Don Lennox has rowed oceans and now is planning to run across America. He is so determined to do it that he is willing to sell every single possession he owns…
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Thank You
Thank you to the many people who have kindly "bought me a coffee" for just £2.50 as encouragement to keep this blog going. "Yes, I too would like to donate a couple of pounds to this site..!"
Although certainly not as bad as the picture, my rear doesn’t look great this morning either after one of those mountain descents where I slid down a load of it, partly because it’s a laugh and a lazy option when you’re tired, but mostly to avoid falling over and because I was running out of daylight. Although posting a picture may be going too far, for me anyway!
One of the things that I have learnt from reading your blog is that the division between hard core adventurers and backpackers and stay at homes is more fundamental than the division between mountainers and say trekkers or cyclists. Great adventurers all seem to share some fundamental spirit whatever their chosen field. I could imagine say a round the world cyclist and an Everest climber could if they met on some level share more of a connection than the round the world cyclist could with a casual sunday cyclist, or that the Everest climber could with a Snowdon climber.
Just for the amount of adventure that I have I think I will always be a Snowdonia/ Kilmanjaro/summer Alps/Aconcagua climber, but probably never an Everest/Denali/winter Alps climber. For instance.
I also think that this “you can do anything you want” thing is largely true but it seems to me that many of the adventurers you feature are driven so much by the challenge aspect that by necessity they cannot really enjoy what they do to the full. I prefer more of a balance between challenge and enjoyment, whereas the more hardcore adventurers seem to just go 90% towards challenge. There is an inverse relationship there though, I think? Not fully sure on that actually?
Thanks for that reply – lots of interesting stuff worth thinking about.
Here is a nice adventure that was not about having a miserable time!
https://alastairhumphreys.com/2009/10/home-wonderful-home/
I agree with Jamie. I myself go as far as I would enjoy a challenge, never beyond that. So when I am hiking with my dogs, I have that tingling sensation of fear when I am in bear and cougar country, but I am still enjoying that sweet sensation of fear lurking somewhere inside me. I am actually enjoying that feeling. However, I will never take my pack of dogs in wolf territory for I know a pack of wolves will be on us very soon realizing that we are encroaching on their territory. That will be a challenge – a nightmare of a challenge – I won’t do it no matter what.