Category: Living Adventurously

  • Living the Best Day Ever

    Hendri Coetzee is the greatest African explorer you have never heard of. Hendri was a dedicated and passionate African explorer, considered by many to be a legend in his own time. He devoted his life to exploration and in particular to first descents on some of Africa’s lesser known and remotest rivers, and to the…

  • Join the Database of Long Distance Cycling Journeys

    We are very excited to announce the launch of our latest project, a database of long distance cycling journeys. Visit the Database of Long Distance Cycling Journeys This database has two broad purposes: 1) A resource for those planning their own cycle tour. 2) A record of long distance cycling journeys. We started by asking…

  • Why Sean Conway’s swim is the greatest expedition of 2013

    A couple of years ago, Dan Martin wrote a guest blog on this website predicting that swimming would be the next big thing to hit the expedition world.  It often feels as though the world has now been fully explored, and that ‘world firsts’ are increasingly arbtirary – Tim and I joke that we are…

  • Adventures Insurance

    Travelling around the world for a year or more on a bicycle requires some significant travel insurance. Ours has been generously provided by Adventurers Insurance. They provide tailor-made insurance for activities like ours and have offered a 10% discount to any Next Challenge readers looking for insurance on their own expedition or travels. Just click…

  • Planning for the Unknown: Climbing in the Altai

    Part of the reason I chose the Russian Altai mountains for a mountaineering expedition in 2009 was that I had never heard of the Altai Mountains before and, it seemed, nor had anyone else I spoke to. So, it’s been great to hear of others climbing in the Altai subsequently and even better that George…

  • Peace Pilgrim and Planet Walker

    …sounds like the name of a dodgy crime fighting duo but they’re ac tually the names of a couple of cool projects. Howard Drakes sent me this email out of the blue which I thought might be of interest: [divide] Greetings Tim I came across your website today and connected with the energy that seems…

  • In Praise of Microadventures

    Recently, the adventurer Alastair Humphreys has been running a campaign encouraging people to undertake what he calls “microadventures” – little adventures that typically happen after work or on the weekend, usually involve sleeping under the stars and often involve jumping into some water. Alastair has undertaken many great big expeditions – like spending four years…

  • Danny MacAskill’s Inspired Bicycles

    This is an oldie but a goodie (it’s had 30 million views on YouTube). From what I can tell, Danny MacAskill‘s since gone on to be quite a successful sponsored cyclist and made many more glitzier videos (see below) but it’s this one that I always come back to. Inspired is the word. Danny MacAskill’s Way Back…

  • Cheap Eats in London

    Cheap restaurants in London. Completely off-topic but finding London’s best cheap eats has been a favourite game of mine for many years (and by cheap I mean ideally dinner for under £5, certainly under £10). London need not be an expensive place to live or eat. Here are a few cheap meal recommendations from a…

  • How to Get to the North Pole – In Pictures

    My book is called How to Get to the North Pole: and Other Iconic Adventures. It has seven chapters, each about a different iconic adventure, and each opening with a wonderful illustration by the talented Mr Jim Shannon and a few statistics such as the difficulty, cost and glory potential. The text is broken up with…

  • Book Review: There Are Other Rivers by Alastair Humphreys

    There Are Other Rivers is Alastair Humphreys’ fourth book for adults (he has a fifth book for kids). His first two were an account of cycling around the world and his third, Ten Lessons from the Road, distilled his learnings from that same trip. This book is a departure from his others not just in…

  • An Adventure Every Day

    I ran a campaign throughout 2010 encouraging people to undertake a new “Everyday Adventure” each month. Simple stuff like seeing how far you could get on your lunch break, trying a novel route to work or heading for whatever you could see on the horizon. The aim was to ram home the idea that you…