THE NEXT GREAT ADVENTURE

"Hey, Jack, when's your next expedition and where to?"  That's the question, or variants of it, I'm asked most.  For a while now, I've been frustrating a lot of folks who've been bugging me for an answer because I've been unable to give it.

Now I can.  I've been leading expeditions to remote places in the world for over a third of a century, and during all that time I had a dream of an ultimate way to experience the world, an ultimate set of adventures and expeditions.  Now that dream is coming true.

Suppose you wanted to traverse the entire length of the Nile River, all 4,000 miles from  source (Jinja, Uganda where it exits Lake Victoria) to mouth (Alexandria, Egypt, where it enters the Mediterranean).  Or visit the most exotic, the most untouched islands in the South Pacific or the Indian Ocean.  How would you do it?

You'd have to charter a boat, for a lot of money, and take a lot of time – week upon week, even a month or two.  What if there were a way to do it in days?  Quickly, comfortably, at substantially less cost than a boat charter yet seeing and experiencing more than from the surface of the water?

The world would open up to you in a way impossible before.  That's the dream.  But how?  The answer is with a large long range expedition-outfitted amphibian airplane called a Grumman Albatross.

Here's one:

Built by Grumman Aircraft Corp. (now Northrup Grumman) for the US Navy/Air Force, the HU16 Albatross was designed to be able to land at sea in open ocean situations in order to effect the rescue of downed pilots.  It thus acquired a legendary reputation as a rugged and seaworthy aircraft.  And it has a range, with crew, passengers, equipment and supplies of well over 2,000 miles.

It's an ideal expedition aircraft, but for years you could never get your hands on one.  Finally, the military and the Coast Guard, which used them for air-sea rescue, began decommissioning them.  There are a few that have been extremely well-maintained, and at last I've located one.

We'll be spending the next several months outfitting it – desalination unit, satellite internet communications, GPS nav gear, toilet and shower, galley and bar, zeroing out the engines, acquiring parts and supplies, the whole expedition nine yards.  Then next summer, we'll begin a series of Flying Yacht Expeditions around the world.

Starting in California, we'll first have a "shakedown" flight down the coast of Baja to Cabo, then to Clipperton, an atoll so remote the only person I know who's ever been there is Jacques Cousteau.  Believe it or not, it belongs to France.  We land right in the lagoon.

Then we'll offer a series of 10 to12-day itineraries during the summer and fall of 2008, such as along the west coast of Greenland visiting Eskimo villages, remote islands in the north Atlantic like Jan Mayen and the Faeroes, the British Isles from John O'Groats to Land's End (setting down on Loch Ness!), the coolest islands in the Mediterranean,  then the entire length of the Nile River from mouth to source.

During the winter of 2008, we'll operate in the Indian Ocean; the spring of 2009 in Indonesia and the South China Sea;  the summer and fall of 2009 in the South Pacific.

By the fall of 2009, we'll be in a position to begin acquisition of additional HU-16 Albatrosses for expanded world-wide operations.

These will be completely unique travel experiences – low-level flying over the world's most scenically spectacular sites with stand-up large windows and a plexiglass nose bubble for extraordinary photography, water landings at both famous and remote locations, arriving in exotic style to the fascination of locals, compressing  extremely high-quality travel experiences into a short time frame possible in no other way.

What makes this so attractive to me as a financially rewarding business is that in recent years, a niche market has emerged for what are known as "extreme travelers."  These are people who wish to see as much of the world as they can in their lifetimes.  An example would be the "Travelers Century Club," composed of over 2,000 members who have traveled to a minimum of 100 countries or distinct political jurisdictions.

While there are 192 member countries of the United Nations, there are well over a hundred more additional autonomous or territorial jurisdictions in the world, such as Greenland, Easter Island, the Åland Islands (a "condominium" between Finland and Sweden and jointly administered by them), French dependencies in the Indian Ocean like Mayotte, the list is long.  Thus the TCC "country list" currently numbers 317.

The ultimate such list has been composed by members of MostTraveledPeople:  673 "countries, territories, autonomous regions, enclaves, geographically separated island groups, and major states and provinces."  No one has yet been to them all.  (I'm not even close at 284.  But at least I'm one of only four on the MTP list who've been to the Aksai Chin.)

Getting to many of these places is amazingly difficult, time-consuming, and expensive.  There is simply no easy, quick, and comfortable way to reach them.  Now there will be.

So that's my Next Great Adventure.  I hope to welcome you aboard!  And if you're asking, "But what about To The Point, Jack?!" – not to worry.  I'll be able to write and edit TTP no matter where we are in the world with our satellite Internet system.

Besides, I won't be gone all the time.  I'll be back often – and most especially for our Rendezvous!  Oh, by the way – you are coming to the TTP Sarasota Beach Party Rendezvous (2/8-10/08), right? 

If you want to participate in our Flying Yacht Expeditions or be on our mailing list, email [email protected].  Scroll down that MostTraveledPeople list and pick one of the places that only a handful of extreme travelers have been to.  Odds are that the Wheeler Albatross will be going there.  I sure would like for you to be with me.