Frontiers

The early 18th and 19th century explorers had it all. They really did not know what was out there until they found it themselves. The yearning to seek, explore and find must have been so overpowering for them to leave the comfort of their society for the madness of long boat rides, disease, potential failure. They truly lived on the edge of risk.
Do we risk today? Is leaving a job after ten years a form of risk? Is jumping on a plane to visit Patagonia, where you land at the architecturally fine El Calafate airport in Argentine Patagonia really exploring? The funny thing is that so many people think it is. I got aghast looks of wonderment when I mentioned I was returning to Patagonia again. "Why do you like it so much and you really like to travel to wild places don't you?" I thought what a shame it was not as wild as I would wish it to be.

Lady Florence Dixie had a similar reaction but in 1878.

“Patagonia! Who would ever think of going to such a place?” “Why, you will be eaten up by cannibals” “What on earth make you choose such an outlandish part of the word to go to?” “What can be the attraction” Why, it is thousands of miles away, and no one had ever been there before, except Captain Musters, and one or two other adventurous madmen!” These and similar questions and exclamations I heard from the lips of my friends and acquaintances, when I told them of my intended trip to Patagonia, the land of the Giants, the land of the fabled Golden City of Manoa. What was the attraction in going to an outlandish place so many miles away? The answer to the question was contained in its own words. Precisely because it was an outlandish place and so far away, I chose it.
Extract from Across Patagonia by Lady Florence Dixie