“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
— Helen Keller
This past Saturday, I had the great opportunity of hearing Ed Stafford speak–an explorer who recently walked the entire length of the Amazon in 860 days, from source to sea (check out his blog here, “Walking the Amazon”).
Naturally, he has a book by the same name coming out relatively soon and so I went to check it out on the website of an aptly-named booksellers (i.e. Amazon.com)…
It was there that something caught my attention, just under the “Customers who bought this item also bought” tab: rows and rows of adventure travel memoirs, all with sensational titles: The Man Who Cycled the World, No Way Down: Life and Death on the K2, To a Mountain in Tibet, The Forgotten Highlander: My Incredible Story of Survival During the War in the Far East–and the list goes on…Despite the diversity of experiences these books covered, there was one thing they all had in common:
They were all by men.
Instantly I was reminded of a little “market research” I attempted to do this past weekend for my own book project, looking into popular female travel memoirs. I noted such classics as Eat, Pray, Love and Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World, but there were new finds, too: Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman, Tout Allure: Falling in Love in Rural France, and An Italian Affair.
I was struck by how many of them had to do with love: whether going travelling after losing it, going travelling in search of it, or simply finding it on the road whether they were after it or not.
Obviously, I don’t have a lot of room to talk, not if these books are considered competition for my own project. I’m definitely exploring similar themes of love (or lack thereof) on the road, travel as self-discovery, a spiritual journey that mirrors our physical path through the world. But it was only while looking at the “male alternative” today that I couldn’t help asking, why do the guys get to have all the fun? and thinking to myself: come on, girls, we can do better than that!
And then I met Sarah Outen.
Well, not “met,” per se, but I came across an article on Gadling about a 25-year old British woman who has recently set off on another 800+ days expedition of rowing and cycling her way around the world, from London…to London. On the 1st of April, she began in a kayak from the Tower Bridge in London, crossing the English channel before changing her kayak for a bike.
She’s now working her way across Europe and Asia, where she’ll then pick the kayak back up again, row across the Pacific, bike across the States and ultimately row across the Atlantic sometime in 2013. On her website, Sarah writes:
“My journey is all about human power – to make a complete loop of our planet using only a rowing boat, a bike and a kayak. It is simple in theory, but in practice it will be monumentally challenging.”
After a weekend of listening to inspiring men like Ed Stafford talk about their journeys, it was so refreshing today to discover a girl nearly my own age out having an awe-inspiring adventure of her own.
And if that’s not girl power, I don’t know what it is…
Thumbnails courtesy of Art in the Picture, Women and Travel, and SarahOuten.com
Rachel Cusk would be proud.
So funny, I had some very similar thoughts a couple of months ago!!
I was lucky enough to hear Ed Stafford speak at the Royal Geographical Society in London with the whole tripwolf team last October and got so inspired I asked him for an interview. I must have been more nervous than I image I’d be talking to anyone like Brad Pitt 😉
The panel where Ed spoke as well (he was the only one not in a suite and drinking beer btw 😉 was about exploration and whether the great age of exploration is over or if there’s still some true and honest adventure out there waiting for some of us.
Although there was a woman in the panel (Christina Dodwell) the same question came up: why are there so few women? It really got me thinking, mainly because I don’t see why I shouldn’t be able experience the same kind of adventure/fun. And although love is much more exciting if there an adventure with it, adventures itself are great, even without love involved!
So yes – the world definitely needs more girlpower when it comes to adventures!!
btw. I read about Sarah as well (through a tweet by Ed Stafford) and I’ve recently come across Jennifer Figge, who is currently swimming around the world – pretty inspiring as well: http://jenniferfigge.com/
Hi Lea, great to hear from you! I’m so glad to hear someone else feels the same way about all this exploration and the seeming shortage of female involvement 🙂 That’s so cool you got to meet Ed and talk to him about his adventures–don’t worry, I would have been just as nervous 😉 Thanks so much as well for the tip on Jennifer Figge…it always amazes me that I’ve never heard of people like her who are doing such incredible things around the world. I look forward to following along her adventures!
Awesome Candace – keep it up!!!!
Thanks so much, Janetta, great to hear from you 🙂 Hope you and Ryan are doing well!