Three disabled explorers are following in the footsteps of fictional explorer Phileas Fogg, by using 80 modes of transport to complete their round-the-world trip, including a Japanese bullet train, elephants and camels.
Blind adventurer Miles Hilton-Barber will drive a Formula One racing car in Malaysia, while Mike Mackenzie, a double leg amputee, will ride an ostrich in South Africa.
Like the characters from the Jules Verne novel, the tour set off from London’s Reform Club on 2 September.
Their journey will take them through Europe, Africa, Asia and America.
They hope to complete their travels in 100 days, arriving back in London for the International Day of Disability on December 3.
Hilton-Barber said the trip’s main goal was “to encourage people to look at their opportunities in life, not their limitations.”
He explained how he was first inspired to take up challenges after his brother, also blind, began sailing single-handedly.
He added that he used to look at his blindness as a handicap but now he sees it as “a passport to achieving amazing things”.
Last year he ran across the Sahara Desert, something he said he might never have done without his brother’s inspiration.
website: aroundtheworldineightyways
Published by - December 2, 2002
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