James Holman (1786 - 1857)

James Holman was an officer in the British Navy when disease left him totally blind and in significant pain at age 25.   Instead of settling down comfortably on the Crown's "disability pension" of the time, he decided to travel the world.  Not just England.  Not just Europe.  He traveled the world to Africa, Asia, Australia, America, and more.  Blind.  In pain.  And poor.

This at a time when the blind were seen as complete invalids.  He explained that he was able to use human echolocation to navigate independently.

Then he would come home and write books about his travels.  An immensely gifted writer, he became known as "The Blind Traveler."  In today's terms, one can see him as the world's first travel blogger, who used his writing to help finance future travels.  In his own words:

The beauties of the beautiful are veiled before the blind.
Not so the graces and the bloom that blossom in the mind.
The beauties of the finest form are sentenced to decay.
Not so the beauties of the mind. They never fade away. (Source)

NPR:  Tales of a Blind Traveler

Wikipedia

Sense of the World

A Voyage Around the World by James Holman