Grand Adventures

342 Pages·2016·73.48 MB·English

by  Alastair Humphreys

COPYRIGHT
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
WilliamCollinsBooks.com
This eBook edition published by William Collins in 2016
Text © Alastair Humphreys, 2016
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Cover photograph © Alastair Humphreys
Cover design by This Side
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the
required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of
this eBook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse
engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by
any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express
written permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Source ISBN: 9780008129347
Ebook Edition © March 2016 ISBN: 9780008131944
Version: 2016-03-03
For my parents,
Who taught me to save up, work hard
and make stuff happen.
© Alastair Humphreys
CONTENTS
COVER
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
INTRODUCTION
Part 1
PLAN
MONEY
TIME
COMMITMENTS AND RELATIONSHIPS
HATCH A PLAN
KIT LIST
Part 2
CHOOSE
BICYCLE
FOOT
ANIMAL
WATER
MOTOR
TRAVEL
CLIMB
EVERYDAY
GRANDER
BIOGRAPHIES
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
INTRODUCTION
Everyone loves adventure. Bookshops have bulging travel sections. Adventure
film festivals are springing up all over the world. The web groans with exciting
expedition blogs. I love adventure so much that I turned it into my job. I am a
professional adventurer. It says as much on my business card, so it must be true.
(Never mind that I made them myself in one of my many procrastinating-from-
book-writing mornings.) I write books, give talks and make films about the
adventures I’ve done, such as cycling round the world, crossing oceans or
staggering through the heat of deserts. Enough people enjoy hearing these stories
for me to earn a living from them. This means that more people read about
adventures than go on big trips themselves. But this book aims to help you
realise that grand adventures are within your grasp, that you can begin taking the
steps necessary to make them happen for you, too. Why settle for reading about
adventures when you could be out in the wild doing them yourself?
‘Why settle for reading about adventures when you could be
out in the wild doing them yourself?’
Many of my friends are also adventurers. They’ve climbed great mountains,
trekked to the Poles, exciting stuff like that. These are special experiences. I love
sitting in the pub with my adventurous friends, listening to increasingly far-
fetched tales as last orders approaches. But here’s an important thing: I know
these guys and girls well enough to see that they are not particularly special
people. They are ordinary people, but they do things that many people deem to
be more than ordinary, even extraordinary. Being an adventurer is not a genetic
gift. I know, for example, that I certainly am not brave, strong or athletic, yet I
claim to be an adventurer. Usain Bolt was born fast. Albert Einstein was born
brainy. Living adventurously, however, is nothing more than a choice.
© Archie Leeming
When I left university I made the choice to make the best I could of my
abilities and resources and see how far I could ride my bike. I didn’t have a
fancy bike. I didn’t ride fast. I didn’t spend much money. I got lost a lot. I
napped under trees. I carried a bicycle repair book because I had little idea about
bottom brackets or rear derailleurs. And yet I eventually succeeded in cycling
the whole way round the world. I spent £7000 on the four-year trip. I did not
choose to do it on such a shoestring: it’s just that this was the sum total of my
worldly wealth. I preferred to get going and make it happen rather than saving
and saving and never beginning. Four years of banana sandwiches was a small
price to pay for eking out my money into so many memories.
When people dream of adventure they are generally not discouraged by the
difficulties of the journey itself. Extremes of heat and cold; basic and
uncomfortable conditions; the physical and mental struggle: these are actually
often part of the appeal! The struggle, many of us feel, is preferable to boring
routine.
So what is it that actually gets in the way, if not the hazards of the wild? Why
do lots of people long for adventure and enjoy reading about it but not many
actually get out there and do it?
I didn’t think that it could be explained by a lack of practical skills, fitness or
I didn’t think that it could be explained by a lack of practical skills, fitness or
equipment. It’s not as concrete as that. I guessed that what inhibits most people
are the mental barriers in their head: it’s too hard, too scary, too uncertain…
Through my blog, I decided to ask what it was that stood between people and the
adventures they dreamed of. From around 2,000 responses, here are the most
common issues: — Time
— Money
— Family partners commitments — Fear
— Society pressure
— No companion to go with — Getting time off work
— Getting work afterwards
And these were mentioned, too: — Solo female travel / safety — Lazy /
procrastination — School holiday system
— Lack of knowledge
— Ideas
— The unknown
— Kit / logistics
— Lonely
— Fitness / health
I found it fascinating that not one person mentioned the worry of falling down a
crevasse or getting eaten by a tiger. The greatest obstacles to people’s adventures
all lie before the journey even begins. In other words, getting to the start line is
the hardest part!
Wrestling snakes, paddling rapids, tying a bowline with your teeth, pitching a
tent in a typhoon: all this stuff is so much easier than getting off the sofa,
committing to action and beginning.
© Alastair Humphreys
A similar example sometimes happens out on an expedition: leaving the tent
when a blizzard is howling outside and your sleeping bag is snug can feel nigh
on impossible. But when you do get out (it’s usually a weak bladder rather than a
strong will that eventually forces you into action), the world is never as grim as
you’d imagined it to be from the safe cocoon of your sleeping bag. The raging
blizzard you’d pictured is often just a bit of windy snow. Feeling sheepish, you
pack away the tent and get on with the journey.
What’s more, the practical preparations for launching a journey are also far
easier than mustering the cojones to commit in the first place, to do something
difficult and daunting and daring with your life.
There is a lovely Norwegian phrase that translates into ‘the Doorstep Mile’. It
refers to how hard it is to begin something, how hard it is to get out your front
door and commit to action. This book helps tackle the Doorstep Mile.
‘Do you dream of having a massive adventure but can’t see
how you will ever get the chance to do it? If so, this book is
for you!’
The first half of the book tackles the barriers that make it hard to begin. The
second half helps you choose which adventure is right for you.