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(Dana) December 21: we visited Robert F. Scott’s hut from his 1911 Terra Nova expedition and Ernest Shackleton’s hut from his 1908 Nimrod expedition — base camps for the explorers’ forays to the South Pole. Inside, we were as close to history as you can get. These aren’t just artifacts from that era, these are […]

(Dana) First, a HUGE thank you to all of our family and friends who supported Greg during his odyssey. The love, generosity and good thoughts clearly bolstered him through an incredibly challenging time. I wanted to share the feelings of the “other 5 explorers” as we continued around Antarctica without our team leader. I just […]

In ’79 in Patagonia, at the bottom of the Western Hemisphere, the National Park of Torres del Paine was renamed and its first hotel was christened. The first visitors would arrive in the ’80s. The 1980s. So while most of our friends were frequenting fraternity tap rooms or channeling John Travolta up North, this 240,000 […]

(Reis) In the beginning I was a little sketchy about this whole mountain biking thing. But as breakfast went on, my confidence grew. Now, we step onto the terrace where the biking will start. I hop on my snazzy red bike, and I am off. After doing a few practice rounds, my self faith is […]

(Dana) As veteran travelers, we should know how to protect our gear. Unfortunately, I let down my guard. Knowing I didn’t need my brand-new iPhone at 17,000 feet in Peru, I left it in my bags at the hotel. Dumb. No surprise, it was gone. After beating myself up for a while, we arranged to […]

(Dana) The Internet has clearly made this trip less isolating, especially for the four younger explorers. 6explorers.com, Facebook, email, Google chats have allowed us to remain in contact with family and friends from home as well as new friends collected along the way. But no electronic media beats a live connection to family and friends […]

(Alex) We went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. It reminded me of the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg — the time frames building by room — from how Hitler gained power to people learning that the war was finally over. I had learned about the Holocaust in 7th grade English from Daniel’s Story, […]

(Dana) Four weeks in the Middle East does NOT make me an expert in Islam. But based on my education in Egypt, Jordan and Israel, I encourage all Americans to try to understand the basics of Islam. To quote our Jordanian guide Hassan, “yes, there are some traditions that Americans may not agree with, but […]

(Emma, Alex, Dana) Egypt is an ancient and wonderful civilization. Its 5,000 year old history dwarfs that of the US. The people are very kind and welcoming. Some observations and concerns about what we saw: 1. 4% of land in Egypt is arable; in the middle of all of this sand, it is the land […]

(Dana) 8:45AM. The thick train of thousands of wildebeest snake across the plain and winds down to the Mara River where we sit and wait. We have a perfect spot to witness a crossing. 9:20, the grunting/bleating increases as the group gains momentum. Walking becomes trotting. Thousands of hooves start thundering. Older animals butting youngsters […]