Riga airport opens exhibition honouring Latvian explorers

Riga International Airport has opened an exhibition honouring the internationally recognised achievements of Latvian adventurer Kārlis Bardelis and mountaineers Kristīne and Kristaps Liepiņš, LSM reported.

The exhibition, titled Territory of Courage, opened on Friday, August 28. Its central object is Linda, the rowing boat Bardelis used during his journey around the world. Large-format mountain photographs by the Liepiņš couple are also on display.

As part of the Bored of Borders project, Bardelis rowed more than 46,000 kilometres without an engine or sails between 2016 and 2024. The 2,898-day journey took him across oceans and made him the first person to row alone across the Pacific Ocean from South America to Asia. Six of his achievements are included in the Guinness World Records.

Airport board chairwoman Laila Odiņa said the airport was an appropriate place for the exhibition because people meet there and ideas are born.

Bardelis died last year before completing his journey around the world. Photographs from mountain expeditions also show a mountain in the Andes where his ashes were scattered. His sister Līga Baranovska said the boat had been Bardelis’s home for many years and that it now felt as though it had found a home.

The exhibition also features the Liepiņš couple’s mountain photography. They are described as the only couple in the world to have climbed the nine highest peaks in South America, while Kristīne Liepiņa is the only female mountaineer to have reached all of them. Together, the couple have climbed more than 300 peaks across five continents, including 22 higher than 5,500 metres.

Kristaps and Kristīne Liepiņš said the photographs and boat complemented each other and that the journey across borders was continuing. The exhibition is located at the airport, where people begin their travels.