Where’s Andrew?
When not running with Sperryville Fire, ‘digital nomad’ has posted travel stories from all seven continents
Sitting in his car in what he called “the county’s best WiFi hotspot,” author, travel writer and TV host Andrew Evans led about 30 Zoomers on travel adventures past, present, and future.
Rapp at Home had invited Andrew to speak on travel back in January. Since he travels for a living and is on the road (or the rails or the seas) about a third of the year, it wasn’t all that easy to pick a date.
But we zeroed in a Wednesday in April for a program at the Rapp at Home office. Well, that didn’t work out as the offices closed for meetings since March 12. Then came Zoom to the rescue, and an audience concerned with travel after COVID-19.
Andrew calls himself a “digital nomad.” He posts about his travels on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and he has a travel blog. Most recently he hosted “Turkey’s Hidden Gems,” a five-part series on the National Geographic Channel.
Ten years ago, he convinced National Geographic to fund a trip from their headquarters in D.C. to Antarctica — by bus. He wrote about it in National Geographic Traveler and in detail in his book, The Black Penguin. Harrowing, haunting, beautiful, frightening — not a trip for the faint-hearted. But a fabulous read.
This year he did a similar trek to Antarctica, this time by plane and National Geographic Explorer ship, and with his 77-year-old father. They made it to the continent, only to have to race back to the U.S. as flights were cancelled and borders closed due to the coronavirus.
On his Zoom chat, Andrew showed photos of past adventures to his Zoom audience — the Disappointment Islands in the Tahiti chain, where an elder said he was the first white person on the island since Thor Heyerdahl in 1947; a 40 days hike in Jordan from the desert of Aqaba to the Dead Sea; a three-day trek through Guyana to the highest waterfall in South America. The latter trip was memorable, in part, because the 17-year-old pilot on the bush plane taking him to the jungle didn’t have his hands on the plane’s controls for most of the flight. He was Facebooking on his phone.
Recounting his travels to all seven continents and 120 countries, Andrew complained about what he calls “over tourism.” He described lines of tourists waiting to have photos taken in front of the Taj Mahal and pushing an Indian woman aside in the process. He’s seen the same in Thailand and Morocco — younger tourists whose main goal is to pose, for Instagram, in front of iconic sites, and who pay little attention to the history or natural history of the area. As travel has become more democratic and accessible, he feels it has become “A race to the bottom.”
COVID-19 will change that, he feels. Travel will again become elitist, more like it was when his grandfather first flew across the Atlantic in 1949 at a cost of about $6,000 in today’s dollars. He foresees big demand once a vaccine for the coronavirus is available, but fewer, more expensive flights and less availability overall.
Americans will take more car trips in the near future, Andrew predicts. He thinks the national parks will draw crowds. “Have you noticed the number of out of state cars headed toward Shenandoah?” he asked. After this stay-at-home period, he thinks Americans will crave Nature, Silence, and Solitude.
And nature, silence, and solitude are why he and his husband value living in Rappahannock. He said he used to “ship” cow manure to their garden in D.C. and now it’s freely available from his bovine neighbors. He was thrilled to see a 400-pound mama bear on his deck shortly after they’d moved to the county — and still be just living 66 miles from the District.
When asked whether traveling cross-country in an RV this summer is a good idea, Andrew felt that it was.
“You’ll have your own little bubble that you can stay in,” he said.
A Zoomer asked about whether to book cheap flights to South Africa. Andrew likened airfare to the stock market — crazy, wild swings in pricing. But he would probably snatch up a cheap flight. He advised “putting down as little as possible” on future cruises and airfare. He said cruise lines had been good about refunds for cancelled cruises — but airlines have been less so.
A Zoomer asked about how he deals with languages. Andrew said he speaks French, Russian, and “poor” Spanish but he always learns “thank you” in the native language.
Andrew “runs” with the Sperryville Fire Department. His parting advice had nothing to do with travel. “Don’t hesitate to call the fire department if you have a fire. That’s what we’re here for!”