Travel Legends – The Ultimate Bucket List: John Goddard

I love my travel, and I’ve always had a hunger and desire for adventure, but it all pales into insignificance when you read about American adventurer, John Goddard. Way back in 1940 at the mere age of 15, while most of us were still many years away from discovering who we really are. John Goddard sat down at his kitchen table and scribbled down on yellow writing pad, what he describes as ‘My Life List’. Under that heading he proceeded to jot down 127 goals that he wished to achieve throughout his life. When you scroll through the list below, you will notice that John was not one for taking the easy path.

A generation later, John has achieved 109 of his original 127 goals, and in many cases’s he was not just satisfied with achieving his goal, but he actually excelled at the task.

John was the first man in history to explore the Nile River (1951) in it’s entirety, and then backed up this achievement with an ever greater one by becoming the first man to explore the entire length of the Congo River (1956). It was this journey that claimed the life of one of John’s best friends. John has also scaled many high mountains around the world, including the Matterhorn, where he refused to turn around, even when his professional guides decided it was to dangerous to go on.

Throughout his adventures, he has been bitten by a rattlesnake, charged by elephants and trapped in quicksand. He has crashed planes, and almost drowned twice in pursuit of his dreams.

John is also noted for his honesty where in his book ‘The Survivor – 21 Spine-Chilling Adventures on The Edge of Death‘ he admits his own recklessness in many of his adventures, and gives gratitude to the supreme force that miraculously allowed him to survive some of his great adventures.

A couple of Johns listed items were pushing the envelope a little, even by his lofty standards. Item 125 gets a bit of a laugh from myself, where he states he wants to go to the moon. I suppose you can forgive him as he was only 15, but I shouldn’t laugh to hard, as John is still alive (he’s now in his eighties) and if any could make it happen, he could.

John Goddard is one of the worlds true adventurers, a real life Indiana Jones, and I think he deserves his self proclaimed title as ‘The Worlds Greatest Goal Achiever’.

I’d like to know if anyone else out there has complied their own list? I’ve never actually had a ‘Life List’ or ‘Bucket List’ as there now called, but maybe I should sit down and pen one of my own. Anyway here’s John’s ‘Life List’, listed below.

My Life List, By John Goddard (* marks accomplished goals)

EXPLORE:

1. * Nile River
2. * Amazon River
3. * Congo River
4. * Colorado River
5. Yangtze River, China
6. Niger River
7. Orinoco River, Venezuela
8. * Rio Coco, Nicaragua

STUDY PRIMITIVE CULTURES IN:

9. * The Congo
10. * New Guinea
11. * Brazil
12. * Borneo
13. * The Sudan (nearly buried alive in a sandstorm)
14. * Australia
15. * Kenya
16. * The Philippines
17. * Tanganyika (Now Tanzania)
18. * Ethiopia
19. * Nigeria
20. * Alaska

CLIMB:

21. Mt. Everest
22. Mt. Aconcagua, Argentina
23. Mt. McKinley
24. * Mt. Hauscaran, Peru
25. * Mt. Kilimanjaro
26. * Mt. Ararat, Turkey
27. * Mt. Kenya
28. Mt. Cook, New Zealand
29. * Mt. Popocatepetl, Mexico
30. * The Matterhorn
31. * Mt. Rainier
32. * Mt. Fuji
33. * Mt. Vesuvius
34. * Mt. Bromo, Java
35. * Grand Tetons
36. * Mt. Baldy, California
37.Carry out careers in medicine and exploration
38. Visit every country in the world (30 to go)
39. * Study Navaho and Hopi Indians
40. * Learn to fly a plane
41. * Ride horse in Rose Parade

PHOTOGRAPH:

42. * Iguacu Falls, Brazil
43. * Victoria Falls, Rhodesia (Chased by a warthog in the process)
44. * Sutherland Falls, New Zealand
45. * Yosemite Falls
46. * Niagara Falls
47. * Retrace travels of Marco Polo and Alexander the Great

EXPLORE UNDERWATER:

48. * Coral reefs of Florida
49. * Great Barrier Reef, Australia (photographed a 300-pound clam)
50. * Red Sea
51. * Fiji Islands
52. * The Bahamas
53. * Explore Okefenokee Swamp and the Everglades

VISIT:

54. North and South Poles
55. * Great Wall of China
56. * Panama and Suez Canals
57. * Easter Island
58. * The Galapagos Islands
59. * Vatican City (saw the Pope)
60. * The Taj Mahal
61. * The Eiffel Tower
62. * The Blue Grotto
63. * The Tower of London
64. * The Leaning Tower of Pisa
65. * The Sacred Well of Chichen-Itza, Mexico
66. * Climb Ayers Rock in Australia
67. Follow River Jordan from Sea of Galilee to Dead Sea

SWIM IN:

68. * Lake Victoria
69. * Lake Superior
70. * Lake Tanganyika
71. * Lake Titicaca, S. America
72. * Lake Nicaragua

ACCOMPLISH:

73. * Become an Eagle Scout
74. * Dive in a submarine
75. * Land on and take of from an aircraft carrier
76. * Fly in a blimp, balloon and glider
77. * Ride an elephant, camel, ostrich and bronco
78. * Skin dive to 40 feet and hold breath two and a half minutes underwater.
79. * Catch a ten-pound lobster and a ten-inch abalone
80. * Play flute and violin
81. * Type 50 words a minute
82. * Make a parachute jump
83. * Learn water and snow skiing
84. * Go on a church mission
85. * Follow the John Muir trail
86. * Study native medicines and bring back useful ones
87. * Bag camera trophies of elephant, lion, rhino, cheetah, buffalo and whale
88. * Learn to fence
89. * Learn jujitsu
90. * Teach a college course
91. * Watch a cremation ceremony in Bali
92. * Explore depths of the sea
93. Appear in a Tarzan movie (he now considers this an irrelevant boyhood dream)
94. Own a horse, chimpanzee, cheetah, ocelot, and coyote (yet to own a chimp or cheetah)
95. Become a ham radio operator
96. * Build own telescope
97. * Write a book (On Nile trip)
98. * Publish an article in National Geographic Magazine
99. * High jump five feet
100. * Broad jump 15 feet
101. * Run mile in five minutes
102. * Weigh 175 pounds stripped (still does)
103. * Perform 200 sit-ups and 20 pull-ups
104. * Learn French, Spanish and Arabic
105. Study dragon lizards on Komodo Island (Boat broke down within 20 miles of island)
106. * Visit birthplace of Grandfather Sorenson in Denmark
107. * Visit birthplace of Grandfather Goddard in England
108 * Ship aboard a freighter as a seaman
109. Read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica (has read extensive parts in each volume)
110. * Read the Bible from cover to cover
111.* Read the works of Shakespeare, Plato, Aristotle, Dickens, Thoreau, Rousseau, Conrad, Hemingway, Twain, Burroughs, Talmage, Tolstoi, Longfellow, Keats, Poe, Bacon, Whittier, and Emerson (not every work of each)
112.* Become familiar with the compositions of Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Ibert, Mendelssohn, Lalo, Liszt, Rimski-Korsakov, Respighi, Rachmaninoff, Paganini, Stravinsky, Toch, Tschaikosvsky, Verdi
113.* Become proficient in the use of a plane, motorcycle, tractor, surfboard, rifle, pistol, canoe, microscope, football, basketball, bow and arrow, lariat and boomerang
114. * Compose music
115. * Play Clair de Lune on the piano
116. * Watch fire-walking ceremony (In Bali and Surinam)
117. * Milk a poisonous snake (bitten by diamondback during photo session)
118. * Light a match with .22 rifle
119. * Visit a movie studio
120. * Climb Cheops’ pyramid
121. * Become a member of the Explorer’s Club and the Adventure’s Club
122. * Learn to play polo
123. * Travel through the Grand Canyon on foot and by boat
124. * Circumnavigate the globe (four times)
125. Visit the moon (“Someday, if God wills”)
126. * Marry and have children (has five children)
127. * Live to see the 21st century