In 1973 Richard Bangs founded Sobek Expeditions, the original and now the largest adventure travel company in the world, with over a million clients guided since its beginning. But this is not just a story of an unusual company, one that profoundly transformed the way we travel and experience the world. It presents true stories, both perilous and awe-inspiring from the full array of adventure travel: trekking, climbing, sailing, diving, adventure cruising, kayaking, back-country skiing, mountaineering, biking, cultural immersions, canyoneering, and more. Sobek pioneered scores of adventures, from trekking in the Himalayas, to cruising the Galapagos and Antarctica, to first descents of some 80 rivers around the world. The author personally led 35 first river descents, capsizing on six continents (a unique, albeit, dubious distinction), and organized and led the first trips into North Korea, Libya, Yemen, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, New Guinea, Iran, and even China back in 1978. Its clients have included Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mick Jagger, Barry Diller and even a pre-op Caitlyn Jenner. It is the shadow company behind National Geographic Adventures, New York Times Active Journeys, and Smithsonian Expeditions. This book traces 50 years of adventure travel and how it has evolved through times of war and peace, terrorism, the rise if the internet, the pandemic and the first virtual expeditions,
