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Never By Jet — A Journey Across all 7 Continents Without Getting in an Airplane — First of a Series
Dispatch # 1 — What can you learn when slow-traveling a whole planet?
My name is Chip Walter. I’m a National Geographic Explorer, former CNN Bureau Chief and author of five non-fiction science books, one novel and several documentaries and screenplays. Now that we have that out of the way …
I was completing my most recent , when I proposed a ridiculous idea to my wife, Cyndy. “Once the book is out on bookshelves,” I said, “lets really focus on traveling more. But let’s do it in a way that’s truly different; more exotic than your average packaged vacation.” It wasn’t that I hadn’t traveled a fair amount. One way or another I had been priveleged to at least touch parts of six continents in my writing and documentary work. But with this I had a real odyssey in mind.
I worked my gray matter over a bit and came up with this: We travel all seven continents, never by jet. No one does that anymore. I was sure Cyndy’s reply would be, “Have you lost your mind?” I tend to be the dreamer and explorer. Cyn is more grounded. But being the intrepid, open-minded woman she is, she didn’t say no, and we began mapping our plans.
