Adventure travel talk
Travel Talk on Twitter
This week’s Travel Talk on Twitter, (#ttot) was about Adventure Travel.
The idea is quite a simple one … once a week, on Tuedays … well, twice a week actually, because it takes place at half past nine GMT, that is at 9:30 am and 09:30 pm, in order to allow people around the world to participate whatever time zone they happen to be in.
During the course of an hour five questions are posed at ten minute intervals and participants are invited to take part in the “conversation” by submitting their comments, together with the hashtag #ttot. You can some of the questions that were suggested by members of the “TTOT community” on their facebook page.
There are 27 “hosts” who transmit the questions and monitor and retweet the responses. It is possible to follow the coversation by simply following the hosts, or searching for the hashtag. Although the event is supposed to take place twice a week at specific times, the hashtag is actually used quite a bit throughout the week: by people asking for travel advice or travel related questions and by companies and destinations wishing to make announcements.
Although the hosts promise that tweets won’t be used in “any outside publication … without your knowledge and consent”, they do warn that contributions could appear in a “#TTOT recap”, (such as this postcard), which are produced independently.
Although, usually, I am not keen on vox pop …, I have to be honest, I was a bit disappointed this week. Kyrgyzstan is often billed as a potential destination for Adventure Tourism, with opportunities for a wide variety of activities from simple hill walking, through horse riding, cycling and white water rafting to mountaineering with several 7000m peaks and, apparently, quite a few peaks that have yet to be conquered.
The five questions chosen this week were:
- What does adventure mean to you?
- What is your best adventure memory? (do you have a picture?)
- What be your ultimate, once in a lifetime, adventure?
- What are the three essentials for your Adventure Travel Kit?, and
- In what scenery do you enjoy the best adventures? (… beach, mountain, foreign country etc.)
Although some of these struck me as quite interesting, personally, I thought there were some other suggestions which I think I would have preferred because they seemed to have the potential for eliciting an interesting discussion:
- Does “adventure” have to involve “danger”?
- How far do you have to travel to find an adventure?
- Which sort of adventure do you prefer: cultural adventures?, wild natural experiences?, or …?
- What made you adventurous?
- Is it really an adventure if a tour operator organizes it?
- Can you have an adventure in your own country and culture?
- How has adventure changed you as a person?
- Does constant connectivity spoil or enhance the adventure?
- What’s the best source for finding “adventure” or “off the beaten track” destinations?
- An adventure needs to be safe … but feel unsafe.
- It must be crazy and special
- Takes you outside your comfort zone
I am not sure how much adventure is connected with “danger” – hence I would have like to have seen that discussed. I was also not convinced about the “comfort zone” answer … some people relish a challenge and, especially in situations or activities which involve an element of skill or experience, then their adventure may afford them the opportunity to utilize and/or extend that skill and experience.
Personally: To me, an adventure is an exciting and unusual experience, possibly offering something new, but usually involving an element of uncertainty. That may include an element of risk, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be an element of danger, it could simply be a risk of failure in some enterprise. There will be an element of challenge, be it physical, mental, emotional, or … whatever; it is the challenge that makes it an “adventure” rather than simply an “activity holiday“.
Of the answers I saw, I felt that the best was probably the one that could have been a perfect answer to the final question … “It’s not about the place … it’s about the mindset!” Adventure is about your approach to the experience. Like all forms of “travel” and “tourism” – it’s really about the experience.
Maybe it was the nature of the topic, but I thought that quite a few of the answers belonged better as responses to other questions, for example, in answer to question 2, What is your best adventure memory?, there were the following suggestion:
- the biggest adventures can happen when you are not looking for them – perhaps better suited as an answer to question 3
- travel that keeps your body sore and sweaty, your heart pumping adrenaline and face sore from smiling – which I thought really addresses the first question … bit I did like the last bit, (about the smile), which I thought showed the difference between an activity holiday and an adventure holiday.
- sleeping in the outback and one lightning strike 50m away from my head and a 2nd 50m from my feet – that might have been a memorable experience … but was it, strictly speaking, an example of adventure travel?
- Helicopter flight with wife and step-daughter … SD in jump seat by open door; seatbelt non-functional, SD tied in very securely
- A week kayaking with orcas off the BC coast
- swimming with manatees
- Jumping into a swarming fish feeding frenzy to spot a whale shark in the middle of the ocean
Personally: I’d have to chose two similar experiences … the first time I ever took a ride on a Ferris wheel in the middle of Broad Street Oxford during St. Giles’ Fair back in the 1970′s, and the ride if took in a ski chairlift in Queenstown, New Zealand. The Ferris wheel wasn’t particularly large – not like the London Eye, for example, nor even the Ferris wheels which we have here in Bishkek. In a way that’s made it an adventure … the “two man” seat with nothing more than a piece of metal holding us in place as the rickety structure took us back and aloft, before thrusting us, swaying, forward and down into emptiness … The experience of the chairlift in Queenstown was similar – I sat facing into space as the chair was cast out into the void … I am told that the look on my face was a sight to behold … and I am sure that it included an element of fear, even though it was perfectly safe … I like to think it was as much a sense of exhilaration – the being thrust into the unknown which drove me
In answer to the question, What be your ultimate, once in a lifetime, adventure?, for example, were answers like:
- A catamaran and sailing lessons so that I could explore the Philippine Islands and Papua New Guinea
- Travel though Africa on a good dirt bike – not like Long Way Down with 2 backup 4x4s
- The Mongol Rally
- Exploring the Amazon with a local guide - Actually, I’ve always wanted to do that! – ever since I studied South America for A-Level Geography,
Personally: I suppose the crucial element in the question is the phrase “once in a lifetime” … and I think I would have to go for the chance to go into space. I remember my first travels abroad, my first time on the other side of the world, … I’ve been in a helicopter, a seaplane, on a glacier and a mountaintop, underground in caves and underwater in a submarine, … but I belong to the generation which remembers, (just), when space travel was simply a figment of an over ripe imagination … but now is within reach – provided you have access to the funds. Of course, in time it may well go the way of motor travel and air travel, and become commonplace – but for the moment it would be my “once in a lifetime” adventure.
When it came to itemizing things found in an “adventure kit” for question 4, some answers were quite literal and specific:
- flashlight, raincoat, instant noodles – raincoat?
- Duct tape, Swiss army knife and bottle of water – duct tape?
- Lots of energy bars! Plenty of water! Sunglasses, flip flops & my hammock!
- presumably they couldn’t count
Personally: I am not sure that I have an answer to this however, the answer the I think I liked the best was … “Attitude, curiosity and impetuouness” – which may well be essential elements in order to find adventure, even if they cannot be purchased and packaged in a “kit”
The answers to the final question, In what scenery do you enjoy the best adventures?, seemed to be divided between
- a foreign country, and
- Nature! … it could be mountains, sea, desert, beach, plains, jungle … as long as it is nature.
Having said that, some people seemed to like the idea of finding places nearer to home … so that “I can go back to them again and again”.
Personally, I go back to that answer to the opening question: “It’s not about the place … it’s about the mindset!” Adventure is about your approach to the experience. Like all forms of “travel” and “tourism” – it’s really about the experience.
Bishkek