When Sir Watson and Mr Parker embarked on their first journey, they headed towards 12/14 Long Acre, in London, not too far from their club in Covent Garden. This was, and still is today, the address of the bookshop founded by Edward Stanton in 1853, a veritable treasure trove of antique maps and ship’s logs, a popular destination for famous explorers such as Robert Falcon Scott and David Livingsto
ne. Shortly afterwards, on a cold September morning, they boarded a ship that belongs to the British navy: they sailed the seas, sometimes calm and sometimes choppy, until they reached far-off, unknown lands. They pushed further, even further than they thought possible. Each time they casted off their moorings they also left behind some of the restrictions of the time: they listened to everything there was to listen to, they understood everything there was to understand. They came back freer and more aware. All the experience they acquired on their travels was contained in the garments they wore: in their mannerisms, their clothes, the original shoes they had designed and hand-produced for their adventures in unexplored lands.
