Into...the ocean?

Despite being on a blogging hiatus I could not help but talk about an interesting story I heard about. An Italian adventurer, Alex Bellini was just rescued after 10 months at sea. Bellini planned on crossing the Pacific ocean in a row boat. Yes, a row boat. He started off in Peru and began rowing to Australia. Bellini travelled more than 9, 500 nautical miles, but was caught in strong winds within 65 nautical miles of his goal. He was to exhausted to continue and called his wife for via satellite phone and asked for help. Bellini was at sea for a total of 10 months! He survived on dried foods and desalinated ocean water. He communicated with is family via satellite phone. Bellini said the the most difficult of his journey was the solitude and missed his wife terribly. His motive for his trip was not to set records but, to do it, and that "the other reason of my trip was making a trip inward. So it was discovering something of myself." 

I couldn't help but think of Into the Wild and thinking of Chris McCandless and all the other adventurers mentioned in chapters 6-9. He too pursued an outdoor adventure in order to find something out about himself, but was more prepared and capable of accessing others via satellite phone. Unlike McCandless, Bellini had experience, he had also rowed across the Mediterranean and Atlantic seas. This is just another example of how remote natural settings appeal to those who are searching for themselves.