# 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:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**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, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/21 "2006-10-11T15:12:35Z")
[QUOTE=Dinsdale] 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. [/QUOTE] Sorry, nitpick but this is the Dope, right? “Cabeza de Vaca” is the whole lastname; it literally means Cow’s Head (usually Something de Something would be Commonlastname de Townname, but not in this case). Yes, I know, Spanish lastnames can be a bitch. ---
**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, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/22 "2006-10-11T15:17:08Z")
[QUOTE=Nava] Sorry, nitpick but this is the Dope, right? “Cabeza de Vaca” is the whole lastname; it literally means Cow’s Head… [/QUOTE] Yeah, from an ancestor who supposedly used a cow’s skull to mark a path that was used to defeat the Moops… You must be tons o’ fun at parties! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/23 "2006-10-11T15:44:36Z")
I will always be wholly impressed by the story of the Shackleton expedition, but the story that really invokes the spirit of human endurance to me is that of [Bill Callahan](http://travel.howstuffworks.com/survival1.htm), who spent 76 days adrift on the Atlantic Ocean, in a five-foot lifeboat. The book [Adrift](http://www.amazon.com/Adrift-Seventy-Days-Lost-Sea/dp/0345410157), his own recounting of his journey, is an amazing tale of survival in unimaginable conditions. He was incredibly resourceful – and had no one to rely upon but himself. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/24 "2006-10-11T15:54:03Z")
The human migration out of south east Asia in to the Pacific islands is the most incredible human journey. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/25 "2006-10-11T16:16:14Z")
[QUOTE=lieu] 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. [/QUOTE] I was going to mention this trek because I saw this when it first came out. Absolutely mesmerising. Well worth the rental fee. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/26 "2006-10-11T16:59:44Z")
I elect John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition that went on to become the true definition of a “mountain man.” [This website](http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HNS/Mtmen/johncol.html) gives a good overview. [This website](http://www.legendsofamerica.com/NB-JohnColter.html) provides a little more detail of his first escape. ---
**Author:** ![Tully\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ab992/32.png) [@Tully\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tully_Mars)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/27 "2006-10-11T17:33:46Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] 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. [/QUOTE] I don’t know if is the same group, but I’ve read a book called “The Long Walk” that told the story of some gulag escapees crossing the Gobi. It was a fascinating story. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/28 "2006-10-11T17:43:12Z")
The tale of Anson’s expedition to the Pacific (as recorded fictionally in Patrick O’Brian’s “The Golden Ocean” and “The Unknown Shore” is pretty amazing. Anson sailed from England to the Pacific (losing several ships in the process and having just a horrible time of it) with the goal of intercepting a Spanish treasure galleon. Despite having lost almost all his flotilla and having a skeleton crew,he managed to pull it off. Even more desperate is the tale of the [Wager](http://www.ses-explore.org/default.aspx?section=chile&page=main), a store ship that went down off the coast of Patagonia. The crew broke up into two groups, one group of 80 of which sailed through the straits of Magellan in a small open boat and only 12 survived. The other group headed north towards Chile – all but four died of starvation and exposure. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/29 "2006-10-11T17:48:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Or, a tad later, the Apollo 11 mission, on which humans first set foot on another world? Or Apollo 13, when everything went to hell and they still made it back to Earth. ---
**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, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/30 "2006-10-11T19:08:39Z")
I’m not sure if this exactly qualifies as what you’re looking for, but I’ll mention it anyway. Dr. Spencer Wells wrote a book that was also made into a PBS documentary about the journey the human race has made to populate the Earth, as traced by the genetic evidence of present populations. Covered is the likely route, diversions, durations, unlikely deviations, environmental mutations, etc. He even comes up with an “original” race and interviews their probable “pure” decendants, the rest of us being amalgams thereof. It’s called _The Journey of Man_ and while I’ve not read the book, the documentary was really quite excellent. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/31 "2006-10-30T09:26:20Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] [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. [/QUOTE] Similar to this is the [Peking-to-Paris race](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_to_Paris) in 1907. The competitors had to arrange to have gasoline waiting for them at various points because gas stations were so few and far between. One of the teams crossed the Gobi Desert by means of following the telegraph lines. At one of the telegraph offices, they stopped to send a wire to their sponsor, and noticed that it was numbered 1. “The first today?” No, the first **ever** , from that office. Further on, in the Ural Mountains, they reached a signpost. \<—EUROPE ASIA —\> Too bad they didn’t have cameras. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/32 "2006-10-30T12:09:54Z")
[Edward John Eyre](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_John_Eyre). He and his Aboriginal companion Wylie were the first to walk across the Nullarbor plain in Australia, in 1840-1841. They only survived because they met whalers at Albany: the difficulty is indicated by the fact that the next person to make the crossing, [John Forrest](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forrest), walked across 30 years later in 1870. (Both had later political careers: Eyre as Governor of Jamaica, and Forrest in various federal ministries in Australia.) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/33 "2006-10-30T15:58:05Z")
John Wesley Powell’s three-month river trip down thru the Grand Canyon of the Colorado in 1869. They didn’t know it was doable. Could have dropped over an unknown waterfall and never be heard from again. The only deaths were 3 fellows who gave up and tried walking out 2 days before exiting the main canyon. Plus it was scientific. Not just some rich goofball trying to become famous. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/34 "2006-10-30T16:30:10Z")
[QUOTE=Nava] Sorry, nitpick but this is the Dope, right? “Cabeza de Vaca” is the whole lastname; it literally means Cow’s Head (usually Something de Something would be Commonlastname de Townname, but not in this case). Yes, I know, Spanish lastnames can be a bitch. [/QUOTE] The explorer’s full name was Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. Per Spanish custom, _Núñez_ came from his father’s side of the family, _Cabeza de Vaca_ from his mother’s. Núñez would have been the “short form” of his name, but he preferred to use Cabeza de Vaca. (Who wouldn’t?) Wikipedia uses Aluar Nuñez Cabeça de Vaca as the older version of the name. (Pedant to pedant!) I’ve read Cyclone Covey’s translation of _La Relacion_ & will look into _The Brutal Journey._ This was definitely an epic journey & Cabeza de Vaca’s descriptions of life in the old Southwest are quite valuable. The Wikipedia article has links to several translations. > **[Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81lvar_N%C3%BA%C3%B1ez_Cabeza_de_Vaca)** > > Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}Spanish pronunciation: \[ˈalβaɾ ˈnuɲeθ kaˈβeθa ðe ˈβaka\] ⓘ; c. 1488/90/92 – after 19 May 1559) was a Spanish explorer of the New World, and one of four survivors of the 1527 Narváez expedition. During eight years of travelling across what is today the Southwestern Unit Aft... ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2006, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/35 "2006-10-31T05:07:26Z")
There was a time,long,long ago, when travel of more than a day was a trip into the unknown. Anyone who left in the morning and didn’t come back that same night must have been considered very brave, very foolish, or very dead. Now, **those** were some incredible journeys. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2006, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/36 "2006-10-31T05:59:59Z")
For a grimmer point of view (arr, ye can always count on old Ran for that!)… It’s not exactly a happy-ending, inspiring story, but what I’ve read of the [Andrée’s Arctic balloon expedition](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._A._Andr%C3%A9e's_Arctic_balloon_expedition_of_1897) is pretty incredible. As in a Chernobyl Disaster Timeline/“Cavalcade of Horrors” kind of way. Same with the last [Franklin Expedition](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_John_Franklin), and [Soyuz 1](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_1). Hey, as “fans” of Ed Wood know, even a complete screwup can be incredible if it’s spectacular enough. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2006, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/37 "2006-10-31T09:33:58Z")
[QUOTE=Bridget Burke] The explorer’s full name was Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. Per Spanish custom, _Núñez_ came from his father’s side of the family, _Cabeza de Vaca_ from his mother’s. Núñez would have been the “short form” of his name, but he preferred to use Cabeza de Vaca. (Who wouldn’t?) Wikipedia uses Aluar Nuñez Cabeça de Vaca as the older version of the name. (Pedant to pedant!) I’ve read Cyclone Covey’s translation of _La Relacion_ & will look into _The Brutal Journey._ This was definitely an epic journey & Cabeza de Vaca’s descriptions of life in the old Southwest are quite valuable. The Wikipedia article has links to several translations. > **[Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81lvar_N%C3%BA%C3%B1ez_Cabeza_de_Vaca)** > > Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}Spanish pronunciation: \[ˈalβaɾ ˈnuɲeθ kaˈβeθa ðe ˈβaka\] ⓘ; c. 1488/90/92 – after 19 May 1559) was a Spanish explorer of the New World, and one of four survivors of the 1527 Narváez expedition. During eight years of travelling across what is today the Southwestern Unit Aft... [/QUOTE] The -ez lastnames originally meant “Son of”; in very old names it’s meant that way: for example, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (El Cid) was “Rodrigo, son of Diego, from Vivar” - no family name yet for him. Núñez is Son of Nuño. These lastnames are pretty common, so it would be normal to have two “Núñez” in the same group. Therefore, if you’re going to call people by lastname, people called Pérez or Martínez or… often get stuck with the maternal instead. I has in my class two guys called (name change to protect the innocent) José María Martínez Díaz, both nicknamed Chema by their relatives, from the same village and born within days of each other. Thank God they had different hair color! I remembered another travelogue that I used to love as a kid: the trips of Marco Polo. While a lot of it sounds fantastic, he actually was pretty careful to distinguish between “this I was told” (which is usually the fantastic stuff, but often if you wash off the ‘bad reporting’ you can place what was it he’d been told about) and “this I saw”. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2006, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976/38 "2006-10-31T10:07:51Z")
[QUOTE=Tully Mars] I don’t know if is the same group, but I’ve read a book called “The Long Walk” that told the story of some gulag escapees crossing the Gobi. It was a fascinating story. [/QUOTE] Coincidentally, a BBC radio documentary this week [debunks this book](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6098218.stm). For me, it’s Bligh for sheer intelligence, and Shackleton for endurance. Though for insanity, there’s the one where some explorers were trying to find the northeast package with the idea of building a railroad from Paris to New York via Siberia, who ended up eating their own shoes. Amazingly they all survived. Can’t remember their names alas. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredible-human-journey/375976.md?page=1)