Homage to Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days

Saturday, 16 June 2016
Gulf Waters RV Resort — Port Aransas, Texas

I had no idea so many people have been inspired by Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days.  I found some of them when I went looking on the web for an image to use for this post.  There really are a lot of us out there who trace the inspiration for the ‘travel fire within them’ back to this classic novel.  Some have even created their own version of that imaginary trip.

One such 80-day trip was the one Michael Palin embarked upon at the behest of the BBC.

In 1988, he reprised the role of Phileas Fogg.  Not in fiction, mind you.  No, his adventure was for real.  And people worldwide got to see it in seven parts on their TV screens.  And read about it, too … but in this case, the visuals came before the words.  Palin was charged with completing a trip as close to the original as possible … and in the same amount of time.  To make the challenge more interesting, he was allowed to only use modes of transportation available during Jules Verne’s time … in other words, hopping on an airplane to circumnavigate the globe was out.

Like Phileas Fogg, Palin set out from the Reform Club in London, England.  Like Phileas Fogg, he was accompanied by his own ‘Passepartout’ … in his case a film-crew of five.  Like Phileas Fogg, he encountered setbacks … and overcame them in creative ways.  Like Phileas Fogg, he had some close calls, but he managed to return to the Reform Club in London 79 days and some hours after his departure.  Thus proving that it’s possible to round the world in 80 days.

Phileas Fogg’s Route	Michael Palin’s Route

[These maps were downloaded from this Wikipedia article.  Click the maps in the article for attribution information.]

Somehow we missed the series when it first aired on TV.  But we made up for it by getting the DVD set from Netflix recently.  We finished watching the series yesterday.  You can read a synopsis of Palin’s adventure on the Kickass Trips website.  (Thanks Marc for allowing me the use of the "postcard" image in this post.)

Sure hope we don’t encounter any difficulties even remotely similar to the ones Palin did when we embark upon our RTW journey … albeit a much longer one … and by way of a cushier mode of transport than either the original or the modern-day Phileas Foggs had at their disposal.

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