He is living the dream and driving a big silver Jeep.
Nathan Kingerlee, founder of Outdoors Ireland, an outdoor adventure and training company boasts a daily life of leading treks up Carauntoohill, setting up kayaks on the Lakes of Killarney at sunset, teaching snow and ice climbing courses to the eager and washing out wetsuits at dusk.
Courtesy of Nathan Kingerlee
Seven years in business and Kingerlee has perfected the ultimate balancing act of being both a man of the office and securing time out on the field to take part in his adventures. “My aim is to inject wild factors in every-thing you do and combine the most amazing experience with value for money.” Nathan Kingerlee’s life epitomizes this agenda, his upcoming adventures include sailing or kayaking the whole of Ireland’s coastline, road-tripping it up across the country in a caravan and expanding Outdoors Ireland to encompass Galway amongst its conquests.
A rundown of a typical day, the more mundane side only; “I get up a six, walk the dogs, go to the office and sort out bookings, check the weather forecast and update the social media sites. Then I drive to location meet the clients, head off on the adventure, return, clean equipment, sleep and start all over again!”
He always knew the lifestyle he would live so ever the pragmatic he wasted no time and left secondary school early. Kingerlee took on a two-year instructor course and following that at the youthful age of 22 he started Outdoors Ireland. He ignored the doubters and now at twenty-nine years of age he is exactly where he wants to be.
The perks of his lifestyle sometimes disguises the lingering reality of his job. He gets three days off a year and during the busy season he rises at six and returns to bed at twelve, exhausted. It is tough, but it is worth it; “The best part of my job is reading Trip Advisor and getting our clients responses and emails back and then there are these moments when I am setting up for the day ahead alone and I get to see incredible things that only I get to see.”
Courtesy of Nathan Kingerlee
According to Kingerlee, Ireland has got an abundance to offer the global adventure world; “Adrenaline, landscape, excitement, music, and a certain ‘craic’ that is lacking in other countries. Ireland is an incredible product, the adventure may be harder to find but when you do, its priceless.”
Her economy may be sputtering and weak but hidden in Ireland’s hills and lakes the adventure she can offer is slowly creeping to life and when it explodes, Nathan Kingerlee will be slap bang in the thick of it.
1.What expeditions/adventures have you been on to date?
Not a lot really. Well not as much as I would have liked to have done. I have done Kilimanjaro (dressed as a penguin), competed in ultra endurance canoeing marathons and spent a fair bit of time in the Himalayas soaking up the mountains. Adventure is not all about rowing oceans and climbing mountains. Adventure, in its purest form, is simply a way of thinking. I think adventurously.
Courtesy of Sean Conway
2.What made you decide and commit to doing this?
I wanted to do some BIG in 2012. Something that I would never be able to do again. My bucket list has always been. Swimming the Channel, Climbing Everest and Cycling the World. Cycling the world is probably the most exhausting so I figured get that one out the way first.
3.What is your day job and how did are you getting time off for this endeavour?
I have been a professional photographer my entire life and as much as I still love photography, I became bored of the type of work I was getting. This was because I said yes to too many jobs 10 years ago that weren’t my passion and before I knew it 98% of my work wasn’t what I set out to do. It was a hard decision to say NO to my clients who, for the most part, are practically my friends now but I don’t regret it. I wish I had had courage enough to do it years ago.
4.What can people do to help?
There are loads of ways you can get involved from helping me with route tips, places to see, places to avoid and choosing songs for my iPod. Most of all I am looking for people to help me Solarise Africa by paying for a school to be solarised which is as little as £1000, or simply providing a family with a Solar Lamp for £6 so that they no longer need to use kerosene. Please help me banish the kerosene lamp.
5. Why did you pick Solar Aid as your charity? I am from Zimbabwe and have seen firsthand what life is like for 98% of rural Africa. Solar is such a simple and effective way to tackle global warming, increase education and save lives.
6. When are you set to embark on this challenge and where is your starting point? I leave Greenwich park, on the meridian, on February the 18th 2012. Please come down and show your support. Bring a banner too.
7.What is the current world record to beat and how many miles a day do you have to cover in order to beat it?
The current record is 153 days which is only 117 miles per day. This is actually quite an easy record to beat and it will probably be beaten before I leave. I hope to bring that record down by a few weeks raising my average mileage to about 130 per day.
8.What are your plans for the nights – hostels/camping/hotels?
I have no plan really. It all depends how well I am feeling. I will be taking a tent, sleeping bag and mattress and will camp whenever I need too. What I won’t do is cut my days short in order to stay in a hotel. Graveyards are a great place to camp as people tend to stay clear of them at night.
9.Who does your support team consist of?
Support???? What support? This is a solo and unsupported attempt. It will just be me, my bike and loads of maps. I can’t wait.
10.Why pick cycling as opposed to hiking, swimming…etc?
I love swimming and hope to swim the channel one day. Cycling is a great way to see the world due to the huge distances you can cover in a short period of time. The feeling of freewheeling down a long road after a long day is second to none. Although I love hiking, it doesn’t challenge me enough. TO do challenging hiking probably means running and that’s one thing I can’t do. I have never done a marathon.
11.Is this going to be your one and only challenge or are there more to come?
Oh, there are LOADS more to come. I have one in the pipeline for when I return. I can’t give it away but it is another cycling world record attempt. . . only this time a lot shorter.
13.What does your training schedule consist of?
I currently spend about 40hours a week on the bike and then another 10 or so in the gym. I am trying to vary my training with some short sprints, hill work and some long rides. Nothing can compare to the race but I can only hope to replicate some of the fatigue I am going to have to endure.
14. Besides raising money for charity, why are you doing this?
The charity side of it is a huge part but also testing myself, testing what’s humanly possible and achieving something that for many many years seemed only a distant dream that you read about in the paper once in a while.
15.How long have you been planning this and also training for this?
I decided quite late and have only been in training for 8 months. It can take years to get the stamina in your tendons. Training is only a small part of the preparation. Route selection, food, sleep, flights, visas, equipment, spares, navigation and loads more take up way more time that cycling.
Courtesy of Sean Conway
16.What bike are you using?
I am using a full steel frame bike with 2 small bags on the back. I want to be a lightweight as possible yet not sacrifice comfort too much as being uncomfortable is just as bad, if not worse, than having a heavy bike.
17. My mam wants to know how much sleep you will be getting and how you are going to eat?!
Sleep strategy is the hardest thing to work out. It’s such a fine balance between keeping the miles rolling vs recovery so that you cover more miles the next day. I don’t really know the answer to that and I guess only time will tell. Food is difficult too. Some countries will be easy but other like the Atacama Desert in Chile will be more difficult and I will have to carry what I can. I literally need to eat anything and everything I can find.
18.How can you plan flights and boats ahead of schedule if you don’t know exact arrival times at countries?
I have had to guess arrival times at airports but there may be times when I miss a flight so will just have to beg the airline to help me out. I haven’t booked boats yet as I figured I will just be able to jump on with my bike when I arrive. The plan is to get back to London before the Olympics so I can’t afford any delays.
19.What routes have you cycled in preparation?
I have cycled a bit in Ireland which was great. I am hopefully going to go to Spain to train for a bit too but most I have stayed near London as this is where I need to be for fundraising. I am getting a little bored of cycling London to Cambridge and back but that also part of my mental stamina.
20. Have you met any of the others that will be competing for the title?
I have seen them on Twitter and Facebook. There are a few really hard core guys. It’s great. It really pushes everyone’s game up.
21.How much do you estimate the whole trip costs and how much of your own money goes into that?
This attempt is really expensive with flights, visas, food, equipment, more food, gym etc. I had nothing when I started, not even a bike so have had to fork out quite a bit. I have put about £10,000 of my own money already. The rest has come from my sponsors. uSwitch.com who have been incredibly supportive in my attempt and can’t thank them enough really.
22.What is the toughest part of the preparation?
I would say route selection. It’s so hard to know whether the route you have chosen goes over a huge mountain or not. Everything else is the same for everyone. It’s the route that can make or break a record and that’s the thing keeping me up at night right now.
23.Do you know any of the languages of the countries you will be crossing through?
I can speak 2 other languages (Zulu and Afrikaans) and neither of them are helpful. I hope to learn Spanish along the way via audio books. That should be fun and keep me occupied.
24.Is being beaten an option?
No! It has never even crossed my mind. This race is as much mental as physical and I hopefully have both.
1.What are your emotional motives behind your adventures?
Mostly I go on adventures to satisfy my own curiosity. But what I’m curious about has changed since I started. On my first trip I was naive and idealistic, so everything was interesting and new and it broke my preconceptions. As time went on I became curious variously about my own endurance, my ability to tolerate discomfort, whether places in the world would live up to my fears, how it would be to learn a completely new language, how I might best communicate this whole process to those who stayed at home – so it’s curiosity and satisfaction at the root of it all.
2.Are you looking or have you found a certain fulfilment in your life of adventure?
It’s true that my post-university options didn’t look particularly exciting and fulfilling, so quitting everything and heading off into the sunset was almost the only choice I had left! As for fulfilment – yes, but it hasn’t come about through a list of achievements, rather through realising that adventure is a way of thinking and therefore can be a lifelong process, rather than something that starts and ends at distinct points. It follows that the only judge of success in that process is me myself. Because of that there’s no risk of disappointment of having ‘failed’ to achieve some abstract mission in the eyes of someone else, and none of the anticlimax that happens when you finish a trip, because ‘home’ and ‘away’ are two parts of the same whole. Living in London is just as much an adventure in one sense as cycling across Lapland last winter. Everything is new and ready to be explored in a multitude of ways.
3.Do you have limits?
Very abstract question! Yes. Who doesn’t? Exactly what limits are I’m not quite sure. There are obvious limits such as physical endurance, but there’s nothing very mysterious about that. My life right now is all uncharted territory I’m about to take my first feature documentary to the international film festival circuit, and I’m in the middle of writing my first book, without a publisher or editor. I have no idea what I’ll be doing in a year’s time. It’s a massive adventure in itself. (I have no idea whether that relates to the idea of limits!)
4.Tell me the story about when and how you decided to become a full time adventurer?
There’s not actually a particular moment in time, I don’t think. If you pressed me, it would probably be the day I set off from home in 2007 on my bike. I jacked it all in and didn’t look back, and I never have, even though I’ve been back to the same physical location since then. I didn’t set off thinking ‘I’m going to be a full-time adventurer’, though. What I’m doing now has pretty much emerged organically from that starting point. That, and my stubborn refusal to get a ‘real job’!
5.What is it about these extreme expeditions that pull you in?
I think the answer to the first question covers most of it. I’ve never thought of myself as an ‘extreme expeditioner’, though. Some of what I do might look extreme to people with different perspectives, that’s all. I think that could relate back to the idea of ‘limits’. Maybe a limit is a point past which your imagination can’t go. When you try something new and a little daunting, though, your imagination gets new material to draw from – even if you screw up. So, little by little, the goalposts start to move. And one day you realise that people are calling you ‘extreme’!
6.You are clearly a bike man, but have you tried all the other sports and settled on cycling or has your focus just always been cycling?
I began travelling by bicycle as a reaction against traditional notions of travel – inevitably motorised or relying on public transport or someone else’s schedule – which had never appealed to me. I wanted the fundamental freedom to go literally wherever I liked, not just where I liked from a list of towns and cities on a timetable. I wanted to be able to travel under my own steam, but at the same time I didn’t fancy the restrictive slowness of walking while travelling was still a new experience. Cycling ticked all of these boxes, and has proved to have an enormously long shelf life. It’s not a sport, though. I’m no athlete. Ask my mates.
7.What is your favourite bike, I am guessing you have a few?
I’m not really attached to any particular bike, but I was a bit gutted when the custom-built frame I’d inherited from my Grandad got stolen from outside the university library when I was a student. That had sentimental value. My expedition bikes are fantastic machines, and I’m hugely grateful to Kona Bikes for supporting my trips with them, but they’re tools to do a job.
8.What age were you when you embarked on Ride Earth?
I was 23 when I left – two years after graduating from university.
9.What did your parents say when you told them about your mission?
They were pretty cool about it. They knew I wasn’t content to mope around at home or apply for jobs I didn’t believe in. I think they were glad when I’d found something to focus on. I really appreciate that they supported me rather than telling me it was a silly thing to do and trying to stop me.
10.What did you study in University? Has it been of use to you in your unconventional career?
I studied Computer Science. It was about as interesting as it sounds! But I did well in it, and it has come in useful, particularly when it comes to web technology. If you’re self-employed in this way and you rely in part on the web in order to build an audience, knowing how to build and run a website from the ground up (and fix it when it breaks) is a really useful area of know-how to have. It’s also allowed me to earn money as a web consultant while I’ve been living in other places, funding subsequent adventures.
11.You have your first book coming out in 2012, are you shitting it?
Not really. I’m enjoying the process of writing it immensely – I don’t think I’d be writing it at all if I wasn’t. There’s no pressure from the publisher, because as yet there is no publisher! I guess if I’m afraid of anything it’s that I’ll never be 100% happy with the finished product. I’m a recovering ex-perfectionist still struggling with minor details that nobody else will notice.
Courtesy of Tom Allen
13. Your expeditions so far include:
Scotland off Road 2006
Europe and near the East 2007
The Caucasus and Iran 2008
The Middle East and Africa 2009
Mongolia 2010
Scandinavia 2011
-Why do you do so many of them solo?
Only two of the above were solo trips, actually. One of them was pretty epic, though – the Middle East and Africa – and by far and away had the greatest effect on me. There’s a huge value in having at least one such adventure, in which you’re entirely responsible for everything and you’ve gone to the place about which you have the most doubts – you learn a huge amount that way. Now, whether I do a trip alone or in a pair or group largely depends on my motivations for doing that particular trip in the first place. Next year I’m planning one in a pair and another solo, and it’s for very fundamental reasons that they’ll be done that way.
-How long does it take to plan an expedition?
It has varied. My first big trip was massively over-planned. I spent a year preparing for something I could now easily depart for and do tomorrow. A bike ride is pretty simple once you’ve got a few essential bits of kit and an idea in your head. The Scandinavia trip took a few days of preparation – I decided to do it less than a month before I arrived in Oslo. Mongolia took a bit longer, but that was almost entirely because of the complicated Russian visa application process. I rarely bother planning routes until I’m already on the road and have a better feel for where I am. And even then I change my plans all the time!
-Which was your favourite trip?
The ride through the Middle East and Africa was a definitive journey, in which I lost and found myself and travelled through the most unearthly places (physical and mental) of all. Because of what it taught me, it’s my favourite trip. But it certainly wasn’t the most ‘fun’. Far from it.
-….and your favourite moment of that trip?
I honestly can’t come up with a single moment of any trip which I could describe as my ‘favourite’! I suppose waking up on the banks of Lake Khovsgol in northern Mongolia and looking out of my tent over a few thousand square kilometres of floating ice, before taking a swim in water so pure that I could drink it without any kind of treatment. That’s going to take a bit of beating!
-What’s next?
Next spring I’ll head to the West Coast of the States for a couple of months. It’s easy to assume that we know what America is like, because we’re force-fed American culture through our screens. But it’s probably no less of a misconception as we hold for the rest of the world. But I have a feeling that 2012 is going to be mainly about getting the documentary film, Janapar, out to as many audiences as we can find.
-Will you stick with cycling until the very end?
I’ve no particular attachment to cycling. I’ve just found that it gives me access to all the things I value about adventure travel. When something better comes along, I’d like to think you’ll find me giving it a try. Or maybe my priorities will shift of their own accord. Long distance walking and packrafting are two things I’ve definitely got in my sights, because both of them are close the the ground and give you the kind of freedom and unthreatening access to society that cycling does – just from slightly different perspectives.
13.You have an advice page on your website, it is one of the first I have seen, why have you done this? How important is helping others out to you?
I received so much help and advice during the planning of my first trip, and it was all given freely and enthusiastically. Most of the articles in that section are ‘how-to’ style articles or equipment reviews. But the real value of that kind of content is that it reassures people that what they’re planning is possible, and that it’s actually pretty simple. The subtle considerations of wild camping, for example, are something everyone will learn through experience. My article about it is there to defuse people’s fears. They’re unlikely to remember anything I wrote, but it might convince them to give it a shot and find out for themselves, and the same goes for the other topics I’ve covered. In general, I believe that there are countless individual and social benefits to people going on these kinds of personal journeys of discovery, so I’ll do anything I can to encourage it. Putting the new film out there is part of that.
14.Does the rest of the world (non – adventurers) ever frustrate you? Why or why not?
There’s a lot of imperfection in the world. We have all of life’s basic needs here, whether complacency has blinded us to that simple fact or not. So a lot of our so-called problems are now existential ones: What am I doing with my life? Why am I always stressed out? Why am I afraid to leave my comfort zone?
My adventure stories implicitly advocate simplicity, risk-taking, curiosity, spontaneity, non-conformity – these aren’t answers, but ideas that might have value in the context of these problems. So I think I’m doing my bit, and that stops me getting too frustrated!
15.Do you believe in fear?
Is fear an article of faith? It’s real enough, I think. Whether a fear is justified is another question, as is the issue of what you do with it.
16.” Sure. Sell everything. Quit your job. Get a bike. Ride it. The rest of it will work itself out.” – I love this line, but is it really as easy as that? Yes.
17. How did you learn to shoot videos, take decent photos….etc? I learnt by experimentation, imitation, and by making mistakes. I didn’t have any training or education in these things. Living on the road, I could dedicate as much time to these pursuits as I liked, and I ended up spending a lot of time on them. They were rewarding and important creative outlets.
18.Are you happy…..always? Happiness is a fleeting emotion, isn’t it? Contentment, on the other hand, might be something more long-term. I’ve never been more content than now. (Incidentally, it might be worth mentioning that the UK government defines me as living below the poverty line.)
19.When en route in an expedition, do you camp out, couch surf, hostel it? I almost never stay in hostels or hotels, because I don’t go travelling in order to escape from the place I’m in every night. I’m probably a bit of a snob when it comes to this! My first choice is always wild-camping (sometimes this has been in urban areas). Second is asking around for a place to put my tent or sleeping bag – the list of places that’s led me is long and fascinating! I’ll never decline an invitation to stay the night in a local household, which I’ve now done probably hundreds of times. In cities – which comprise a very minor part of my journeys – Couchsurfing is the norm.
20.What are your must pack items on an expedition? Everything you need, and nothing that you don’t. Every non-essential item you leave at home will make your trip a better one!
21.Have you ever went on a normal holiday (aka no bikes included)? Loads of times when I was a child. A small handful since.
22.Is there always another adventure, something better to be chased? I’m not sure how to answer this. I just try to follow my nose and enjoy the ride. But I don’t believe in some far-off, unattainable Holy Grail.
– Does that make it difficult to be content in the moment? I imagine it would, but I’m perfectly content in the moment.
-Is it a race/chase for happiness or for an adrenaline rush? Neither of the above. I lead an adventurous life because it gives me a greal deal of intrinsic satisfaction. There are bursts of happiness and adrenaline in life, as well as their opposites, but my motives are nothing to do with instant gratification.
23.Travelling and expeditions broaden your mind so much, you are a global man now. Is it difficult to return home, come back down to earth and engage in the UK’s everyday banter once more (moaning about the government etc)? There’s a definite sense that a lot of the banter you mention is fairly insignificant in the grand scheme of things. It depends how far you want to take it, though. For many people, these things are very significant. Being able to see how lucky we all actually are here doesn’t make me ‘better’. Also, being in the UK isn’t a ‘return home’. I would say my home is equally in Yerevan, Armenia where I spent nearly two years. My travels have also given me the ability to feel at home pretty much anywhere – when camping, or in someone’s home – although that’s much more temporary. Am I waffling?
24.So this interview is all about you and this is a totally random question but is your wife much cooler than you? Of course she is. I’m just a grumpy old man!
25.If you weren’t working in this market, what career could you see yourself in? Never thought about that, really. I’m good at web consultancy, but it’s boring and involves too many screens. I’ve occasionally applied my photography and filmmaking skills to other industries, which has been fun. At times I’ve tried to imagine other careers, but I’d want them to involve a lot of exercise and being outdoors. That points to the military, of course, but the idea of it seems to clash on a few levels.
26.Do you ever find that people are jealous of your achievements or are the majority completely supportive? How do you deal with this? I’ve never found anyone who’s jealous. But many people who don’t know me well write me off as an eccentric and don’t enquire far enough to know more. A few clearly believe that I’m simply procrastinating from getting what they think of as a ‘real job’. The fact is that how I spend my time is very difficult to explain in a nutshell, so most people I meet are left with very little meaningful idea of what I do. That’s probably my fault for not being a good enough communicator. I’m still not sure how to deal with it.
27.Who is your hero in the adventure world? Why? I have a huge amount of respect for Bruce Parry – his shows are heartfelt, well-made and unpretentious, and he does them for the right reasons. I don’t know that many names in the adventure world, though – I don’t really read adventure books, and when I began my first trips I didn’t know the industry existed. In the world of cycling, James Bowthorpe did a round-the-world record-breaking attempt. Several others did, too, but it was his motivation and attitude that struck a chord with me. Despite breaking the record, he didn’t bother completing the paperwork for it, because his core reasons for doing the ride lay outside the field of fame and sporting achievement.
28.Any advice for our readers on their own quest?
Follow your heart. Stop making excuses. Take the first step right now. These well-worn mantras are well-worn for a reason!
Follow Tom on Twitter @tomsbiketrip or on his website.
The Sun Kosi and Tamur River roar through Eastern Nepal. Born in the Himalayan mountains its rapids are fierce, its interior littered with rocks and wild surf that set out to crush and devour you.
It was a free river, until last week when ten adventurers stepped up and attempted to tame the beast. A round of applause to the steaming crew that ticked another first off a rapidly diminishing list. The people who river-boarded all 305km of the ‘Meatgrinder.’
The journey was organised and undertaken by Miles Away Ltd, an expedition company; “I guess we want to inspire people. We wanted to show that there´s still people pushing the boundaries of what people accept as being possible or not. It´s getting increasingly difficult to achieve a world´s first now a days so I think that´s a big draw for the crew.”
These hot and sacred rivers mean business. They will test you, they will push you to your very limits and if you move a fraction in error, they will punish you. Riverboarding is the new body boarding; constant waves, constant danger and constant adrenaline. In order to survive you must work with the river and if you succeed and obey the water, your life will be irreversibly altered;” It’s extremely dangerous, physically exhausting and probably the toughest thing anyone on the trip is likely to have done to date. It’s about so much more than fun. It about so much more then the furtive, superficial fleeting moments of “fun.” ” Banality will be a thing of the past for these guys who have got a sparkling new pair of goggles to view the world through; “This journey brought joys that outweigh the pain.”
For eight hours a day the team carved their way through the river, taking ten days to cover its mass, grade IV style; “Once we start the only way out is downstream.” They hold the position that in a world obsessed with safety, people need someone to break through the barriers of conformity and tumble recklessly into categories of risk; “We want to encourage people to think not only what they stand to lose by taking risks but what they stand to gain. For us the joy, the unbridled passion, and freedom of riverboarding outweighs the risks. It’s love and we are lucky to feel it.”
Their original riverboarding territory and the place which spawned the idea for the Nepal Riverboarding expedition was Queenstown, New Zealand. But Cardiff’s International WhiteWater Centre in England is catching up quickly.
The trip was not all flying down the River Tamur and Sun Kosi. There was much more drama including running out of food, rafts flipping nearly losing all their camping gear, rescuing members of their support crew and several illnesses. But alas, laughter dominated; “This goes beyond riverboarding. The expedition is for anybody who shares our adventurous spirit and is after a victory. Whether you’re a climber, kayaker, snowboarder, surfer or mountaineer; outdoor folk are all in it for the same reasons; for the love of adventure and the love of pushing ourselves. This is a message to those (and there are many) who say this cannot be done. “
Now this is what I call a sport. I’m not going to lie, I picked snowboarding over skiing because it trumped it tenfold in the cool stakes and I was correct, line up adrenaline junkies this your next hit. No wonder snowboarders invent their own vocabulary, because when you are weaving down the side of a mountain, wiggling your hips and dressed all macho with your matching beanie and gloves, a simple awesome just won’t cut it. You are stoked, its rad, banging, insane! Finally after years of trial and error, a bowl of both painful and wonderful experiences, I truly feel, I have found my sport. Now, I must pool my resources together and conquer it.
Three lessons was all it took to lap up the basics and a reasonable eighty squids with Edinburgh Napier University‘s snow sports society (heads up, it is open to all, not just students, however if you are pushing fifty I would advise just going straight to the source itself, the Midlothian dry ski slope in Hillend. Click on the link for prices and directions.
Here is a video which I definitely did not put up to force your hand to try this most epic of sports:
Fearghal is busy man, and not a guy to do things by half. For his university thesis he walked across Rwanda, then circumnavigated the globe by bike. For once, let me be bias, this guy is Irish, therefore he has won me over before I asked him the very first question. Ladies and Gents, I give you the man from Wicklow, Mr. Fearghal O’ Nuallain:
Courtesy of Fearghal O'Nuallain
1.In 2008 You were part of the first Irish Circumnavigation of the Globe by Bicycle, whats it like having that tagline to your name?
I’m proud to have started something I wasn’t sure I would finish and then to actually finish it. But to be honest, the tag line was just a hook for sponsors. You need a USP to get sponsorship. It makes things easier if you have an “st” somewhere in the tagline; farthest, longest, hardest, highest etc. Experiences and qualities count for much more in my book.
2.If the two of yous were the first Irish lads, does that mean the position is still open for an Irish women to take on?
Of course! It’d be great to see more girls cycling around the world.
3.You have cycled the globe, but have you cycled the Wicklow Way?
Nope. It’s on my bucket list.
4.So far you can boast:
2003- The Prince’s Highway- Melbourne to Sydney by bicycle-(1,000km)
2004- Irish End to End- Malin Head to Mizen Head by bicycle(700km)
2005- Across Europe- Dublin to St Petersberg by bicycle-(3,500km)
2007- The Dry Run- Aswan to Alexandria by bicycle-1,000km
Pretty impressive CV, how does it feel looking at that and knowing you are one of few to accomplish such feats?
There are loads of people doing really impressive, productive and creative adventures at the moment. People like Tony Mangan, Alastair Humphreys, Mark Pollack, Mark Kalch, Ed Stafford, Dave Cornthwaite, Joseph Murphy, Sarah Outen, Tom Allen, Andy Welch… I could go on. Now they’ve got impressive CVs.
5. Do you find it tough coming back home and settling back into the small town life that Ireland is famous for?
Yes! Its hard to come back and get settled back into urban life in Europe after being out there in the world at large.
Courtesy of Fearghal O'Nuallain
6.Do you think you will ever stop, come home and settle down?
I hope so.
7.You don’t just write about your own adventure’s but review other people’s sports, for example, your article on parkour. Are these just a source of income or a way of getting inspiration for your next escapade?
I think adventure’s more than just something crazy that “men that don’t fit in” do for kicks and attention. Parkour is particularly interesting. Its built on the principles of being fit and useful. Adventure changes the way you see the world and I find it really interesting to explore those different perspectives.
8.What have you in store for us next?
In January I’ll walk the Transylvanian Alps. It’s a vast wilderness on our doorstep; complete with bears, wolves, vast virgin forests and maybe vampires!
9.You have competed in The Turf Guy, is that a one off for you, or will you be returning to endure it again?
I’d love too, it was the best dirty weekend I’ve had in a long time.
10.On one of your blog posts, it said “Coming back from such a journey was bitter sweet. It felt like the end of something great. And the start of something not so exciting.I got depressed. I got frustrated.”
I’ll bet this happens a lot to adventurers, any advice, for getting over the fear of that bout of depression and moving onto the next task?
There’s always a risk of getting post adventure blues; the only way to avoid it is to keep active and get planning the next adventure.
11.Did your many degrees set you up for the life you have chosen to lead?
Someone famous said that the “world teaches us much more than books”. An expedition is educational. You learn something new about yourself and the world every time you go.However, I studied Geography at university and that definitely helped with what Im doing now.
Courtesy of Fearghal O'Nuallain
12.How did you convince organizations to sponsor you?
By putting myself in their shoes first. You’ve got to remember that you have to give back in return for what you get. You have to show the potential return to get someone to give you something.
13.Have you tried the traditional tourist route before? What have you found lacking in it?
Paying someone else for an experience will never come close to the feeling of coming up with an adventure, planning it, and then living it.
14.I’ve always wanted to know, how people find their way while on route, is it just a pile of paper maps, or have you gone techno and are using sat navs?
Maps and People. There’s no need for Sat Nav, it just makes you lazy and detached.
Everyone has a story, this is the story of a man who wants the best of both worlds; a stable job, a family but also the thrill and demand of a life filled with adventures. His name is Stuart Doyle.
Courtesy of Stuart Doyle
1. You left school at 16, did you know then what you wanted to do for the rest of your life?
Yes that’s correct, I left school a few weeks before my exams and I know most people will think this was a very silly thing to do but looking back I would do the same again. I had the opportunity to go do some travelling and even at such a young age, this was something I had wanted to do for a few years and when the opportunity came up it wasn’t something I was going to pass up. But to answer your question no I had and still have no idea what I want to do for the rest of my life. At 16 I didn’t know many people who knew what they are doing the next day, let alone the rest of their lives.
2. Tell me about Parthenon 2 Parthenon (your cycle from Athens to Edinburgh) – Who you did it with/would you do it again/how long it took to plan?
The Parthenon 2 Parthenon challenge was a 2 month independent cycle from the Parthenon in Athens to the replica of the Parthenon on top of Edinburgh’s calton hill. The idea came about in the very unsurprising location of the pub!! I was actually with another friend (Iain McNeilage) discussing how I wanted to take on a challenge to test myself physically and mentally and see how my body would react and how I would cope. I was really keen to have a start and end point that where linked somehow and the idea was born linking the two Parthenon’s, It was I think a stroke of both luck and genius. I had toyed with the idea of running through a country but settled for a bike as we would be able to cover more distance in the time we had(I was lucky my company supported me and gave me 2 months off in the summer). I completed this challenge with my great friend Chris Strother. Chris also shares a passion for sport and adventure and we had also spent some time abroad together, so I knew when it came to sharing a 2 man tent for 2 months he was the man for the job. He is also a very very funny man so I knew when things got tough he would keep my spirits up.
3.You travelled Europe with a stranger, why didn’t you get a friend to go along? Did the experience of going with a stranger add to the adventure?
As I previously mentioned I was still at school at the time and most if not all of my friends were still at school and studying for their exams, so it wasn’t really an option for them. As soon as I turned 16 I started working part time in the evenings and at weekends so I got to meet lots of new and exciting people. On one shift I met a very cool Australian guy also called Stuart who was over visiting some family in Edinburgh for a few months then heading round Europe before going back home to Australia. I spoke about my desire to travel and see new countries and he said I should join him if i wanted as he was travelling alone so would welcome the company. I think I went home that night and announced that I was leaving school to save up for my European adventure! Luckily my family where and are very supportive and I was told they would support my decision to which im still very grateful for.. Im not sure if the fact that this guy was from a country on the other side of the world added to the excitement and adventure of doing it or it was just an opportunity that arose to go do something I really wanted to do.
4.You’ve travelled the Trans-Siberian Railway, Taught English to monks in Nepal; How do you come up with these random adventures?
To me these are not random at all, these where things I really wanted to do and see and went off and done them. If you ever got the chance to do the Trans-Siberian I cant recommend it enough, it was a fantastic experience. A great memory was looking out the window of the my cabin at snow and ice for miles then all of a sudden like a straight line in the ground only seeing sand for miles as we passed along side the Gobi desert. A very surreal moment.
5.What is your day job to fund your travels?
Now we get to the really exciting part of the interview……..well I currently work for Scottish Widows, who were very supportive of my summer cycle and really helped by allowing me to have the 2 months off at the height of summer. I work in the pensions department in a classic 9-5 role, but this gives me great flexibility after work and on the weekends to get active.
6.Was leaving the education system a disadvantage when trying to find work? Do you regret leaving?
No I don’t regret leaving at all. I was and never will be the academic type its just not me. I don’t think it was a disadvantage at all, in the years after leaving school I had gained a wealth of experience by working full time and spending a few months abroad. Its said that travel broadens the mind and whilst I agree with this I also think it does so much more for the human spirit
7.What did you do in those say 6 years while everyone else was still in school or university?
After my little jaunt round Europe I came home and got straight back to work. I spent 5 long years working for Starbucks Coffee Company. If your from Edinburgh and reading this there is a very high chance you will have already met me as I worked in and managed most of the Edinburgh stores. My time then was spend doing what most young lads do I guess working (or attending uni), drinking, playing football. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Courtesy of Stuart Doyle
8.You have recently set a challenge for yourself; The Treble12Challenge (12 mini endurance challenges all lasting 12 hours) Can you give us a hint of what sort of things to expect?
Indeed I have. Well I still have a few things to finalise but I do have a few fairly obvious challenges i.e Cycling and running and walking for 12 hours but will try put a twist on these so its not just out for a jog or a long walk in the park. I also have a friend who is into surfing so we are planning a surfathon (not sure that’s a real word) and im really looking forward to that. will need to wait for the Scottish Summer for this one. Im also toying with 12 hours of solitude but the more I think about it the more im put off but will we see.
9.You are breaking into a market dominated by a few elites. Is it a tough thing to break in?
That’s a hard question for me to answer as its not something im trying to break into concisely, im just doing exciting challenging things that I want to do, and want to test myself whilst also trying to have fun doing them. I don’t know where they will lead me in the future but for now im happy with my place in this market. I do agree though that this market it is dominated by many elites but also there are lots and lots of unknown people out there doing amazing things and I think possibly im just one of them.
10.Any advice for people attempting to do the same?
I would say do what you want to do and not what you think people expect you to do. Also try and put a personal twist on everything you do. For me I love the idea of planning and completing my own personal challenges, its such a sense of achievement to come up with the initial idea, make the plans and complete it.
11.You stressed that you are keen to involve others in these challenges, that is great, but what is your reasoning behind it?
Well for one I thought if im going to suffer then im not doing it alone haha! Im aware that there are lots of people out there who are keen to test themselves in some sort of a challenge but are unable to take on something on such a large scale so im hopefully going show people (and myself) that you don’t have to cycle round the world or run from pole to pole (someone is actually doing this!!!!) to challenge yourself. Something as simple as a 24 hour sponsored silence can be a very tough mental challenge…well for me anyway.
12.How did you get involved in Jogle 2012? (a 20 person team attempt to break a Guinness World Record in the longest cycle relay)
This actually came about through the wonders of Twitter! I was very lucky to get involved with this challenge actually, It wasn’t something I was aware of until the amazing Scottish world cyclist Sean Newall (@thecwchallenge) mentioned it to me as they were still looking for one more team member and a day later I became part of the team. I again got very lucky and landed a Scottish leg of next Augusts’ cycle. Im really looking forward to taking part and think its a fantastic idea to complete it as a relay event, the more the merrier!
13.The common theme of these expeditions seem to be that everyone hits a low for the first good few days, but then you experience the ‘moment.’ Is it all a chase for the high of that ‘moment’?
I don’t think this is something people really think about but an inevitable part of any challenge. You can prepare yourself physically and mentally but its not until your out there actually doing it that your body and mind start to react. There was of course certain highs i was looking for and did experience but in the beginning its all about adapting to the new surroundings and getting used to your new daily routine. The first week or two are I think always the worst, just because of how new and challenging it is. I also think in retrospect these were possibly my favourite or perhaps my proudest moments.
14. You are one of the few adventurers that are married, is it hard to balance both, perhaps for your wife to rein you in?
I would probably have to say yes. Planning a large overseas challenge can take up a lot (if not all) of your spare time and does start to envelope your life at times. But like anything in your life its all about trying to find the right balance. I think that in Ella I am very lucky to have such a supportive wife who supports me in anything and everything I do.
Courtesy of Stuart Doyle
15.What’s next? Are you aiming for one big expedition or just taking it day by day? I
n 2012 as previously mentioned I will be focussing on my Treble12 Challenge as well as the Jogle Relay. Im also starting to train for what I guess could be called my ‘main’ challenge for next year, I can’t say to much at the moment as we are currently trying to finalise plans but im really looking forward to another big test. What I can say is that I will be part of a 4 man team going for a run with a bit of a difference….
Dave Cornthwaite is somewhat of a legend in the adventure world. On his maiden exhibition in 2006 he longboarded 896miles from John O’ Groats to Land’s end, making him the first person ever to skate the length of Britain. Following that, he burst his limitations bubble and concluded that there was no such thing as limits.
Courtesy of Dave Corn
Since then, he has skated the length of Australia, tandem cycled from Vancouver to Vegas, kayaked Australia’s Murray River and broken a world record with his Stand up Paddle journey spanning the entire reach of the mighty Mississippi River.
Nowadays, Dave is forging an epic new challenge christened Expedition1000, a series of twenty-five journeys each consisting of 1000 miles. The clutch; only non motorized forms of transport can be used.
“I understand how they might appear daunting, but dealing with the distance is just a state of mind. However slow you go, if you keep going you’ll make it to the end if you want to and that is the key.”
A dominant characteristic of Dave’s personality is his own self-reliance. He never looks to others for help but simply takes initiative; “I taught myself new skills as quickly as I could, everything is based on common sense. It wasn’t simple and took some hard work, but I made it happen pretty quickly. Anyone could do it!” It has proved an essential skill in his line of work by cutting costs in half while adding a certain personality to his outputs.
Mr. Corn’s career is one which is undertaken by only an elite few. For a life so extraordinary and so rewarding, it is difficult to grasp why so little pursue it. Dave pitted me the crux of the answer; “People love comfort but comfort kills ambition.” He proceeded to add; “what frustrates me most is people who have potential and don’t take advantage of it. Anyone I meet who moans about their job, I’m at them trying to work out how they’ve let it get to the stage why the one thing that takes up the majority of their waking hours isn’t pleasing. We’ve only got so much time, why would anyone choose to waste it!”
So what drives a person to renounce ‘everything’ and lead the life of a travelling vagabond? Dave did not sugar-coat the response, instead he spilled out the words in exasperation; “I was bored! I’d followed everything that’s expected of all of us. Schools, Uni, Degree, Job, Mortgage, Partner, Pet. It wasn’t until I was 25 that I realised I was unhappy. I ditched everything and started afresh. I’d been depressed, living the same life every day, I needed a change.”
However in a world so wrought with violence and corruption the question on the public’s lips was, is this unconventional career a life that overlooks the essential problems of the world? Should one follow the path that leads to change or the path which they are passionate about? His answer will hopefully silence the pessimists; “If we are passionate about something we can enact change. There’s nothing like passion to inspire. Adventurer’s can inspire in so many ways! Forget the doubters, what do they know? Is the funny kid at school ever encouraged to be a stand up comedian? No, because it doesn’t fit in the typical box. Trust your gut, if it’s what you want, go for it. You’ll never regret a decision like that.”
Dave is currently at a standstill for a few minutes at least, as he scrawls down his latest book, “Stand up Huck” which relive his Mississippi paddle. Then he resumes the next leg of his Expedition1000 mission. Dog sled, stilts, and paragliding are all on the agenda for the next great escapade.
1. You lived in Nepal for three months, why Nepal?
Several reasons really. The main one I guess was because although I had good friends living in places like Australia & New Zealand, which were countries I’d visited a couple of times and knew well, I wanted to go somewhere different and try to test myself. It would have been very easy to go to another first world, English speaking country, but my lifestyle would have been very similar to what it is in London. That certainly was not the case in Kathmandu.
I had also spent quite a lot of time over there prior to moving, visiting for the first time at Christmas 2008, going again in April & October 2009 before eventually moving in April 2010 – so I knew a few people and had a few possible job prospects, although unfortunately none of those worked out.
2.Was the language barrier an issue?
At times certainly. I lived with a Nepali family and when I first arrived there were six of us in a two bedroom apartment, and only Nir, the man of the house, spoke any English at all. But you find a way around that. They had an 18-month-old boy who was great fun to be around and once I built up a rapport with him I think the rest of the family were a bit more comfortable to just get on with their lives and accept me as part of the furniture.
In the businesses though, most people spoke some English, so I was able to get by. Of course, there are not many street names or road maps for Kathmandu, so taxi rides across town were often quite entertaining when I was trying to meet up with people – I remember one episode when I first arrived trying to meet some friends for dinner and the 15-minute journey taking more than an hour. You try to work of landmarks, the crumbling wall on your left; or broken road sign near the temple, but communicating that can be a struggle! At one stage we were just parked up on the side of the main road in pitch black as the driver and I tried to communicate in sign language. It’s funny now – but at the time I was incredibly frustrated!
3. You organised a cricket match at Everest base camp (impressive!), tell me more about that?
The idea belonged to my friend Richard Kirtley. He was in Nepal in 2006 and comes from a cricket playing background (his cousin represented England a few times) and when he first came over the ridge and looked down at Gorak Shep (The Base Camp for Hillary & Tenzing in 1953, Base Camp now is actually another four hour trek away) he immediately noticed it was the right shape for a cricket pitch. The idea to set a new world record for the highest game of cricket grew from there. He was also caught up in the Maoist demonstrations that year and saw how tough life could be for Nepali’s so was keen to do something for the people out there.
What started as a few mates talking about something a bit random in the pub turned into this enormous event, we took 50 people from the UK, including two professional photographers, someone from a PR Company and a cameraman from ITN who sent news reports back on our progress via satellite every night! We made the front page of the Independent and most major news channels reported on the match itself. We also raised around £100k for four different charities and created a group of friends from almost nothing. It’s impossible to do the whole thing justice, the work on it started in November 2007 and the event took place in April 2009. It was done as the recession started and entirely in our free time. I’ve actually written a book on the event (trying to self publish at the moment, any advice on how to do that welcome!) because there were all sorts of things going on, getting permission from the Nepali government and having to deal with corrupt officials, trying to find sponsorship (we eventually ended up with Nokia & Qatar Airways) not to mention the actual logistics of taking a cricket pitch up to 5165 metres above sea level!
I could genuinely talk about it for days, it was a real passion project and ultimately set me on the path I am now. If you type “Cricket on Everest” into You Tube then you can see some of the reports – there’s also a 5-min showreel which I never get bored of watching!
4.You trek in places that are quite off the beaten track – Afghanistan, Pakistan. What is the appeal here?
I think just going places others haven’t been. The world is a huge place and as soon as someone mentions the word Afghanistan everyone immediately thinks of war and terrorism, but the fact is the country does have plenty to offer the tourist if you know the right areas to go to. I was up in the Wakhan Corridor which has a fascinating history in itself (have a read of “The Great Game” by Piers Hopkirk to understand the whole history of central Asia and why it is how it is today) and is a real treat for people who enjoy trekking.
The Wakhan is totally removed from the rest of Afghanistan, people laugh but I refer to it as their equivalent of Cornwall. It sticks off the end and the rest of the country pays little attention to it, and vice-versa. You won’t find any TV’s up there, maybe the odd radio, but the politics of Kabul and the south are not their problem. The people living there are hard as nails and even though I was there in summer there was still heavy snow up on the high passes, which often leads to people being stranded there for months on end. Getting an insight into a way of life like that is a precious thing and not something the average holiday maker experiences.
As for Pakistan, that place had a positively thriving tourist industry before the 9/11 attacks. It is an incredible place and one I will definitely go back to.
5.Explain your current job to me and how you got into it?
I have worked in the travel industry since 2004 but most of that was just as a standard travel agent. Through that I got a much better understanding of the geography of the world and started developing and interest in some of the less visited places. Most days the typical enquiry I would get would be: “I want to go somewhere hot” and after a while that started to grate! After The Everest Test I wanted to get into something different, hence the time spent in Nepal, but after I came back from that I decided that Adventure Travel was my passion and in my searches I stumbled across a company called Wild Frontiers (www.wildfrontiers.co.uk) .
The company was set up by a chap called Jonny Bealby back in 1998. He’s a fascinating bloke who took his motorbike all the way down the west coast of Africa in the mid-90s, passing through borders that virtually no people had ever crossed, and at the end of it decided to come back up the east coast. He wrote a book about it (Running with the Moon) and suddenly became a bit of a travel writer, doing another two books one about his journey through Pakistan and Afghanistan where he ended up living with a Pagan family for a while (For a Pagan Song), and the third then he rode horses all the way across the old Silk Road from Kashgar to the Caspian Sea (Silk Dreams, Troubled Road). The sort of trips Wild Frontiers run are all built around that ethos of adventurous places and the vast majority are designed by the guys in the office, based on our experiences, which makes them unique.
The funny thing is that everyone in the small office are independent travellers who never really did the group tours thing, but we recognise that not everyone can do that for reasons ranging from time and money to actually having the courage to go to some places alone. Every place we visit is done responsibly and we try to give people proper adventures. The Wakhan Corridor is somewhere we visit twice a year, once as a trekking holiday and once as a cultural trip for those who do not want to trek. This year we also ran a trip from Kisangani to Kinshasa on a boat all the way down the Congo River and next year we have a trip to the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia. These all come under our “Wild Expedition” brand and sit alongside more normal trips to places like India, Cambodia and even Romania, but our staple are the out of the way places in Central Asia – all the ‘Stans along with Mongolia and places like Iran and Georgia.
It’s a very cool company to work for and I’m lucky to have had two big trips with them this year (The Wakhan Corridor and K2: Concordia trek). I’m not sure it’ll be like that every year!
6.Nepal is so different , cultural wise. Was it difficult to adapt and did you experience any homesickness?
Not really. I knew a reasonable amount about the country so was careful not to offend, but they are fairly liberal over there and like a laugh and a joke as much as anyone. As for homesickness, I guess there were lonely times but I’m used to being away from home as I was at boarding school from the age of eight. In the modern world today people are only the touch of a button away thanks to things like Skype and Facebook, so that helps combat homesickness.
7 Which do you prefer, travelling solo or in company? Why?
Hmmm, now that is a hard one. I was slightly spoilt by the Everest Test in that I was trekking with 50 of my very best friends so there was always someone nearby to talk to and keep you going. The next trek I did just a few months later was the exact opposite, up to Langtang in Nepal and I was alone with just a guide who spoke almost no English. The people you meet along the way are what colours any trip and I chatted to various other trekkers and heard some great stories, which I would not have done if I was with a big group of friends, but it’s rare that you ever see or hear from people like that again and so when you try to explain the experience you’ve had it can be quite hard. I’m sad in a way that I can’t sit and have a beer with any of my friends and talk about my trips this year openly because they weren’t there and most people get bored pretty quickly of looking at your photos and want to talk about their own lives, which is fair enough.
I’ve not really answered this question have I?! I think ultimately travelling with a companion is better for the journey itself because you have more fun, but you learn more about yourself when travelling solo, how you react to certain situations when there is nobody to guide you, who you make conversation with etc. And that is more rewarding, but given the choice I think I’d always want to have a friend along for the ride. Of course, not all good friends make good travelling companions, so it really has to be the right person.
Alan at the Wakhan Corridor 2011
8.You are on a similar mission to my own, finding that one sport. Does it matter if you never find it?
Not really. There are so many cool things out there to do that I just want to do as many of them as possible while I can. Life is too short to sit around watching other people do all the good stuff!
9.I read on your blog;”…One was to help re-write a travel companies website…but they were unable to pay much but I liked the guy and the company and said I would do it on a freelance basis.” I love when people do stuff like that. How important is this to you, the act of kindness over say material wealth?
It’s funny how your outlook and priorities change the moment you cross an international border. I would rarely do something like that back home, I have qualifications and should get paid for the work I do, but when on the road things are different. I am always happy to help someone out because often kindness is a form of currency. I was living with this guy and his family in Kathmandu and he point blank refused to accept any payment (which was just as well since I was basically broke at the time anyway!) so I thought right, what can I do for him instead? His company’s website (www.peacenepaltreks.com) was full of “Nepali English” so I spent about a month re-writing the whole thing. It took so long because they have load-shedding over there, which means they turn the power off for as much as 18 hours a day. There was a schedule for when it was supposed to be switched on/off but that was never stuck to. Man it was infuriating!
Random acts of kindness was something that struck me when I watched “The Long Way Round” a show that really inspired me. Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman got all the way around the world on their motorbikes and yes they had a lot of money behind them etc, but when they would break down in the middle of nowhere, local people always seemed to just turn up and help out. Everyone needs a helping hand once in a while.
10.Are you still involved in cricket?
Not really. One of the job prospects I had in Nepal was to try and help build a new stadium over there, but the politics got so much in the way that it never got off the ground. The man behind the idea is still fighting for it now but it has been three years and the headway made is pretty minimal. I love the game of course, but really just from a spectators point of view, although I still play for my club, The Drovers, every summer. It was that club that was really the sounding board for the whole Everest Cricket idea and on another tour of our tours we played in a tournament on an ice rink in Riga. It was all very bizarre, but great fun.
11.Do you have a tendency to build your trips and expeditions up so much that they are often destined to disappoint? (I am just asking because I have a tendency to do this)
Expeditions are hard. There are often times when I’ve sat in my tent or teahouse, or even room at home while planning, and wondered what the hell I’m doing. Why am I putting myself through this? I guess I’ve been lucky in that I’ve loved all my trips, but I suppose my time in Nepal was ultimately a failure. I didn’t find the work I hoped for or achieve what I set out to achieve, and came home after three months when my visa ran out because I had not found the right kind of work that would sponsor me to stay. I went out there on a wing and a prayer really and was probably a bit naive. I think while planning you need to know what you want to achieve from whatever it is you’re doing, and even when you don’t reach that goal, as long as you learn something along the way then it was worth doing and you’ll be sure not to make the same mistake again. Not every trip will be a success, but my favourite quote of all time is from a speech by Roosevelt in Paris, 1912 which has been dubbed “The Man in the Arena”:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
I don’t want to ever be disappointed by a trip I do because every time I visit somewhere new it is an experience and you never know where it might lead next. Everyone fails at something, but like the quote says, the greatest failure of all is not trying.
12.What is the main lesson you have learned from your travels?
To keep doing it.
13.Do you have any advice for me who is just starting out in this business?
A lot of people get quickly disheartened. Frankly, there’s next to fuck all money in adventure, so it’s hard to make a living from it. I made a sacrifice and left a job that was paying me well but I wasn’t enjoying, to take up one that paid peanuts but I loved. I also work with people who I have something in common with, rather than a random collection like I have in the past. I’ve also done crap jobs to pay for big trips, and always had to keep the end goal in sight while I was miserable at 6:30am cleaning the mud off some rich bloke’s golf shoes! (1999)
It’s also easy if you find yourself being offered a good job that pays well to take it and think, ‘I’ll come back to adventure travel’, but often once you step away and get a comfortable life it’s hard to go back again. So I’d just say stick with it. You’re pretty young right? Do one trip a year and by the time you’re 30 you’ll have an incredible list of things behind you. I really only got started when I was 25/26 on the adventure side of things but even now at 30 I’ve probably done more than most will in a lifetime. I’m pretty proud of that, even if most of my friends are now married with kids and mortgages!
14.What have you been up to since your return from Nepal and what is your next adventure?
Like I said above, the return from Nepal prompted me to find a career in adventure travel, so that I can work at something I love rather than have a mundane job and do what I love as a hobby. Yeah, the job has dull parts, not many don’t, but planning new trips or reading feedback after one I’ve put together goes well is very rewarding.
The next adventure is a tricky one. I’ve a friend living in Japan and I’ve booked to see him in February. I am not going to plan too much for that one, it is going to be more of a holiday but it is a country with a huge amount going for it away from the cities so I’m looking forward to seeing that. I’ve pencilled in the Lanka Challenge in 2013, to race a tuk tuk around Sri Lanka, but in terms of an individual project – I’m still waiting for that unique, original idea to just pop into my head – and when it does I’ll hopefully be in a position to run with it! I do still want to see more of the UK though, Knoydart in Scotland is supposed to be the most remote part of the UK, and I’d very much like to get up there for a long weekend at some point in 2012.
15.How importing do you think money is in aiding your dreams?
Urgh, well that’s the hardest question of the lot. There’s no hiding from the fact that these things cost money and unless you can gain the qualifications to lead trips, or perhaps volunteer on scientific expeditions, it’s pretty hard. Like I said, I get paid pretty little but am putting money away each month to pay for whatever adventure may come along next. That’s why these things take a lot of planning, but there are adventures closer to home, we don’t have to go to the other side of the world to find them. I’ve done things on tight budgets before and it often leads to tough times on a trip, but coming through them is pretty rewarding.
If I won the lottery tomorrow I would probably spend my life travelling the earth and writing about it, but in the meantime I have to keep earning a living and finding the appropriate adventure that fits my earnings. If it wasn’t for the job I do there is no way I could have gone to the Wakhan Corridor this year, or even K2 probably, so I am very lucky in that respect – but at the same time you make your own luck and the choices I’ve made in the last couple of years have led to those trips coming my way, so it makes me feel vindicated in a way.
16.You got to witness the Maoist demonstrations, how amazing was that?
Hmmm, I’m not sure if amazing is the word! It was quite frightening at times as people literally could not leave their houses or open their shops and getting across town was impossible. Nobody could make a living and did not really care much for the Maoist cause; they just wanted to go about their daily lives. Trucks were not able to get into the city carrying food from the farms outside and so tons went rotten. The villagers who came to Kathmandu were often given a couple of hundred rupees (a few pounds) in order to come and support the Maoists, but they had no real idea what they were supporting and were not looked after once they got here. Disease spread pretty quickly and many were left to make their own way back to these remote villages afterwards having been shipped down in trucks. It was all pretty uncomfortable but thankfully was a lot shorter than many people expected. That said, I’m not sure we’ve heard the last of it – although there are signs that progress is being made.
17.Living in Nepal, does it put life into perspective, or is it too easy to forget when you are back in the familiar?
It totally puts life into perspective, and it’s easy to forget when you are back in the familiar. Living in a city like London it is all too easy to get swallowed up by the daily routine so I do have to constantly remind myself of what I experienced living in Nepal. In fact I dropped Nir an email just last week as I was aware Id not been in touch for a few months and felt bad about that. I try to send as much business his way as I can, because he’s a great guy who is honest and hard working, but his business is a small, family run thing so he’ll never be able to compete with the bigger guys. Yet that’s not what he wants, he just wants enough to be able to feed his family and educate his kid, it’s not much to ask really. I certainly came back with a newfound appreciation for my parents and the life they’ve worked hard to give me, especially as I’m one of five kids!
18.When you travel to a different country, is it difficult to stay out of the politics?
Staying out of the politics is easy, but ignoring it is impossible. I’m not a political person and care little for politics in the UK, but I became fascinated with the history of Nepal when I was there – an entire Royal family was massacred in 2001 at a palace dinner, the King was removed from power in 2008 and it has been a bit of a disaster ever since. It’s just really interesting.
It has been the same with Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistan is such a new country, barely 60 years old, and after what they went through in 1947 when they were shipped out of India and thousands lost their lives, it’s hardly surprising there are extremists there. This is all stuff I’m only starting to learn about now having just visited. Afghanistan as well, that place is so incredibly complicated it would take a lifetime to be able to really get to grips with it all, but I do find it fascinating and there’s no doubt that the British have played their part in making it what it is today, but it was the Russian invasion of 1979 that really destroyed the country, it was actually doing pretty well up until then. A lot of this stuff is forgotten/ignored or not known by the modern world and so people just think of these countries as the stereotype. My favourite memory of my time in Pakistan was walking around the town of Skardu, right at the start of the trip, and a local shop owner seeing us go passed came rushing out, not to drag us into his shop, but to thank us for coming to his country. He was over the moon, jumping up and down shouting “thank you, thank you for coming to Pakistan, we are so glad to have you here” – it was not what I had expected.
19.From your experience, do the places you go to match the stereotype presented in the media back home?
Absolutely, 100% not. Hopefully you’ve picked that up from all of what I’ve said above. That said, I’m not totally naive and understand that stereotypes are formed for a reason. Certain places are incredibly dangerous and need to be avoided, but not necessarily entire countries. Afghanistan is a big place and it’s not all bad news. People need to be sensible and do the required planning and research if they want to visit sensitive areas, but I believe that people are generally good, and they just want to get by. It’s a small percentage that cause the problems and I genuinely believe that every country on earth has something to offer.
20.Do you love it, your life I mean?
Yeah, I love it. Although I am always looking to make it better and am certainly not fully satisfied yet! Being away all the time makes it difficult to have relationships etc, so when all your friends are getting married and having kids you do wonder if perhaps you’re missing something – but then the majority of them are jealous of what I’m doing/have done – so that tells its own story!
Orla O'Muiri 