What is an adventure?
It may seem like a silly question, but I think it’s an important one. There is a common misconception that adventures generally involve far-off lands, great distances, or at least expensive hiking boots: and that anything short of this doesn’t count as an adventure at all. How could you possibly compare your humble walk to the mighty feats of Ranulph Fiennes braving the Arctic elements, Bear Grylls surviving on a desert island, or some part time model kissing an elephant in Bali? Well, if you ask me, the answer is that it’s all in your head.
What you call an adventure might scare one person, and bore another. Everyone has their own definition of what an adventure means to them. Just leaving the house is an adventure to some people, and going anywhere with trees or grass is an adventure to others. The definition changes from person to person. That said, one definition of adventure that doesn’t change is this one from the Cambridge English Dictionary:
“An unusual, exciting, and possibly dangerous activity, such as a trip or experience, or the excitement produced by such an activity.”
I like this definition, as it has two parts. It emphasises not only the activity itself, but also the feeling the activity gives you. I think that people tend to emphasise the former and forget the latter. Adventure is usually held as the activity itself: but what about how it makes you feel?
“Adventure is not outside man; it is within.” - George Eliot
You could go on a 20 mile mountain hike and get to the end not feeling like you’ve had an adventure. Or you can explore some unknown corner of your local area, learn something new, and make it feel like a real discovery. Or set yourself a goal and have the thrill of a quest. In short: you can make anything feel like an adventure. And why wouldn’t you want to do that? Who doesn’t want to stimulate their dopamine receptors in a natural and healthy way, with goal rewards and spontaneous action? All while appreciating the beauty of the world around you. Yes please, I’ll take that as often as I can.
I put it to you that we should reclaim the definition of adventure as whatever we want it to be. It doesn’t have to be long, arduous, or cost a lot of money. I have discovered a few little tricks to make any walk feel like a fun adventure: I can highly recommend them all.
WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW THE ROUTE
It’s easy to make an adventure out of a walk when you set a destination but don’t know exactly how you’ll get there. You don’t know what you’re going to discover: a faster route, a natural wonder, a relic of the olden days. You could come across anything: that’s part of the excitement. Grab your map and off you go.
Sometimes you don’t even have to plan your route. Whether you’re walking across town or country, you can work out roughly where you want to go, and head in that direction, figuring out the obstacles as they come. You’ll likely find a route you would have never considered before. I assure you it’ll be rewarding, and anything you find will impress you more with the power of spontaneity. Resist the urge to get your phone map out, and go a little further before you check your bearings. You’ll feel intrepid in no time, while absorbing the area around you with fresh senses.
There are other occasions when it will be better to plan your route in advance. This especially applies for longer walks, or when you don’t have the luxury of extra time to find your way. Always use your common sense to ensure you stay safe and don’t run into trouble. There’s nothing like running into an unexpected obstacle when you really don’t need it: which at best will make you late for tea and at worst can get you into a very sticky spot of trouble.
WHEN YOU KNOW THE ROUTE
You may have walked the route before. You may have walked it a hundred times. It might be part of your daily commute, or a regular family ritual. But just when you think you’ve really seen it all, there will always be fresh details to intrigue you: that’s the power of the natural world.
This is where the trick comes in. Find a way to make an old route new and interesting. This may simply lie in a renewed appreciation of the details: engaging all five of your senses. Or, if you’re a sucker for games (and dopamine hits) like me, try setting yourself a quest.
How about walking a new route with only a compass? How about identifying three new plants? What about finding the perfect picnic spot? Even if the quest seems small, it’s you that has the power to make it feel big.
Here’s some recommendations for quest ideas:
Hunting down ancient sites and observing their history as you walk around them
Finding and foraging cooking ingredients
A linear walk route from A to B
Doing a walk within a time limit
Go wild swimming and stay in the water for two minutes
Bring something back to furnish your home
Fill up a page of your journal/diary
Devise a solution to a problem you’ve been thinking about
I’m sure you’ll think of some great ideas to suit you best. If you want some more inspiration, check out this article:
If you’re not adventuring alone, you can approach these quests cooperatively or competitively. Who can spot the most tree varieties; or, how many can you spot between you? And so on.
You can even make photography your goal: after all, photos are treasures as much as anything else you might find along your way. You can even have an impromptu photography competition: whoever is judged to have taken the best photo at the end of the adventure, gets a congratulatory prize/pint/cake/etc. What’s not to like?
PUSHING YOURSELF
Sometimes an adventure is defined by pushing yourself. Physical limits of endurance, braving the elements, a new best time: the adventure is made by what you achieve inwardly as well as outwardly. Every time you score an achievement, you have explored a new part of your inner terrain as well as outer. Your mind has grown a bit, along with your muscles. And you’ll get an endorphin rush too. Pushing yourself takes determination and courage, but it always pays off in the long term.
So there you go: some of my top tips for adding some sugar or spice to any outdoor endeavour you might find yourself on. I will admit, I think there is a small amount of skill required to find ways of enhancing your adventure. You need imagination to devise the ideas; you need the confidence to share them (it takes some sand to propose a mushroom foraging expedition) and of course, you need the juice to get up, go out and claim your right to all the world’s natural riches.
“If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then adventure is in the soul of the traveller.” - James