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If you really want to go on that adventure you MUST move it into priority number ONE.

#GrandAdventures
 

Following on from Tim’s post about climbing unclimbed peaks on the cheap, Grant Rawlinson shares some advice from his own cheap but challenging adventure. Perfect fodder for all those saving for Grand Adventures.

Together with my climbing partner Alan, we started at the highest point of the North Island of New Zealand (Mt Ruapehu) and made a continuous, human-powered journey to the highest point in the South Island of New Zealand (Aoraki/Mt Cook). Our journey involved climbing to the summits of Mt Ruapehu and Aoraki/Mt Cook, a 245km kayak descent down the Whanganui river, 1000km of road cycling and 70km sea kayak crossing of the notoriously dangerous Cook Strait.

Our aim was to have a unique and challenging adventure on a shoestring budget, without having to travel to the end of the earth, and fitting it into our annual leave entitlement. Our total budget was £1000 each. I borrowed my wife’s bike and used my inflatable kayak (aka the ‘Divorce Machine’ due to the ‘loving’ arguments my wife and I have in it every weekend) to paddle the 245km. We used our own climbing gear on the mountains and rented a sea kayak to cross the Cook Strait. If you were a ‘gear head’ you could have spent thousands of dollars on gear for this trip. I spent less than a hundred dollars with a few small accessories for my existing kit and borrowed/rented the rest.

The main highlight was actually completing the journey! We only had 25 days due to leave constraints and we knew that the weather would play an enormous part in our success or failure. We did not have time to sit and wait out bad weather, and some of the kayak legs and the climbs were very dangerous and only possible in really good weather. I gave us about a 10 – 20% chance of completing the trip within the time we had. Some people wait years for the right opportunity to paddle the Cook Strait or climb Mt Cook. However we got an awesome run with the conditions, made the right decisions at the right times and managed to finish the journey in 22 days and 3 hours. We are the first to have done this, and it was a real buzz to know we had pulled off something unique and special with very little resources.

We did the challenge for fun. 100% completely, absolutely and utterly for fun. Sure, we raised some cash for charity, but this was not the reason we did the journey at all it. It peeves me when I see people stating, “I am doing for this XXX charity” when in fact they are doing it for fun. What’s wrong with saying “I am doing this for fun. However a part of the trip will be supporting XXX charity?”

I have a full time job as a regional sales manager based in Singapore, travelling around Asia spending lots of time eating very nice meals with customers and staying in beautiful hotels. All of which I do not appreciate as much as a lukewarm cup of instant soup in a freezing snow cave. What is wrong with me?!

Our adventure gave me more confidence in what is achievable through completely human-powered journeys. We went 1300km through and over some of New Zealand’s roughest terrain. Crossing the Cook Strait is something large vessels treat with maximum respect and we did it in tiny kayaks under our own power. I am really excited at what we human beings can achieve if we take one step at a time, plan and prepare well, and keep at it day after day. I am really curious about taking this concept further and seeing what else is possible. For me less is more, so the less resources and support I use the more I tend to enjoy the experience.

I am amazed at how cheaply you can have an adventure IF you can develop the right skills and experience to be able to undertake challenges independently. Using guides or support vehicles, for example, can quickly turn your adventure into a budget-busting behemoth.

So my biggest tip is simple: when planning an adventure, if you don’t have the skills to achieve what you are intending without using loads of support, then tone down what you want to do or modify your objective.

Take a step back and choose something maybe less committing or on a smaller scale where you can still push yourself but it will allow you to start developing the necessary skill sets required to take on the bigger challenge!

This is all part of the journey, and I personally find it much more rewarding to climb a lesser mountain which is within my capability but still challenges me, than to choose something outside my personal abilities but using guides or support. The fantastic feeling of achievement when you do something yourself and the buzz you get from learning and developing skills is more rewarding than going on hundreds of guided or heavily supported climbs.

The second biggest tip I would like to share is this: you don’t have to come up with all the answers when you initially plan your trip and commit to it. It’s OK to not know how you are going to achieve certain things (money, fitness, equipment etc.) at the start. You cannot expect to have all the answers at the beginning. Life is not so easy. So don’t let not having all the answers stop you. Things have a habit of sorting themselves out, especially if you want it bad enough and make it your priority.

I came up with a very basic plan on how to achieve the journey – once I had the basic plan I left the finer details to be ironed out ‘on the road’. I tried not to overplan the trip, especially when there were huge variables (mainly weather) to contend with. Get the main things in place and have confidence in your ability to sort the rest out when you get there.

I chose three key people as teammates (for various parts of the journey). This was the minimum of people we needed to complete the trip within our risk threshold. They had to have the right experience, attitudes and personalities. Don’t choose more people than you need: people are prone to be fickle and more people = more potential problems.

I treated my wife even more like a princess than I normally do until she gave me permission to go on the trip!

I prepared and organised my work schedule and asked certain people to help cover my duties BEFORE approaching my boss and requesting weeks of leave. It helps when you can give your boss as much notice as possible and show them you have things organised and covered so there will be follow up in your absence.

And then I got out there and went for it!

Lots of people have ideas and dreams of things they want to do. I often see friends’ eyes light up as they tell me their dreams, only to see the bright lights fade as they mention that horrible word “BUT”. But the kids, the money, the job, the family, the dogs, the cats…

The best practical step you can take to make your adventure happen is to do a major rearrangement in your head of your priorities. If you really want to go on that adventure you MUST move it into priority number ONE. It must be the top of the list.

All other reasons not to do the trip must be relegated to the ‘EXCUSES’ category. Every reason not to go is an excuse. Don’t make excuses. No one likes people who make excuses. Don’t let yourself make excuses.

Every day if you focus on your adventure and it is your number one priority you will come home from work and go and do that training even though your are tired. Or you will do that planning late into the night instead of going boozing with your mates. Or you will save that extra bit of cash instead of going out for dinner.

If you make it your priority you will find the money to do it. A simple question I like to ask people is, “could they come up with ‘x’ thousand dollars tomorrow if they had to?”

Most people say no – they could not.

Then I ask again, “could you come up that amount IF the person most precious to you would die if you did not come up with this money?”

A lot more people put their hand up this time.

So what’s changed?

The only different thing is that it has suddenly become a much higher priority.

Of course, adventure is not as important as life or death. The point is simply that if you really, really want to make something happen, you can do it.

Read more on Grant’s blog.

My new book, Grand Adventures, is out now.
It’s designed to help you dream big, plan quick, then go explore.
The book contains interviews and expertise from around 100 adventurers, plus masses of great photos to get you excited.

I would be extremely grateful if you bought a copy here today!

I would also be really thankful if you could share this link on social media with all your friends – http://goo.gl/rIyPHA. It honestly would help me far more than you realise.

Thank you so much!

Grand Adventures Cover

 

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Comments

  1. I couldn’t agree more with the sentiment about the most important thing about planning a big adventure is committing and making the it the first priority in your life. When my wife and I decided to take a year of leave from our “grown up” lives and bike across America, we shook hands and began prioritizing everything in our lives around that goal. We announced our intentions to friends and family, set a date to leave and began incremental steps to making our dream a reality. If you really want something to happen, prioritize it, take concrete actions towards that goal, and the departure day will be on you before you know it!

    Cheers,

    Matt

    Reply

 
 

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