Women On Adventure is a blog by K.L. Webber exploring our rich shared history of women's adventure writing. This curated collection of quotations showcases the opinions and experiences of influential female travellers in their own words.

Archive

Accomodation
- Oct 27, 2017 "I have a log cabin, raised on six posts, all to myself, with a skunk’s lair underneath it..."
- Apr 17, 2017 "The prospect of a night in a monastery was very exciting."
- Jan 28, 2017 "Tell papa what the moo-moo cow says!"
Alpine Revels
- Apr 3, 2017 "Beyond the valley appeared Sinai, the holy Mount of God."
- Mar 25, 2017 WOA Image: "The dark, jagged peaks that closed in the distance were just that rich, deep, incredible ultra-marine blue..."
- Mar 4, 2017 WOA Image - "This climb was something totally different."
- Jan 19, 2017 "It is up hill and lonely, but we do not mind that."
Architecture
- Oct 4, 2017 "Historians, when in doubt, always accuse the Phœnicians."
- Feb 20, 2017 "The first sight of Palmyra is like a regiment of cavalry..."
Colonial Gaze
- Sep 1, 2017 "Both have been conquered by a country speaking another language to their own, and of totally foreign temperament..."
- Feb 6, 2017 "The charm of the East is the absence of intellectual life there."
Communication
- Oct 6, 2017 "No one expects literature in a book of travel."
- Feb 13, 2017 "...wallowed in my letters like a pig."
Conflict
- Aug 23, 2017 "Taking his sword from its scabbard, he held the naked blade over me..."
- Apr 13, 2017 "I had hardly struggled to my feet, when the enemy was upon us, and I was knocked down by a spear."
- Jan 23, 2017 "The much-looked-for spy has come in from Sinkat."
Culinary Wonderlands
- Apr 20, 2017 "She laughed, saying that sand was good for the stomach!"
- Jan 30, 2017 "The bread was half mildewed and scarcely eatable."
Espionage & Diplomacy
- Oct 9, 2017 “I suppose we may consider ourselves under arrest.”
- Feb 8, 2017 "The mean machinery which has directed many transactions of moment."
Fabulous Daring Darling
- Aug 28, 2017 "In short, 'tis the women's coffee-house, where all the news of the town is told..."
- Feb 4, 2017 "Fashion is ephemeral."
Fauna
- Oct 25, 2017 "A saucy thing that repeats two notes only, not unlike the mockbird."
- Oct 11, 2017 "...perfect ninnies, so unlike my dear flying squirrel at Simla."
- Mar 2, 2017 "I beheld a huge bear peeping out at me from a cleft in the rocks..."
Friendships of the Road
- Oct 16, 2017 "When she saw me what joy for both of us!"
- Feb 16, 2017 "As to the thoughts, who knows where he got them?"
Impetus for Adventure
- Mar 16, 2017 "My imagination hurries me forward to seek an asylum from all the disappointments I am threatened with."
- Feb 18, 2017 WOA Image: "The love of adventure must be contagious."
- Jan 31, 2017 WOA Image: All Adventure Takes...
- Jan 5, 2017 "Never was distant expedition entered upon with less premeditation."
Liminal Zones
- Oct 18, 2017 "It seems very cross to be angry at people being anxious about you, but..."
- Apr 6, 2017 "Births? Why, yes... we had one female on board, who produced three at a birth."
- Jan 8, 2017 "You will not wonder at my desperation when I tell you that half-way down, a person called to me, “Mauna Loa is in action!”"
Mounted Adventures
- Mar 30, 2017 "See how a false translation spoils a good metaphor!"
- Mar 11, 2017 WOA Image: "There is something sobering and solemn in these great tracts of sand..."
- Jan 16, 2017 “Oh, you should be heroic!”
- Jan 9, 2017 "You know that he hates you, from the moment you first walk round him..."
Natural Spaces
- Aug 25, 2017 "...could discern around us nothing but mountains of lava, while before us rose the huge smoky column..."
- Feb 23, 2017 "This is wch they Call the Devills Arse a peake."
- Feb 11, 2017 WOA Image: "Today is the last day the sun will be above the horizon..."
Other Peoples
- Oct 30, 2017 "A woman’s wages is one paul and three pagnotte, with wine. "
- Aug 30, 2017 "A degree of equality which I have seldom seen elsewhere..."
- Mar 9, 2017 "The shortest way of learning is to mix at once with those we wish to learn from."
Painting With Words
- Mar 18, 2017 WOA Image: "The night was so exquisite that I was content to rest without sleeping."
- Feb 27, 2017 "The most impressive feature of all is the profound silence and solitude."
Perils of the Road
- Apr 10, 2017 "He was about to give me a third kick, when Mr. Miller turned round and very quietly, without anger, dealt him a scientific blow on the chest."
- Jan 21, 2017 "Bang goes off the gun,... singeing my hair and the side of my face"
Preparation
- Mar 20, 2017 "A young lady, like a great general, is nothing without a proper staff."
- Jan 9, 2017 "We drank to my safe return to my country, in real old Cyprian wine."
Returning Home
- Mar 13, 2017 "The last year out of England. Mind you all keep well a few months longer."
Sailing & Steaming
- Mar 27, 2017 "Wise and experienced chief officers never see Mrs. S.’s crates, but young and truculent ones do..."
- Jan 2, 2017 "Those of us who could swim got to shore, and the rest perished."
Sport
- Oct 13, 2017 "As he increased his speed we increased ours, till a velocity was attained that no horseman could safely exceed..."
Sporting Coves
- Oct 13, 2017 "As he increased his speed we increased ours, till a velocity was attained that no horseman could safely exceed..."
- Mar 6, 2017 "We must take in sail and yield the race!"
Thrills of Acquisition
- Apr 15, 2017 "...lifting the cover she discovered that the precious liquid had all leaked out. "
- Jan 26, 2017 "Everybody gives an opinion here. "
Traveling by Wheel & Rail
- Oct 20, 2017 "Behold us setting out in our waggon and eight at nine o’clock in the morning."
- Mar 23, 2017 "Several times we had to rush over places where the ice buckled under us."
- Jan 12, 2017 "I could not discern an inch of space between the wheels and the precipice."
What A Woman?!
- Oct 23, 2017 "They had all some extraordinary reason why it was impossible for me to accompany them at that particular time."
- Apr 22, 2017 "...slew, wounded, embezzled, and roamed about till the present moment, when I place myself at the feet of your most illustrious Lordship."
- Feb 2, 2017 "Are we the same people I wonder when all our surroundings are changed?"