Articles > How To Be An Adventurer

Does your life tingle with excitement and inspiration? If not, a dose of adventure might be just what you need to rekindle awe and wonder into every waking hour. The good news is you don’t need to be Bear Grylls or Ranulph Fiennes to take on life’s greatest challenges. Ordinary people are changing their lives through extraordinary adventures. You can too. Choose your adventure and simply add the right timing, funding and preparation.

Big Adventures
For some, adventure means a major achievement such as climbing Everest, reaching a pole or sailing round the world. Such ambitions are achievable, provided you can commit the time, money and training (mental and physical) to realise your dream.

Take climbing Everest. You need to learn ice and rope skills, condition your body for a year and pay £30,000 to join a two to three-month expedition. £27,000 will secure a berth on a Global Challenge round the world yacht, although you will also need to commit ten months (plus training) to racing the “wrong way” round the world through potentially massive seas.

If you prefer a solo challenge, consider racing a dog sled over 1,100 miles of Alaskan wasteland on the Iditarod trail between Anchorage and Nome. Winning mushers incredibly cover the distance in just nine to 12 days.

Adventures For All
Most big adventures also come in more bite-size portions, and you can change your life without summiting Everest or K2. Smaller challenges provide good training for bigger targets; many are worthwhile ambitions in their own right. Argentina’s Mount Aconcagua might only measure 6,959m (against Everest’s 8,848m), but just imagine gazing down from its summit over all the Americas.

Out-of-the-way journeys make superb adventures. Paddle a dugout canoe through virgin rainforest, walk the Great Wall of China or sail the Aleutian Islands. Other epic journeys include the Silk Route, the spine of the Andes and Trans-Siberia railway. Trekking offers a ready gateway to adventure. If you can ride a horse, so much the better; you’ll travel far greater distances and reach terrain beyond the scope of most walkers.

Voluntary work is a rewarding source of adventure (for both soul and body) that can benefit volunteers as much as their hosts. Live with a local family in a foreign land. Learn the language and absorb the culture: salsa in Havana, tango in Buenos Aires, surfing in Costa Rica, etc. Engross yourself in meaningful work such as conservation, teaching, health or journalism, or just spend an hour a day brightening up the lives of orphans. Give it a month, ideally three, and your life might never be the same again.

Little matches the thrill of in-the-wild encounters with creatures that might eat you, such as grizzly bears, crocodiles or sharks. Non-threatening wildlife encounters can be equally momentous, such as watching condors soaring over lonely Andean peaks, or hearing whales’ haunting calls and watching them breach spectacularly in Alaska’s Inside Passage.

Adventures needn’t be physically demanding. Just marvelling at nature’s beauty and power can be as inspiring as conquering a major challenge. Moreover, this often just requires being in the right place at the right time, although getting to the best seat in the house can be an adventure in itself. Snowmobile across frozen Scandinavian lakes to watch the Northern Lights streaking over shadowy forests. Watch mesmerising star shows from the high plateaux of Tibet or South America. Kayak as near as you dare to gigantic cathedrals of ice calving from Alaskan glaciers. Attending a pulsating festival is another low-effort route to adventure. Consider the Rio Carnival or an unforgettable tsechu at a Bhutanese monastery.

A Question of Time
Even the most time-constrained can squeeze adventure into their lives. A weekend is all you need to scramble over Skye’s airy Cuillin ridge, gallop across a deserted Irish beach or bag an Alpine summit or two. If you can’t spare a weekend, a skiing day trip to Chamonix is just about logistically possible. Spice (www.spiceuk.com) organises half-day and longer adventures including flying, rock climbing and mountain biking, and more obscure activities such as medieval jousting, canoe cruising and wing walking.

Practicalities
Planning is vital to all successful adventures. The process begins with choosing the right destination and activity. Go with your passions – you’ll know when you’ve found the right adventure. Be realistic but don’t let false limitations rob you of the experience of a lifetime. Bigger challenges often just need more time to prepare. Determine precisely where you need to be, when, with what funding, in what physical shape and with what skills, and the equipment and team you need around you, and work backwards from there.

If planning your own adventure, tourist boards and tour operators are good sources of information and contacts. If planning a major expedition, consider raising sponsorship or a grant from the Royal Geographical Society or National Geographic to help with funding. Don’t ignore mundane tasks like organising visas, insurance and vaccinations. If you’d rather let someone else do the planning, you can just sign up online to climb Everest (www.jagged-globe.co.uk) or sail round the world (www.challengebusiness.com).

A great adventure doesn’t have to end when you get home. You can share the magic with others by writing a book or article, making a broadcast or giving a lecture.

Let travel and adventure stir your soul. You’ll return invigorated, exhilarated and very likely a changed person. How changed? There’s only one way to find out.

Useful Contacts


Ideas and Planning
Travel Intelligence (www.travelintelligence.com) – Inspiration and “Before You Die” recommendations.

Royal Geographical Society (www.rgs.org) – Lectures, expedition training and grants.

National Geographic (www.nationalgeographic.com) – Top quality travel magazines.

Transitions Abroad (www.transitionsabroad.com) – Travel magazine for overseas work and study.

What’s On When (www.whatsonwhen.com) – Global listing of events and festivals.

Foreign Office (www.fco.gov.uk/travel) – Official UK travel advice.

Tourist Offices Worldwide (www.towd.com)

Adventure Travel Companies
Exodus (www.exodus.co.uk) and Explore (www.explore.co.uk) offer adventurous travel around the world.

Volunteering
i-to-i (www.i-to-i.com) and Cactus Language (www.cactuslanguage.com) offer language/voluntary work/activity programmes lasting one month and more. If you can commit two years, consider VSO (www.vso.org.uk).

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