{"id":24151,"date":"2019-04-08T09:47:38","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T13:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/?p=24151"},"modified":"2020-09-12T01:13:14","modified_gmt":"2020-09-12T06:13:14","slug":"nesophilia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/blog\/nesophilia\/","title":{"rendered":"Nesophilia"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was published in the Escape Artist Weekly Newsletter on April 08, 2019. If you would like to\u00a0subscribe\u00a0to the newsletter, please click here.<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

All photos by Jack Wheeler<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"Tristan
Tristan da Cunha \u00a0\u00a92019 Jack Wheeler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alright, I confess. I am a <\/span>nesophile<\/span><\/i>. I\u2019m addicted to <\/span>nesophilia<\/span><\/i>. It\u2019s not on any list of psychiatric disorders, however. The term was invented \u2013 a \u201cneologism\u201d \u2013 by one of the 20<\/span>th<\/span> century\u2019s most eminent philosophers, Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997), in 1938 while in Ireland.<\/span><\/p>\n

While there, he combined the Greek word <\/span>nesos<\/span><\/i> \u2013 island, with <\/span>philia <\/span><\/i>\u2013 love, and declared he was a <\/span>nesophile<\/span><\/i> \u2013 a lover of islands. That\u2019s me. <\/span><\/p>\n

I suppose that\u2019s obvious by now \u2013 as my eagle-eyed wife pointed out to me the other day, that of the several dozen Escape Artist articles I\u2019ve written, more than one in four is about an island, 20 in all.<\/span><\/p>\n

And there are so many more to go! Yet, I\u2019ll be writing only about ones that are interesting, not even if they\u2019re famous. I just got back from Majorca and Ibiza, for example. Nice enough, pretty enough \u2013 but, frankly, boring. There\u2019s no real \u201c<\/span>there\u201d<\/span><\/i> there, as Gertrud Stein said about Oakland, California.<\/span><\/p>\n

The most interesting island in the Mediterranean for me is <\/span>Malta<\/span><\/i> \u2013 which includes its sister island of <\/span>Gozo<\/span><\/i>. Just for openers, here is where you\u2019ll find the oldest free-standing structures in the world.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\u00a92019
\u00a92019 Jack Wheeler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is the Temple of Ggantija (<\/span>zhee-gan-<\/span><\/i>tee<\/span><\/i>-zha<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 Built almost 6,000 years ago (before 3,600 BC), it is older than the pyramids in Egypt by a thousand years, older than Stonehenge by 15 centuries. It\u2019s just one of a myriad of examples why Malta is one of the world\u2019s most fascinating places.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Med, we already learned about <\/span>Crete<\/span><\/i> (<\/span>The Real Atlantis<\/span><\/a>) and <\/span>Cyprus<\/span><\/i> (<\/span>The Museum of Barbarism on the Island of Love<\/span><\/a>). Malta will come soon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ireland,<\/span><\/i> from where Sir Isaiah wrote, is an island we learned the history of in <\/span>Beyond the Pale<\/span><\/a>. To the north, north of Scotland in fact, are the <\/span>Orkneys<\/span><\/i>, where you\u2019ll find the 5,000-year-old Neolithic village of <\/span>Skara Brae.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"\u00a92019
\u00a92019 Jack Wheeler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And north of the Orkneys and Shetlands are the <\/span>Faeroes<\/span><\/i> \u2013 islands of astonishing pristine beauty.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\u00a92019
\u00a92019 Jack Wheeler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They\u2019re in the Northern Atlantic. Almost to Antarctica in the Southern Atlantic is <\/span>South Georgia<\/span><\/i> \u2013 with giant crags and massive glaciers for a backdrop, the numbers of King penguins, along with fur seals and elephant seals is beyond belief. The whole island is beyond belief.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\u00a92019
\u00a92019 Jack Wheeler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lost in the middle of the South Atlantic is the <\/span>world\u2019s remotest inhabited island \u2013 Tristan da Cunha<\/span><\/i>. The 260 Tristanians who live in the single settlement of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas \u2013 the most isolated community on earth \u2013 I found to be our planet\u2019s most special and admirable people.<\/span><\/p>\n

The picture at the top of this essay is of Tristan. You can see how happy I was to be here.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\u00a92019
\u00a92019 Jack Wheeler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1,343 miles north of Tristan is the island of <\/span>Saint Helena<\/span><\/i>, itself so remote the Brits exiled Napoleon here. High on a hill is <\/span>Longwood House<\/span><\/i>, where he lived until he died in 1821. The home and gardens are well-preserved \u2013 even his death bed is on display.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\u00a92019
\u00a92019 Jack Wheeler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\u00a92019
\u00a92019 Jack Wheeler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the Pacific, we\u2019ve been <\/span>Lost in Fun<\/span><\/a> on Funafuti, in <\/span>Idyllic Isolation<\/span><\/a> on Canton Atoll, and reveled in <\/span>The Paradise You Never Heard Of<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

But how about scuba diving amidst an uncountable number of fish in the Galapagos?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\u00a92019
\u00a92019 Jack Wheeler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Discovering a secret swimming hole in Samoa?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\u00a92019
\u00a92019 Jack Wheeler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Or getting to know a family of Orang-utans in Borneo?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\u00a92019
\u00a92019 Jack Wheeler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These are just a few of the coming attractions you\u2019ll be seeing in future Escape Artist essays. You\u2019ll also learn how to experience these marvelous places yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n

However\u2026 if you\u2019re a nesophile like me, there\u2019s the opportunity <\/span>right now <\/span><\/i>to experience <\/span>with me<\/span><\/i> a trio of the most fabulously magical islands in all the oceans of Earth. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They are the <\/span>Atlantic Paradises<\/span><\/i> you\u2019ve read about – <\/span>Madeira<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>Faial<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>S\u00e3o Miguel<\/span><\/a> in the <\/span>Azores<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\u00a92019
\u00a92019 Jack Wheeler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\u00a92019
\u00a92019 Jack Wheeler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you take a quick refresher through the three photo essays linked just above, I think you may find it irresistible to make these <\/span>Atlantic Paradises<\/span><\/i><\/a> a part of your life this coming June (June 20-29). If so, I encourage you to <\/span>click here \u2013 Atlantic Paradises<\/i><\/b><\/a> to get all the details and a lot more really cool photos.<\/span><\/p>\n

Remember \u2013 <\/span>Carpe diem<\/span><\/i>. If not now, when? Life is short. The time for a great adventure is now.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jack Wheeler is the founder of\u00a0<\/b>Wheeler Expeditions<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Click here to get advance notice of expeditions you can join & stunning photos of Once-in-a-Lifetime Adventures<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\"wheeler\"<\/p>\n

This article was published in the Escape Artist Weekly Newsletter on April 08, 2019. If you would like to\u00a0subscribe\u00a0to the newsletter, please click here.<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was published in the Escape Artist Weekly Newsletter on April 08, 2019. If you would like to\u00a0subscribe\u00a0to the newsletter, please click here. All photos by Jack Wheeler Alright, I confess. I am a nesophile. I\u2019m addicted to nesophilia. It\u2019s not on any list of psychiatric disorders, however. The term was invented \u2013 a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":366,"featured_media":24137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[2395,2394,2393,10141,1815,5701,1753,1814,1811,2190,2189,10140,10139,1819,1812,1820,10142,5706,10138,2191],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/image1-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24151"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24151"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41409,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24151\/revisions\/41409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24151"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}