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Dutch explorers who have made a name for themselves
From January 15 - 19 the Dutch can indulge themselves in an abunce of travel inspiration during the annual holiday fair known as 'De Vakantiebeurs'. Wether they focus on city trips, camping, roadtrips, destinations faraway or close to home, De Vakantiebeurs is the place to be to get inspired or perhaps even book the next holiday. Nowadays travel has become easy and comfotable compared to the long journeys in the past centuries. In the context of De Vakantiebeurs, we highlight a couple of Dutch world explorers in our photo slider. We all know Marco Polo and Livingstone, but the Dutch as well played their part to discover the world. Daring to get to places where no one has ever been before at the time, was a luxury that only the real explorers could afford. The first photo in the slider is reserved for our hometown lady: Alexandrine Tinne.
Alexandrine Tinne (1839-1869)
Alexandrine, like us, is from The Hague and it is the only female explorer on the list. Tinne set out to discover the source of the Nile in Egypt and eventually travelled deeper into the heart of the continent. She was the first Western woman to reach central Africa.
Willem de Vlamingh (1640-1698)
De Vlamingh was a VOC commander who was sent out to map the West coast of Australia. He departed with 3 ships and discovered the Swan River, now in the present day city of Perth. Upon his return, de Vlamingh advised the VOC to discontinue further travels to the country due to the lack of resources and inaccessibility of the destination.
Jacob Roggeveen (1659–1729)
Together with his father, Arent Roggeveen, Jacob conducted research on Terra Australis, now known as the former Australian continent. When his father died, Jacob used his patent granted by the West Indies Companie, to discover this area. In 1721 he departed in his journey and discovered Easter Island on Easter Sunday, one of the most remote islands in the world.
Willem Jansz (1570-1630)
Willem Jansz is known to be the offical discoverer of Australia as opposed to Abel Tasman of who many people believe to be the first to set foot on. His initial goal was to sail to Terra Australis to map the journey and find gold. Eventually he reached the Cape York peninsula and mapped 320 kilometres of present day Australia.
Abel Tasman (1603–1659)
Due to his discoveries of Tasmania, New Zealand and Tongatapu, Abel Tasman is one of the most wellknown Dutch world explorers. Commisioned by the VOC, Tasman was headed for Australia to further map the rest of the country and find out if it used to be part of Terra Australis. He sailed further and discovered the north coast of New Zealand and the Solomon Islands where he had hoped to set up trade.
Willem Ijsbrantszoon Bontekoe (1597–1657)
A lot of Dutch people were raised with the tails of the book 'De scheepsjongens van Bontekoe' about the adventures of the world traveler. During his years with the VOC, Bontekoe documented his journeys with many details. As an explorer, Bontekoe didn't have much luck, ships sank and he never really discovered any new destinations. However due to his journals, he is one of the better known travellers.
Willem Barentsz (1550–1597)
Willem Barentsz was a known sailor and took 3 trips to find the North Eastern Passage, a sea route along the North coasts of Asia. During his travels he discovered the coasts of Nova Zembla, Beren Eiland and Spitsbergen. Sadly enough, the ships continued to get stuck in the ice and the route was never fully discovered.
Hendrik Brouwer (1581–1643)
Brouwer as well, was an important man at the VOC and departed as a commander of 3 ships towards the Dutch Indies in 1610. Instead of taking the usual route via the African coast and Ceylon to Bantam, Brouwer decided on sailing South from Cape the Good Hope and continued untill he reached 'The Roaring Forties', from where he set course to the East. This meant a shortning of the originial route by 5-6 months. In 1617 the VOC made this route to the East Indies obligatory.
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