I've always had a weird romantic fascination with the idea of arbitrary travel. A place that is picked not because you actually want to go there, but rather chosen entirely by chance for some other senseless reason. Part of me has always entertained the idea of rapidly spinning a globe, closing my eyes, and then just selecting a random spot with my finger to find out where I'm headed to next. But knowing that the world is 70% ocean, it's not something I've ever had the courage to actually do. Instead, one day I settled on the idea of using the equator as a totally random way to provide some new unscripted inspirations, deciding it might be "fun" to stand on the exact equator line in every single country that it crossed on land. Turns out there are 11 countries that qualify, a few of them quite dangerous and inhospitable (Somalia being the most notable). While it's unlikely I'll ever actually achieve this admittedly pointless goal, it has been fun trying, and it's certainly compelled me to travel to regions I would never have seen otherwise. Last year I visited the equator in Gabon, where the drive from the capital city down to the equator traversed some lovely natural landscapes punctuated by many dubiously legal roadside bushmeat stands, offering all sorts of endangered species and primates for consumption. A rare glimpse of the darker side of Africa far away from the usual tourist circuit, to be sure. This year I stood astride the equator in Kenya, which necessitated a whole day of driving north from Nairobi. I paired it with a visit to Ol Pejeta Conservancy where I had loads of wild rhinos and elephants all to myself, a far cry from the packed safari vehicles that clogged the more famous Amboseli National Park in the other direction. It was yet another unique and memorable experience for which I have the equator to thank.