And because I could never get enough of the Iberian Peninsula, how about a Spanish road trip?

Some 78,000 people have put in applications to be part of the first privately funded human colony on Mars. That’s not a bad number at all, considering the trip to the red planet would be one way.

Stanford University PhD student Cassandra Brooks recently spent two months sailing through Antarctica’s Ross Sea aboard an ice-breaker. Rarely a dull moment by the looks of it, including even the occasions the vessel was temporarily trapped by the sea ice.

Via Lost At E Minor.

At almost four and a half metres in height, the Stoopid Tall bike is a vehicle that requires above average bicycle handling skills to ride.

US sailor Dennis Hale recounts the experience of being shipwrecked after the freighter he was aboard sank during a storm on Lake Huron. Of a crew of 29, Hale, who spent almost 40 hours drifting on a life raft in freezing conditions, was the sole survivor of the 1966 Great Lakes tragedy.

The Morrell was peeling apart. Invisible hands ripped the deck like a sheet of cardboard. The 60-year-old boat ran on coal, so severed steam pipes billowed into the cold air. Sparks crackled from snapped wires. Since the propeller was still churning, the stern didn’t sink, but slid around in a blind half-circle, slamming into the bow, where Hale and his shipmates were waiting for their dangling raft to reach water. The impact vaulted all of them overboard. When Hale surfaced, he saw a carbide lamp, glowing from the raft. The light flashed in and out of sight as dunes of water gathered up and collapsed. Hale swam toward the shifting beacon, clawing handfuls of wave. Two crewmen, Art Stojek and John Cleary, had beaten him there. They pulled him aboard. Soon, they were joined by a fourth, Charles “Fuzzy” Fosbender.

It could be people like to tell others that they reached, say, the North Pole, or the summit of Mt Everest, because they believe no one will bother questioning, or otherwise trying to verify, their (supposed) feat.

Above a certain point on the mountain, no trace of Maestri or Egger has been found, even though Maestri claimed to have bolted parts of the route, and for decades no other climbers managed to reach the top of Cerro Torre. In 1970, Maestri returned to climb it again and, hopefully, clear the air of doubt. He used a controversial gasoline-powered bolt gun – and still he failed to reach the spire’s peak. Worst of all, perhaps, Maestri let slip a shocking trip of the tongue several years ago, when he angrily told a reporter, “What I did was the most important endeavor in the world. I did it single-handedly. But this doesn’t mean that I… that I reached the top, do you understand?” Did he just – ? Yes, I think he did.

Little Wellington, a glimpse of the capital of New Zealand, also home to Webstock, and the iconic Beehive, one of the country’s parliament buildings.

Rohan Nowell recently travelled from Wollongong to Sydney, some 82 kilometres south of the NSW capital, in twelve hours by skateboard, apparently evading road police in the process.

Air travellers have a preference for selecting window seats on the right hand side of an aeroplane, according to an analysis by British Airways of passengers flying on their 747 aircraft.

Window seats are generally favoured over aisle ones, the research found, with six per cent more bookings. It also revealed that fliers will slightly favour the right hand side of the aircraft over the left, with 54 per cent of passengers opting for that side.

This means I’m definitely weird… I’m usually on the left hand side, (it’s just where I seem to end up) and in an aisle seat (which I often request though, especially for longer flights).

I can just about pack all that I need to get by for weeks at a time into one daypack size backpack type bag, including my laptop. Some miniaturisation, and obtaining certain requirements at destination, is still necessary though, but I’m sure I’m better at travelling light than I used to be.

If you’re looking for a few pointers for taking to the road with as little as possible I Am Packed may be able to help, even if it seems that some of these travellers have under-packed.

(Photo by Monhand Mathurin)