A Map For Saturday

March 10th, 2008 Buster

A couple of weekends ago, my fiancé and I were watching MTV. They had a “True Life” marathon on and I will admit; I am a fan of the 60 minute documentary. When we turned on the TV we had about 10 minutes left of the current show and the Tivo guide showed us the next program, “A Map For Saturday”. Thinking it might be a True Life that involves the outdoors, I was ready to watch it.

As the show starts, the narrator goes into his story and about the show. The guy, Brook Silva-Braga, leaves a nice job with a TV network to travel the world with clothes in his backpacks and several pounds of video equipment. He sets out to see the world for a year by himself and along the way he meets many new people or as one guy puts it, “friends for a day”.

“It makes me laugh when people say I could never do what you’re doing. All our friends gave us six weeks and then we’d be home and it now been 14 months.”
Karen: 21, England

“In fifty or sixth years I’m dead. I want to say, ‘I had a good life’.”
Jens: 27 Germany

“I’d like to travel 364 days and go back for Christmas.”
Bill: 27 Northern Ireland

The people he meets along the way are also solo travelers, some are just starting out, others are in the middle of their adventure, and some are heading home. The solo travelers he meets and travels with from one location to another help tell the story of why and how they are traveling as well as share some personal accounts of their own travels.
At times lonely and difficult; more often joyous, and always adventurous. In the end, Brook travels for 12 month, and travels by plane, train, automobile and by foot to 26 countries on four continents.

Entry Filed under: Adventure Travel, Environment, General, Interviews, Links, Oddities, Video