Explanation: Ibn Battuta was a traveler of the medieval world who wrote one of the widest-ranging and most in-depth travelogues of the period (highly recommend, btw, not just for the insight into the peoples Ibn Battuta visits, but also the contrast with Ibn Battuta’s own thoughts and opinions on how things should run!)

Starting from his home in Morocco, Ibn Battuta undertook the hajj to Mecca, an obligatory religious pilgrimage for Muslims, which would have taken maybe a year or two for most folk at the time. However, once he reached Mecca, he realized, from all the exciting things he had seen just on the way, that his wanderlust was only whetted! He would continued to travel for 24 years instead of the expected 2, at most.

His father died 9 years into the journey, though Ibn Battuta did not discover this until he was nearly home.