h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I read this book about these guys who were the first to canoe down the entire length of the Niger river, and yesterday there was some chap on the telly who had done the same for the Amazon; Everest has been climbed; every continent discovered etc.
So - if I want to be the first person to do something - what can I do that hasn't been done? An idea for an adventure is needed!

Hm. Well, they did the balloon non-stop around the world now. So. What else? Most of it's going to be off Earth at this point, I'd think. There may still be some unclimbed mountains out there, *really* difficult ones!

Now this is assuming you want to be the first person to do something interesting, not the first person to do something silly and unnoteworthy, or worse, the first person to die trying.

Anything off-earth is too expensive for the private adventurer, and I'm not much of a rock climber.

As a subsiduary question, how do I find out if something has already been done? Say (as a spur of the moment thought) has anyone kayaked around cape horn? Or swum the Irish sea?

..and it could be silly - since one of the many things that has inspired this madness is the story about the guy who hitch-hiked round Ireland with a fridge

how about being the first to eat the forbidden fruit? That's the most extreme thing i can think of ?

actually, i've already been there, done that. how about truth or dare?@

OK - but you may have to wait 'til tomorrow for the reply as I'm in danger of achieving a first: the first person to be locked in at this office....

i can't wait 'til tomorrow.

..and I'm still here . Pubs are open and I'm here debugging someone's half hearted attempt at code *rant fume*. But I really am going soon...to the Merrion Inn, which is not much of an adventure but does feature the finest food in civilisation and maybe a little "hair of the dog that bit me".

Well i don't know if its cheaper then space but you could be the first to scubadive across the pacific or atlantic. you may need a ship suplying air to you at all times but i suppose it oculd be done
then again it is a long distance....
maybe something similar

Scuba would be prohibitive...but maybe I could snorkle across the pacific (warmer than the atlantic)...hmmm
It still looks like the walking/hitching from Tiperaray to Timbukto might be the more interesting. .

There are lots of firsts left to be done as the world catches up to the available technology (which will probably be never, since technology keeps advancing)...

Build bridges to connect the continents, so that one may truly drive around the world without having to wait for the B. Straight to freeze over.

Drive around the world.

Walk around the world.

Build the first totally automatic house. (Or my favourite -- -live- in it. )

Walk along the deepest floor under the oceans.

Or even things like...

Has anyone ever hang-glided off Mt. Everest to the bottom?

Has anyone parachuted naked into an active volcano?

Has anyone bicycled across Siberia?

Lived a year under Antartica?

Rode an Iceburg til it melted?

Flew around the world -- following the Prime Meridian?

And think of all the old records that can be broken again and again and again! Admittedly, I'm not sure that some of these haven't been done, but I'm throwing out ideas. I'm sure not all of them have, and the point is, that as we advance, more opportunities for 'adventure' will open.

'Nonnie

No one has ever loved "everything" totally and purely.

Leaving aside the invariably fatal (parachuting into lava , living underneath the continent of Antartica) and the prohibitively expensive (walking along the deepest ocean floor) I think we're left with cycling across siberia.
I know of someone who is cycling from Hong Kong to England..but cycling around the world hmmm.....

Maybe, if i try taking the bottled love AND the little blue love pills that Monkey Boy brought...

I imagine that lots of people have loved everything totally and purely but that this experience has so overwhelmed them that they were unable to articulate it and the rest of us just assumed they were drunk. Could it be that "vagrant" is the next step of enlightenment above "yogic"? .

I reckon the most fruitful line of exploration is to abandon cars, bikes, boats and walking, and do all the major crossings and climbings using only silly forms of transport.

Unicycling across the Sahara? Up Everest on a pogo-stick? Sailing round the world on a pedalo? Swim the Channel in rollerskates? Is this at all helpful??

Hmm - I have actually had serious thoughts about travelling the Congo from source-to-sea (sort of "hearts of darkness", only backwards ) so am going to see how feasible that sounds and whether anyone I can rely on wishes to join me.
I reckon to have about £5k to spend on such a frivolity so may have to look into a bit of sponsorship as well, so this may well lead to a number of threads on this site. Keep 'em peeled!

It hasn't been done, but 'Up Everest on a pogo stick' has been thought of before. As I recall, Colonel K in the popular cartoon 'Dangermouse' (featuring the voices of David Jason and Terry Scott) was described as the first man to climb Everest on a pogo stick.

Sometimes I worry about how much of my brain I'm using up by knowing things like that...

Hey Duncan, did you ever do that which still remained to be done?

I know that someone swam across the Pacific Ocean, so the Irish sea seems a little like childsplay compared to that.