Great Britain after this piece:

The other night I went to the monthly lecture at Travellers Club in Stockholm. I try to go there frequently. I like the surroundings at Sällskapet, the atmosphere, the lectures, but most of all the people, the members of the Travellers Club. A great lot of people with the most extra ordinary experiences from all over the world. I also go there to get inspired and maybe find an idea to what my next Expedition will be. This time it was a young fella who lectured, a great guy, very friendly and an interesting lecture. Technically. BUT, I am so fed up the attitude of todays adventurers and so called explorers. They are always the best on earth and they only talk about themselves. Incessently. And it is always the same message:

Everything is possible!

We´ve known this for the last 150 000 years, maybe even 3.2 million years back whenLucy went out for a excursion. I don´t know why it is so popular today to listen to this kind of extremely no-good-for-mankind-talk. And that lecture reminded me of the one in February 2008. Same deal. Then I remembered I did write an article about the same issue two years ago after having had the honour to lecture at Explorers Club in New York. This is what I wrote for Utemagasinet:

”…and then the mountain spoke to me, saying: ´Have faith in me, Ed, and you will reach your final 8,000-meter peak.´ And look, there I am on the mountain top!”

This is, more or less, how the famous American mountaineer Ed Viesturs closed his lecture at the Explorers Club´s 102nd Annual Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. Before him, a young guy named Andy Skurka, elected Man of the Year by Backpacker Magazine, had recounted the story of how he crossed the U.S. by foot from west to east in record time.

”Nothing is impossible! Anyone can do it!” he summarized, displaying a photo of himself posing in the sunset; his gaze fixed beyond the horizon, his muscles flexed and back held straight. An extremely traditional, male image of Adventure and Expeditions. I think I saw Buzz Aldrin, astronaut and second man on the moon, smirk. Woman kosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova simply left when the so-called adventurers entered the stage. Passionately, she had told her own story, filled with fear and amazement at the incomprehensions of life while she, as the first woman ever, rampaged round the moon 48 times.

The Annual Dinner carried the theme ”What´s Left to Explore”. And how this should be brought to an audience. I think very few of the 1,100 spectators enjoyed the adventurers´ talks. One of our neighbours at the table, the editor of a wellknown American outdoor magazine, said:

Papua New Guinea felt like one of the last places on earth I have visited, where there might at least be some white spots of discovery to be made. On the knowledge front.....

”Every day, as I receive letters and articles from people making expeditions and wanting to sell their material, I ask myself: ”Hasn´t Adventure come further than this? Is it still just white males with icicles in their beards dishing out the same old silly story?”

The reason why I´m bringing up this very important subject, is that every week I get a number of e-mails from men and women, young and old, who want to take off on an expedition or adventure. The majority want to know three things: ”What kind of equipment should I use?”, ”How do I get sponsors?” and ”How do I get the media interested in me, so I can make a living selling articles and lecturing?”

There is only one answer: Our view of Adventure and Expeditions must be renewed. Firstly, there has to be an interesting story. The times are gone when a spectator finds it interesting to listen to the hackneyed theme of ”anything is possible”; a story centered around dirty underwear, heroic struggle and white men with icicles in their beards who have managed to reach the North Pole, using a shopping cart and an oar as their only means of transport. Secondly, we need more women narrators. We need a female perspective. Men have to start thinking like women. I think this is crucial to whether the public will continue being interested in expeditions at all.

There are still considerable differences in how a story can be told. For example, I was searching the internet for stories about Swedish expeditions in the Himalayas. A couple of men report as follows:

“It´s been tough and troublesome. Our backpacks weigh about 15 kilos, but all has turned out well. Today we struggled for six hours. Tomorrow we will continue, and then we will use our final camp at 7,500 meters. We will rise at about 12 o´clock local time, put our tents up and melt snow for water. We won´t sleep much, but we are feeling all right.”

Incredibly boring for everyone except the storyteller´s closest relatives or someone else in the know. To be compared with another account from an expedition on the same mountain, at the same time, written by a woman in the same situation:

“Why am I never satisfied? I´m thinking I should have exercised more. Actually, I´ve been exercising at least five days a week. I think I should have been more mentally prepared. Actually, I´ve been preparing for five years. I don´t think I´m a good enough climber. But that´s the way I am in everyday life as well. I could be better at cooking, decorating, fashion, my job. I could be a better wife, friend, and so on. Maybe I need the inherent power of dissatisfaction to be able to hold on and not give up my dream of climbing an 8,000-meter peak. Because it has been necessary – but now I´m going to give it a try.”

Wonderfully thrilling and dramaturgical! The fact that the men reached the top and not the woman, is utterly unimportant. What is interesting is her story. This is how tomorrow´s adventurers on expedition must think to survive. Even better is to tell a story of someone else but yourself. Which is what I did in New York. When I took the stage after Ed Viesturs, the first thing I talked about was how ridiculous all the clever white males with icicles in their beards are. I continued by informing the audience about the Siberians and their everyday life, which makes a contemporary expedition look like a school outing by comparison. The response was fairly good – a ten-minute standing ovation.

Please continue to discuss the subject here!

Please continue the debate on the meaning of exploration and how we should look at it in the future!

Paula Constant gives a very interesting perspective of exploring, from a female perspective. Vital and needed.

Guest writer number 7 is another impressive explorer whom I have gotten to know through my Expedition planning to come in the future, Paula Constant, from Australia. She is quite a powerful personality as well with strong views and a big heart. And she has been great help in pretty much everything, especially the emotional aspect of failing to do what you planned to do. And we have talked quite a lot about the differences between the sexes when it comes to exploring, so I asked her to write a piece about that. She has an impressive record and back in 2004, with no previous expedition experience, Paula began walking from Trafalgar Square with a backpack.  Since then, she has walked over 12000 km through eight countries, including nearly 8000km through the Sahara with her own camel train.  Married when she left Trafalgar Square, Paula’s husband left the expedition a year later, when the couple were just 1000km into their desert trek.  Paula carried on with two Arabic, nomadic guides, and went on to gain sponsorship and go over halfway across the Sahara in a bid to make a West to East crossing of the desert when she was stopped by civil war in Niger in 2007.  She is the author of two books – Slow Journey South, recounting her European walk; and Sahara, detailing the desert journey.  No female adventurer has walked so far through the Sahara alone but for local guides.

I never set out to become a ‘female adventurer’.  Actually, 5 years ago, if you had asked me exactly what a ‘female adventurer’ was, I’d have been relatively unable to answer.  I could probably name a few mountaineers who happened to be women; because I planned on walking, Ffyona Campbell also sprang to mind.  But I would have wondered why anyone actually needed to state that the adventurer was female.  What on earth does gender have to do with anything? I would have thought.

Perhaps this has its roots in my own background – growing up in rural Australia, jumping on horses and skis with as much energy as the next bloke, and always in competition and company with men, it had never really occurred to me that as a woman, my experience should or could be any different to them.  When I read the tales of adventurers of old, the only reason I saw for there being no women on the honour rolls was simply that most great exploration occurred before the Women’s Liberation movement really happened, and so it was just not feasible.  But to be honest – I never really thought about it.  Occasionally I would hear about women who were pioneers in one way or another, and I always knew we were absolutely capable of anything; I simply saw that now, the opportunities were open for us to pursue them, where before, they were not.

When I set out walking from Trafalgar Square in 2004, however, I wasn’t planning on doing anything solo.  I was married, so despite planning on heading into Muslim Northern Africa and through the Sahara with camels, it never occurred to me that I would be doing any of it solo.  It was something of a shock to find myself alone.  My marriage broke up after 6000km, and only several weeks into a 7000km desert trek.  Suddenly I was running a camp of two Arabic men and four camels, with no man beside me.

But apart from the emotional distress of a marriage breakdown, the reality was in many ways a relief.  To finally be in control of my own walk, and team, was wonderful – what I felt born to do. It was I who had spent years reading and dreaming about the region, and who felt a real connection to the place and cultures within it; this walk had always been particularly my dream.

But it most definitely was a world of men.  Week upon week of living not only immersed in another culture, but confined to the company of two men I barely knew, and neither of whom spoke my own language, was exhausting – both in those first 6 months, then when I returned for a further 8.  Was it harder than if I were a man?

"When I set out walking from Trafalgar Square in 2004, however, I wasn’t planning on doing anything solo. I was married, so despite planning on heading into Muslim Northern Africa and through the Sahara with camels, it never occurred to me that I would be doing any of it solo. It was something of a shock to find myself alone. My marriage broke up after 6000km, and only several weeks into a 7000km desert trek. Suddenly I was running a camp of two Arabic men and four camels, with no man beside me."

No.  I don’t actually think so.  Travel – and especially the kind of travel expeditioners’ and adventurers do – relies chiefly on the ability of the individual to work with others.  Whilst we must lead, we must do so with empathy, humour, humility, and determination.  I had to run an expedition whilst also learning on the job; despite being the centre of attention at every nomadic tent, I must always be patient, friendly, and conversational with the women – even though all I may have wanted to do  was throw myself down by the men and talk camels and grazing.

But what an opportunity!  How many men are invited into the women’s’ tent?  An entire world virtually hidden from men was immediately open to me – but as a white woman, I had the privilege of being welcomed by the men also, mainly out of curiosity.  Perhaps even better, when it came to choosing guides, men of a certain caliber would see me in the same light as a member of their family – which meant they would lay down their life rather than see me hurt or insulted in any way.  I felt a profound gratitude and respect for such men, and found that if I conducted myself with honour, that I would meet with exactly that in return.  Only very rarely did I find behavior to the contrary.

When those situations arose, they were tiresome, and sometimes depressing.  One of the things I dealt with as a woman in a desert, Muslim environment, was being offered marriage almost daily – from pretty much every nomad I met, if they were single.  There is no offense taken in these situations – one simply declines politely, and with respect.  But I made it very clear to the men I hired that once in camp, we were family, and I was not remotely interested in marriage or any other liaison.  On a couple of occasions the guides, through ignorance or malice, made the mistake of pushing the issue, or treating me as a slave rather than an employer.  This is where it is tough as a woman; and where one treads very carefully.  Polite but firm is the starting point; sack the guide and get another if they don’t get the message; and if that is non-viable (for example when you are very isolated) be tough if you need to be.  But what I learned as the most important thing was never to lose my cool, never to show vulnerability, and to treat most scenarios with a great deal of humour.

I suspect this is the simple rule for women.  It just isn’t ok to plead weakness, to throw up your hands in despair and ask someone else to solve a problem for you.  If you have chosen to get out there in a man’s world – then you have to play by the same rules, even if you think at times it is twice as hard.  Remember, you have many advantages – women, I believe, have a natural ability to empathise and comprehend subtleties in behavior.  Where we struggle is to communicate calmly, assertively, and with authority, when things get tough and we feel boxed in. Flying off the handle, or behaving irrationally or tearfully because we feel misunderstood and bullied, helps not a jot.  Lifting out of that is what leadership is about; no less for a man than a woman.

The most common question I field from journalists is how I felt out in the desert ‘as a woman’.  The answer is fairly simple – I was out there as an adventurer, and team leader.  I felt as any leader would have done in a situation where I had to react to changing circumstances daily, often under duress.  It was hard and lonely, and at times I felt I got it wrong.  But being a woman was not something that stuck in my head as a hardship.  We all fight personal demons out in the field, no matter what our background or gender.  We all struggle with being the leader we know we should be, and performing in an honourable, courageous way in tough conditions.  At times being a woman was an advantage – and at times very tiresome.  But I suspect the same could be said of any man.

I have met men and women who journey as much for the personal journey as the external one.  I have read quite a few times recently that women do this more than men, but I would dispute that.  I think women can be just as goal oriented – in fact, sometimes, even more so – than a man.  I just think that women are happy to describe their personal journey in more detail than many men, partly because their emotional life is ever present – well, it is for me, anyway.  What intrigues me is that most men are as aware of the emotional as women – they just don’t tend to write about it in the same detail.  Yet, in my discussions with men who may appear on the surface to be the archetypal hairy adventurer, scratch the surface and there is an overwhelming need and desire to talk about how they felt out there.  It is no coincidence that throughout the history of exploration, personal feelings, group dynamics and emotional turbulence have dominated the diaries, successes, and failures of explorers both male and female.  Being in such tough circumstances brings out the best and worst in us all.   Knowing ourselves is perhaps the greatest challenge in adventure, and the only way we truly begin to succeed.

Some of the hardest times on my walk were moments when all I wanted was to sit down with a group of girlfriends and talk about how I felt, something that is rather difficult at times for nomads.  On one such occasion I was resting and watching the sunfall, at the end of a particularly tough day on a very tough stretch.  I’d been out for twenty days, supplies were running low, the heat was intense during the day, and we we’d had to walk over thirty km each day to make wells.  As I watched, the sun dropped, and the sweet cool desert breeze washed over me like a miracle, just as the first stars shone through the gloaming.

My guide – a wonderful old man who had never gone even beyond the regional boundaries of his grazing area, and prior to me had never met a white woman – smiled softly, and said in Arabic:  “the desert night is the nomad’s reward for surviving another day.”

He tapped straight into how I was feeling, and we sat in silence and watched the night grow.  Finally we ate together, and tumbled into our beds.  I never forgot those words – because in what he said I knew that he had done it tough too, and put my experience on the same level as his own.  As a person, a leader, and a woman, I could have asked no greater compliment, and the simple line conveyed a beautiful truth: whether man, woman, Christian, Muslim, Arab or Australian, on expeditions we are made equals by our ability to conduct ourselves with strength humility and patience under the toughest of conditions.  Do so, and you render questions of gender irrelevant.

Fail to do so, and it matters not what you are.

Read more about Paula here!

I wrote an article about the issue here and another female explorer added her views to it!

Paula began walking from Trafalgar Square with a backpack. Since then, she has walked over 12000 km through eight countries, including nearly 8000km through the Sahara with her own camel train. Married when she left Trafalgar Square, Paula's husband left the expedition a year later, when the couple were just 1000km into their desert trek. Paula carried on with two Arabic, nomadic guides, and went on to gain sponsorship and go over halfway across the Sahara in a bid to make a West to East crossing of the desert when she was stopped by civil war in Niger in 2007. She is the author of two books - Slow Journey South, recounting her European walk; and Sahara, detailing the desert journey. No female adventurer has walked so far through the Sahara alone but for local guides.

Arita Baaijens, one of the worlds foremost camel travellers! Photo by Joanna P Pinneo

Guest writer number 6, Arita Baaijens, has been very helpful when it comes to advice on all topics regarding the desert. Once I asked her, since she speaks Arabic and is as much Bedu as the Bedu themselves, are you Moslem? Arita got slightly upset and answered: I am a free soul! Indeed she is! She is also a biologist, author, photographer and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Twenty years ago she gave up her job as an environmentalist, bought camels and made a solo crossing across the Western Desert of Egypt. Today she has made over 25 expeditions (3-6 months at a time) with her own caravan of camels all over Egypt and the Sudan. She travelled the Forty Days Road twice with trade caravans of camels. In the eastern desert of Sudan she and archaeologist Krzyzstof Pluskota discovered a hidden valley with hundreds of petroglyphs depicting cows. She just came back from Darfur (Sudan), Egypt and Mauritania. Although she knows everything about camels, she intends to travel on horseback from Siberia to Afghanistan. Her most recent book Desert Songs, a woman explorer in Egypt and Sudan (AUC Press, 2008) won an award in the Netherlands.

Female leadership in the desert!

Venus and Mars in the desert

During the past twenty years I’ve spend most winter seasons exploring the desert of Egypt and Sudan on camel. Sometimes friends kept me company during a leg of the journey, which was great. Camels are wonderful animals, but a conversation with them can be boring because they are only interested in food. So it was fun to have a friend around, although, to be honest, with some of them the fun didn’t last very long. A week at the most. After that the top-dog type of guys – never seen a desert, let alone knew a thing about camels – would point out how I could and should organize my caravan in a much better and more efficient way.

“This is the limit,” one of them shouted with a face turned purple. I was repairing a broken saddle without consulting him. A terrible insult, according to him. “Well, do you know how to do it?” I asked genuinely surprised. “No, but you don’t have to rub into my face.”

"Needless to say that I had the time of my life in Mauritania, where I met a lot of bold, bright and strong women. The Mauritanian caravan model functions, these role models taught me, because next to every strong woman stands a gentle man."

Another friend was annoyed because I made him feel insecure whenever he walked with the camels. Why? Picture the following scene: my friend climbs steep hill after steep hill with heavily laden camels and after two hills I, of course, tell him to circumnavigate those hills. Something he would have done automatically if he would have been the one to carry the load. Anyway, my friend was not amused and our never ending arguments threatened the relationship. So in the end I decided to give it a try and shut up in order to let him learn from mistakes. It worked. Until one of the camels seriously injured herself because of a stupid and unnecessary mistake my friend make. ‘No more soft approach,’ I decided there and then.
My top-dogs friends had a problem with female leadership, I decided. But as the list of incidents grew doubt crept in. ’Maybe it is me,’ I thought. After all, I was the only constant factor in all those stories. A man in my position would never question his leadership style, but being a female, I wondered what I could do to avoid future fights. I searched for female role models in the desert and hoped they could teach me a few tricks. But alas, female caravaners were hard to come by. All the local desert guides where male and they couldn’t care less about the feelings of their staff. On the contrary. A guide, or chabir, does not accept any criticism during a dangerous desert crossing. Which makes perfect sense. A guide is responsible for the lives of people and animals in the caravan and conflicts create tension and confusion, which in turn may affect his judgement.
Imagine my joy and disbelief when about five years ago I came across a thesis about trade in west Africa. The historian who wrote it claimed and proved that women in the region played an active role in caravan trade. As a merchant, investor and even as a caravaner.

Recently I travelled to Mauritania and met two female caravaners, both well into their seventies now. I also met the sons and daughters of a locally well known woman who had worked as a trader and a caravaner. One of her sons, now a grandfather, rubbed his knees and shins with a painful grimace when he talked about the long journeys with his mother. The whole family went together, parents and children, and they were on the road for several months. The children walked or sat on top of salt loads, hour after painful hour. The caravan would only come to a stop after sunset. And after such an exhausting day the mother still had to cook. Women were also responsible for selling goods at foreign markets. The profit was used to buy local products they could sell back home.

"When I explained to a few young women that their Dutch sisters, in order to keep their marriage intact, pretend that their husband is the boss, the girls laughed and laughed. They just couldn’t believe what I said. In Mauritania, they giggled, it is the other way around. Men like strong women. Indeed, if a spouse bosses his wife around she knows something is wrong. Very wrong. When a husband acts out of character he usually fancies another woman."

When I asked men and women about the daily routine in a trade caravan, nothing indicated that women had an inferior position. “Men and women worked together,” an old man commented. Many others confirmed this. In I learned that in Mauritania women have always had a very strong position in society and within the family. Women are also well educated. When I explained to a few young women that their Dutch sisters, in order to keep their marriage intact, pretend that their husband is the boss, the girls laughed and laughed. They just couldn’t believe what I said. In Mauritania, they giggled, it is the other way around. Men like strong women. Indeed, if a spouse bosses his wife around she knows something is wrong. Very wrong. When a husband acts out of character he usually fancies another woman.

Needless to say that I had the time of my life in Mauritania, where I met a lot of bold, bright and strong women. The Mauritanian caravan model functions, these role models taught me, because next to every strong woman stands a gentle man.

You can read more about the fantastic personality at http://www.aritabaaijens.nl and http://www.linkedin.com/in/aritabaaijens

Finally meeting Dan Buettner after being in contact for 23 years in his spectacular mansion in Minneapolis. From left: Me (yes, adding on Expedition weight), Dan Jr, Dan and his brother Steve.

23 years ago I met three Americans on a bicycle in Costa Rica. I remember us putting up camp outside a farm and how impressed I was over their equipment which was so much better than mine. I had a 3-speed bike, an old, leaky tent and a thin foam pad to sleep on. They had cycling helmets, which I thought was hilarious, Therm-A-Rests, new modern tents and 18 speed bikes. It was kind of the old World meeting the New. They were heading down to Argentina and came from Alaska. I was going the other way. They were going to do all of it in 10 months, for which I used 1½ year. The group leader wasn´t here, neither his brother. The team leader, Dan Buettner had flown to Cordoba in Spain to meet his first child, a son, arrive in daylight. His brother Steve was waiting in Managua. Since this day I have been in contact with Dan on and off over the years, since he has cycled through Africa, Russia and much more. But it took us 23 years to meet and that at his son, Dan Jrs, 23rd birthday!

In these years Dan has become very successful. He writes for the National Geographic and his latest book The Blue Zones has been a huge success, sold in 250 000 copies and he has been part of all the big talk shows like Oprah Winfrey and more and after reading his book, which I enjoyed a lot, I have realized, once again, that all seems to be meant, maybe, like the Arabs say, it is written in the stars. It was meant to be, him and me meeting. He gave me a nice perspective on certain things regarding the meaning of life. Dan seemed to enjoy every aspect of life, especially having time to be with his extended family. One of the ten commandments of how to get over 100 years old according to Dan and his Blue Zone project!

Visiting the great area where Dan had his mansion, also offered some nice winter days with son and less cold....

It was great meeting Dan during the Minneapolis visit. Otherwise a lot of my energy has been trying to figure out how the latest developments in Yemen will affect the Expedition. As it is now, the border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen is closed and I communicate excessively with my friends in this great country. Latest news comes from Brid Beeler, who is more updated than most people regarding the situation in Yemen, that not even the UN are getting through. So far, one of the better articles I have read about the situation comes from The Guardians Brian Whittaker here! This is of course, bad news, very bad news, so the question is, when will the border open up again? And do we need to re-route completely? That means we need more money and more time, which is not easy to acquire in these days of recession. Right now, the situation looks worse than ever and my big worry, is that it will develop even worse, that outside troops will move in and we will have a very serious situation. It smells Afghanistan and Somalia. And all borders will, of course, then be closed to Saudi-Arabia, the country the Expedition really needs and wants to pass through. Not possible, no Expedition. That is reality. We are returning to Oman at the end of the month to continue our work to put the Expedition on its feet. Until than, there are other worries….

And if I haven´t felt the global recession anything earlier, it is moving in everywhere. I get emails from colleagues all over the world who describes the situation more dire than ever. And it easy to see here in the US of A. The recession. It has, so far, been a very important and interesting visit, and the positive aspects of this great country is the multi-cultural society and the positive attitude of most people. I am in Philadelphia right now, and I really like its Afro-American population. On the negative side, this is not a place to be, the US, if things turn bad. No matter how often I have seen homeless people all over the world, it pains to see. I have taken one decision, if I ever, in shallah, become a father, Sweden is the place to be. I have re-evaluated my own country a lot during these last 6 months. I am beginning to feel full proud Swedish again. Especially after meeting all Americans with Swedish back ground in Minneapolis talking about the Old country.

William Penn´s beautiful City Hall in Philadelphia, a very interesting and livly East coast city.

By the way, if you have time to kill, why not come to see the Siberian lecture at Williams College in Williamstown on Friday? See http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=260366986429&index=1

Charles Darwins book about his 5-year trip around the world on the Beagle changed the way we see life.....

I have pretty much finished one of the best Christmas meals and evenings I have had for years. Pamela is a great chef and has made roast chicken,  pumpkin pie, her own special empanadas, roasted potatoes…all finished off with lots of chocolate ice cream. We have watched a lot of movies during the day, relaxed and generally felt as good as two human beings can feel together. Finally, just a little bit of a break of all the worries involved in getting the Expedition on its feet. Just a bit. It does, the well-being of the Expedition, occupy a major part of my thoughts and dreams, day and night, and I am quite worried right now. Life has taken a drastic turn. In the long run, maybe for the better. Time will show. I will write at length once I can get outdoors and buy a new cable to the camera to download photos to the laptop…because…snow is pouring down where we  are located and we can´t get out of our room!!!

Anyway, the Christmas break is a perfect time to read. To contemplate and maybe, this is the occasion when one suddenly finds a book which will  inspire to leave the settled life for an adventure or Expedition of a life time! And, about a year ago I had a question from Geographical to pick the 5 best Travel books I´ve ever come across. Well,  just to inspire all of you, I have picked the 10 most inspiring books I have read so far in my life. And if they can´t inspire you, there´s not much I can do to make your life better…here they are:

1. Annapurna by Maurice Herzog. This is the way real climbs, real exploration should be done. Before you had set routes and ropes fixed to the mountain. This book presents the enthralling account, by the leader of the French expedition, of the first conquest of Annapurna – at that time, and at more than 8000 metres, the highest mountain ever climbed. It is a story of breathtaking courage and determination against appalling odds. In records of mountaineering, in tales of human endeavour, there is nothing so unforgettable as the account of the descent by the triumphant but frost-bitten men, after the monsoon had broken, through the flooded valleys of Nepal.

Many think this is the best adventure book ever written.....

2. The worst journey in the world by Aspley Cherry-Garrard. This book gave me and Johan Ivarsson great insights into the cold during our Siberian Expedition. One of the youngest members of Scott’s team, Apsley Cherry-Garrard was later part of the rescue party that eventually found the frozen bodies of Scott and three men who had accompanied him on the final push to the Pole. This is his account of an expedition that had gone disastrously wrong. No episode in the history of human endeavour reads more harrowingly than Scott’s last expedition to Antarctica. Scott reached the South Pole in January 1911 to find Roald Amundsen had beaten him to it; then perished with his companions on the way home. ‘Yet, “tragedy”‘, Apsley Cherry-Garrard was to write a decade later, ‘was not our business.’ Cherry-Garrard was just 24, the youngest but one of the team when he joined Scott. Left behind for the final leg, in accordance with Scott’s original plan for a four-man advance, it fell to Cherry-Garrard eight months later to be a member of the search party which discovered their frozen bodies. The experience permanently damaged his mental health. For the rest of his life he was haunted by the fear that, but for what he perceived as an error of judgement on his part, they might have survived. Yet this book, his story of that and earlier expeditions, is in no way self-indulgent or sensationalist. Despite his name, aristocratic birth and classics degree from Oxford, Cherry-Garrard was no arrogant nobleman. Rather, this not especially robust but intelligent man well understood that polar exploration requires a singular fortitude pushing beyond brute strength to what Ranulph Fiennes was later to term mind over matter. Cherry-Garrard’s descriptions of the conditions suffered are rendered all the more diabolical by prose as stark as the landscape traversed. As for hyperbole, the ‘Worst Journey’ of the title in fact refers to an earlier expedition investigating nesting sites of the Emperor penguin. A work of supreme dimension, this masterpiece remains as compelling today as when it was first published 80 years ago.

3. The Heart of the Hunter by Laurens Van der Post. A beautiful book about travels among the Bushmen. In this stirring sequel to “The Lost World” of the Kalahari Laurens van der Post records everything he has learned of the life and lore of Africa’s first inhabitants. He explores the very sources of the Bushmen’s spirit and imagination – their dreams and stories, the legends that guide them and inspire them in their daily battles with that harshest of environments, the Kalahari.

CuChullaine O´Reilly on his famous ride!

4. Arctic dreams by Barry Lopez. An amazingly inspiring account from the northern part of the globe. The European picture of the Arctic is usually of snow and ice: the inhospitability of the terrain and the frigid wastes of the tundra contribute to our incapacity to imagine ordinary life there. In this magisterial book Barry Lopez draws on this hazy understanding of the far north to provide a compelling account of the land and its hold upon the psyche.It is a book which could be compared to Chatwin for its combination of travelogue and poetic vision. Yet the beauty of the prose and the thought-provoking evocations of modern culture’s shifting relationship with the environment are in a league of their own. Here are sparkling descriptions of the lives of caribou, muskoxen, polar bears and narwhals, and extraordinarily moving passages which meditate on the nature of our relationship with the world, the inter-dependence of ideas, desire and science and the possibility of dignity and compassion in the contemporary world.It is a measure of the respect which Lopez has for his subject that his book exemplifies the supreme importance which he ascribes to the ethics of respect in the face of all existential paradox:”There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of a leaning into the light”.

5. Khyber Knights by CuChullaine O´Reilly. A very good friend of mine. It is an account of perilous adventure and forbidden romance in the depths of mystic Asia. A real modern day tale! It is also a book of insights to the human soul. It has everything an adventure book should have!

6. Scott and Amundsen by Roland Huntford. The best book about the race to the South Pole between Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott. It is not much liked by many British, but as somebody who is brought up in snow and cold, and know a bit about polar exploration, I think it is very accurate. Roald Amundsen should have been give much more acclaim for his fantastic life and discoveries. It is a very dramatic book,but gives a very good background on both of them.

Courtesy Robin Davidson. Probably the best account of an adventure I have read written by a female explorer.

7. Tracks by Robyn Davidson. Even though most of my recommended books are about males, most likely because they are described and written in a way that appeals to me and my way to explore, I think that books about adventure and exploration written by women, generally are better as a whole. Women are more honest, lie and brag about themselves much less and are much more emotional. This book as excellent. In every way and should be read by everyone who is thinking about doing adventures and Expeditions. It is a bout her 1700 mile trek with camels across the Western desert of Australia.

8. The voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin. I had no idea that Charles Darwin was such a good writer. The book is a must in many ways, since quite a few of his ideas regarding the evolution of mankind began developing here, but it is also a great travel book full of adventures and insights into all these countries that the Beagle passed on its 5 years journey.

Annapurna - Maurice Herzog classical account of the first 8000 meter mountain to be climbed.

9. The incredible voyage by Tristan Jones. Amazing book by an amazing fella. His passage with his boat through South-America is just unbelievable. He is a very good writer and this will be a classic in the future. With a singleness of purpose as ferocious as any hazard he encountered, Tristan Jones would not give up – even after dodging snipers on the Red Sea, capsizing off the Cape of Good Hope, starving on the Amazon, struggling for 3,000 miles against the mightiest sea current in the world, and hauling his boat over the rugged Andes three miles above sea level to find at last the legendary Island of the Sun. And beyond lay the most awesome challenge of all – the tortuous trek through 6,000 miles of uncharted rivers to find his way back to the ocean.

10  Arabian Sands by Wilfried Thesiger. By now, I have read the book many times. It is part poetry, part the meaning of life, but most a great read about his amazing explorations in the Arabian desert, and most of all, in Rub Al-Khali. Thesiger himself sums it up himself, by saying in his foreword:

No man can live this life and emerge unchanged. He will carry, however faint, the imprint of the desert, the brand which marks the nomad; and he will have within him the yearning to return, weak or insistent according to his nature. For this cruel land can cast a spell which no temperate clime can hope to match.

This photo was taken in Nairobi 1989. I was really ill in malaria, a disease which would plague my life for the upcoming two years...I still finished my bicycle trip though. But it took me a year to cycle from Nairobi to Cape of Agulhaes. I wouldn´t have made it without the help of one of my best friends, Steve Jewell. Photo taken by Marc Freedman, another of my best friends.

Night has fallen over Al Ghubra. I can see the green blinking sign of Lulu Supermarket through the window of our flat and lots of traffic, as always, is on its way to Father Mammon himself. The air condition is on, I have done another pass at Horizon Gym in Athaiba and I am dreaming about a White Christmas. Five days until Santa is supposed to arrive….Christmas always makes my mood somewhat mellow and philosophical. I have spent most of them away from home, in non-Christian environments. I like Christmas, in the sense that it is a family gathering. I love my family. But for me, Christmas has also always been a time of deep thoughts and reflexions on the year passed by. And thoughts of other people suffering. Because when you are away from your family, you feel vulnerable and weak. Feelings that make you a better human being. And it pains me more than normal, that some people -I should say most- spends most of their life suffering. Basically due to poverty, injustice, race, religion, some tragedy, extreme environment and lots of selfishness. I have been very privileged myself and still is. But, whilst looking back at the passed year I came across some notes I wrote just before starting this blog.

14 and a half months have passed. I was than sitting in a cramped but charming and homely one roomed flat in Stockholm trying to figure out what to do with life. Now in a much bigger flat in Muscat, Oman. I am very content. But my life than was in limbo. Free of direction. Tainted by horror and agony. If somebody thought that the life of a traveler and explorer is always full of joy, forget it. Anyway, that day I wrote these ten tips what to think about when life just goes wrong, when tragedy strikes or hope is gone….they´re still valid!

1. Never, ever underestimate the love of your family. And the importance of having one. The same applies to truly good friends.

2. One can loose nothing by being a true human with all its good and bad sides. The truth is everything, but with some time of thinking before revealing it. Think before talking. Time heals. And wherever you are, no matter what circumstances, stand for who you are. Don´t try to be anyone you can´t be.

3. Never judge and condemn. If you don´t know the true story of what happened. One can have an opinion, but try to put yourself in the other persons place. It makes a difference.

4. Positive thinking always overrules negative. If you have negative people around you, get rid of them until the´ve eaten the humble pie.

5. Take time to be there for other people. You never know when things go wrong.

Santa Claus on ice? Why not? Santa here is one very good friend, Tomas Sjögren who runs Explorers Web together with his great wife Tina, who is in Santas arms here...they will get a white Christmas in Denver, Colorado. And me?

6. Accept responsibility and sort out the problem. Then move on.

7. Better give then take. In every aspect of life. One can never be to kind.

8. Be true to yourself. Tragedy strikes when one tries to be something one ain´t.

9. Enjoy every moment of the day, you never know, when it will end. So then, why worry at all?

10. Never, ever complain. There´s always tons of people who are worse off, no matter how bad your situation is. If you have been a good human when everything falls apart, there will be people there fore you. So being good and kind is a winner.

However, my own hell have been very strengthening for my character, I´ve learned a lot and I´ve been eating the humble pie. A visit to hell have been for the better. I come out of it as a better human being. More humble, more understanding, kinder, warmer and ready to live to its fullest limits again!

I still hope for a White Christmas even if it seems impossible! But than again, positive thinking helps! Stay tuned! Nothing is impossible….!

Just after arriving in Parsons Green, this sunny and warm day, I turned on the computer and saw these great news :

Dear Mikael,

We made you a honorary member in La Rahla so that if you need to consult any of our members we can put you in touch with them for information on the regions of the Sahara you intend to cross. We can also facilitate you buying photocopies of maps of the Sahara as we have practically full coverage of this part of the world. We can also help you on historical events which took place in the areas you will be crossing. It will add interest for you and the people you will be describing your expedition to.

We also feel that you are intending to do something particularly difficult physically and near impossible in this day and age with all the red tape problems in crossing borders that we can but admire your optimism on being able to conclude this venture. You are going to cross a part of the world we enjoy so much visiting and reading about. It will be a pleasure for us also to follow your itinerary and telling our members how it is progressing.

Mikael, “La Rahla, Amicale des Sahariens” 116 rue Damrémont 75018 PARIS FRANCE, is an association created over 80 years ago with over 1000 members across the world. Publishing every quarter in french a review of 80 pages on the Sahara excusively, and that this month it has just published as well a booklet of over 128 pages on an epic crossing of the Tenere desert done in 1927- 1928 when this part of the world was just a blank on the map with the title “EXPLORATION DU TENERE à la recherche du Tafassasset avec Ch. Toubeau de Maisonnneuve”. To see more about this Association visit their internet site :

http://www.larahla.com

Equestrian Exploration Program Developed Leading Explorer Oversees Historic Effort

Mikael Strandberg isn’t very tall but his name carries a lot of weight in the international exploration community.

He started his professional career as an explorer two decades ago by bicycling 27,500 kilometres from Patagonia to Alaska, via the infamous Darien Gap jungle. Then he pedaled another 90,000 kilometres from New Zealand to Cairo.

After that he parked the bike and explored Latin America on horseback, which won him admittance into the Long Riders’ Guild, the world’s first international association of equestrian explorers. When he hung up his saddle, he spent a year living among the Masai in Kenya.

Then in 2004 Strandberg made an astonishing winter crossing through Siberia. During this five month sledge journey, mainly done in utter darkness, he experienced a terrifying cold with average temperatures around -50°F, day and night. This trip through the coldest inhabited place on earth caused the King of Sweden to award his intrepid subject a silver medal for courage.

Strandberg has produced three internationally renowned television documentaries, written six books, lectured around the world and been deemed “the best contemporary explorer in the world” by the Explorers Club in London.

Now he’s preparing to begin the Great Desert Expedition – a camel journey that will take him from Oman to Morocco.

But before departing on that adventure, the Swedish Long Rider will tackle a unique educational challenge. He has agreed to assume responsibility for developing a new Equestrian Exploration Department for the Long Riders’ Guild Academic Foundation.

“With Mongolia having become the fortieth country to field Long Riders and join the Guild, there is ample evidence to demonstrate that interest in equestrian exploration is exploding,” said Basha O’Reilly, one of the Guild’s Founding Members. “Earlier this year an impassioned debate was held regarding the fact that a London-based geographic society hadn’t fielded a single expedition in more than a decade. While other organizations vote themselves into obscurity, the Guild has sponsored, mentored or encouraged more than a hundred equestrian expeditions on every continent except Antarctica in less than ten years.”

Yet while enthusiasm runs high, O’Reilly reported, leaders of the equestrian exploration movement remain concerned that this mounted renaissance must adhere to the highest principled standards. As Director of Exploration for the Guild, Strandberg will help the LRGAF promote and develop ethical, safe and responsible equestrian exploration and long distance travel.

“This is an honour that I accept with dignity. I am looking forward to using my experience in organizing different types of expeditions so as to encourage and educate would-be Long Riders around the world,” Strandberg said.

Skeptics may argue that Strandberg and his fellow Long Riders stand little chance of encouraging a generation to take to the saddle and explore Earth. Yet history demonstrates that one person’s passion for exploration and education can indeed change the course of events. This occurred in the fifteenth century when Prince Henry of Portugal established the world’s first school for explorers. At Sagres, on the southwestern tip of Europe, he brought together geographers, cartographers, instrument-makers, astronomers, and mathematicians. The institute was designed to teach navigation, to collect geographical data, invent seafaring equipment and to sponsor expeditions.

The sturdy Swedish explorer is a modern day graduate of that school of thought who has already shared his expertise with the first team of Afghan mountain climbers and a Scandinavian camel expedition crossing the Sahara, not to mention dozens of young adventurers eager for more generalized advice. Strandberg now believes he can help inspire others to explore the world as their forefathers did.

“Although Prince Henry never sailed on any of his expeditions, he is credited with instigating the Age of Discovery. Unlike Henry, who inspired but did not travel, we modern Long Riders’ Guild are determined to lead from the saddle.”

In Strandberg’s case, this means a camel saddle, not an equestrian one.

Though the intrepid Swede has more than twenty years of experience surviving in dangerous places, overcoming tropical diseases, etc., he is about to venture deep into a remote part of the Muslim world on a desert expedition which will certainly require him to deal with cultural and religious challenges, as well as the everyday dangers of trying to survive a trip that would cause Ibn Battuta to have second thoughts.

“I’ve just returned from studying Arabic and Islam in Yemen. The wonderful experiences I enjoyed there have convinced me that this trip will allow me to build a bridge of exploration which runs between the Islamic world and the West,” the enthusiastic explorer explained.

While the Long Riders’ Guild is famous for having protected the ancient art of equestrian travel from going extinct, the organization has spent the last two years quietly working to create a new camel travel division as well. The world’s leading camel travel experts, such as Arita Baaijens who travelled across the Sahara with her dromedary camels and John Hare who journeyed across the Gobi with Bactrian camels, have agreed to lend their academic support to this unique educational effort.

Because of the length and significance of Strandberg’s journey, the Guild has honoured him by presenting the explorer with the first LRG flag to accompany a camel expedition.

“Insh’Allah, we’re going to make exploration history of an unexpected and unprecedented nature,” Strandberg said.

When asked to explain what prompted the equestrian organization to include Strandberg and his camels, Basha O’Reilly of the Guild replied, “What we envision is an organization that grows out of the original Long Riders’ Guild, and goes on to publish books, sponsor new research, and provide funds and equipment to Long Riders. This is a new type of exploration foundation, one that preserves mankind’s ancient methods of travelling safely and successfully with horses, and now camels. Regardless of what he is riding, Mikael is a perfect example of this blending of mounted courage.”

To learn more about Sweden’s most celebrated explorer and Long Rider, please visit Mikael’s exploration blog –

http://explorermikaelstrandberg.wordpress.com/

For an interview with Mikael Strandberg regarding his career as an explorer –

http://blog.cheaptents.com/interview-mikael-strandberg-legendary-explorer-and-adventurer/

Read article in Horsetalk! and in ExplorersWebNews! and in Voices for horses!

Visit the Long Riders Guild!

One of my oldest friends, Marc, said yesterday when I told him about another roller coaster story of my life which is happening right now:

“I say, go for it! Can´t wait to hear what comes next! Your life is more interesting and unusual than a science fiction book!”

It´s Marc and me on the photo to the top right here. It is taken by our common friend Steve Jewell in Mikumi National Park in Tanzania, I think 1988, when I was cycling from North-Cape in Norway to South-Cape in South-Africa and Marc started his 7 year all around the world cycle tour. The reason we are armed is that earlier that day, whilst walking through the high crass of the park, following a group of baboons and the two female scientists who´d been tracking this especial group and family for a year, suddenly we heard a roar and a female lion stood up in the grass!

I remember the female scientists had told us before, if this would happen, don´t run! They did! And so did the two armed rangers we had with us, so the only one´s left, glued to the ground like three termite mounds, where Steve, Marc and me. Most likely by pure shock, even though I do seem to remember that Steve, also one of my best friends, afterwards said that he was cool as a postcard and just wanted to study the behavior of the lion…Sure, Steve, I also remember you were having it off with one of the scientists….

I also remember it all happened so fast, and since I am such a coward, I took a step behind Marc, so if the lioness would go for an attack, it wouldn´t be me who got killed. Sorry Marc, I do believe it was all instinct….Anyway, the lioness, as all wild animals, feared us more, and turned around and slowly ran off away from us. That is why we are armed. And that is also the reason we have hair and look young, which is not the case today…

I often get questions what my old partners on route are doing today. Steve, he joined me in Maasailand aswell, where he met his wife Theonestina, with whom he lives in Canada today and have two children. Last time I saw him was 5 years ago and he was extra-ordinary fat. He is still one of the funniest people on earth and i talk to him on Skype irregularly. Marc isn´t to thin either, today, but a successful business man and runs a spa in Williamstown. On and off he´d like to hit the road again and just came back from a tour in Namibia. read about it here! Marc is a very generous, smart, funny and extra-ordinary kind person who right now lives by himself with his love of life, the Golden Dream, his dog. He will in some capacity be involved in the Expedition and my future. He is one of my very best friends. Last time I met him was also years ago, I think 2 years ago, when I visited him in Williamstown for the second time. He was known as Hub Sprockett in Africa. And Steve went under the name of Steve Clitoris. Or at least that is how he was presented at a conference somewhere in Africa. I think it was Mbeya. That time was the funniest in my life. I had ten good laughs a day, African style. An African laughter is different to all others. It begins in your stomach, than kind of rolls all the way up to your mouth where it explodes! Best feeling on earth it is, and it is a long time since I was even close to a laugh like that. I think it was very close in Yemen though.

There´s not a lot to laugh about in Sweden. Maybe life was better before, as the old people tend to say. Nope, from now on, I will find my old habit to laugh! This is my next little personal project, laughter!