Launch yourself on a supreme travel adventure. Experience the Planet as few others have done---in all its physical facets and cultural dimensions and natural challenges, for this is not a journey for the faint hearted.

The Planetary Prize is a way of getting to know Planet Earth first hand. It's a means of encouraging geographic coverage of the Planet, as one travels far and wide. And it should stir and embolden the traveler to experience all the Earth's physical aspects, as well as its cultural and human dimensions. Travelers who use this system as a goal in their adventure travel coverage, will come to appreciate and comprehend the full extent of Earth's physical, natural and cultural diversity.

I have envisioned two kinds of systematic travel goals---the General Planetary Prize, and the Special Planetary Prize.

This is your systematic guide for navigating the Home Planet and getting to know it, culturally, politically, and physically. Here's how the method works:

Get a good world map (or globe) which has north-south lines marking every tenth meridian (every 10 degrees of longitude). It should also have east-west lines marking every tenth parallel (every 10 degrees of latitude). The globe logo at the top of this page shows the Earth divided in this way. The longitude lines are spaced 10 degrees apart, so they divide the world into 36 equal "slices," each slice 10 degrees wide. Similarly, the latitude lines spaced 10 degrees apart divide the Planet into 18 east-west bands, with each band also 10 degrees wide (ignore the "blocks" formed by the criss-crossing of latitude and longitude lines).

These ten-degree-wide "slices" are a geographic guide toward the goal of visiting and experiencing the entire Planet---i.e. all 54 distinctive slices (36 + 18).

I call the 10-degree-wide longitudinal divisions of our Planet slices because they resemble slices of a watermelon (or cheese wedges, if you like). The globe at the right shows one such slice of longitude, 10 degrees wide. It happens to be the slice sandwiched between 40 deg. West and 50 deg. West (Slice 40-50W, for short, always putting the lower number first). If you visit the South Orkney Islands; or Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia or Belem; or Qaqortoq in southern Greenland, you will have experienced this slice. But what a huge variation in culture, climate and landscape exists within this single slice! That's where latitude slices can enrich a traveler's appreciation of Earth (see the next globe, below).

The slice immediately west of the example shown, is the slice 50-60W. And, to the east of the example, the adjacent slice is 30-40W. So, as you circle the globe (360 degrees), you will have 36 of these back-to-back longitudinal slices. Note that all longitude slices are widest at the equator and converge to a single point at the North and South Poles. Every one of these 36 slices contains land with a human population. Visiting all of the slices is a way of sampling at least 36 different human settlements and cultures, although each of the 36 slices has more than one distinct society, way of life, and culture to be appreciated, studied and enjoyed.

Now, let's deal with the 18 latitude bands (to be consistent, I'll stay with the term "slices"). In going from South Pole (90S) to North Pole (90N), you cover 180 degrees of latitude, so there are 18 of these 10-degree-wide latitude slices on our Planet's surface: 80-90S, 70-80S, 60-70S, and so forth, past the equator (0 degrees latitude), until you reach 60-70N, 70-80N and 80-90N.

The globe at left shows one such slice of latitude. It is the slice sandwiched between 10 deg. South and 20 deg. South (Slice 10-20S, for short). Visit anywhere around the world, within this slice, and you could find yourself in Bom Jesus da Lapa, Poopo, Pisco, Fakarava, Anaa, Erromango, Borroloola, Baa, Analalava, Moroni, Zomba, Xangongo, or St. Helena. Are many of these towns or populated places in your priority destination plans? No? You need to travel more!

Lying within the same, narrow latitude slice, the societies and cultures in these places are shaped by their natural environment---predominantly the tropical humid climate type, with rainforest or savanna, or humid subtropical lands and vegetation. And they offer the visitor a fascinating diversity of cultural development and ways of living, given the environment within this 10-degree-wide latitude band. The wildlife and vegetation, too, will be those best adapted to such an environment.

Contrast this slice with Slice 60-70S. Here, the Planet can show you a different face: no political borders; no local currency; no native people; no cultural heritage; no hotels, casinos, shopping malls or night clubs; no commercial airports; no public transport; no cities, towns or villages; not even a single permanent human settlement. In a landscape where trees do not exist, this slice offers plenty of ice. Magnificent ice, in astonishing shapes, sizes, and tints of blue. And thrown in with the ice, are glaciers spilling from snow-capped mountains, exposed rock towering to the sky, and wildlife species which have made this land of ice a kingdom of their very own. You, the visitor, are clearly the intruder in their realm.

Experiencing the 18 latitude slices gives you a deeper appreciation of the only planet you will ever explore. By sampling these slices, you expose yourself and your camera's image sensor to the Earth's variations in climate, geology, landscape, and wildlife---independent of any human presence and history.

So, get to know at least one location within each of the 36 longitudinal slices. Stay a little while; experience some of the daily life there; interact with the people who live there; savor the nature, landscape, climate, culture, and language at that location. To me, each longitudinal slice represents a different sampling of the Planet's human civilization and culture. This is the cultural aspect experienced by Phileas Fogg and Passepartout, as they went around the world in 80 days, in Jules Verne's classic novel.

As for the 18 latitude slices, remember that each 10-degree slice offers the traveler a unique aspect of the physical Earth---geologically, climatically, and in its distinct flora and fauna. This is something Phileas Fogg and Passepartout largely missed in their travels.

If you visit and (better still) stay a little while, somewhere within each latitude slice, Earth will get really physical and show you everything it has:

From bitter cold, to sweltering heat; withering dryness, to oppressive humidity. From utter silence, to the deafening loudness of waterfalls, waves, wind, and calving glaciers; from the gentlest of breezes, to the shredding fury of a blizzard; from barren landscapes resembling the surface of Mars---and Dry Valleys that have seen no rain for at least two million years, to mountain forests so dense you cannot see the sky; from islands permanently clad in snow and ice, to islands permanently verdant with lush, tropical vegetation.

And, naturally, in each of these environments, Earth will offer you its denizens---the wildlife and plant life which make that latitude their home.

By experiencing each of the 36 longitude and 18 latitude
slices, you can develop lasting impressions of a planet,
unmatched throughout the solar system, in its
astonishing diversity---physical, biological, political, and
cultural.

I write these lines with the hindsight granted by experience.
I set out to cut up the Planet into 54 slices, but long before
I devised the Planetary Prize idea, I had already made
first-time visits to several of these slices. It has taken me a
lifetime to cover 53 of them.

However, “The Prize” continues to elude me. But there is
no rush; let it take more of a lifetime; there is still plenty left.

Seeking The Planetary Prize forced me to see travel in a
different way and to understand what it meant to know the
world. I did this by pushing my travel boundaries well
beyond the must-see, popular and populated destinations.

As long as adventure travel remains fun for you, you can get to experience all 54 slices and realize a remarkable lifetime achievement. That's a goal for your travels and a legacy for you to leave behind. In all likelihood, you have already visited many of these slices. The order in which you tackle the remaining ones should be decided by your travel interests and priorities.

Today's hand-held GPS receivers make it ridiculously easy to tell where you are and whether, or not, you are standing where you want to be. At the highest latitudes, where there is no civilization, with street signs or markers or natives to give you directions, it is comforting to know that satellites are watching above to locate you precisely. I consider the GPS receiver, and the satellite system it relies on, to be one of mankind's great inventions. It ranks alongside the electric light bulb, the wrist watch, and the radio telephone. They solve admirably four eternal human problems: I need to see. What time is it? Where am I? How do I let others know?

This is a more challenging adventure travel goal and possibly might take longer to accomplish. Experience every 10-degree slice of latitude---but do it all within the same 10-degree slice of longitude.

To the best of my knowledge, there is only one part of the Planet where one can do this, since it cannot be done within longitude slices containing lots of ocean and no land. I have checked each 10-degree-wide section of longitude and, in only one such slice, is there a significant presence of land for visiting each of the 18 slices of latitude: Longitude Slice 70-80W, which is marked on the globe, below.

This travel adventure has the feature that, within longitude 70-80W, all 18 adjacent latitude slices have plenty of land to visit, without having to skip "empty" latitude slices consisting only of ocean. By staying within 70-80W and visiting each slice of latitude, you are making the most of the "spine" of land stretching from 80-90N to 90S. And it certainly will expose you to the physical face of our Planet, with its attendant geological, climatic, and natural extremes---all within the same narrow sector of longitude.

To achieve The Special Planetary Prize, here is a suggested itinerary (based only partly on my own travel experiences). Let's run through it from north to south, although each of the latitudes can be visited in any sequence or time frame that suits you. Show up in the northern half of Canada's Ellesmere Island---the western half of Quttinirpaaq National Park would be just fine (Slice 80-90N). Now proceed as follows: Pond Inlet (Mittimatalik) on Baffin Island (70-80N); Kangiqsujuaq at the northern tip of Quebec (60-70N); Belcher Islands in Hudson Bay (50-60N); Niagara Falls (40-50N); Cape Hatteras, North Carolina (30-40N); North Caicos, Turks & Caicos Islands (20-30N); Cartagena, Colombia (10-20N); Merida, Venezuela (0-10N); Francisco de Orellana, Peru, where the Amazon River begins (0-10S); Abra La Raya mountain pass, near Sicuani, Peru (10-20S); Antofagasta, Chile (20-30S); Portillo, Chile (30-40S); Puerto Aisen, Chile (40-50S); Punta Arenas, Chile (50-60S); the northern tip of Alexander Island, off Palmer Land, Antarctic Peninsula (60-70S); Smyley Island, off the English Coast of Palmer Land (70-80S); Amundsen-Scott research station, Geographic South Pole (80-90S).

Thus, The Special Planetary Prize is a way of experiencing all 18 of the Earth's physical slices, while staying within the single meridian slice of 70-80W. In my own case, to complete this task, I still face several years of adventure planning, effort, and persistence. Above all, persistence. The highest latitudes are always the hardest to get to and only the tiniest fraction of humanity will gladly suffer, in order to get there. And that's why it is an adventure. It's not everyone's frozen cup of tea.

Q. Why did you choose a slice width of 10 degrees for latitude and longitude?
A. It seemed a reasonably fine grain for Planetary coverage. I felt that every 15 degrees was a little too coarse, while every 5 degrees might trivialize one's geographic experience of the Planet if the difference between two adjacent 5-degree bands was minimal. Also, over the centuries, mariners who were navigating the higher latitudes traditionally referred to the prevailing winds in latitude bands that were 10 degrees wide---the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, the Screaming Sixties. Finally, today many published world maps and globes are marked with latitude and longitude lines that are 10 degrees apart.

Q. If I experience, for the first time, one of the 36 longitudinal slices and this also happens to put me, for the first time, in one of the 18 latitudinal slices, can I count both as having been achieved, or is that unfair double-counting?
A. This is your adventure, not a contest or competition being checked by referees. Your Planet's 54 slices are there for you to discover, sense, enjoy---and toremember. The Planetary Prize approach encourages you to experience the Planet in the fullest sense, in any amount of time or sequence you wish. Think of

your grandchildren: wouldn't it be lovely if one day you could tell them that you have visited and photographed and experienced all 54 slices, and could instill in them a sense of wonder and responsibility for Planet Earth? May "The Prize" be with them!

Q. When I have achieved The Planetary Prize, can I get some kind of certificate suitable for framing that marks my achievement?
A. Of course you can. Write to me and I'll see to it that this happens.

Q. Can I contribute to this website my experiences and impressions of my travels to the different slices?
A. Absolutely; I can think of nothing better! Write your comments on the "Your comments" page and I shall post them, with some minor editing for style. You will have a chance to check in advance what I will be uploading.