Asian Geographic – Special Edition 2017-2018

{ EDITOR’S NOTE}

“People do not decide to become extraordinary.

They decide to accomplish extraordinary things”

Sir Edmund Hillary

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Growing up in an arid region in Southern Africa, it was common to
encounter the roving tumbleweed, gambolling seemingly aimlessly across
the sparse flat plains, collecting morsels of dust, leaving ashy wisps in its
wake. We’d chase them, wildly oblivious of their mission: The tumbleweed is
a diaspore, a passenger carrier, dispersing seeds in open, arid ecologies.
It’s the perfect metaphor for the archetypal explorer: the roamer, guided
by the wind, venturing into vast, hostile territories, gathering new influences
along the way, and leaving their own ideas to germinate behind them.
Grand odysseys – whether motivated by political expansion, trade, or
simply an insatiable thirst for adventure – leave legacies. We pay homage
to the great geographical pioneers in photographs (p14), journey along the
iconic Trans-Siberian Railway (p48) and the Silk Road (p58), and into a land
that the road forgot (p66) – a community that teeters on the brink of change
in the shadow of China’s new Silk Road Economic Belt.
Explorer Freya Stark said: “Curiosity is the one thing invincible in
Nature”. Sarah Marquis (p28) lives this message, having spent the last two
decades walking the planet – solo – to remind us of our connection with
Nature, a relationship that she fears we are in danger of losing completely.
Establishing linkages between exploration and the environment are
certainly not limited to her: We profile several activists who are using their
respective expeditions to raise awareness of the effects of climate change
(p76). We also take a look at Asia’s new space race, and technological
advances to harness resources outside our atmosphere – compelled, in part,
by concerns of environmental and resource stress (p40).
What these explorers give us – beyond geographical information,
cartographical archives, historical records and fascinating memoirs –
is a composite chart of human endeavour. It’s brave, bold, and beautiful –
but requires us to tread carefully at the best of times.

Image © Krystle Wright

ALEX W. CAMPBELL

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