The 39 Greatest Names in Travel and Adventure

I think the guys that “traveled” for the sole purpose of conquering should be on a different list. :-)

Personally would add Sir Richard Francis Burton to the list.

Great list. I need to do some research one some!

Maybe add Anton Chekhov? Went across Russia a year before Trans-Siberian in three months to live at pre-gulag labor camp for several months.

I’d also add Sir Edmund Hillary.

Isabella Bird, Mary Kingsley, Dervla Murphy

Isabelle Eberhardt

Martha Gellhorn, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Nikos Kazantzakis, Ryszard Kapuscinski

Love Robert Reid’s suggestion of Chekov.

Thanks for all the suggestions! Clearly this could have been expanded this far beyond the 39 on the list.

And to think this was initially a Top 10 list…

Graham Greene, Rudyard Kipling, Paul Theroux, W. Somerset Maugham…..clearly, I have a thing for writers.

David Attenborough wows me on end

as does Jane Goodall

the adventuress of Grizzly Bear Mom!, not that anyone other than myself would be interested.

Why is Tenzing Norgay on the list but not Edmund Hillary? They did climb Everest together. Hillary then devoted his life to working for the betterment of the Sherpa people. On the other hand, I suppose Tenzing has been viewed by westerners as the junior partner in the endeavor, which he assuredly was not.

Ella ‘Kini’ Maillart, of Switzerland, died only a few years ago in her nineties and was a precursor of the female athlete/explorer… her books are filled with atmosphere and although she was deeply troubled in many ways, she was also a trailblazer.

Uhm, Ibn Batutta?  His book is a classic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Battuta

More great suggestions everyone. Thanks!

Bill: I put Tenzing Norgay on the list because the name itself mentally transports me more than Edmund Hillary.

Drew: Ibn Batutta is representing, but as Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta.

Great list. It must have been hard to stop at 39.

I like seeing Tenzing Norgay on the list, but I would be tempted to add Jon Krakauer. Well, maybe not Jon, but his book was amazing…

I would definately add Ernest Shackleton!

And I would consider adding any of the Apollo astronauts (the ultimate “travelers”)...

Steve

——
trade show displays

Conquerors, adventurists, venal knaves and rascals fleeing the bailiffs are all fine with me, but they have to have written about their journey (or someone has to have written about it).  The Hero must go on a journey, have adventures and come home and tell about them.  People have been making epic journeys since our progenitors wandered out of Africa.  If they don’t get written up — if we don’t get to see the individual making the journey — it doesn’t move me. 

And why are Estevanico and Sacagawea on the list and Cabeza de Vaca and Lewis & Clark not?