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.jpg "Explorer Benedict Allen")
The 2010 Adventure Travel show is over and we were there to take in the highlights. The venue was the compact exhibition hall of the Royal Horticultural Halls (near Victoria Station, London) and for three days, closing on Sunday 31st over 70 companies and specialists, offered a mind-boggling array of enticing routes, trail blazing journeys and loony activities to tempt the adventure junkie.
Ranging from overlanding tours in Iraq to races across The Poles and even the chance to own your own Tuc Tuc (tempting), there was plenty to inspire both hardened and would be adventurers. For some, being surrounded by a throng of people eager to prize those hard earned notes out of their bank account may have been a bit off putting, but for most the opportunity to talk to expert guides, experienced explorers and fellow adventures made for pleasant and engaging day out.
What’s especially worthwhile at a show like this is to talk with experts about destinations that you just won’t find in your average travel agents to places. You get to meet the people who work on the ground and really know what’s going on, which is refreshing and a blessing.
For example there are still astounding and very accessible treks in Pakistan, which in country that is a confluence of three of the biggest mountain ranges in the world and home to more glaciers than any other country on the planet, it’s fantastic to know that there are still 100s of awe-inspiring, safe and quiet treks. (For more information visit on Trekking in Pakistan www.kootch-adventure.com
Or . . . . if you really want to push the boat out, how about a trip to Afghanistan? Amazingly this is also still an option. Whereas I won’t even attempt to play down the dangers in this country, there are still safe and stunning areas such as the the Vakhan Corridor, and if you want to appreciate some of the wild, bewildering landscapes and heart-warming hospitality that this bedevilled nation still has to offer it is possible. www.untamedborders.com
Other, highlights from the show included some familiar sites. The ‘Long Way Round/Down’ team were there, although sadly Charlie and Ewan were not.
Fans of the series will no doubt be excited to know that there are rumours about another adventure ‘The Long Way Up’, which will go from Ushuaia up to Alaska. Although unconfirmed, I’d say this is a pretty safe bet seeing as they’re running out of prepositions.
There was also the wonderfully eccentric and sensationally adventurous Neil Laughton and his ‘Sky Car’, essentially a flying dune buggy designed by his intrepid engineering partner Gilo Cardozo. Recently Mr Laughton and the Sky Car crossed the Straight of Gibralta before flying onto Timbuktu, adding probably the zaniest accomplishment so far in a long and growing list of admirable and loony exploits.
Although, there was plenty in the main hall to feed the imagination and get those adventure glands pumping, just like travel itself, the real and by far the most rewarding reason to visit were the people, namely the speakers.
The list this year was excellent: With over 60 Inspirational talks to choose from spanning over three days ranging from wildlife adventures and heroic feats of endurance to enthralling tales of disaster and nail-biting escapes, as well as a cornucopia of astute travel advice, charismatically lavished upon the audience from some of the most notable explorers and travel writers in the world.
With so many famous names and great stories to choose from including talks by Doug Scott, Simon Yates, Benedict Allen and Simon Calder, both the avid and arm-chair explorer were spoilt for choice. For me however, whereas, I have immense admiration for the likes of Doug Scott, and other esteemed mountaineers and explorers, the highlights and most inspirational and impressive tales were those told by people who you would never expect to achieve such accolades.
These were many, including Rosie Swale-Pope and her truly mammoth trek around the world, Rachel Smith and her grueling row across the Atlantic to raise money for Breast Cancer, the 24 yr old student Sarah Outen and her planned row across the Indian Ocean and Alastair Humphreys and his monumental 46,000 mile bike-ride.
Incidentally, for those budding adventure cyclists out there we spoke to Alastair and asked him what his top 3 countries to cycle in would be, thinking that after over four years cycling the globe he might have an opinion, and he did. His top choice was Chile/Argentina and the Carretera Austral, followed by Georgia and Slovenia – for more information on cycling the Carretera Austral you can see our recent Top 5 Activities in Patagonia article.
Although I would love to give you a run-down of all of these stories, in the space of this article I wouldn’t be able to do them any where near the justice they deserve. I will however leave you with this relatively short and fascinating account. It was a walk taken by Tarka L’Herpiniere and his partner Katie Jane Cooper.
The idea was to hike the length of the Great Wall of China. Now to do this properly you’d have to hike about 56,000 miles, so they took the shorter 6month option and trekked from East to West. In comparison to summiting K2 or trekking the poles it may seem like a pretty mediocre feat, but really it’s not. Distance wise it’s the equivalent to walking from London to New York, and walking it through some of the remotest regions of China in temperatures that would range from 40C to -35C. As with any expedition they encountered difficulties, but their difficulties weren’t small, Katie suffered from life-threatening gastroenteritis, and her spinal column contracted so much that she lost an inch in height and towards the end suffered severe shooting pains in her legs.
On top of this they met with the worst snowstorm China had experienced in 50 years and at times would go three days before they found food. This is all supremely valiant stuff, but what makes it really impressive is that although Tarka is and had been recognized for some seriously laudable feats of endurance, this was Kate’s first ever real trek and before this the only walking she had done had been up and down a cat walk as a commercial model.
In short if there was one message to take away from this show, it’s that adventure is for everyone and ‘if you think you can’t your right’, but ‘If you think you can your, right.’ And in the end, life is most definitely about the journey, and not the destination.
Sadly there was one hero who was not there this weekend and who I would love to have met, Charlie Simpson, but he’s only seven so I’ll give him a break. Charlie originally set out to raise £500 for Haiti in a sponsored bike ride. So far he has raised £200,000. Nice one Charlie! Now lets see if we can help Charlie reach his new goal of £500,000!
www.justgiving.com/charliesimpson-haiti
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