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256sometimes called the Soviet Union. Later, after we moved to Australia in 1995, westarted to travel, and the first really big travel was the round-the-world tour on the lastyear of the 20 th century. Our round-the world ticket was covering the mouthwatering routfrom Melbourne to Los-Angeles, Chicago, London, Paris, Istanbul, Tbilisi (capital ofGeorgia) and back to Melbourne. I do not know if any of the readers thought about this,but viewing the forthcoming exciting route around the world on a small globe on mydesk, I remember having a thought about the direction of our round-the-world travel.“Everyone moves around the world going either to the western direction, or to the easterndirection”. Of course, from the point of view of the shape of the globe the ideas of “up”or “down” are purely arbitrary. I often imagine, when I am talking on the phone to myrelatives and friends in Georgia, or Europe, how they are strangely “upside down” for me(or I am “upside down” for them). So, theoretically it does not make any differencewhether we move around the world eastwards/westwards or southwards/northwards. Forexample, if you start your travel from Australia, you could as well go northwards andvisit Indonesia, China, Japan, Russian Far East, then fly over the North Pole, go throughCanada, USA, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, and then from Argentina (or Chile) you could flyover the Antarctica to Australia again. Do you think this route is less interesting? And ifyou want to make your travel more exciting and challenging, you could even try to spendfew days on Antarctica as well.Well, maybe this unusual direction of the round the world travel does not differfrom any other “usual” itineraries, when you are watching the globe on your desk. Maybesome airline companies will some day even offer this kind of unusual round-the worldtravel routs “across the North and South Poles” tours for a change, but the difference thatthe direction of the real round-the-world travel can make is enormous. Particularly, if theairplanes and large comfortable ocean liners have not been invented yet. I am talkingabout our ancestors, amazing travelers, who on foot colonized the vast regions of theworld long before the ocean liners and later plains came to the existence.The big difference is that in real life it is much easer to travel long distanceseastwards or westwards, than southwards or northwards. The reason is very simple. If wemove to north, it will be getting colder every few hundred kilometers, and if we move tosouth, it will be becoming increasingly hotter. In southern hemisphere the directions for“hotter” and “colder” temperatures are naturally reversed. On the other hand, if you travelwestwards (or eastwards), you may travel within changing, but still in relativelycomfortable for your health temperatures and ecology for tens of thousand kilometers.The position of the Sun and the degree its rays fall on the surface of the earth is crucialfor this. Direct sunlight in the tropical region, moderate degree of sunrays falling on theearth in more moderate regions, and very high degree of sunrays falling on the earthcloser to the poles are chiefly responsible for the drastic differences between thetemperatures on our planet.Sunlight is not the only facilitator (or the challenge) for the large-scalemigrations. Another obvious factor is the geography of continents. Continents have notbeen designed for the easy travel on foot, and are interspersed with seas, big rivers,mountain ranges and other natural challenges for travelers. Therefore, although ourdistant ancestors did not have to apply for the tourist or student visa to travel and settle onnew territories, they were constrained in their travels by these two important factors: (1)the availability of the more or lesscomfortable ecological zones to travel and to settle in