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Photo: Neal Moore (via Explorersweb)
Corey Kilgannon / NY Times 🔒 »
Mr. Moore began in the Columbia River in Oregon, crossed several northern states and traveled down to the Gulf Coast by last winter. By early 2021, he was headed back up to the Great Lakes and to New York State, where he followed the Erie Canal to the Hudson River and ultimately to the Statue of Liberty.
“I wanted to see the country up close and personal at this interesting time, with the pandemic and all the political strife, to find out what it actually means to be American today,” Mr. Moore said.
“I felt like I followed that light shining all the way across the country,” he said later. “My journey was one of illumination. So to finally see that beacon up close, that flame of liberty, after seeing it in so many people I met across this land, it was overwhelming.”
Traveling by river became metaphoric: Just as rivers connect towns and cities, Mr. Moore said, he began exploring connections between people often separated by race, class and political stripe.
Elsewhere » 22 Rivers / Explorersweb / Adventure Journal
Poles of inaccessibility in the arctic, antarctic, Eurasia, North America, South America, Africa, and Australia.
These are the remotest places in the world as they are extremely far from the sea.
(Source BBC / Credit: Morten Falch Sortland/Getty Images)
- Preikestolen is among Norway’s most hiked trails, with 331,000 visitors reaching its exposed top in 2019. Its stone stairway was built by Nepalese Sherpas.
- Around 300 stone mountain stairways have been built in Norway over the past two decades.
Mike MacEacheran / BBC Travel »
In many ways, the location and the sublime views from Preikestolen, or Pulpit Rock, near Stavanger in south-west Norway are irrelevant, because what is important is the journey to get there. It is a hike up an expertly engineered and well-maintained stone staircase that is as much of a marvel as the finale itself.
There’s an ancient beauty to the stairway and it comes from the fact that Preikestolen – like nearly 300 other natural stone staircase projects in Norway purpose-built over the past two decades – has been crafted by teams of Sherpas from Nepalese communities living in the shadows of Mount Everest.
There was a time when Norway’s mountain paths would only see a handful of local visitors. But social media has changed all that, and over the past decade, the country has seen such a dramatic spike in overseas travellers keen to Instagram its viewpoints that something has had to give.
Rebecca McPhee, Explorersweb »
Mark Delstanche, 47, has become the first person to solo row from New York to London. He set off from Battery Park, New York on June 14, and after 97 days he crossed the finish line at Tower Bridge, London. Since the beginning, Delstanche has faced complications. His boat Square Peg was custom-made with a flywheel-powered propeller, which broke early in his journey. He then rowed through some of the worst weather in years. Over the three months, he endured eight major storms and seven capsizes. The storms damaged most of his electronic equipment. During one capsize, he twisted his knee.
Sir Francis Chichester (Sep 17, 1901 – Aug 26, 1972)
Sir Francis Chichester
On his around-the-world voyage, he left Plymouth August 27, 1966, sailing the 14,100 miles to Sydney in 107 days. Embarking again on Jan. 29, 1967, he returned to Plymouth around Cape Horn in 119 days, the 15,517 miles being the longest passage made by a small sailing vessel without a port of call. He was knighted in May 1967 by Queen Elizabeth II. His last solo voyage in January–February 1971, from Portuguese Guinea to Nicaragua, covered 4,000 miles in 22 days. He died shortly after illness in 1972 prevented him from making the solo transatlantic race. His books include the autobiography The Lonely Sea and the Sky (1964) and The Gipsy Moth Circles the World (1967).
For the 40th time, Jane Dotchin has set out on a seven-week pilgrimage along rural byways from her home in Hexham, England to Inverness, Scotland.
How many 80-year-olds do you know who travel 1,000km overland each year? Age is just a number for Jane Dotchin from Hexham, England, who has done such a trek annually since 1972. This year, her 13-year-old pack pony, her disabled Jack Russell terrier, and a few personal items were all she needed for the trip.
Dotchin puts on her eyepatch and an orange safety vest, packs her kit and Jack Russell terrier Dinky onto her horse, and sends it. From her home in Northumberland, near the Scottish border, she’ll ride all the way north to Inverness. It’s a tradition that started decades ago for Dotchin, with a deferred animal care request and an inkling of freedom.
The European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 takes us over the second largest river delta in Europe.