Trans World Expedition: Driving around the globe

by Kraig Becker on

In a little over two weeks time, on November 15 to be exact, Nicolas Rapp will be setting out on an adventure of a lifetime. He’ll be quitting his comfortable job as an art director for the Associated Press, and setting out on a year long road trip, driving his way around the globe.

Nick’s route will begin and end in New York City. First, he’ll head south into Mexico, continuing down through Central and South America. Eventually he’ll ship his vehicle by boat to South Africa, where he’ll turn north and drive his way to Europe, before turning east across Asia. From there, he’ll once again ship his vehicle, this time across the Pacific, where he’ll then complete his expedition by driving across the U.S. back to New York City. You can review his entire route on his website by clicking here.

In order to complete this type of long distance driving journey, the intrepid traveler had to select the perfect vehicle. Nick elected to go with the Toyota Land Cruiser, which seems like the most logical choice. The rugged and powerful 4×4 is used all over the planet, which means finding parts for it should be easy, and it will perform well in nearly any type of terrain. In preparation for the journey, Nick upgraded the suspension, reinforced the bumpers, added a roof rack, and installed a storage system for all of his gear. He also added a rooftop tent to the vehicle which will give him a comfortable place to sleep each night, saving him money on accommodations as he goes.

Nick budgeted $46,000 for his year long adventure, which includes all of his supplies, costs for shipping the land cruiser, while flying himself, and a fund for emergency repairs. He’s also had to get a battery of vaccinations, as well as a number of travel visas, maps, and guide books as well. He admits that sticking to his budget will be one of the challenges along the way.

Fortunately for us, we all get to follow along with Nick on this journey. He’ll be posting updates and stories from the road at his website located at TransWorldExpedition.com. You can head over there now and read about his preparation for the trip and his final thoughts in the days leading up to the journey.

Good luck Nick! Enjoy the ride!

British couple kidnapped by Somali pirates

by Katie Hammel on

A British couple sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania was kidnapped by Somali pirates and is now being held for ransom.

Paul and Rachel Chandler, both in their late 50’s, had been sailing since March on their 38-foot sailboat and keeping a blog about their journey. Last week family and friends alerted authorities that they had not heard from the couple in several days, and shortly after, their boat was found in the waters of the Indian Ocean off Somalia.

Pirates boarded the boat while the Chandlers slept and began demanding money. They took all the items of value off the boat and then forced the couple to onto a container shipp they’d seized earlier this month.

The pirates then called a British news station and allowed Chandler to make a statement saying that he and his wife had been kidnapped. So far the pirates have not asked for a ransom, but the assumption is that they will make their demands soon. Luckily, family members of the Chandlers have indicated that they will pay for the safe return of the couple.

With all the news about pirates attacking ships off the Somali coast, I was surprised that someone would sail a small craft through the area. Pirates usually go for bigger ships, but have attacked smaller boats and yachts as well. They assume the people on board will be wealthy and, as in this case, that their families will pay a ransom for them.

Met returns stolen Egyptian art

by Sean McLachlan on

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York announced this week that it will return a fragment of Egyptian sculpture to its homeland. Unlike the bust of Nefertiti or the recently returned frescoes that the Louvre gave up, the Egyptians weren’t calling for its return for months or years. In fact, the Met bought the item from a collector with the specific intent of repatriating it.

The move is being seen as an olive branch offered by the Met’s new director Thomas Campbell, and another victory for Egyptian head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass, who’s been getting tough with museums who own stolen Egyptian artifacts.

The artifact is a fragment of a naos, a shrine in the holy of holies of an Egyptian temple. It was dedicated to the 12th dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat I, who ruled from 1991 to 1962 BC, and was taken from a temple at Karnak, shown here.

History and art buffs face huge temptation when they enter an antiquities shop. Beautiful works of art and evocative everyday items from ancient civilizations are available for purchase, but this history and art buff has always resisted temptation. Much of what you see is either fake or stolen (witness the large numbers of Iraqi and Afghani artifacts on sale these past few years) and purchasing them encourages the destruction of irreplaceable archaeological sites by artifact hunters.

Once in Palmyra, Syria, a guy tried to sell me some “Roman” coins made of aluminum! Unfortunately the fakes are not always so easy to detect, as there’s a major worldwide industry making new things look old. Even if they are real artifacts, there’s a good chance they were stolen sometime in the past.

So congratulations to the Met and Dr. Hawass for a job well done. It’s a shame the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities is such a mess, but Dr. Hawass is working on fixing that too.

Photo courtesy of mikescrivener from the Gadling Flickr pool. Check out his really cool series from Egypt here.

Racing on foot through the Sahara

by Kraig Becker on

Last Sunday, an incredible endurance event got underway in Cairo Egypt, when the 2009 Sahara Race began. The 155 mile event pits 130 runners from more than 30 countries against one another in a six-stage race through the heart of the Western Desert, a part of the Sahara that covers more than 1.7 million square miles along Egypt’s borders with Libya and the Sudan.

Over the past few days, the runners have covered a variety of challenging stages ranging in length from 21 to 28 miles. In a sense, they are running a marathon each day, through the sand and heat of one of the hottest and driest environments on the planet. Along the way they passed through three or four mandatory checkpoints along the way, collecting water as they go. Upon completing the day’s stage, they camp in the desert for the night, resting up, and preparing for another run the following morning.

Today’s stage is the longest and most grueling however, with a 54 mile course dubbed the Black Desert March. The runners got underway at 4 AM this morning, and many will continue well into the night before they reach their next camp. If they complete the stage, they’ll finish up on Saturday, with a short run to the finish line at the Great Pyramids in Giza, capping the week’s events.

The Sahara Race is part of the 4 Deserts series of Ultramarathons, each of which take place on an annual basis. The other three events are held in the Atacama Desert of Chile, the Gobi in China, with the final race taking place in Antarctica, the largest desert on the planet. Each of the races offers its own unique challenges, pushing some of the world’s best endurance athletes to their limits in races against themselves and the environments around them.

Ship graveyards from around the world

by Kraig Becker on

Eco-friendly website Environmental Graffiti has an interesting story on their site today that details some of the top cargo ship graveyards from around the world. The article also includes some amazing photos of the rusted out shells of former cargo and cruise ships that have been left to rot in a variety of sun baked locations.

All told, there are five graveyards on the list, including the infamous Skeleton Coast in Namibia, as well as a others along the Aral and Red Seas, the Sahara, and off the coast of Greece. Most of these dumping grounds are desolate, remote deserts that remain uninhabited and mostly unvisited altogether. This, of course, makes them perfect places to deposit these obsolete vessels, but one can’t help but wonder what kind of environmental disasters we’ve created in these places.

Reading about these ship graveyards is sobering to say the least, but it is the excellent photographs that really delivers the story. Seeing these once proud vessels reduced to dilapidated shells left to wither away slowly is kind of sad, and you can’t help but wonder what kind of interesting stories some of these ships have to tell. Looking at them now, it is difficult to think that at one time they roamed the seas, delivering cargo and passengers to exotic locations around the globe. This is kind of an ignoble end to their tours of duty.