A few weeks ago, my husband came home saying that he had found a second-hand kayak he wanted to buy.
Given that I had no clue he’d even been thinking of buying a kayak, it took me a while to come round but in the end I compromised by offering to absolve him of the guilt of buying a kayak if he didn’t mind me booking a girls’ long weekend in Bali for mid-2016. We both ended up happy.
My underdeveloped sense of adventure
The kayak purchase got me thinking about my sense of adventure. I have never been the brave adventurous type, really. Even as a kid I would never dive off the high diving board or go on the crazy-fast rollercoasters. There is still no amount of money you could pay me to persuade me to bungee jump or swim with sharks or anything of the like.
On the vaguely adventurous side, I did climb Mount Fuji once, I’ve taken my son camping (admittedly not far from home), hiked in Cornwall and spent a European summer in a tent in the Balkans (I also lived and worked in three entirely different countries and cultures, but somehow that doesn’t feel like it counts as adventurous exactly).
What the green kayak taught me
Even though I’d kayaked and enjoyed it once a couple of decades ago, when this green kayak snuck into my garage I didn’t think of it as something I’d use. Fortunately, we spent another weekend down south recently and I ended up having a paddle on the gentle estuary near Mandurah. And another one, and another, because I realised that kayaking was a heap of fun.
You know how sometimes you just label yourself because it seems like the easy thing to do? I realised I’d been telling myself (and others) “I have no sense of adventure” for years and I’d come to believe that I would basically never do any new physical thing ever again!
Funny how one small reminder that actually you can do whatever you want can kick something off in your brain to change all that. The first thing I noticed was I stopped being blind to other blog posts about adventurous activities. Suddenly I noticed (and read with interest) blog posts about different kayaking destinations around the world, and places to go on bike tours, and beautiful hikes. I remembered how much I love getting to bed at the end of the day having had an entire day outdoors, with matted hair and sunscreen that you just can’t quite wash away and the feeling of proper tiredness all over. And I started to think about future trips that might be a bit more physical than I’m used to. As I said, it’s funny, right?
How’s your sense of adventure?
Is your sense of adventure restricted to going to new countries and different cultures, and just seeing what life is like there? (Which, of course, is still more adventurous than a whole lot of people, so I applaud you!)
Or are you a get-out-in-it, crazy-risky adventurer who will happily throw themselves off a cliff or jump in a tank full of hungry sharks?
I don’t think it matters either way – but I do think that some of the wonder of travel is that we get a chance to be more adventurous than we are in our daily lives, which can give us a great sense of fulfilment, so it’s worth thinking about and even pushing yourself a bit to see just what you’re capable of.
Giveaway: $500 Anaconda voucher – now closed!
The very generous folks at Chimu Adventures know about having a sense of adventure. They run trips to classically adventurous spots like Antarctica – high on my “some day” list. Actually when I saw there is a trip hosted by Jennifer Byrne and Andrew Denton I started to wonder how I can be available in February 2017 to join them!
For Australian readers only (sorry everyone else!), Chimu Adventures are sponsoring a great giveaway – a $500 voucher for Anaconda. I admit without being asked to that this is a favourite shop for my family and we stocked up there recently on thermal underwear ahead of our Iceland trip!
To have a chance to win, you just need to click through to the Chimu Adventures page for a look and then leave a comment here on the blog answering this question:
Which Chimu destination would you pick, and why?
The most creative answer (not the most adventurous!) will be the winner, judged by a panel appointed by me. Click through for full terms and conditions but basically: make sure you leave your email address as you add your comment (it’s only visible to me), and leave your comment by 31st October. It’s a game of skill so go crazy! Winner will be advised by email and announced on the Facebook page shortly after that. And good luck!
(Giveaway is now closed – congratulations to winner Aleney!)
Highlights of Cuba. Not sure why the words “rum, lime, sugar,mint” jumped off the page at me (hmmmm….). I was going to select a destination based on my inner adventurous streak struggling to be unleashed.
I see you as adventurous! I was a hesitant kid, too, but my sense of adventure is definitely deepening as time goes on.
As for the Chimu adventure I’d choose … definitely the Galapagos Islands. That’s a dream destination – how fun would it be to explore the water, learn the history and photograph the giant tortoises and iguanas on the central islands?!
Galapagos, so I can hang out with the Marine iguanas just like an Octonauts episode I watched with Lucas. Turning the Octonauts into real life – now that’s an adventure Captain Barnicle! (Also, clearly I need to get out more and stop watching so much ABC for kids! ?)
Spirit of Shackleton – who doesn’t want to travel to the end of the earth? And in comfort and style – I have a great admiration for the world’s explorers, but I am too fond of good food and easily available hot running water. It would be a grand adventure, the likes of which are almost long lost these days!
What a choice! But I think I’ll have to go with Cuba and the Caribbean. Cuba for me because a) Che Guevera’s Motorcycle diaries is the most inspirational travel journey I’ve read and b) I once met a Spanish man who had just cycled around Cuba and it’s been on my bucket list do so since! The Caribbean because my Mr.5 is a little obsessed with pirates so what an adventure it would be to try and find them with my own little scallywag.
I want to dress in a dazzling costume and shake my hips at Carnaval in Brazil.
Galapagos is on Raffles adventurous bucket list because “Boobies” and antarctica is on mine! But the Ushuaia to Cartagena adventure could deliver us both Boobies and icebergs and cross so much more off my bucket list. Tango my way through Argentina? Check. Sodiac with a whale or two in the icy waters of Laguna San Rafaelr? Check. Have a close encounter at Nazca? Check. Solve the mysteries of Machu Piccu and Cusco? Check.
Raffles could check out the red- and blue-footed “Boobies” on Isla de La Plata and enjoy a little jungle boogie in Punta Alegre with the local indigenous people! And, after all that exploring, we could refresh ourselves with a leisurely dip in the stunning waters of the Pearl and San Blas islands. Oh, and I could wash the whole trip down with some fine Chilean wine! Where do I sign up?
I would take the adventurous route and follow Bruce Chatwin’s footsteps in Patagonia. Once in the ‘most uttermost part of earth’ I’d mingle with forgotten legends, visit the virgin shrine at Myclonos Cave, see the Magellanic penguins at Punto Tomba before heading to Ushuaia, the most southern city in the world. Before I head off, though, I would talk to Chimu Adventures and get a local guide.
Fernando de Noronha looks like the perfect spot to try out that new kayak. Given my supremely uncoordinated kayaking skills, repeatedly falling off into waters as stunning as that would soften the blow to my ego!
From one ’underdeveloped sense of adventure’-ee to another, your green kayak tale has me daring to imagine taking up a new adventurous hobby… complete with matted hair and sunscreen that won’t wash away!
When I was fifteen I won a book prize
I chose one on Brazil and couldn’t believe my eyes
Every page turned was another thing learned
and a desire to visit has ever since burned
Buenos Aires to Rio would certainly be
The Chimu Adventure for me!
While it would extremely chilly a trip to Antarctica it would be for me!
It’s the isolation and extremeness of this environment that I want to experience because I believe that when I’m put in challenging and desolate circumstances it helps to bring out strengths I never knew I had and it would give me the chance to reflect on my life, its purpose and hopefully come back and share my experiences with people who can’t make it to such a destination. There’s also something about the harshness of coldness, it’s confronting, but in a good way. The idea of actually being close enough to touch iceberg and a penguin is mind blowing and to be in an environment that such few people have seen excites me.
I would have to say Antartica…because, well one of the girls favourite movies is “Penguins of Madagascar” and I would like to be able to show them that the birthplace of their beloved penguins (Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private, just fyi) is actually a real life place.
This trip may be a little while in the future though….
I found an old travel journal in an antique shop written by a man who 137 years ago sailed aboard the iron clipper Hesperides, from London to Melbourne Australia – It took 93 days.
He describes his daily existence observing birds and porpoises from the deck as they traversed the globe from a temperate zone, across the tropical equator and around the Cape of Good Hope into the Southern Ocean where they had a close encounter with an iceberg.
My journal would be but 38 days, sailing aboard the ice-strengthened G Expedition built 94 years later (1972) and renamed in 2008, where the tale would tell how I sailed from the most southerly city – Ushuaia – not far off Cape Horn and traversed through fjords past icy glaciers up the coast calling in on South American wonders, before crossing the equator and cutting through to the Caribbean via the Panama Canal, which was but a pipe dream when my forerunner recorded his exploits.
Journals – They highlight travel memories… forever.
Your husband was right when “came home saying that he had found a second-hand kayak he wanted to buy”. Kayaking is good way to discover and enjoy your new life. I wish you will discover more and more your world from your kayaking.
I love kayaking and hope that one day, I will have a journey to Australia. Keep your contact for more information.
Thank you for your excellent sharing.