A DECADE OF ADVENTURE SCHOOLING

There are few words out there as alluring as ‘adventure’. We look for it in our weekly rides and in our daily lives; reaching for new experiences that will inject excitement. But adventure, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. What makes it an adventure rather than ‘just a ride’ depends on your metaphorical starting point: what’s your previous experience, where are your boundaries, how willing you are to embrace the unknown? Out of the three, it is the unknown factor that brings both the challenges and the rewards of adventure.

Unknowns undermine confidence and test resourcefulness and give even the toughest of Bear Grylls wannabees a run for his or her money. But these are positives. It’s not the kudos of remote locations or the magnitude of an expedition’s aims that define adventure. It’s how you deal with its unknowns and what that experience teaches you about yourself, others and the world beyond the familiar, that is the most rewarding takeaway from adventure’s rich smorgasbord of experiences.

I’ve been dragging bikes across the globe for nearly three decades, sniffing out worthy singletrack and filling in the gaps between with cultural experiences — like a painting by numbers book for a restless adult. It’s been an immensely rewarding ‘journey’ (sometimes you’ve just got to use these