This was the second year that I had attended Alastair Humphrey's ‘Night of Adventure’.
If you haven’t heard of Al, and you really should have, then here is a quick introduction.
He was National Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year.
He has completed some epic adventures from cycling round the world, to rowing the Atlantic, to crossing Iceland by foot and packraft, to trekking in the Empty Quarter Desert, to walking across India, to circumnavigating the M25.
Yes, that’s right. You read that correctly.
Al is a proper adventurer but what he is more commonly known for is coining the phrase ‘Microadventure’ which is basically a small adventure in the wild outdoors of the UK. Even the M25 can be seen as wild if you are walking around it in a snowstorm and wild camping.
Long story short, Al is my biggest inspiration right now. He’s the reason I wrote my first book (and indirectly the reason I am writing this one too) and he has unknowingly pushed me on many a mad adventure.
So Al runs this event each year called ‘Night of Adventure’. It’s a mad cap scheme where he invites some other adventurers to share their stories. Some are a big deal, like Everest climbers or arctic explorers. Some are just people who have done a cool trip like walking around Wales with a donkey or hitchhiking Land’s End to John O’Groats in their pants. The twist is that the speakers only get 20 slides and each slide moves on automatically after 20 seconds. It’s a break neck introduction to the exciting lives that some people lead.
The event is a charity event to raise money for Hope and Homes for Children, an organisation that is trying to get kids out of orphanages and into loving homes.
I decided to bring my best mate, Harry, along to the event and we arrived early and got some decent seats down near the front right in the centre.
The main man, Alastair, was up at the front chatting away to some of the guest speakers. He seemed buoyant and bubbly and itching to start. As we sat chatting we realised that the seats either side of us weren’t filled but all the other seats in the row were.
‘Do you think we smell?’ I said sniffing my pits.
‘You do, mate,’ said Harry grabbing his nose and swatting away my whiff with his other hand.
‘Do you think we should move up one seat so that two people can sit down together?’ I asked.
‘That seems sensible.’ We picked up our stuff and moved a seat over.
We carried on chatting for a while and a couple of ladies sat down in the seats we had vacated. I said hello and then turned back to Harry to continue our conversation about the flyer we had been handed.
‘So, do you think we should do it?’ asked Harry.
‘I don’t know, mate. It’s a lot of money to raise. It’s also going to be a pain in the arse to organise logistically.’
‘I really think we should do it.’
I was about to respond but I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and the blonde lady in the smart jacket and skirt was smiling at me. Behind her, at the end of the row in the aisle, stood Al waving frantically and looking in my direction.
I turned round to make sure that he wasn’t waving at someone else. Why on earth would my idol, Al Humphreys, be waving at me erratically in the middle of an auditorium on one of his biggest events of the year.
I must have looked flabbergasted. The lady proffered her hand. ‘Hi,’ she said.
‘Hi,’ I responded.
‘I believe I’ve read your book.’
‘Huh?’
‘I’m Sarah. I’m Al’s wife.’
It took a few seconds but then everything clicked together.
I’d written my first book (have I mentioned it already?) about my Year of Microadventure with Harry. I’d got it printed and had given Alastair a copy at a talk that he had done in my home town. He’d read the book on the train on the way home. He’d emailed me a few days later saying how much he had liked it and how much his wife had liked it too. I’d been elated that my adventuring muse had read and loved my book.
One month later, here I was being waved at by Al and sitting right next to his lovely wife, Sarah.
We fell into conversation instantly. She was really nice, asking me about my adventures and about my next project. ‘You’re doing one a week?’ she asked. ‘Next year I suppose you’ll be doing one every day.’
‘Don’t give me ideas!’ I joked.
‘Jon, you do realise that there are four people who have read your book. Three of them are in the room and you’re sat between two of them. What are the chances of that happening?’
‘And if Mum was here we’d have the full set,’ I smiled. This was turning from a good evening into a great evening.
Sorry, Al. You and your lovely wife didn’t make the final cut. There just wasn’t the space. But it was absolutely wonderful chatting with Sarah. Say hi to her for me!
So that’s it. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed a little insight into my writing process and if this is a topic that you’ve enjoyed or you want to read more about then please message me on Twitter.
Twitter - @jondoolan1
Have a lovely day!
