THE LAND OF ADVENTURE
[ssba]Hobart, Tasmania. Before we delve into Tassie, as Tasmaniacs affectionately call their island, I need to make an announcement.
With the Platinum Vegas Rendezvous a little more than two weeks away, I better explain why it may the Last Rendezvous.
As you may know, TTP is a labor of love for me, and not the way I make a living – I do that primarily by running expeditions. They often come together in that I prefer the company of TTPers on an expedition. By contrast, I try never to take any liberals and lefties, as having to put up with one in a remote place in the world is a serious annoyance.
I’ve been running Jack Wheeler Expeditions for 37 years, starting with the first commercial expedition in history to the geographic North Pole, on the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean at 90 North. That was in April, 1978. I started To The Point 12 years ago, at the end of March, 2003.
Over those last 12 years, many of you have had extraordinary adventures with me – safaris in the Serengeti and Namibia, Gorillas and Pygmies in Central Africa, Concordia by helicopter to K2 base camp in northern Pakistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, The Land of the Dragon Blood Tree in Socotra, North Korea, the North Pole, remote islands in French Polynesia, Hidden Burma, Hidden China, Hidden Persia… it’s a long list.
Next September, some of you will be with me to The Lost Kingdom of Lo. I’ve been able to operate all of these and still keep TTP running without interruption – thanks in large part to Miko, and to Jack Kelly’s superb HFR’s when I’m gone. A TTP Rendezvous, however, is different. My travel schedule has been so intense recently that the Vegas Rendezvous is the first we’ve been able to schedule since 2012.
And now I have no idea when I’ll be able to schedule another. The reason is that I am passing my expedition baton to my son, Brandon.
Brandon joined the Marines to serve his country, not to be a career military officer. He saw daily combat for seven months in Afghanistan, was the aide-de-camp for the commanding general conducting the war in Libya, then the officer-in-charge of the Marines’ Close Quarter Battle School in Chesapeake VA.
Lastly, as Commanding Officer of the Marines’ FAST (Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team) for the entire Pacific Command (India to Guam) based with the 7th Fleet in Japan, he conceived and implemented new operational concepts that will change US naval warfare for the better, as described by the Marine Corps Times. I summarized this in an HFR last January.
Brandon has now served his country well, and he’s decided it is time for him to realize the dream he’s had since I took him to Africa when he was five. He wants to be my partner in Wheeler Expeditions.
It’s just in time. I’ll be 72 shortly, so I’m going to focus my time on helping Brandon launch a new and much-improved expedition-adventure company. This means I’ll be on the road to remote places more than ever. Thanks to Miko and Jack Kelly, TTP will still be – but now you can see why there may not be another Rendezvous for some time.
So don’t miss out on seeing your fellow TTPers in Vegas this month. Better call Miko now – 202-656-3008 – and get on board!
Brandon will be with me at the Rendezvous – and speaking on The Value of an Adventurous Life. It will be the official launch of the new father & son Wheeler Expeditions!
Tasmania is an ideal place from which to let you know about this. There is a purity here – pure air, water, beauty, and adventure. It’s bigger than West Virginia with a quarter of the people (26K sq. mi. with 500K people, half of whom live here in the capital of Hobart).
Hobart has fantastic pubs like The Hope and Anchor (Australia’s oldest, established 1807), and The Drunken Admiral. The people here are so friendly and cheerful they are like out of a movie. The geology of the entire island is incredibly spectacular and outside of Hobart you have it all virtually to yourself – like Wineglass Bay and the gigantic basalt pillars of the Tasman Peninsula
And yes, there are the devils – Tasmanian Devils, little furry marsupial meat-eaters with jaws so strong they eat every bit of whatever animal they catch (like a wombat or bird), fur, bones, and claws. But they never bother people.
You can easily see why Tasmania is called the Land of Adventure. Then again, the entire world, if you know where to look and how to do it, is an endless land of adventure, bottomless adventure, you’ll never get to the end of it.
Frankly, I think this is more important than ever as America gets crazier than ever. You have to get out of the insane asylum that Zero is turning our country into or you’ll go around the bend yourself. Experience the beauty and magic of the world, get an adrenaline pump of adventure flowing through your veins, get as far away from the sadism Zero and his minions are perpetrating on our land, get out into the world of adventure, into the Back of Beyond.
You’ll return refreshed, your soul purged with the emetic of high adventure, and far more able to withstand current lunacies.
To better understand those lunacies and learn ways to cope with them – well, for that, you need to come to the Vegas Rendezvous. It’s now or maybe never, folks. The time for hesitation is over. Make up your mind to be with us in Vegas. I really hope to see you there.
Better yet, follow the Vegas Rendezvous up with the Insider Passage in late June. The value of that is simply astounding.
You only live once, you’ll never come this way again. Make the most of it, because you won’t get a second chance. Make this world your land of adventure.