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Throughout history, humans have demonstrated an instinctive need to explore and discover.

From long pilgrimages to epic voyages, people across the world have ventured far and wide into the great unknown. While many set off in search of treasure or scientific discovery, others simply pursued adventure - even breaking records along the way.

91�ȱ� Bitesize takes a look at some of these incredible journeys and the people who embarked on them.

One of the first Christian pilgrimages

Egeria is thought to have been one of the first Christian pilgrims to visit Jerusalem. According to the 7th Century monk Valerius, she travelled from the most remote shores of the Western Sea, possibly in modern-day Spain, where she began her three-year mission.

She recorded her journey at the end of the 4th Century, venturing through holy sites across the ancient Mediterranean - using the Bible as her roadmap. After an extended stay in Jerusalem, she travelled to Mount Sinai in the Egyptian desert and Urfa in Turkey.

In her detailed accounts, Egeria describes acting as the eyes and ears for her “sisters” back home, which have led some historians to think she may have been a nun.

The texts were later lost for hundreds of years, until an Italian scholar rediscovered the surviving manuscript in 1884. While Egeria’s diary is only partially preserved, it provides a historical glimpse into the life of one of the earliest Christian women writers.

Circumnavigating the globe on a penny farthing

Thomas Stevens first encountered the cycling craze when he emigrated from England to America in 1871. Having found himself in San Francisco, he learnt to ride a bike and soon took off with an idea of cycling across the country.

In August 1884, Thomas completed the first transcontinental bicycle ride in North America. The journey took 83 days of travelling, with 20 days of stoppage due to wet weather, and covered around 3,700 miles. Reports of his adventure were serialised in an American sporting magazine called Outing.

But he didn’t stop there. The following year he travelled to Liverpool, where he began the start of a new journey. This time he was going travel across the world.

He took the journey on a 50-inch penny-farthing bicycle that weighed between 20 and 27 kg (3st 1lb to 4st 2lb) - more than the British Olympic Cycling team’s entire current fleet of bikes!

One of the Thomas’s last journal entries stated, “distance wheeled, about 13,500 miles”. Now that’s a wheelie long trip!

Conquering the Seven Summits

Junko Tabei was a Japanese mountaineer who became the first woman to climb the highest peaks on seven continents. Her love for mountaineering began when her school class went on an expedition to Mount Nasu in the Nikkō National Park, Japan, where she climbed her first mountain at age 10.

Tabei was part of a group of 15 women who embarked on the 1975 Joshi-Tohan expedition. Accompanied by six Sherpa guides, the group completed the first part of their adventure smoothly. However, their camp was later hit by an avalanche, burying them under the snow.

After recuperating from the incident, only one woman was allowed to attempt the climb to the summit due to a lack of oxygen. The group nominated Tabei and she reached the peak on 16 May.

Despite being the first woman to reach the peak, Tabei was uncomfortable being celebrated as such and stated she’d rather be remembered as the 36th person to achieve this feat, as this had been her only intention.

At just under five foot tall, Tabei endured strict training in order to take on the elements. She reach the highest peaks in more than 70 nations. In 2019, a mountain range on Pluto was named Tabei Montes in her honour.

Longest journey made on foot

George Meegan began his travels in 1977, when he started an unbroken walk from the bottom of South America to the top of North America. George decided to take on the challenge after retiring from the Merchant Navy.

The journey made national headlines and George was even invited to meet the former US President, Jimmy Carter, at his home in Georgia.

He started his walk in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, before finishing in Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, USA on the 18 September 1983. The journey totalled 19,019 miles (30,608 km) on foot and was completed in 2,426 days - that’s over six and a half years!

It is estimated that he took around 41 million steps, wearing out 12.5 pairs of hiking boots. His efforts earned him eight Guinness World Records, including a record for the fastest journey of the Pan-American highway on foot.

This article was published in May 2023