The Seven Wanders of Your World
February 11, 2011
If I asked you to list the Seven Wonders of the World, would you be able to do it?
You would first have to ask me, "Which seven wonders?"
There are many lists: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, The Seven Wonders of the Modern World ... the Natural World ... the Underwater World.
No matter what answers you gave, somebody or some organization would disagree with you.
But here is a much more important question, and one that you'll always get right.
What are the Seven WANDERS of YOUR World?
Where do you want to travel? It is a simple question that I find many people don't ask themselves. What are your travel dreams? Pedaling across the U.S.? Your own state? Alaska to Tierra del Fuego? A grand world tour?
Dream big. Dream small. Weekenders to no-time-limit life changers.
Now. Write them down. At least seven of them. You can include more ... it's your list. Remember, there are no wrong answers and your list is always "subject to change."
I'll get things started. Here's my current list:
Madagascar
Ethiopia
Bolivia
Armenia
Burma (Myanmar)
Newfoundland
Adventure Cycling's Great Divide Route
Are these my next seven trips? Probably not. The next place we tour might not even be on the list. But every trip begins with a dream.
Whenever someone asks me about bicycle travel, I ask them where they want to go. It is amazing how often the answer is, "I don't know. I just want to travel."
Take it a step further. Seven steps further.
Make a list.
Seven correct answers that are always subject to change.
What are the seven wanders of your world?
Photo by Willie Weir
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SIGHTS AND SOUNDS is posted every other Friday. Willie Weir is a columnist for Adventure Cyclist magazine. His books, Travels with Willie and Spokesongs, will inspire you to hit the road, and might change the way you approach bicycle travel. He lives in Seattle with his wife Kat. You can read about their adventures at http://yellowtentadventures.com.
Comments
1. Great Divide Mountain Bike Route
2. High Bridge Trail
3. Virginia Creeper Trail
4. Katy Trail
5. Natchez Trace
6. Unspecified Canada/Vermont/Lake Champlain
7. White Rim Trail
#2 & 3 are very easy weekend trips from where I live. Hopefully the list will make it happen -- soon!
Let's see...
1) Australia
2) Nova Scotia
3) SE Asia
4) All of the Erie Canal
5) Africa
6) Croatia
7) South America
Always enjoy your articles in Adventure Cyclist, Willie!
For my Seven Wanders list, I'm starting with English-speaking countries including Australia, which would have put me up to eight places on the list. To squeeze more countries onto my list, I included England, Scotland, and Ireland all under one entity, "United Kingdom". I did the same thing with "Scandinavia".
From there, I'd like to branch out further to European countries like France, and Germany. But first, I want to see more of the US. The list of places I want to see in the US would also include the New England states. (Sorry, I want to see more than seven places!)
Here's my list of places I want to explore on my bicycle:
1. Mississippi River Trail (Louisiana to Minnesota)
2. TransAm Southern Tier
3. TransAm Northern Tier
4. TransAm Trail
5. Pacific Coast
6. United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Ireland)
7. Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden, Norway)
1. Length of Japan
2. TransAm Northern Tier
3. TransAm Southern Tier
4. Sacramento (my home town) to Canada
5. Sacramento to L.A.
6. So many good places in Europe
7. South-East Asia
I'll play: In roughly the order of desire -
1) Katy Trail
2) Mississippi River Trail
3) Key West to Lincoln, NE - finish my diagonal across the US
4) Route 66, including the NY to Chicago extension
5) Land's End to John O'Groats
6) The Rhine trail.
7) Wander around Austraila/New Zealand
The last three are going to be a challenge as I have no desire to board another airplane, ever.
Here are mine! http://spacetosimplify.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/seven-wanders-of-my-world/
~Lauren
My list could be really long, as I want to go pretty much everywhere. But for the most part there are usually just a couple places that I want to go at any one time... and these places depend very much so on the things I happen to be interested in at the time. For example, when I became super interested in learning to speak German, the countries of Switzerland, Germany and Austria were high on my list. And when I became interested in ancient alien theories, Peru shot up to the top of my list. PS - I ended up going to Germany, Austria and Switzerland... and now I'm in Peru on a 6-month travel adventure. I think that if you make your list too large, the things at the bottom of the list will never come to fruition. So make your list short... and actually take the steps needed to make your list a reality!
I couldn't keep it to just 7. :-) The most important thing, though, isn't the particular destination, but just the chance to explore somewhere new. I'll probably never get the chance to do even a few of these, but it's great fun to dream.
1) Olso -> Nordkapp
2) Karakoram highway
3) Southeast Asia
4) Alaska -> Tierra del Fuego
5) Blue Ridge Parkway/Natchez Trace
6) Japan
7) Around the world
8) C&O canal/Great Allegheny Passage
9) Cross-Africa
10) The Danube - Black Forest -> Black Sea
Nice list Willie! I imagine my list would resemble that of a lot of people's early lists.
1) New Zealand
2) Iceland
3) Patagonia
4) Japan
5) Morocco
6) Scotland
7) Madagascar
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