# Most incredible human journey **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 10, 2006, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976 "2006-10-10T21:16:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/1 "2006-10-10T21:16:23Z")
I am regularly amazed when I read stories of incredible feats of endurance by explorers and adventurers of times gone by. For example Shackelton’s voyage of the Endurance is nearly incredible, both for the fact that folks would willingly place themselves in such a situation, and then survive it. And Bligh’s amazing post-mutiny navigation boggles the mind. I’m currently reading a book **The Brutal Journey** , concerning a 1527 Spanish expedition to exploit the riches of Florida. Well, suffice it to say, things didn’t go as planned. 600 conquistadors landed near Tampa Bay - eight years later 4 guys walked out of California into Mexico, having made their way along the coast to Texas, and then walked overland to California. At one point, they built a forge, melted down their armor to make tools, and constructed 4 (relatively) seaworthy boats capable of holding a couple of hundred people. If it were written as fiction it would be hard to believe! So what are your nominations for the most incredible journeys taken by man - either voluntarily or as a result of circumstances? I would also appreciate citations to any well-written books documenting such journeys. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/2 "2006-10-10T22:16:21Z")
Shackleton’s [Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Trans-Antarctic_Expedition) is the one that always stands out in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/3 "2006-10-10T22:17:25Z")
Which of course you have already mentioned :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/4 "2006-10-10T22:51:28Z")
[Here’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Glass) a classic. Hugh Glass, wounded and unable to stand, crawls for months to reach safety : [QUOTE=Wiki] Near the forks of the Grand River in present-day Perkins County, while scouting alone for game to add to the expedition’s larder, Glass surprised a she-grizzly with two cubs. Before he could fire his rifle, the bear charged, picked him up, and threw him to the ground. Glass got up, grappled for his knife, and fought back, stabbing the animal repeatedly as the grizzly raked him time and again with her claws. Glass managed to kill the bear, but was left badly mauled and unable to walk. Glass’s companions, hearing his screams, arrived on the scene after the fight. When Glass lost consciousness, Henry became convinced the man would not survive his injuries. Henry asked for two volunteers to stay with Glass until he died, and then bury him. Bridger (then 17 years old) and Fitzgerald stepped forward, and as the rest of the party moved on, began digging his grave. Later claiming that they were interrupted in the task by an attack by Arikaree Indians, the pair grabbed Glass’s rifle, knife, and other equipment, and took flight. Bridger and Fitzgerald reported to Henry – wrongly it turned out – that Glass had died. The Odyssey to Fort Kiowa Instead, despite his injuries, Glass regained consciousness. He did so only to find himself abandoned, without weapons or equipment, suffering from a broken leg, the cuts on his back exposing bare ribs, and all his wounds festering. Glass lay mutilated and lame more than 200 mi (320 km) from the nearest settlement at Fort Kiowa on the Missouri. In one of the more remarkable treks known to history, Glass set his own leg, wrapped himself in the bear hide his companions had placed over him as a shroud, and began crawling. To prevent gangrene, Glass laid his wounded back on a rotting log and let the maggots eat the dead flesh. Deciding that following the Grand would be too dangerous because of “hostiles” (aggressive natives), Glass crawled overland south toward the Cheyenne River. It took him months to reach it. Glass survived mostly on wild berries and roots. On one occasion he was able to drive two wolves from a downed bison calf, and feast on the meat. Reaching the Cheyenne, he fashioned a crude raft and floated down the river. Aided by “friendlies” (sympathetic natives), Glass eventually reached the safety of Fort Kiowa. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/5 "2006-10-10T22:54:56Z")
The first two I thought of were Shackleton and Bligh. I can’t find a good description online, but David Livingstone’s travels through Africa (exploring the Zambezi, searching for the source of the Nile, etc.) are pretty damned impressive. He left on his last trip in 1865, lost his medicine, animals and porters and continued on alone. He lost touch with the outside world for six years. For publicity, the New York Herald sent Henry Stanley to look for him. It took him 11 months to find him, in a town on the shore of Lake Tnaganyika. On his death in 1873, it took his attendants a year to carry his body back to London to be interred in Westminster Abbey. It doesn’t get much more off-the-beaten-path than that. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/6 "2006-10-10T22:58:01Z")
Don’t worgy Mange, I _did_ read the Shackleton mention in the OP, but was all prepared to mention it too upon first reading the thread title. But you gave the link so people can read what is certainly my vote for the most incredible human journey. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/7 "2006-10-10T23:03:52Z")
If you don’t mind fiction, you might enjoy Jack London’s **The Call of the Wild** and **White Fang**. Lots of cold weather travel/adventure stuff in there… ---
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/8 "2006-10-10T23:06:43Z")
Not quite in the same league as Hugh Glass but [Joe Simpson’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touching_The_Void) story of survival against the odds was pretty darn impressive. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/9 "2006-10-11T01:25:53Z")
How about the John King of the [Burke and Willis expedition](http://www.janesoceania.com/australia_burkeandwills/index.htm)? Ultimately, it’s a story of incompetence, but the final result looms large in Australian history, and it was truly a tale of suvival under arduous circumstances – until a tragic twist at the end. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/10 "2006-10-11T02:24:31Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] [Here’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Glass) a classic. Hugh Glass, wounded and unable to stand, crawls for months to reach safety : [/QUOTE] I came here to mention ol’ Hugh. As your Wikipedia link mentions, [_Man in the Wilderness_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067388/) was very loosely based on the incident. It is the only movie I can think of where the film’s story is smaller than true event on which it is based. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/11 "2006-10-11T03:11:08Z")
Shakleton’s is definitely one of the best. How about _Touching the Void_?. While two men are climbing a mountain in the Andes, one of them breaks thier leg. I saw this on TV and even though You know they both live beacuse they are narrating the story It still is a riveting and suspenseful thing to watch. (I believe there is a book) Similarly, that Everest story (Into Thin Air?) Brian ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/12 "2006-10-11T03:15:10Z")
OOh, looks like Joe Simpson’s story _is_ Touching the Void sorry for the dupe. Brian ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/13 "2006-10-11T03:32:31Z")
Not as impressive as other stories, but [Aron Ralston’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aron_Ralston) story of having to break and amputate his own arm after it got trapped under a boulder is pretty amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/14 "2006-10-11T05:31:00Z")
Well, for voluntary, how about the Lewis and Clarke expedition? Or, a tad later, the Apollo 11 mission, on which humans first set foot on another world? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Rosewater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/898d66/32.png) [@Mr.Rosewater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Rosewater)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/15 "2006-10-11T06:08:31Z")
Some posters have mentiened Bligh and the Bounty, Caroline Alexander (who also wrote a very good book on Shacleton), wrote a book called [The Bounty](http://www.amazon.com/Bounty-True-Story-Mutiny/dp/B000ESSROE/sr=8-1/qid=1160545897/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-8893485-7688134?ie=UTF8&s=books). Bligh and a few of the officers sailed (iirc) several thousand miles, from somewhere east of Tahiti back to Austrailia, with no instruments or charts, relying only on Bligh’s memory of the charts and a previous voyage he made several years earlier. Also, Jonathan Krakauer’s Into Thin Air was mentioned (Mount Everest). One of his other books is also quite compelling, [Into the Wild](http://www.amazon.com/Into-Wild-Jon-Krakauer/dp/0385486804/sr=1-2/qid=1160546477/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-8893485-7688134?ie=UTF8&s=books). The story of a young loner who hikes into Denali and dies. Another good one might be Nando Parado’s [Miracle in the Andes](http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Andes-Mountain-Long-Home/dp/1400097673/sr=1-1/qid=1160546627/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-8893485-7688134?ie=UTF8&s=books). This is the story that was originally told in the book Alive, but Parado is one of the rugby players to survive the crash in the Andes who made the long trek down the mountain to find rescue. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/16 "2006-10-11T06:17:26Z")
[I saw this on PBS.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382744/) It is a documentary about the first ‘road trip’. (actually there was quite a bit of off road driving.) The first guys to drive from one side of the US to the other. It was an incredible adventure. Many people that saw them along the way also saw their first car. The fact that this trip, actually sets precedents for road trips is incredible. You need to see this. [Check out the book cover.](http://www.amazon.com/Horatios-Drive-Americas-First-Road/dp/037541536X/sr=1-1/qid=1160547362/ref=sr_1_1/102-9555393-7617752?ie=UTF8&s=books) Drive across country in that. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/17 "2006-10-11T12:04:44Z")
[QUOTE=Baker] Well, for voluntary, how about the Lewis and Clarke expedition? [/QUOTE] PBS showed a Ken Burns production of this extrordinary trek, _The Journey of the Corps of Discovery_ a couple of years ago. It is available on DVD too. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/18 "2006-10-11T13:03:12Z")
**Dinsdale** , is that the one by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca? There was a XIXth century edition of his book at Grandma’s, I don’t know which of my uncles has it. The Magellan/Elcano expedition must have been incredible, but my bro gave me a biography of Magellan last Christmas and it grates on my nerves a lot, so I can’t recommend it (if the author’s soapbox was any taller he’d need oxygen). Columbus’ first trip too and I’d love a good raccount of the expedition that did that thing with the ships… lemme see if I find the name… can’t find it and I’m afraid my memory got burned out years ago, sorry. Anyway, some Spaniards who brought ships to the Caribbean coast, dismantled them and carried them over the mountains to the Pacific. Having been in the area, I’m convinced they must have been from my part of Spain, it’s absolutely our kind of crazy. There’s a new book out by the author of _Like water for chocolate_, about Cortés wife\*. It’s called _Malinche_. I am SO asking for it for Christmas! \*yes, I know there wasn’t a wedding. Nobody has called her his “concubina” but his “mujer” for 400+ years and I’m not about to start, though. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/19 "2006-10-11T13:42:33Z")
[QUOTE=Nava] **Dinsdale** , is that the one by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca? [/QUOTE] The book I just finished reading was new, based largely on the 2 survivors’ accounts - one by de Vaca, and the other a joint account. **Brutal Journey** added a lot of historical material concerning the politics and economics behind such 16th century Spanish new world explorations, as well as anthropological material to help fill out the survivors’ accounts. One of the 4 survivors was the Moroccan slave of another. After 8 years of starving and slogging through swamps, deserts, and mountains, when they regained society, he was again the other guy’s slave - and was sold. Bummer! I remember reading some books on the African explorers a while back. May need to revisit them. Unimaginable hardships as I recall. My favorite is the guys who would bring their wives along, as tho it was a pleasant excusion to the country! And I have never been able to get my mind around what convinced the polar explorers to willingly go through what they did… Made of strerner stuff than I! ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/20 "2006-10-11T14:11:36Z")
One you might like…its called “AS FAR AS MY FEET WILL CARRY ME” (by J. M. Bauer). It’s the tale of some prisoners in Stalin’s Gulag (in eastern Siberia). they escaped, and walked across Asia to freedom. I’ll have to re-read it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976.md?page=2)