Jean Wilson Murray's Blog, page 4

Mary Kingsley – No Return Ticket from Africa

“I do not hanker after Zanzibar, but only to go puddling about obscure districts in West Africa after… fetishes and fresh-water fishes.” Mary Kingsley is one of my favorite women adventurers. She is unassuming, courageous, and friendly to everyone. She went originally to Africa, she said, “to die,” but that might have been an exaggeration. […]

Ada Blackjack – Reluctant Adventurer Stranded in the Arctic

Ada Blackjack didn’t want to be a heroine; she just wanted to survive. But her courage and will to live is inspiring. Why was she cast as a hero? She survived two years on a desolate Arctic island, three months of that time alone with the body of a dead man and only a cat for […]

Louise Arner Boyd – Sophisticated Arctic Explorer

Imagine seeing Louse Arner Boyd on one of her polar expeditions – she would be dressed in typical Arctic gear, including boots, heavy sweater, oilskin jacket, and she could curse like a fisherman. But she would always put on makeup and powder her nose before going on deck. She might also be seen wearing a […]

Dervla Murphy – Bicycling Around the World

Dervla Murphy, now 86, looks back on her life of adventure and travel and she says that the key to travel is to “embrace the unpredictable.” Murphy certainly has done that. She has traveled through three continents some of them with her daughter (when her daughter was 5!). She has written 26 travel books, and […]

Sorrel Wilby – A Young Woman Walking 1900 Miles Across Tibet

Tibet seems to fascinate many people. There is something about its mystery, the mountains, and the people that draws adventurers. It drew Sorrel Wilby, a photo-journalist from Australia, to it in the 1980s, when, at age 24 she walked 1900 miles in three and a half months from the border to Lhasa, the Forbidden City. […]

Sorrel Wilby – Walking Across Tibet

Tibet seems to fascinate many people. There is something about its mystery, the mountains, and the people that draws adventurers. It drew Sorrel Wilby, a photo-journalist from Australia, to it in the 1980s, when, at age 24 she walked 1900 miles in three and a half months from the border to Lhasa, the Forbidden City. […]

Alexandra David-Neel – Tibetan Pilgrim, Scholar, and Rebel

If you wanted Alexandra David-Neel to do something, all you had to do was tell she couldn’t do it. At 5 years old, she ran away from home, scratched a policeman who tried to catch her, and showed no remorse when collected by her father. She was traveling alone in Europe at 17 and she lived […]

Annie Smith Peck – Queen of the Climbers

Many women adventurers had it said about them that “she should have been born a boy,” but probably no more so than Annie Smith Peck. Just look at her; she scandalized the socialites in Rhode Island with her climbing attire. Here she models her climbing attire: wool tunic, knickerbockers (those baggy trousers), puttees (basically support […]

Walking to Freedom – A Story of Three Courageous Girls

In August 1931, three half-caste girls escaped from Moore River Native Settlement south of Perth, Australia, and walked almost 1000 miles in 9 weeks to get to their homes. In March (2018) the last of these girls, Daisy Kadibil, died at age 95. I was so moved by Daisy’s obituary in the New York Times […]

Maria Sibylla Merian – Pioneering Scientist, Artist, Traveler

Women in the 1700s didn’t work, they weren’t scientists, and they didn’t travel alone. Maria Sibylla Merian broke through all these barriers, creating a career for herself by combining art and science in a whole new way. Her drive to know sent her (at age 52!) to South America to study in the rainforest. Her […]