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THE NEXT GREAT ADVENTURE |
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Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
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Thursday, 06 December 2007 |
"Hey, Jack, when's your next expedition and where to?" That's the question, or variants of it, I'm
asked most. For a while now, I've been
frustrating a lot of folks who've been bugging me for an answer because I've
been unable to give it.
Now I can. I've been
leading expeditions to remote places in the world for over a third of a
century, and during all that time I had a dream of an ultimate way to
experience the world, an ultimate set of adventures and expeditions. Now that dream is coming true.
Suppose you wanted to traverse the entire length of the Nile
River, all 4,000 miles from source
(Jinja, Uganda where it exits Lake Victoria) to mouth (Alexandria, Egypt, where
it enters the Mediterranean). Or visit
the most exotic, the most untouched islands in the South Pacific or the Indian
Ocean. How would you do it?
You'd have to charter a boat, for a lot of money, and take a
lot of time - week upon week, even a month or two. What if there were a way to do it in days? Quickly, comfortably, at substantially less
cost than a boat charter yet seeing and experiencing more than from the surface
of the water?
The world would open up to you in a way impossible
before. That's the dream. But how?
The answer is with a large long range expedition-outfitted amphibian
airplane called a Grumman Albatross.
Here's one:
Built by Grumman Aircraft Corp. (now Northrup Grumman) for
the US Navy/Air Force, the HU16 Albatross was designed to be able to land at
sea in open ocean situations in order to effect the rescue of downed
pilots. It thus acquired a legendary
reputation as a rugged and seaworthy aircraft.
And it has a range, with crew, passengers, equipment and supplies of
well over 2,000 miles.
It's an ideal expedition aircraft, but for years you could
never get your hands on one. Finally,
the military and the Coast Guard, which used them for air-sea rescue, began
decommissioning them. There are a few
that have been extremely well-maintained, and at last I've located one.
We'll be spending the next several months outfitting it -
desalination unit, satellite internet communications, GPS nav gear, toilet and shower,
galley and bar, zeroing out the engines, acquiring parts and supplies, the
whole expedition nine yards. Then next
summer, we'll begin a series of Flying Yacht Expeditions around the world.
Starting in California, we'll first have a "shakedown"
flight down the coast of Baja to Cabo, then to Clipperton, an atoll so remote
the only person I know who's ever been there is Jacques Cousteau. Believe it or not, it belongs to
France. We land right in the lagoon.
Then we'll offer a series of 10 to12-day itineraries during
the summer and fall of 2008, such as along the west coast of Greenland visiting
Eskimo villages, remote islands in the north Atlantic like Jan Mayen and the
Faeroes, the British Isles from John O'Groats to Land's End (setting down on
Loch Ness!), the coolest islands in the Mediterranean, then the entire length of the Nile River
from mouth to source.
During the winter of 2008, we'll operate in the Indian
Ocean; the spring of 2009 in Indonesia and the South China Sea; the summer and fall of 2009 in the South
Pacific.
By the fall of 2009, we'll be in a position to begin
acquisition of additional HU-16 Albatrosses for expanded world-wide operations.
These will be completely unique travel experiences -
low-level flying over the world's most scenically spectacular sites with
stand-up large windows and a plexiglass nose bubble for extraordinary
photography, water landings at both famous and remote locations, arriving in
exotic style to the fascination of locals, compressing extremely high-quality travel experiences
into a short time frame possible in no other way.
What makes this so attractive to me as a financially
rewarding business is that in recent years, a niche market has emerged for what
are known as "extreme travelers." These
are people who wish to see as much of the world as they can in their
lifetimes. An example would be the
"Travelers Century Club," composed of over 2,000 members who have traveled to a
minimum of 100 countries or distinct political jurisdictions.
While there are 192 member countries of the United Nations,
there are well over a hundred more additional autonomous or territorial
jurisdictions in the world, such as Greenland, Easter Island, the Åland Islands
(a "condominium" between Finland and Sweden and jointly administered by them),
French dependencies in the Indian Ocean like Mayotte, the list is long. Thus the TCC "country list"
currently numbers 317.
The ultimate such list has been composed by members of MostTraveledPeople: 673 "countries, territories, autonomous
regions, enclaves, geographically separated island groups, and major states and
provinces." No one has yet been to them
all. (I'm not even close at 284. But at least I'm one of only four on the MTP
list who've been to the Aksai Chin.)
Getting to many of these places is amazingly difficult,
time-consuming, and expensive. There is
simply no easy, quick, and comfortable way to reach them. Now there will be.
So that's my Next Great Adventure. I hope to welcome you aboard!
And if you're asking, "But what about To The Point, Jack?!" - not
to worry. I'll be able to write and
edit TTP no matter where we are in the world with our satellite Internet
system.
Besides, I won't be gone all the time. I'll be back often - and most especially for
our Rendezvous! Oh, by the way - you
are coming to the TTP Sarasota Beach Party Rendezvous (2/8-10/08), right?
If you want to participate in our Flying Yacht Expeditions
or be on our mailing list, email
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.
Scroll down that MostTraveledPeople
list and pick one of the places that only a handful of extreme travelers have
been to. Odds are that the Wheeler
Albatross will be going there. I sure
would like for you to be with me.
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