Following the Equator

Group Leader Spotlight: Mike O'Neal

Mike O’Neal, a seventh- and eighth-grade social studies teacher from Kirkland, Washington, never wanted to be the type of person who one day would reflect upon his life and say, “Coulda, shoulda.”

When it comes to traveling, he certainly has accomplished that goal. Mike has taken more than a dozen EF tours and traveled on five Teacher Convention Tours. From Kenya to Russia to the Galápagos Islands, Mike has explored six continents with EF!

Mike (pictured above at a Turkish market) took a few minutes to talk about how travel impacts his students, planning and recruiting his tours and watching the pelicans and sharks in the Galápagos:

Travel Tidbits: Long walk aborted

I decided to check in on Mark Boyle, whom we wrote about last month. Boyle—who also goes by the name Saoirse—was trying to walk from his hometown in Bristol, England, to Gandhi's birthplace in Porbandar, India, without money. Yes, without money.

Well, he didn't make it.

Apparently, relying on the kindness and generosity of strangers only gets you so far. Apparently, it only gets you as far as Calais, France.

Boyle pulled the plug on his "pilgrimage" after only 300 miles on his expected 9,000-mile journey. Not surprisingly, he cited lack of food, lack of housing and lack of the French language as huge obstacles. It didn't help that the French assumed Boyle to be a freeloading backpacker. You can read all of the excruciating details on Boyle's blog here, here and here.

Click on to read more Travel Tidbits …

Travel Tidbits: A conquering hero

One of the 20th century's greatest explorers, Sir Edmund Hillary, died January 10. He and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first known people to reach the top of Mount Everest.

Hillary and Norgay literally stood on top of the world on May 29, 1953, when they reached the summit of Mount Everest, 29,035 feet above sea level, the highest point on Earth. Of reaching the pinnacle moment, Hillary wrote:

"Another few weary steps and there was nothing above us but the sky. There was no false cornice, no final pinnacle. We were standing together on the summit. There was enough space for about six people. We had conquered Everest. … Awe, wonder, humility, pride, exaltation—these surely ought to be the confused emotions of the first men to stand on the highest peak on Earth, after so many others had failed."

Since then, more than 3,000 people have ascended Mount Everest, but Hillary—like Roald Amundsen reaching the South Pole in 1911, Charles Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic in 1927 and Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon in 1969—was the first. He devoted much of the rest of his life to assisting the mountain people of Nepal.

World Hum and Gadling both paid tribute to the man whom New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark called "a colossus." You also can read obituaries from the Associated Press and The New York Times. The New Zealand native was 88.

It's been awhile, so we have several other Travel Tidbits to catch up on: