Ibn Battuta set out for the city of Mecca and expected to be gone for a little over two years, maybe three if he took his time. He had no way of knowing that he would not see his home city or town for another 24 years. In that time, he will have traveled almost the entirety of the Islamic world, gone for over 75,000 miles, and write a travelogue that scholars still refer to understand the world of the 15th century. He's also a bit of a narc.