>>96252697
>Good luck crossing the Sahara.
The counterpoint is that crossings of the Sahara happened all the time.
Most people didn't travel very far. Even most nobles lived and died with a few days' ride of the same place.
But there were a small number of merchants, sailors, caravaneers, adventurers, etc. who travelled thousands of miles. For example, even though the majority of the folks travelling the Silk Road mostly just traveled one or two shortish segments (say, just the passage between two major cities), it wasn't uncommon for a merchant to send a representative to escort a cargo a significant portion of the way to make money of better rates further long it.
Similarly, though no one was going around Africa until the Portuguese, in 1000AD it would have been pretty reasonable for an Indian sailor to make it from Basra to Java, or even to Guangzhou. And that on a regularly basis, hitting each spot every year or two.
Since most stories involve extraordinary people, you can invoke that shit.
For example, it would be very unusual for there to be a Ethiopian man in Medieval England, but it's not hard to make a story that's pretty reasonable: Ermias is an Ethiopian man whose sister should have died in an accident when they were kids, but she didn't; he promised to God that because of that he would make pilgrimage to Jerusalem. While in Jerusalem, he meets an English baron named who's there on Crusade. The two both get angry at the same random person in the city at the same time, and become friends, speaking in a combination of broken Greek and broken Arabic. When John invites Ermias back to England, he figures it must be a sign from God and goes along.
Do I expect to see a lot of Ethiopians in 12th Century England? No. Is it reasonable for there to be one or two? Absolutely. Or an Indian merchant. Or a Chinese adventurer. Or a Japanese ronin.
...Of course, lots of people are too lazy to come up with a good explanation, but c'est la vie.
