In January of this year, a British woman, Felicity Aston, accomplished an incredible feat for adventure annals: She skied solo and unassisted across Antarctica. She is the first woman — and first human — to do so. Dragging two sleds carrying 187 pounds of supplies for 1,084 miles, she completed …
Interstate rest stops are some of my favorite places when it comes to getting ideas for new adventures. Inside their doors are racks filled with printed brochures and colorful maps that promise excitement just down the road. It’s a banner day when I can replace my old, well-worn, highway map …
Antibacterial soaps, alcohol wipes, and bleach in our everyday cleaning products have made us focused on eliminating all the germs that we possibly can from our lives. And when it comes to our children, it seems that focus turns into an obsession. It’s here, though, where we soon become at …
When you hear about the great journeys undertaken by some of nature’s smallest creatures, you can’t help but feel inspired to step into adventures of your own that may be outside your comfort zone. And no odyssey is greater than that of the Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea). Weighing only 3.2 …
British explorer and Royal Navy officer Robert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole on January 17, 1912. A hundred years later, on January 17, 2012, in honor of this historic adventure, the National Geographic Society exhibited some rare photos of the expedition, taken by Herbert Ponting. A former rancher out …
There are twice as many emperor penguins in Antarctica than previously thought, stated the National Science Foundation in mid April. That’s certainly good news, as concerns about the effects of global warming on penguin colonies rise. But another new report mentions an increasing number of something else in Antarctica that …
Big dreams of exploration were not uncommon in the late 1800s and early 1900s. But one explorer may have taken such aspirations to the next level: In 1895, at a London conference on polar exploration, a Swedish engineer named Salomon August Andrée declared his intention to reach the North Pole …
Ever since the explorers of old used oral storytelling, flyers, and published journals to spread word of streets lined with gold, fountains of youth, or rich silks and spices, people have been using mass media to motivate others to go on adventures. A hundred years ago, even Ernest Shackleton promised …
Sea monsters are the stuff of thrilling fiction. From Jules Verne’s 1870 book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea to James Cameron’s 1989 movie The Abyss, tales of what creatures lurk in our oceans have captured our rapt attentions for more than a hundred years. But when those fictions bump …
When the Carnival cruise ship Splendor was towed into the San Diego Harbor late last week after being stranded off the coast of Mexico by an engine fire, many news reporters and bloggers commented that the 3,299 passengers and 1,167 crew had endured an “adventure at sea.” As far as …