I grew up on classic adventure stories. Marco Polo, Lewis and Clark, and Sir Edmund Hillary were my favorites. I loved hearing about people who pushed into the unknown, not knowing what was possible, or even if they would survive, just knowing that the world needed to be explored and that they were bloody well going to do it.
Now, in the age of satellite imagery, radar, and GPS, the parts of the world accessible by land have been explored, mapped, flown over, and named. There are no longer vast territories of unexplored land. But the restlessness of the human spirit remains.
So what do people who still want to push their limits do? Well, if they’re crazy enough, they cook up zany challenges (with no discernible point) and either complete them or die trying. The ones who succeed either write books or have books written about them.
This is the genre I call “pointless modern adventure travel,” and let me tell you, folks, it is delightful. Some of the wackiest people you can imagine have undertaken these (true) challenges, and you get to step into their mad little minds as they attempt to do pointless things over vast distances.
A Voyage For Madmen by Peter Nichols
This is one of those historical stories that you has you scratching your head, going: “how did no one ever tell me about this?”
In 1968, The Sunday Times put out a challenge: £5000 to the first person who could sail around the world, alone, without stopping at a single port. Nine men with very loose screws in their heads accepted.
It’s hard to overstate how insane this was at the time. GPS, cell phones, or satellites did not exist. You’d have to forego sleep or sleep in spurts for almost a year to make sure you kept navigating. To complete this challenge, you’d have to spend almost a year on a boat. Alone. Eating nothing but canned rations, because you’re not allowed to stop at a port.
This book is the story of that challenge, and it’s one of my top ten books ever, just because of the characters. Imagine the type of people this challenge attracted! My favorite by far was named Bernard Moitessier, a Frenchman who, when he was about to leave for almost a year on a boat, told his crying wife “don’t give me the blues at a time like this.”
She had good reason to cry because in addition to taking on this solitary challenge, Moitessier was the only one of the nine contestants who refused a radio, thinking it would take away from the spirit of the challenge. Instead, he brought a slingshot and some waterproof film canisters, saying “a good slingshot is worth a million radios.” Rather than radio his ship’s log, he would write it out, stick it into the film canisters, and slingshot it onto the deck of passing ships, with a note that said “please send this along to the Sunday Times.”
Surprisingly, his marriage didn’t last the voyage.
Moitessier is just the tip of the iceberg. The men who attempted this started out crazy, and only got crazier as time went on. This challenge broke people. Some of them were never the same. Some of them got stronger in the crucible of extreme isolation.
I’m telling you, you’ve got to read this book.
Here’s an interview with Moitessoir (warning, it does contain some spoilers of who won the race) and a link to The Long Way, the book Moitessoir wrote after the fact.
Tracks by Robyn Davidson
I may not know you at all, dear reader, but I would bet good money that at no time in your adult life have you ever thought “I should quit everything I’m doing, learn how to drive camels, purchase said camels, and then walk across 1700 miles of desert by myself.”
Not only did Robyn Davidson have this thought, but in 1977, she did it. She studied with a camel trainer, grabbed her dog, and headed out on the trek. It’s a lot like Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, but with one major difference:
Davidson never tells us why. Seriously, go read the Amazon reviews if you think I’m joking. This fact drives people crazy. There’s no “my life was messed up and I lost myself in heroin” like Wild. There’s no “I was annoyed with my first-world life and so my publisher gave me $200,000 to travel in luxury for a year” like Eat, Pray, Love. We are dropped right into the story as Davidson decides to do this, we travel with her as she does it, and then we part ways. Sometimes, she almost seems annoyed that she has to try to relate something so deeply personal to us.
I respect the hell out of her for that. If you’re looking for a deeply meditative book, don’t miss Tracks.
McCarthy’s Bar by Pete McCarthy
This is the least adventurous book on this list, but I guarantee it will make you laugh. It’s almost as funny as the last book on this list (which is also about Ireland).
Pete McCarthy, who was an English comedian and writer, took a trip to Ireland (his mother’s homeland) in the late ’90s with one rule in mind:
Never pass a bar with your name on it.
Now this is Ireland, and his last name is McCarthy. So as you can imagine, the man spent most of his time sloshed beyond recognition. Here are a few great quotes:
“There’s nothing like a couple of Italians staring at you to make you feel ashamed to be part of a nation that thinks polyester is a good fabric.”
“I like reading in a pub rather than a library or study, as it’s generally much easier to get a drink.”
As we travel around the country with him, listening to him tell us about the history of Ireland through his own eyes (sometimes without shoes) we get a Bill Bryson-esque portrait of a country whose traditions are fading, but whose pride is forever.
Keep Australia On Your Left by Eric Stiller
Your average two-person sea kayak is between 18–24 feet long. The full coastline of Australia is roughly 34,000 miles long. Eric Stiller decided to attempt to paddle the entire distance with a man he barely knew.
Stiller had been working in his father’s kayak shop in Manhattan for years, without ever going on an adventure himself. Suddenly, an opportunity presented itself! Tony Brown, an Australian model, walked into Stiller’s shop and announced that he was going to kayak around Australia. Stiller decided to tag along and learned quite quickly that he’d chosen a terrible companion.
The title of the book comes from this memorable exchange between Brown and Stiller:
Stiller sent a message to Brown to ask him to buy navigational charts. Brown shot back “We don’t need charts, mate! We’ll just keep Australia on our left!”
As you can imagine, it was a lot more complicated than that. If you’re looking to laugh along and feel more comfortable than you’ve ever felt as you read the descriptions of Stiller’s extreme discomfort, don’t miss this one!
Round Ireland With a Fridge by Tony Hawks
It’s exactly what it sounds like. Tony Hawks is an English comedian who, on a drunken 100-pound bet with a friend, tried to hitchhike the circumference of Ireland with a mini-fridge. It is the funniest book I’ve ever read! Hawks meets some very bizarre and hospitable people on his way round, proving that when you’ve decided to do something abnormal, heaven and earth conspire to help you.
A great quote from his time in a hostel:
“I’m against the death penalty. I believe that it is a mistake to show that killing people is wrong, by killing people. However, I’m not against the random killing of people who snore. Okay, I accept that it is harsh, barbaric and against every decent human value, but the simple fact is that there is no other cure for snoring.”
This is one of those rare books that make you laugh out loud in public, making you feel as crazy as Hawks did standing by the side of the road in the rain, with a fridge, waiting for a ride.
Are there any extreme ideas you’re putting off? These books are proof that anyone, no matter what skill level or socioeconomic background they come from, can change their lives with a challenge. Don’t be afraid to chase what makes you feel alive, my friends!
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