Levison Wood - Great Expeditions - 50 Journeys that changed our world

Copyright

Published by Collins

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

Westerhill Road

Bishopbriggs

Glasgow G64 2QT

First published 2016

© HarperCollins Publishers 2016

Text © Mark Steward 2016

Photographs © see credits

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Source ISBN: 9780008196295

Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2016 ISBN: 9780008222611

Version: 2016-10-22

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www.harpercollins.co.uk

FRONT COVER: Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay preparing for another stage during their ascent to the summit of Everest in 1953. © Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)

INSIDE FRONT AND BACK COVER: A rare world map from 1824 by John Cary. It shows the tracks of eminent explorers of the period.

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication .

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Foreword by Levison Wood

The Giant Leap

Apollo 11 and the Moon landings

Race to the South Pole

The expeditions of Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott

Darwin and the Beagle

Charles Darwin’s voyage on HMS Beagle

Star Man

Yuri Gagarin: The man who fell to Earth

Finding New Land

Leif Eriksson’s voyage to Vinland

Adrift in the Pacific

Thor Heyerdahl: The Kon-Tiki man

Dr Livingstone I Presume?

David Livingstone’s last journey

The Land Down Under

Captain James Cook and HMS Endeavour

Top of the World

Hillary and Tenzing: Living in the death zone

A New World

Christopher Columbus’ 1492 voyage to the Americas

Galactic Explorer

The Voyager Interstellar Mission

The American Frontier

Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery expedition

Not a Single Man Lost

Ernest Shackleton’s escape from Antarctica

The Real Indiana Jones

Percy Fawcett: In search of the lost city of gold

Gold Fever in the Yukon

The Klondike Gold Rush

The Silent World

Jacques Cousteau and Calypso

Hunting the Man-Eater

Jim Corbett and the hunt for the man-eating leopard of Rudraprayag

Flying Solo

Amelia Earhart: The Trans-Atlantic heroine

Inside the Deadly City

René-August Caillié: The outsider who made it inside Timbuktu

Save the Whale

Anti-whaling campaign, Greenpeace and the Rainbow Warrior

Heartbreak in the Outback

Burke and Wills in Australia

Travels in the Orient

Marco Polo’s journey to the fabled Xanadu

On Her Own in Darkest Africa

Mary Kingsley: Travels in the heart of Africa

Descent to the Centre of the Earth

Norbert Casteret: Into the abyss at Pierre Saint-Martin

A Lone Voice in the Wilderness

John Muir: A thousand miles to save the wild places

Fair Trade

Zheng He’s treasure voyages

With a Camel and a Compass

Gertrude Bell and her journey to Ha’il

Take Without Asking

Francisco Pizarro: The raider who ended an empire

Journey to Lhasa

Alexandra David-Néel’s trek across the Himalayas

Face of Death

The first successful ascent of the north face of the Eiger

The Solar Flight

The quest to fly around the globe without fuel

One Way Ticket

Ferdinand Magellan’s circumnavigation of the world

Scientific Exploration in the Americas

Alexander von Humboldt, the father of geography

Running the Rapids

John Wesley Powell’s exploration down the Colorado river

Farthest North

Fridtjof Nansen’s crushing expedition in the Arctic

Hidden in Plain Sight

The first woman to circumnavigate the world

Homeward Bound

Molly, Daisy and Gracie’s 1,600 km walk following a rabbit-proof fence in Western Australia

Finding Petra

Johann Burckhardt’s discovery of the fabled city

Trail of Tears

The forced migration of the Native American Tribes

Around the World on a Bike

Annie Londonderry’s ‘cycle’ around the world

Unlocking the Islamic World

The travels of Ibn Battuta

Walk the Amazon

Ed Stafford: Amazon odyssey

Natural Born Explorer

Naomi Uemura and his solo winter ascent of Denali

Marathon Man

Amputee, Terry Fox’s incredible run across Canada

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Challenger Deep: Descent to the lowest point on Earth

The Trials of the Wager

George Anson’s voyage of pride and greed

Company Man

Abel Tasman: First white man to set foot on Australian soil

The Northwest Passage

Sir John Franklin’s search for a sea route to the Orient

Into the Empty Quarter

Wilfred Thesiger’s travels in Arabia

Across Siberia

Cornelius Rost’s escape from a Siberian Gulag

Searchable Terms

Acknowledgements and photo credits

About the Publisher

Khumbu valley, Nepal. Mount Everest is behind the Khumbu Glacier on the left side of the picture.

Foreword

With the advance of modern technology our world seems smaller. We have apps that can translate a phrase at the touch of a button, travel is more affordable and new places can be discovered by swiping a screen. Yet there is still so much to be discovered. What has not changed since early explorers set out with little more than a map is the spirit required to undertake an expedition; the love of a challenge and the mental and physical toughness a person needs to call on when things may not be going their way. Exploration is about more than putting a flag in a map. It’s about the experiences that change us and the people we meet along the way.

I have found over the years that the best way to travel and explore is on foot. There’s nothing like treading the paths and tracks to get a real impression of a country, its landscape and its culture. The many explorers who went before me didn’t have helicopters on hand or gadgetry to make their lives easier. Whether they were trekking the banks of the Nile or scaling peaks in the Himalayas; breaking new trails in the jungles of Asia or crossing unknown deserts, it was these early pioneers who inspired me.