In Praise of Female Explorers
October 2019
As a child, I was obsessed with National Geographic. I preferred it to playing Barbies or Mystery Date. The mean girls bullied me for being weird and reading "stinky old men's magazines."
Still, I dreamed of becoming an "intrepid explorer" and traveling the world. The adults told me that intrepid explorer wasn't a career option for women.
They were wrong.
This month I pay tribute to five late-blooming female adventurers who defied convention to follow their dreams.
On each explorer's birthday listed below, I'll send you her full story.
Because adventure, like creativity, never gets old!
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Celebrating Female Explorer Month
October 14, 1797: Birth of Ida Laura Pfeiffer in Vienna, Austria. Ida spent two decades in an arranged marriage to a much older man. At age 49, after he died, she embarked on a round-the-world journey. In Sumatra, her humor saved her from cannibals. ("I'm too old and tough to eat.")
October 15, 1831: Birth of Isabella Bird in Yorkshire, England. At age 41, after spinal surgery left her with depression and insomnia, Isabella sailed for Australia on her doctor's orders. From there, she scaled Mauna Loa in Hawaii and almost married an outlaw in Colorado. Her memoir, A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, became a bestseller.
October 19, 1850: Birth of Annie Smith Peck in Providence, Rhode Island. At age 45, Annie caused a scandal by scaling The Matterhorn in pants. The press debated whether or not she should be arrested (for wearing pants, not climbing the mountain). At age 61, she became the first person to summit Peru's Mount Coropuna.
October 24, 1830: Birth of Marianne North in Hastings, England. When Marianne was 24, her dying mother made her promise never to leave her father. He passed away when Marianne was 40, leaving her heartbroken but wealthy. A talented botanical artist, Marianne embarked on a lifetime of traveling and painting rare plants. Today, you can admire her 800 artworks at the Marianne North Gallery in London's Kew Gardens.
October 24, 1868: Birth of Alexandra David-Néel in Paris, France. At age 56, Alexandra disguised herself as a peasant and hiked through the Himalayas to become the first Western woman into Tibet’s holy city, Lhasa. More about her below.
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More Proof It's Never Too Late
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Alexandra David-Néel's Mystical Midlife Adventures
On a field trip to the Guimet Museum of Asian Art, teenage Alexandra David-Néel beheld a golden Buddha that kindled in her an indefinable emotion. She soon converted to Buddhism.
At age 23, she sailed to India to study Sanskrit and learn yoga. Today, if you met a French Buddhist yogini, you might be curious but not amazed. But during La Belle Époque, Alexandra’s conversion and yoga practice were jaw-dropping.
Alexandra went on to sing opera in Hanoi and Tunis, but her spiritual journey again took precedence. She returned to India and studied at the royal monastery of Sikkim, then an independent kingdom. At age 56, after a daring climb over the Himalayas, she became the first Western woman to visit the holy city of Lhasa.
Alexandra wrote more than 30 books about her travels and helped bring Buddhism to Europe. At age 100, she renewed her passport in hopes of returning to Tibet.
To read the full story of Alexandra's astonishing life, please follow this link.
One thing I forgot to mention—three out of the five women supported themselves through books and lectures. Only Marianne and Alexandra came from money. It's never too late to write a choose-your-own-adventure story!
See you on October 14 to celebrate Ida Pfeiffer's birthday.
Warmly,
P.S. If you'd like more of these stories, I post late-blooming inspiration twice daily on the Later Bloomer Facebook page.
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