These days it’s infrequent that we travel for the journey. We are much more inclined to travel as a means to an end, a way to arrive at our destination. In fact, for many people, the element of travelling may be enough of a deterrent to stay at home.
Indeed, post 9-11, our patience has been tested while being funnelled through inspection booths, corralled through security lines, and stripping off our clothes to pass through a scanner. Unfortunately, those days — thanks to a global pandemic — will soon be akin to the good ol’ days of an economy flight with a meal, free-flowing booze, a blanket and headset to boot! That’s to say, travelling will become even less civilized and more inconvenient moving forward: think health swabs, vaccination passports, and biometric assessments.
So it stands to reason that it’s not common to hear of anyone “choosing” to travel around the world. For most of us, we plan to travel to one destination, one country or, if you are fortunate, one continent. So what led to Karl making that proclamation in 1899?
Quite simply, for the first time in history, it was feasible.
There were some significant achievements between 1869 and 1870, including completing the transcontinental railway in America and railway linkage in India. Then there was the Suez Canal opening, providing a passage between India and Europe that would shave 7000 km off the journey, saving about 15 days of travel.
These advancements captured the author Jules Verne’s imagination, who, in 1873, set his protagonist Phileas Fogg on his mission Around the World in Eighty Days. Following this fictional story’s publication, the allure of travel captured the interest of many, and there were various attempts to either complete the exact route set out by Verne or do it faster, or in the reverse order or some other variation.
The first to set out was the incomparable Nellie Bly, who in 1899 was the first to travel around the world in 72 days (more information on Nellie’s adventure in an earlier GlobeTrotter Post: A trip around the world). In 1895, Joshua Slocum, another Nova Scotian, was the first man in recorded history to sail around the world single-handedly. Joshua, an adventurous seaman, wrote about his three-year solo adventure — which has yet to be duplicated — in his book: Sailing Alone Around the World.
You can imagine the newspapers during this period of history, stories of travel experiences and adventures from corners of the world that previously had been difficult to access. And, for a young man with dreams to see the world, the idea that this could be done by bicycle was quite a reasonable one.
Karl did not set out on his trip to set a record time, but he was setting out to be the first Canadian to accomplish such a feat. But he was not the first person. Thomas Stevens set that record bicycling around the world on a penny-farthing in 1884. Then Annie Kopchovsky was the first woman who rode around the world by bicycle in 1894.
Ironically or perhaps naively, Karl did not have much experience riding a bicycle. The date he set off around the world was only his third time riding a bicycle, setting out on quite the journey.
In case you’ve missed them, click here for more Karl Chronicles