Intercontinental travel - no

And then there are two projects which I have cherished for over 40 years now and which will never come to fruition.

The first one was to drive up all the way from San Diego in Southern California to Fairbanks or Anchorage in Alaska - in those days the Alaskan Highway was still a real adventure which had to be planned really carefully - and steam back to San Diego on a cruise ship. A two to three month trip I think. I'll never do it because this is not a trip one makes alone, and interested friends with sufficient time and a little money on their hands are few and far between.

The second one was the exploration of the US - to travel across America for as long as it took to know the country a little bit better : West, South, Center, East and North. This might take a couple of years, or three, four long trips. It will never come to pass either for the same reasons as the first one, with an additional one : my raging agophobia which gets worse with age : I can't stand wide open spaces, they make me physically sick (just like claustrophobia or fear of heights makes other people sick). It is stupid, and one can tell oneself it is something between ones ears, it just doen't help. Even looking at a cowboy film playing in the wide open spaces of the West makes me quirky (I'm thinking about Hondo which I saw on the BBC yesterday).

Can't be helped !