The Most Famous Backpacker Of All Time

Who is the most famous backpacker of our time? Its a question worthy of some debate i believe. If there had to be one backpacker who was the 'pin up' or the one to go down in the history books, who would it be.....


One of the earliest free spirited travelers i thought should get a mention was Marco Polo. The legend traveled for 24 years. 24 years. I dont know if the term backpacker was probably appropriate, more of a 'slackpacker' - Where some travelers take the high road and some take the low road, Marco Polo took the long and slow road, setting out on a quest to really understand a place and its people. Legend.



Ibn Battuta - This 13th centuy Moroccan traveler covered 75,000 miles in 30 years around the world. He almost makes Marco Polo look like he was out for a casual stroll. He traveled mainly around the Middle East and Asia as a raggety camelpacker, although become an affluent member of the Muslim world during his later years, presiding as a judge until his death caught up with him.

So those dudes are long gone. Their legacies live on though. But who is still alive that could possibility be the backpacker pin-up traveler?? Could it be.....

• Charles Veley of San Francisco, who has visited 600 plus of what he counts as 673 territories. Or is this guy just a part time hero out for some fame?? Does he truly capture what it means to be a backpacker, someone prepared to travel the road less traveled, in an independent manner for nothing more than the satisfaction of understanding the world we live in.


• How about traveling Matt. The guy who zipped around the world in six months, visiting 39 countries and dancing a crazy little dance in each one of them. Check out the link, its a beautiful and inspiring clip however, he falls short of what in my terms would be one of the most famous backpackers. His travels although started genuine, have turned somewhat commercial. Credit given where credit due, he followed through on a great idea.





He reminds me of another famous traveler i looked up to as a kid. Uncle traveling Matt from Fraggle Rock.





I think the conclusions we can all draw from is that people travel for different reasons. There are so many types of backpackers its hard to "pin up" just one. Where traveling matt might be a bit of a flashpacker and marco polo a slackpacker, i think we all have a bit of backpacker in us, we just execute it with a twist.


Your comments on who is the most famous backpacker are more than welcome....

travel and the big www.com

the internet is such an integral part of our lives these days. so much so, that its completely absurd when trying to think of life without the world wide web, which has only really been functioning as a w.w.w since 1989.

it is intrinsically integrated into our everyday lives. even on the road, the lure of the net cannot deter travelers from the destination where they are residing. even remote islands around the world will have somewhere to check your emails. if in doubt, whip out the iphone.

its nuts to think how travel and the internet will continue to intertwine and gradually compliment or destroy each other.

What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook….

My Backpack

With my backpack on my back
this dusty patchy olde sack
im off again
down this road with no end

A fresh day
another way
I wander off
with nothing more to say

Cos im breathing in the fresh air
got my pack on and i dont really care
as to my direction
the important thing
is my perception

But its the people i meet
and the places i go
these moments they always show
me
you end up reaping what you sow

Its in the smiles
in the faces
of all earths glorious races
that encourages my faith in this world

And with my backpack on
i sing this song
wandering along in my unique way
anticipating each new day.

On Lifestyle and Travel.

...the most important thing to understand is that we have the ability to make decisions and have choices to pursue dreams, whatever those may be...

travel enlightens us. travel challenges us. travel delivers understanding. provokes thought. travel is holistic.

choice beckons us. choice threatens us. choice demands sacrifice. choice is so elusive. yet choice pervades us.

why, when we have such ability to make decisions, we find it so hard to pursue dreams?

it reminds me of one of my favorite travel quotes...

we travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us

flashpackking comedian

this is classic one minute youtube vid of a comedian taking the back out of backpacking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZdzno-Njzk

And so we travel.

And so we travel.

Through changing worlds and shifting sands
over high seas & foreign lands
and what stimulates our emotions
as we cross these oceans
staring at the stars
and walking the land
carved from gods own hand

It must be the people
in the smiles
in the faces
of all earth's glorious races

We breathe & we see
we do & we be
but theres nothing quite like
being free.
And so we travel...

calling all backpackers ... hear me roar

i start this blog with a capital ?

the existence of this blog has grown out of a personal desire to align myself with a particular travel identity. i have traveled the world. i have backpacked the globe. i am a traveler. a backpacker. an aging student at the travel university of life.

i am now what i once was and i always will be what i have become from the day it all began. over a decade ago when i set out on a backpacking trip on my lonesome i wandered off into the horizon against the flow of societies recommendations and advice, down some foreign dusty dirt road that had no signposts yet trailed off into several different worlds....my wonderful world of traveling had begun spontaneously inside my bubble world of backpacking.

and here i am, many years later, many pairs of flipflops worn through, a stamp infested raggity olde passport, many countries and cultures explored….and im still somewhat confused. not from what ive learnt or from what ive seen on my travels, but more of an identity crisis, a glimpse in the mirror, a re-acquaintance with myself after all these years traveling.

what type of traveler am i now? who am i now...am i still a backpacker or have i transformed, morphed into another form of packer...i dont even carry a pack on my back any more....what type of backpacker have i become.....