Swiss Adventurer, Traveller, Writer, and Photographer - Ella Maillart...

Ella Maillart  -  February 20, 1903 to March 27, 1997

I always respected the rebel in strong, independent, intellectual women who does not conform. 

Ella Maillart, Jour de foire à Weichang, dans l’ancienne province de Jehol, découverte de la lanterne magique, Manchourie, 1934 © Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne

She started exploring the Orient/Asia in the 1930s. She got to be famous for her travels, photography and books. 

Photo by Ella Maillart 

She wrote for Le Petit Parisien during the Japanese occupation in Manchuria as well as later when she was traveling in Afghanistan, Turkey and Persia. 

Photo by Ella Maillart 

She went on a 7 months journey from Peking to Srinagar with Peter Fleming crossing the Himalayas. She studied Hindu philosophy in India and continued travel during her life. From 1957 to 1987 she organized cultural tours into Asia.

A few of her books to read:

Turkestan Solo - One Woman's Expedition from the Tien Shan to the Kizil Kum - 1932

Forbidden Journey - From Peking to Cashmir  - 1935

Gypsy Afloat - Her years at Sea

The Land of the Sherpas - Nepal - 1951

Zerzura the lost Oasis...

Count Lazlo Almazy

Zerzura is a mythical white city or oasis. Myths does impact the spirit of exploration.

 In Arabic the word Zerzura is a location populated by starlings. Zerzura was first mentioned in the texts in the 13th century and is said to be located deep in the desert with riches beyond measures. Zerzura has been described in the 15th century by an anonymous Arabic treasure-hunter as a white washed city of the desert on whose gate is a carved bird.  It states "take with your hand the key in the beak of the bird, then open the door/gates to the city. Enter, and here you will find great riches..."

László Ede Almásy de Zsadány et Törökszentmiklós - Nicknamed - "Abu Ramla" Father of the Sands (22 August 1895 – 22 March 1951) Hungarian, aritocrat, explorer, aviator, soldier etc. 

He led an expedition to search for Zerzura from 1929-1930 and beleived it would be found in the area of Gilf Kebir. Gilf Kebir would be translated into "The Great Barrier" is a plateau in the New Valley of the remote southwest corner of Egypt and souteast Libya. It has been of great geological interest. Royal Geographic Society has sponsored several expeditions in their search to find Zerzura although without success. Until present day it has not been found.

In 1930 Ralph Bagnold formed the Zezura Club with the leading explorers of the Sahara one of the members were Count Lazlo Almazy who would be the lead character as well in the book "The English Patient"

"I like to think of Zerzura in that light, as an idea for which we have no apt word in English, meaning something waiting to be discovered in some out-of-the-way place, difficult to access, if one is enterprising enough to go out and look; an indefinite thing, taking different shapes in the minds of different individuals according to their interest and wishes. For the Arab it may be an oasis or hidden treasure; for European it may be a new archaeological site, some find of scientific importance, a new plant or mineral; or just an expectancy of finding anything that is not yet known.

Or for the less scientifically minded it may be still more vague; an excuse for the childish craving so many grown-ups harbour secretly to break away from civilisation, to face the elements at close quarters as did our savages, ancestor, returning temporarily to their life of primitive simplicity and physical vigour; being short of water, to be obliged to go unwashed; having no kit to live in rags, and sleep in the open without a bed.

Zerzura is sought in many places, in the desert, at the Poles, in the still unsurveyed mountain regions of Asia. There is no fear that the quest will end, even though the blank spaces on the map get smaller and smaller. For Zerzura can never be identified. Many discoveries will be made in the course of the search, discoveries which will make the seekers very happy, but none will surely be Zerzura. A new water-hole may still be found, a Stone Age burial-ground or a reef of gold, but it will not be Zerzura. The answer to the riddle of the dunes may be discovered, but it will not tell us where Zerzura lies.

As long as any part of the world remains uninhabited, Zerzura will be there, still to be discovered. As time goes on it will become smaller, more delicate and specialised, but it will be there. Only when all difficulties of travel have been surmounted, when men can wander at will for indefinite periods over tracts of land on which life cannot normally exist, will Zerzura begin to decay.

Perhaps a long time hence, when all the earth’s surface has been seen and surveyed, there may be nothing left to find. Fancifully we can picture the excavator rummaging about with his pick in the last yard of unexamined soil. Behind him we catch a glimpse of expert, microscopes and notebooks, while in front, very near now, stand the locked gates in the city’s misty wall.

The pick is withdrawn. The time has come at last when the experts can close their notebooks, for there is nothing else unfound. We see Zerzura crumbling rapidly into dust. Little birds rise from within and fly away. A cloud moving across the sun makes the world a dull and colourless place."

Ralph A. Bagnold - 1935

«Libyan Sands - Travel in a Dead World»

 Perhaps your adventure spirit will find the path in the Sea of Sands leading to Zerzura.

Time Will Tell

Danish Arctic Explorer, Adventurer, Writer and Traveler - Peter Freuchen (1886 - 1957).......

I have experienced the arctic tundra and the arctic during months of winter darkness as well as in the alps in Europe for survival in the cold during my traveling years, but far from living the life of;

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Peter Freuchen - An Arctic Adventurer and Explorer - He took part in the Danish Expedition to North East Greenland 1906 to 1908, and then several expeditions from 1910 to 1924, often with the famous Polar explorer Knud Rasmussen. Freuchen lived with the Inuits in Thule, Greenland. He established with Knud Rasmussen the exploring station in Thule (1910).

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Peter with his wife Dagmar Freuchen-Gale in 1947

Dagmar Freuchen-Gale, was an artist and illustrator for magazines as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar

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Fifteen years of maritime adventures - He hunted seal, walrus, and polar bear on the coast. He took part of hunting on whaling ships and took their culture to heart. For months he lived under winter darkness without seeing the sun. - a remarkable life - an Arctic legend. He served as a governor of the Danish colony at Thule in 1913-20. Further, he wrote 4 books about his arctic memories.

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He founded The Adventurer's Club in Denmark - 1938.

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His last written book - 1957.

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In 1957 Freuchen died of a heart attack in Elmendorf, Alaska - His ashes were spread over the Dundas Mountains in Greenland.

Henri de Monfried (1879-1974) - Adventurer at Large...

Henry de Monfried (1879-1974)
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De Monfreid’s boat Al-Tair

One who was fascinated by de Monfreid's life was

Sir Wilfred Thesiger who visited Al-Tair in Djibouti 1935.

Henri de Monfried - An extraordinary life - He new how to live - We are talking about pure passion for life - a risk taker who managed to live to the golden age of 95.

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A Philosopher, Sailor, Writer, Gun runner -he ran guns into Abyssinia through Tajura, Hashish Smuggler - of the coasts of East Africa and Southern Arabia, and Pearl Diver - He arrived in Djibouti (then a French colony) in 1910/11 and - it was there it all started from 1912 to 1940.

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"Mosquée de Mamoudi...Djibouti "- 1923"

Henri son of an artist was artistic as well and had grown up surrounded by art and artists - His father Daniel was a good friend of Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Gauguin. Daniel - a painter,art dealer, and Gauguin’s agent in Europe during the years he resided in Tahiti and the Marquesas...

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Kikuyu Village 1942
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After he returned to his home country (France) from East Africa in 1947 he changed his life around to painting and writing

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His books are anthropological, colorful and poetical. He managed to write 60 to 70 books during 30 years.

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1918 - de Monfried in the center...

"Of all the creatures on the face of the earth, humans are those who adapt most easily, not only to the most extreme temperatures and climates but also to the most arduous conditions that life imposes on them." - Henri de Monfried

Before he passed away at 95 he stated: "I have lived a rich, restless, magnificent life"

Prince Aage of Denmark - An adventurer - Officer of the Foreign Legion.

.....as I opened a drawer in one of my cabinets to organize some medals for my dinner jacket.. I came upon one of my old badges from French Commando School - which, I attended, - It reminded me about...Prince Aage, who had a fascinating life, colorful and eccentric - born - Christian Alexander Robert Aage, Prince of Denmark, he was a great,great nephew of King Louis Phillipe of France, the King who founded the French Foreign Legion in 1831. After serving in the Danish Army, he finally joined the French Foreign Legion in 1923 and in February of that year arrived in French Morocco where he joined the the Foreign Legion at Meknes with the rank of Captain. He had been fascinated by the Foreign Legion since his childhood. A close family friend use to return on leave to Denmark from the Legion and in the evenings tell dramatic exotic tales of his adventures as an officer. Prince Aage campaigned in the Middle Atlas Region against the Berbers until May 1923 when he was assigned to the staff of General Poeymirau as liaison officer.

Legionnaire

He was awarded the Croix de Guerre in July 1923. The Foreign Legion is known for their eccentric commanders, in May 1924 he was given command of the mounted infantry company of the 2nd R.E.I. He saw combat action north of the border with Spanish Morocco. Here the Legion fought the Berber Riff leader Abd-el-Krim, who had raised the tribes against the Spanish. In 1924, Prince Aage was appointed to the staff of Marshall Lyautey as Intelligence Officer. In April 1925, Abd-el-Krim invaded French Morocco. Here the Prince participated in combat actions in the mountains. He served with the Legion in Morocco until his death in Taza, Morocco, 1940 and was buried in Sidi Bel Abbés, Algeria after serving with the legion for seventeen years. He had reached the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

Arabia - R. V. C. Bodley

It was after having a conversation with T.E. Lawrence, R.V.C. went to live with the Arabs. They were both Officers and friends. R.V.C. had expressed himself and did not know what to do with his future -T.E. had simply said go and live with the Arabs. R.V.C. thought about it and came to live in the Sahara for seven years. It was in 1918 after the war he went to north-west Africa to live. There he learned to speak the language of the nomads, dressed like them and adopted their customs and took their culture to heart. Educated at Eton and at Sandhurst. He had lived in France for nine years, six years in India as an Officer where he explored the Himalayas.........R.V.C. a hunter as well. A man definitely ready for some new life experiences..... Who new the Arabs better than his friend T.E.? This new life, changed R.V.C.s life philosophy forever. A book to read: "Wind in the Sahara by R.V.C. Bodley"

Arabia - Lady Blunt (1837 - 1917) - 15th Baroness Wentworth

Lady Anne Isabella Noel Blunt was Lord Byron's Granddaughter. She dressed as a Bedouin, spoke Arabic fluently and bought Arabian horses from the Bedouins. - Her horses (or should I say the Blunts) were famous in Europe - they were purebred Arabian horses all brought back to England. Lady Blunt traveled extensively in Arabia and the Middle East. Her husband, Sir Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, a diplomat and poet, who entered the British Diplomatic Corps and served as a British Attache in Constantinople, Paris, Madrid,...,....,..... - Lady Blunt died in 1917 at Sheykh Obeyd , it was here the Blunts had a stud farm, not far from Cairo, Egypt. After she divorced her husband, Sheykh Obeyd got to be her home away from home.

The Garden in Sheyk Obeyd by Artist Ivan Lloyd

Matto Grosso, the Brazilian jungles and the disapperance of Colonel Fawcett in 1925

Explorer (for the Royal Geographic Society), Archaeologist, a strange disappearance of him and his expedition in 1925 has always been of an interest to me. After studying historical and legends about The Lost City/World - he truly belived he had mapped the location of the lost ancient city in the jungles of the Central Brazilian Plateau. As his disapperance has been a mystery and explorers still are looking for an El Dorado the Lost World of Fawcwett keep fascinate us. Fawcett had been sending reports to the Viceroy at Bahia from the Paraguassu River. That was when the last was heard from the expedition.Expeditions in this area had been conducted by the Portuguese in 1743 but it is said that the legend began in 1622. The city had been described in detail. Fawcett was a man of action, he had been exploring Brazilian-Bolivian Frontier 1906 - 1909 and had led before the Brazilian expedition seven expeditions.

Occasionally the interest of Colonel Fawcett reappears but is it Fawcett we are interested in or is it the Lost World and perhaps the El Dorado???

Audwin Pierre McGee - Artist and Adventurer

The Artist - Mosambique 2007 detail from one of his blog photos.

Audwin Pierre McGee

Click for A fantastic artist and adventurer with a passion for life

I am sitting here with my morning coffee in my "kikoy" and safari shirt reading through his blog and visiting his sites ....I can truly write a man with a passion for freedom, an artist with an adventurous spirit for life. Born in 1955 in Alabama, USA he traveled since childhood from the jungles in Central America to the African Continent - his hunger for life.. he has absorbed it to give birth to his art. How many times have you been enjoying the calmness and the smells and sounds of the tropical night when our thoughts get together and we create as artists or individuals building on our own sculptures at our hearts and minds. He puts it into life on his canvas, in his furniture and sculptures. Understated elegance, possible one of the most complicated and complex ways to express yourself. Looking at his pictures of life, nature and women, women are living sculptures in their own right - they keep on fascinate us, sensual, sensitive, intriguing,dramatic, or furious like a charging lioness, fire and water and in the end they keep giving us inspiration. That is why in all our arts they are a part of it.

The African continent - when the venom of Africa runs in your blood and veins it is as you had been bitten of a Puff Adder. You will come back to Africa again and again... it maybe take years until you return but you will be back..no one will ever tame this continent.......it has is own soul and life...it has it's own smells and sounds...you have to experience it to understand....and you will tell your friends stories and.....it becomes a part of your persona....

Here are some quotes I have applied on my voyage in life;

"There are milestones in every ones life, crossroads where either decisions are made or impressions gained that alter the whole future of the person concerned."

"If one advances confidently in the direction of ones dreams,and endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet with success unexpected in common hours"

H.D.Thoreau

So you definitely have to set your path, Jean Paul Sartre wrote in "Le E'tre et le Néant" in 1943

A man can will nothing unless he first understand that he must count on no one but himself; that he is alone, abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than the one he sets himself, with no other destiny, than the one he forges for himself on this earth". Hemingway would likely agreed with this.

William Ricketts (1898 - 1993) - "Silence will speak"

Have you ever walked through a forest and felt like the trees were whispering? If you walk through William Ricketts enchanted forest maybe it is not so far fetched.

William Ricketts spent at least fifty years on the transformation of a natural old-growth eucalyptus forest into a place of spiritual renewal and quiet reflection where his 92 sculptures whispers words of wisdom. For 20 years he made journeys to live with the aboriginal tribes Pitjantjatjar and the Arrernete of Central Australia. It was here he found his inspiration for his amazing sculptures which, today overgrown by moss and vegetation gives the sculptures a new meaning to his creation.