The years 1800-1940 were the heyday of the independent explorer—free-spirited, mostly European adventurers who took incredible risks in pursuit of discovery and fame. Some lit out for the mysterious city of Timbuktu, others the source of the Nile River, or the Northwest Passage over Canada, or lost cities of Latin America, or the North or South Poles—quests that obsessed nineteenth-century explorers and hardly matter today. They were a special breed of traveller: courageous and determined, gluttons for punishment, frequently self-financed, and often horrendously misinformed and ill-prepared. In equal parts eye-opening, shocking, and hilarious, Out There is a totally original account of their extraordinary exploits.
