After reading this article by Bex Band, I made a comment on Twitter that not all who call themselves adventurers are such. So this post is a kind of response to the response I got from that tweet.

I (someone who likes a little adventure) was sitting at the dinner table a few days ago, with my friend Dan (some time adventurer) and my wife, Z (no time adventurer).

"You and your bloody adventures" Z said. "All I hear is the word adventure with you two, I am starting to hate that word".

Now, I would like to point out that this was all tongue-in-cheek, but she has a point. It also made me consider what it actually means and how does one qualify as "an adventurer”.

Firstly I would say that “adventure", per se, is entirely subjective. Of this I am utterly convinced. Don't try to change my mind. My six year old's description of adventure is different to that of Sir Ranulph Fiennes (thank goodness). This does not diminish the achievements of either. Ranulph Fiennes may not be flattered by this comparison, but you get the picture.

So the next question is; are they both adventurers?

In my opinion they are not. Us humans love labels although they don’t always serve us well, and in truth this is probably another of those occasions.

What is an adventurer?

Since starting my blog I have stumbled my way into a world of outdoor recreation, nature and what it turns out is classified as “adventure”. I have over the course of this last year come to the opinion that an adventurer is someone who makes a living from it or devotes a considerable time to adventures. It must be their focus, their main activity.

You do not have to be a professional adventurer, you could be an amateur. It might be that you work a few months to fund an adventure and then go off. Maybe you don't even tell anyone about it. You don't have to have a blog or any social media presence to be an adventurer. It is not the size or nature of the adventures that affects this label either, but it is the time and energy devoted to them. I am not including the time I spend simply dreaming of things I will never do (quality time, by the way - I love it). I mean action, doing, planning, presenting, talking, even the admin side that is related to adventures.

Isn't that all a bit vague?

I suppose so. But you have to draw the line somewhere, don't you? I don’t call myself an electrician even though I have wired some lamps around the house, and I bloody enjoyed it by the way.

Nothing in life is really black and white - there is no exact definition and this post is certainly not about calling out any individuals. Let me put it this way; if my six year old was spending a good length of time planning her wild camps or her little strolls and she was also spending time doing something like talking about it or advocating it as a lifestyle, instead of going to school, she could legitimately call herself an adventurer!

Am I an adventurer?

Nope. Do I enjoy going on what I consider to be adventures. Absolutely, love it. I get an inordinate amount of pleasure from frying up some bacon by a river bank. But nothing I have done has qualified me as adventurer.

Which may beg the question, am I even qualified to answer the question I asked in the first place. But that sounds like a vortex I don’t want to go down.

Seanna Fallon wrote a nice piece about imposter syndrome in this world of adventure and I genuinely don’t want to be the person who shoots down anyone who may wish to define themselves as an adventurer. You have to start somewhere and if you choose that as your path then you deserve support, but it must be your path or there is a risk of a whole load of phoney adventurers.

Does it matter?

In the grand scheme of things, probably not. Except that if we are all by our own definitions; adventurers, then this moniker, whilst admittedly an attractive one, risks becoming rather meaningless.

Al Humphreys has gone as far as saying “Anyone who calls themselves an adventurer is basically a prat.” albeit with the caveat that one may be allowed to do so on a self-promoting web site.

I actually think this is a bit harsh but nevertheless the sentiment is understandable and, for what its worth, in my book he does qualify as one (an adventurer, not a prat).

Anyone who calls themselves an adventurer* is basically a prat.
You can quote me on that.
😉
(*Disclaimer: in real actual life, to a real person, not on their self-promoting website where it's sort of necessary.)
— Alastair Humphreys (@Al_Humphreys) November 14, 2017

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Cleveland Way - Scarborough to High Hawsker

In October 2020, my friend Dave and I walked a section of the Cleveland Way in Yorkshire over a couple of days. We started from Scarborough and walked to Ravenscar (18 km). The next day we walked to High Hawsker (15 km).

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Packrafting the River Tamiš

In July 2020, in a brief respite from the worries of the covid pandemic, I had the good fortune to be able to escape for a little adventure, spending 3 days paddling down the Tamiš river in northern Serbia, in my packraft.

Interview with Emily Woodhouse - Founder of Intrepid Magazine

I recently had the pleasure to interview Emily Woodhouse, someone who is well known and someone who has been somewhat of a pioneer in giving a voice to many women in the adventure / outdoor sports world.

In this interview Emily gives me some insight into her whirlwind entrepreneurial journey and how much there is to learn from diving into a (business) adventure.

Not only has Intrepid Magazine provided something that was missing in the outdoor space but it is doubly satisfying to know it was the vision of someone who cares passionately about the subject matter, saw the importance of it and had the courage to go through with it… although I am not sure Emily herself see it as “courage”. As she says in the interview: “I looked at the hole in the magazine world and thought: I can do that”.

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Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the wallaby)

The loch was like a mirror as we set off from Luss on Friday to explore. Having walked to the high point on Inchtavannach to admire the views, and paddled around Inchmoan, watching the deer come down to the water’s edge, we agreed to spend the night on Inchconnachan for no other reason than it appeared absolutely idyllic as the sun began to sink and the evening light bathed the lake in a silvery light.

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Weekend Adventure - From lying in the sun to crying on a plane

I have mentioned a few times that my daughter is neither naturally sporty, particularly active or indeed fearless. She is perhaps the opposite. So I was especially proud that she decided on the Saturday morning, as we dithered whether to have an hour in the water at Buzz Active Cuckmere, that this was indeed the ideal opportunity for her to go solo in a kayak for the first time.

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Canoeing the Wye: Happiness V Social Media [Video]

I had so much fun this weekend that I didn’t tell anyone about it. Imagine that! The moment was way more important to me than broadcasting about it. Yes, I know it should be, but if we are honest with ourselves, it isn’t alway, is it?

I spent Friday and Saturday canoeing down the Wye with my 7 year old daughter, from Hoarwithy to Symonds Yat. It is the first time either of us has done this kind of trip and to share this adventure together was the sort of experience that makes me go all mushy and emotional…

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Wild Night Out 2019: The Whining

Travelling in ultra lightweight style (we only carried four cricket stumps instead of the full compliment of six) Emma and I marched along the coast path, over the dunes and onto the vast sands of our beautiful coast for a perfect Wild Night Out 2019, until the high-pitched whining started…

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30 Days Wild: Suburban Springwatch

One thing I decided to do this year was leave one corner of the garden wild. I don’t know how long it will last as pressure builds from within the family to “do something” with that corner but while it does last it has had a positive effect in terms of wildlife.

Perhaps the best aspect of this experiment is the fact that every night around 9pm we have a fat hedgehog who comes through our front gate, wanders through the garden to this unkempt patch of land and roots around for a couple of hours before waddling off to check out what the neighbours have to offer.

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30 Days Wild: Freshwalks: Networking in the Outdoors

This filthy-wet month, I am trying to spend time outside in nature during my working day as part of the Wildlife Trusts 30 Days Wild. I cannot pretend it has been as easy as last year’s sun-drenched June when gently swaying flower meadows and deserted Norfolk beaches called out to me.

However, recently a client of mine drew my attention to an innovative and inspiring initiative getting business people into the outdoors, for Freshwalks. The benefits of which might surprise a few…

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30 days Wild: Welcome to my office

“Can you repeat that please sir?” I could hear a slightly exasperated tone on the other end of the line.

This morning, a few days into June and woefully short of what I hope to achieve during 30 Days Wild, I ventured out into the meadow to make a few phone calls. I took my office outdoors! The helpful assistant from Barclays Business Banking went off for a few minutes to find out some information, and probably to curse me as my microphone was buffeted by the breeze, that bent the tall flowers surrounding me and repeatedly flicked my hood over my head.

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30 Days Wild: Switch off with Nature

We are just a few days away from June and the start of 30 Days Wild; the Wildlife Trusts amazing initiative to get people outside, enjoying and appreciating nature.

This year, as part of 30 Days Wild I will be focussing on how nature can help alleviate the stresses and strains of work and how to get more of it into the working day.

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Do you want to live more adventurously?

The decision to change my life and live more adventurously was utterly instinctive, borne of exasperation, a last resort. I was burnt out, suffering from anxiety, depressed.

How I got to the point of changing the direction of my life was a couple of years of mental wrangling and torture, until I stumbled across some inspiration.