“And I may say, once for all, carefully weighing my words, that in no part of the world have I seen stones cut with such mathematical precision and admirable skill as in Peru, and in no part of Peru are there any to surpass those which are scattered over the plain of Tiahuanuco.” Peru; incidents of travel and exploration in the land of the Incas, by Squier, E. G. (Ephraim George), 1821-1888
In 2007 I camped deep in the African bush. In 2012 I explored the ruins of Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco) a city in the Andes so high and remote that few travellers will ever go there. In 2015 my hubby and I hiked part of the Hooker Valley trail in New Zealand, beneath the peaks that Sir Edmund Hillary practiced his climbing on to prepare for Mt. Everest.
In 2023 I took perhaps my greatest leap of faith and published my first novel.
I am an explorer and adventurer. Just a minor one, venturing out to see the world and expand my horizons. I’m far from the league of women highlighted in an article I saw yesterday on BBC Essentials.
But I’m never more alive than when my hubby and I are standing, or walking, or riding, someplace we’ve never been – preferably thousands of miles from home.
When I was a child, m family lived in a very small, very rural community in northern Ontario. It was incredibly beautiful, especially in the autumn, but many of the residents became quite insulated. One fellow lived in the bush in a tar-papered shack. I’m not sure what he did – hunting and trapping, I think, with some moonshine production for entertainment. At our closest neighbours, both the mother and 14-year-old daughter were having a fling with the same travelling salesman. Once kids grew into restless teenagers and bussed to the nearest town with a high school (30 miles away), they typically joined gangs and got into trouble.
I resolved to travel at a very young age. After having my tonsils removed while we still lived there, I was housebound for over a week (protocol at the time). Since I couldn’t go on the exciting monthly shopping expedition, my brother took pity on me and brought back a picture book all about the world. There were wondrous, exotic things in there, and I decided that one day I’d see those places for myself. And, luckily marrying a guy who was just as keen, we’ve done just that.
So now, my ‘comfort zone’ is quite large. I’ve seen many other ways of life, learned a lot about other cultures, taken many different kinds of transport – including a camel in the Sahara and a river boat on the Zambezi. My explorations haven’t been earth-shaking, or world-changing. Maybe we’ve shown our younger family members that there’s a whole world out there to see, and sometimes we’ve taken others along with us to help them get started.
And I’ve striven to bring my same love of adventure (and my knowledge of the planet) to my novels, which I think of like an Indiana Jones-style adventure with far more supernatural.
Intrepid women have been inventing their own lives for centuries. In the 1700s, Jeanne Baret, a French explorer and botanist, disguised herself as a man and became the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. And Anne Bonny charted her own course by becoming a famous pirate. Marianne North, coming into some means in the mid-1800s, decided she didn’t want to get married and settle down, and spent the bulk of her life travelling the world and producing amazing botanical paintings. In 1889, journalist Nellie Bly beat the around-the-world-in-80-days scenario laid out by author Jules Verne.
In modern times, women have changed the face of science, medicine, art, film and many other fields. There are quite a few female authors writing horror novels, romantasy novels, even “spicy” (erotic) novels with hordes of fans.
Truly, the sky’s the limit if we are willing to take those first few steps. For inspiration, read this article on the BBC website, Beyond the boy’s club: The women at the frontier of adventure, about some truly amazing female explorers who are pushing boundaries far greater than any of mine.
Now what does it take to become an explorer? Not as much as you might think, according to a companion article on the BBC, You’re either an explorer, or you’re not. Which one are you?
One of the main requirements is being something of a risk-taker.
There’s a theory that people who become explorers have more activity in the limbic system of their brains, which is stimulated by novelty and the rewarding feeling of conquering something. I will say that, when we were in Peru, I was concerned about the high altitude – with good reason, of course. When the tour we were on brought us to the highest point that the main road through the Andes reaches, a little over 16,000 feet (classified as “very high”), and we stood on what felt like the roof of the world, shuffling around like we’d aged 20 years but surviving in the thin air, I felt an amazing sense of accomplishment.
And there we have another trait of explorers: we thrive on positive reinforcement. But that reinforcement doesn’t have to come from anything extreme. While I now understand why people climb Mt. Everest, I have no desire to do it myself – nor will I ever have the stamina. The article mentions that there’s much satisfaction to be had in just going somewhere you haven’t been before.
The biggest point is to be willing to step outside your comfort zone. Apparently back in prehistory, there were always individuals who were willing to go just that much farther to find better places to live and gather food. Andrew Evans, a travel writer and TV host, comments in the article that “I feel as if it’s human nature to go beyond the horizon. Once we understand one horizon we keep walking to the next and then to the next.”
Maybe that horizon is a new job. I belong to a small business group of women who’ve created their own profession, from life coaching to landscaping to home/office organizing. So far I’ve been the sole author, but that may change as another woman has become inspired to turn her vast knowledge of the Canadian wine industry into a book. Fantastic!
The thing about taking one step outside your comfort zone, then another, then more, is that they become easier. You may stub your toe, but that goes with the territory – you learn from it and move on. I could tell stories about some of the crazy things that have happened on the journeys my hubby and I have taken – so, so many things, and honestly we find them all hilarious. Here’s the best part: you get better and better as you go!
There’s an old truism that I think captures the essence of exploring: the journey is more important than the destination. It could be for you.