Why You Don’t Need to Travel to have an Adventure
On Saturday 20th January 2018 the Adventure Travel Show rolled into town for its 22nd outing.
With headliners like the legendary Ranulph Fiennes and talks from adventurers like Pip Stewart, Jim McNeill, Justine Gosling and a whole host of others I knew I was in for a treat.
What was that? £25 for 'An Audience with Ranulph Fiennes'? You kidding me right? I'm not coughing up a pony just to listen to one guy when all the other adventurers are free to go and see. My plan was to make this as cheap as possible.
Last year I attended with disastrous results.
This year was going to be different.
For a start I actually knew some people who were attending. I was volunteering on the Say Yes More stall with the gorgeous Emma and her crack team of Yessers. In between darting off to attend seminars and listen to talks I’d answer the question ‘What exactly is this Yes Tribe thing anyway?’ to countless members of the paying public (Ok, maybe not countless. Probably more like 12 people). In exchange I was going to be paid in pastries and sandwiches. Seems a fair trade to me.
I’d also be far more prepared this year. I'd booked a seminar called an ‘Introduction to Travel Writing’ as an early Christmas present. I didn’t know what to expect but when I found out the presentation was from one of my favourite UK adventurer authors, Phoebe Smith, and the the Editor-in-Chief of Wanderlust magazine, Lyn Hughes, I knew I was in for a treat.
The seminar was geared mainly towards writing for magazines but there was a mild dabble into book writing. Shortly before the end the 6 foot 4 gangly frame of Leon McCarron walked in the room. I had literally just finished reading the Northen Irishman’s new book, The Land Beyond, a couple of days before Thursday (book review coming soon).
It’s funny how even being stood in the close vicinity of two professional adventure authors makes my knees go a bit wobbly and a inane grin spread across my face. It didn’t stop me asking for a shameless selfie though.
The seminar was ok. I mean, I knew a lot of it already but I did pick up enough tips on book-writing to realise that my most recent endeavour will need a serious amount of editing! (Apparently I should stop using exclamation marks!!!)
The biggest tip of the day – Write for the reader.
I managed to catch a few more presentations in between explaining why Dave Cornthwaite, despite not having a driving licence, owns a bright blue bus called Bussy.
I caught Leon’s talk on his walk but, to be honest, I’d seen it before in a pub in Piccadilly.
I saw Dave lead a panel on what it takes to be an adventurer, with an interesting question on the most interesting place they’d taken a dump thrown in for good measure.
But the best talk of the day that I saw was Catherine Edsell who described her problems embracing an adventurous life while bringing up two fabulous girls. I’d met Catherine at Yestival but had missed her talk. I’d seen her TedX talk on Youtube (which you should definitely watch). The most exciting part was when she described how she took her young girls to Thailand at the ages of 4 and 6 to look after pachyderms at an elephant sanctuary for 4 weeks.
The Sprog has just turned 4. I wonder…
The day was rounded off by a visit to the Adventure Auditorium for a night of adventure films with Austin Vince from the Adventure Travel Film Festival.
If I’m honest, a couple of the films were average at best. I mean, some of my videos when I’ve dicked around with my best mate, Harry, are better. Case in point.
However, there were 2 films that for me stood out as incredible. The first was a short video of a guy walking around Chenobyl. The shots were cleverly crafted with the music and depth of field was used with brilliant effect.
The second film was the feature film. It was an hour long but had me mesmerised from the start. It’s called Dugout by the Trail To Anywhere. 2 lads, Ben and James, went to the wilderness of the Amazon to build a dugout canoe with a local dude. 4 weeks later they paddled their canoe back to civilisation. The film was superb, mixing atmospheric shots of butterflies or rainfall with shots of the Ben and James dicking around (sounds just like me and Harry!) You really felt a connection with Bay, the local canoe builder and the 2 boys.
The film festival came to a close but that wasn’t the end of it.
We all convened in a local pub where I shared a drink with Ben and James, Austin, Dave, Leon and a whole host of Yes Tribers, old friends and new. I even got talking to Global Convoy, a super enthusiastic group of twenty-somethings that had just driven a pair of clapped out old cars around the world and were speaking the next day. These are definitely a bunch of nutters to keep your eye on.
The evening was drawing late but I was too full of the adventure bug, so I took a stroll through Kensington down to Hyde Park where, overlooking the Serpentine, I threw down my bivvy and slept the night.
I love how I can say that so nonchalantly now (though I suppose bringing attention to it stops it being nonchalant). I’d planned to sleep out somewhere and kipping in Hyde Park less than a hundred metres away from where I had my second ever Microadventure seemed appropriate.
I woke in the morning after a cold night (the sleeping bag shuffle was used more than once), packed up my gear and headed home.
What a brilliant and cheap weekend. Other than the seminar ticket (£34) and the film ticket (£25) and the tube to Woodford and back where I’d parked the car I’d managed to be fed all day Saturday and even have a place to sleep. For a London night out, that’s not bad at all.
That was until I got back to my car!!!
