Sorry for the unexpected hiatus - I've been busy busy busy at work for the last month leaving me too exhausted to even think about blogging. Despite the hectic busyness, I have been feeling super inspired thanks to Alastair Humphreys' new book Grand Adventures. After being introduced to his Twitter feed by fellow adventurer Sean Conway, I saw the launch of his new book advertised a few weeks ago and couldn't help but go out and buy it.
I know this is something of a departure from normal service, but I just have to share my love of this book - by page 17 I felt like my whole perspective on adventuring and life had changed, and it's not often I say that about a book!
Like it says on the cover, this book is designed to help you dream big, plan quick, then go explore. Now I'm definitely not one for judging a book by its cover, but that's a pretty intriguing premise and is what made me go out and buy it.
The book contains interviews and expertise from around 100 adventurers, and is jam-packed with some phenomenal photographs to get you excited about your next adventure. While all of the people who've been-there-done-that Alastair interviewed have wise words for their fellow adventurers, these are some of my favourites:
In all honesty, there is no shortcut to turning your dream into a reality. It will take hard work and determination. However, that capability does lie within everyone if you want something badly enough - James Ketchell
Things have a habit of sorting themselves out, especially if you want it bad enough and make it your priority. If you really want to go on that adventure you must move it to priority one - Grant Rawlinson
While I may already be a bit of a Grand Adventurer, thru-hiking the 232-mile long Cape Wrath Trail this June and sailing across the Atlantic with Clipper next year, I often still suffer from the all-too-common mindset of 'oh I can't do that, it will cost way too much, I can't afford it, I can't leave my job for that long, etc. etc.' The first part of the book deals with how to get past these common mental blocks that stop people from having the grand adventures that they dream of - money, time, commitments and relationships - and gives invaluable advice on how to hatch a plan and a list of the basic kit that will get you through most adventures.
For me, money is the biggest block to adventuring. I'm still single, and don't have a mortgage or kids so have no major commitments that I can't walk away from for a while, and I can get 6-7 weeks of holiday a year from my company if I choose to buy back holiday days, so time isn't a massive issue either (except for those mega adventures that would take months or years). Having taken out various loans for my undergrad and postgrad degrees, and with the large chunk of money going to Clipper every month to cover my trans-Atlantic sail next year, the idea of finding enough money for a Grand Adventure is daunting. Alastair tackles this with the suggestion of putting £20 a week into an Adventure Fund that you don't use for anything except your adventure. Within a year, you'll have saved £1000 without facing the intimidating task of suddenly having to find that much money - it'll sneak up on you. If you put away £10 a week (less than the price of a round in the pub), that's still only 2 years to get enough together to do something truly epic.
While this idea of just putting money aside every week is nothing particularly new or even groundbreaking, the idea that such an easy measure that most people can afford to do (even me with my many student loans and Clipper payments) has really made me flip my thinking from 'I can't get/spend that kind of money on an adventure' to 'I want to do X, Y, and Z, how much can I put aside each week so that can I make that happen?' It's exciting, it's liberating, and it's downright awesome that I've gone from dreaming about maybe one day doing some of the things I want to do to making plans about how I can make that happen.
Now all I need to do is decide which of my ideas I want to do first! Luckily Alastair's Hatch A Plan section helps you to start figuring that out, and the whole of the second part of the is dedicated to inspiring you with tales from around 100 other adventurers. I will say though, my modest list of 5 or 6 adventures had expanded to 14 by the time I finished the book (and now 16), so be warned.
My verdict? An absolute must-read for anyone who has ever dreamt of doing something adventurous or just a little bit crazy and doesn't know how to start.*
*Warning: this book will make you start planning a Grand Adventure within moments of opening it - if you don't think you can handle that kind of excitement, stay away!
*Warning: this book will make you start planning a Grand Adventure within moments of opening it - if you don't think you can handle that kind of excitement, stay away!
