Around 985 AD, Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland for three years for committing murder. He sailed west, where he stumbled upon a habitable piece of coast connected to an unending expanse of ice.

But now Erik faced a challenge: How to populate his new land?

In a move that would have impressed Don Draper, Erik named this new place “Greenland” because, he said, “Many people will come if it has a pleasant name.”

When Erik’s punishment had passed he returned to Iceland to recruit settlers.  According to the Icelandic Sagas, he convinced 25 ships of former and future countrymen to follow him to Greenland. Only 14 made it to the new land.

Pleasant indeed.

More pictures from 35,000 feet follow.

More pictures here.

I got a glimpse today while reading The New York Times obituary of John Fairfax, the first man to row across both the Atlantic and Pacific. (That’s right, he rowed.)

But that’s the least of his life. From the Times:

“Footloose and handsome, he was a flesh-and-blood character out of Graham Greene, with more than a dash of Hemingway and Ian Fleming shaken in.

At 9, he settled a dispute with a pistol. At 13, he lit out for the Amazon jungle.

At 20, he attempted suicide-by-jaguar. Afterward he was apprenticed to a pirate.

To please his mother, who did not take kindly to his being a pirate, he briefly managed a mink farm, one of the few truly dull entries on his otherwise crackling résumé, which lately included a career as a professional gambler.”

The details in the Times obit are even more amazing.  Definitely worth reading the whole piece.

Nearly three years ago – a month before we left on our trip around the world – the Vogel family of Boise, Idaho, mounted their bikes in northern Alaska and headed south with one goal:  To reach the end of the earth under their own power.

Nancy, John, Davy and Daryl set their minds to pedal from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego at the bottom-most tip of South America.  While some might question their sanity, no one can doubt their courage, resolve and utter audacity.

Within the next few days – after more than 1,000 days on their bikes – they will have reached their destination.  I encourage you to read about this extraordinary family’s journey, and when you do, you will be inspired to believe this:

Anything’s possible.

Le Flâneur (music by The XX) from Luke Shepard on Vimeo.

Looking for the Luv Shack? Look no more.

This will come as no surprise to readers of our round-the-world travel blog:  My wife Dani is a talented and engaging writer.  During our year of travel, her posts routinely garnered the best feedback and the most comments.

It’s no wonder that Steve Hull, Publisher of Bethesda Magazine, asked Dani to bring her DC Resident Tourist blog to the magazine’s redesigned web site.

Over the past few months, Dani has shared many DC area adventures, including a renting a bike at Union Station, visiting the Freer Gallery’s Peacock Room, hanging out on main street in Staunton, Virginia, and spending quality time in the Luv Shack.

So if you live in the mid-Atlantic area (or are planning to visit), check out Resident Tourist at Bethesda Magazine.

If you are traveling to – or through – North Carolina, it’s easy to overlook Greensboro. With great destinations like Asheville in the west the Outer Banks in the east and Raleigh/Durham and Charlotte in the center, why bother?

But if you do overlook Greensboro, you’ll miss a thriving city and an interesting mix of old and new, conservative and trendy.

The downtown neighborhood South Elm Alliance is home to funky restaurants, shops and a unique artists cooperative.

Greensboro may not be a well-known North Carolina destination, but it is well worth a visit.

The amazing “Joey L“…

And the extraordinary Trey Ratcliff.

Just 20 years old, Joey L is an incredibly gifted commercial photographer who just completed a documentary film project for National Geographic.  He began his blog post about the experience like this:

Our 4×4 is tearing down a dusty road somewhere in the South of Ethiopia. It’s all familiar. Out the window are pillars of rock and mountain, blanketed in layers by a dense sand storm in the distance.

Ryan is asleep beside me. Anteneh is awake but deep in thought, watching the landscape in which he grew up pass by outside the window.

It’s been exactly a year since we’ve all been back together here, en route to the Omo Valley. This is a place that doesn’t seem to exist at all once you leave, it doesn’t seem believable when you’re at home.

If you enjoy travel adventures, definitely check out this trailer for the documentary.

Trey Ratcliff is another photographer I have admired for a long time.  His blog – Stuck in Customs – is one of the most popular on the web.

Trey’s specialty is HDR (high dynamic range) photography.  It’s a technique that involves over-exposing and under-exposing a scene, then merging the shots to give the image an almost 3D feel. For those who like the HDR look, Trey has a detailed tutorial on his web site.

If you are inspired by great images of exotic places, be sure to check out Trey’s work.

John Muir, the Scottish-born American naturalist, author and founder of the Sierra Club, inspired congressmen and Presidents to preserve large areas in the United States, and shaped the way Americans view their relationship with the natural world.

Until age 11, when his family emigrated to the United States, the young Muir was inspired by the dramatic East Lothian coast near Dunbar, Scotland.

And an extraordinary coast it is.

We journeyed to Dunbar, not to pay tribute to Muir, but to visit our friends Ian and Anne Pilbeam. We last (and first) met Ian and Anne on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, as our families traveled round the world in opposite directions.

It was fitting that we spent the afternoon enjoying a coastal ramble along a portion of the John Muir Way, a 45-mile trail that connects Edinburgh to the Scottish Borders.

From the 7^th century, Dunbar’s harbor was protected by of one of Scotland’s mightiest castles.  During the 19^th century, the town gained a reputation as a seaside holiday resort, famous for its “bracing air.”

Today Dunbar is an affordable Edinburgh bedroom community; the capital city is just 28 miles to the west, conveniently connected by rail.

But there’s more to Dunbar than just a lovely nature walk. It is also home to the Belhaven Brewery, the oldest surviving independent brewery in Scotland.  And there’s a lot to be said for a fine Scottish ale after a long ramble in “bracing air.”