Round the world in various guises from Boorman to Wylson

In the Middle Ages they may or may not have believed the known world was flat, with dragons inhabiting the far flung edges. Later, expeditions to find short cuts to the spice rich Asian continent led to unexpected landings in the West Indies.

In the 1590s, Shakespeare has Puck saying he'll put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes to fetch the magical flower for Oberon. Pretty nifty even by modern supersonic standards.

Jules Verne's adventure story, Around the World in Eighty Days, written in 1873, told of the voyage of Phileas Fogg with his French valet Passepartout. Michael Palin took up the challenge by the BBC in 1989 to try to emulate it in reality, with his camera crew as his modern version of the French valet, after three people had turned the chance down, thus starting a whole string of his filmed travel adventures.

Yuri Gagarin on 12th April 1961 was the first person to journey into outer space and complete an orbit of the earth, describing its beauty. But it took til 1968 for a manned spaceship, Apollo 8, to leave earth's orbit, reach the moon and look back at the earth; in 1969 Apollo 11 landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong held up a thumb and covered up the 'tiny pea, pretty and blue' as he described it.

Back on earth in the summer of 1999, David and Kate Grant, and their three children, set off from Scotland's Orkney Isles to travel around the world in a gypsy caravan; the story of this journey is retold by David in his book 'The Seven Year Hitch' - the journey took them seven years in all.http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gypsy-life-on-the-high-road-1102678.html

In 2004, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's fantasy  bike trip to Spain grew into a round the world trip on sturdy BMWs, their idea to film their adventures stretching into a crew that included a couple of support vehicles and another cameraman on wheels. After extensive training, including first aid, they decided that, neither having faith in the other's ability to treat them if injured, they'd best take professional medical back-up. One of the many people they encountered on their travels was a solitary cyclist going it alone in total contrast to their ultra-planned, funded, supported trip. Other escapades have followed, mainly without Ewan as film schedules intrude, and many other celebrities have joined in the round the world flurry in various directions and on multiple forms of transport.

Also in 2004, but on a much humbler scale, two young lads, Ben and Jamie, set off from England to cycle round the world, without all the trappings of a film crew,etc.:check out Free Wheels East website for their adventures!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKry69GI7c4     http://www.familyonabike.org/stories/books.htm