Adventure

"Adventure: an exciting or unusual experience. It may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome.^[1] Adventures may be activities with some potential for physical danger such as exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, river rafting or participating in extreme sports. The term also broadly refers to any enterprise that is potentially fraught with physical, financial or psychological risk, such as a business venture, or other major life undertakings" wikipedia

When I think of an adventure I think of the open road with mile after mile of fields and trees. Distant lands, billowing fabrics from a Moroccan Bedouin tent, sand dunes, exotic spices and vibrant colours of a souk. A small boat with a crisp white canopy gliding along the turquoise blue sea I think I saw in James Bond. Climbing a rock face or hiking up a mountain, the water lapping at my ankles as I walk along white hot sandy beaches under tall palm trees. Speeding along on the back of a battered jeep through the African savannah as giraffes or wildebeest gallop in the distance. Or, perhaps a little closer to home, sitting in the warm sunshine outside a tent with a bacon sandwich in one hand and a mug of coffee in the other, or sitting wrapped up in a blanket beside a roaring campfire with a mug of hot chocolate as the sun goes down and the clear midnight sky is filled with twinkling stars that I can actually see, rather than being shrouded by clouds or light pollution from the towns and cities.

My quest for travel and adventure probably started as a tiny seed when I was just a little girl watching Summer Holiday with my Mum, and flourished with the countless times I've watched it and a school exchange to France. I hope one day to fulfil my dream and travel the world to far flung places where there are creatures I've never seen and food like I've never tasted, to see the Northern Lights, the Pantheon in Rome, fly over the Grand Canyon, explore the backstreets of towns I've never heard of, and drive in the only way to see Europe, a VW Campervan. I have no idea where my fascination with these came from but to me they are a symbol freedom, a time that passed me by before I was born, the inclination to the carefree hippy that is so much embedded in my character, and everything I love about travelling. But for now I can only dream about those adventures in that iconic mode of transport and instead explore on a smaller scale camping in my little blue tent, my home away from home, with my trusty old camping stove, my sleeping bag, and my mostly working car.

So here are some of my travels. Not on the grand scale of James Cook, Lewis and Clark, Sir Edmund Hilary or even Bear Grylls in a South American jungle, but they are adventures just the same, and they're my adventures.

 

Courtesy of www.armadilloimages.com