How To Get Ideas and Inspiration For An Adventure

Some people have a very clear idea of the adventure they want to have and a specific plan for achieving it. Many others just have an urge to do something but are not clear what.

This article will help the latter.

After a a decade of going on expeditions and two decades of reading about them, I’ve compiled some of the best stuff that I’ve found inspiring over the years. Including:

Some really amazing achievements – like swimming across the Atlantic Ocean
Easy adventure ideas – so you don’t get put off by people who can swim the Atlantic Ocean
Adventurers and blogs – people who are regularly doing inspiring stuff and writing about it
Motivational articles – a selection of pieces to make you stop reading this article and go outside
Books and films – to keep the inspiration going after this article’s faded from your memory

Here we go…

How To Have An Adventure

This article is part of the ‘How To Have An Adventure’ series:

Amazing Achievements

If you’re looking for some inspiration then a good place to start is with some inspiring stories and incredible feats. Here are some of my favourites:

Jack LaLanne: celebrated his 70th birthday by swimming 1.5 miles. Whilst handcuffed. And shackled. And towing *70* boats. Legend.

Borge Ousland: walking across the frozen Arctic Ocean to the North Pole in winter when it was dark 24 hours a day is just one of the many ridiculous expeditions Borge’s undertaken.

Martin Strehl: this large Slovenian swam the entire length of the Amazon river, regularly clocking 50+ miles a day, necking bottles of red wine and carrying a bucket of fresh meat to act as a decoy againts pirahnas. He’s also swum the Danube, Yangtze and Mississippi rivers.

Two Blind to Ride: a legally blind couple who cycled the length of the Americas on a tandem.

Benoit Lecomte: swam across the Atlantic Ocean. Not a typo.

Ed Stafford: walked the entire length of the Amazon river.

Jason Lewis: spent 13 years travelling around the world by human power alone.

Heinz Stucker: has been cycling around the world for 48 years.

Historic Ocean Rows: the 12 people who rowed across oceans before satellite phones, GPS or water-makers were invented.

Rosie Swale-Pope: set off from Wales on her 57th birthday and spent four years running 20,000 miles around the world dragging a large cart.

Simple Adventure Ideas

The only downside with reading about those fantastic achievements above is that most of them are absurdly difficult. Great for some inspiration but a little offputting at the same time. Most of us don’t have 13 years to spare, £20,000 to spend or any particular desire to risk our lives at -40C in Antarctica.

But you don’t need to.

Adventures are possible without time, money, or SAS training. At the other end of the spectrum, here are some really easy ideas that anyone can try:

Everyday Adventures

It’s all well and good talking about disappearing for six months on the journey of a lifetime but that’s not feasible for a lot of people. However, the core purposes of adventure – escaping the every day, trying something new, challenging yourself – can all be achieved in a much shorter space of time.

We’re all busy people. Time is tight. But with a bit of creative thinking, I reckon any of us could squeeze in an adventure if we set our minds to it.

No holiday allowance left? Use your lunch break… how far could you get from work and still get back to your desk within an hour? You can do some cool stuff.

Tired of the traffic on your daily commute? Get up really early and walk it. Even if it’s 25 miles. Or get up really early and do something entirely different then marvel at the memory later when you’re stuck in traffic.

The point is that even the busiest amongst can get a little hit of adventure if we put a bit of effort in.

Microadventures

The next step up from an Everyday Adventure: a mini overnight or weekend adventure like sleeping on a hill, entering a race, swimming a river.

They were invented by Al Humphreys who spent a year doing a new miniature adventure each month. They’re a great place to start for inspiration and you can read more about them in his excellent Microadventures book.

£100 Adventures

Money shouldn’t stop anyone having an adventure. I tried to ‘prove’ this a few years ago by setting myself a list of challenges to achieve with the £100 I had been given for Christmas. I got as far as Dublin and back, climbing a hill, swimming in the sea and camping under the stars on my way.

I then compiled a list of trips which cost less than £100 that either I’d done or other people had.

Grand adventures

If you want to do a proper expedition then it may indeed cost more money. Saving up can seem hard, sponsorship impossible. But if you set up a bank account to transfer £20 out each week, by the end of the year you’ll have a thousand pounds. More than enough to do some serious expeditions.

This is another Al Humphreys initiative and you can check out all of the ideas on Al’s site or get a copy of his Grand Adventures book.

Adventurers & Blogs

Hopefully this article and website can provide some ideas for you. But there are loads of other more interesting people with better blogs out there. Here are a few of my favourites…

Emily Chappell

Cycle courier turned extreme adventure cyclist who writes really well.

Leon McCarron

Leon emailed me a few years ago before planning his first big bike trip. He’s now a much bigger deal than me having done 14,00 miles of cycle touring, walked 3,000 miles through the Mongolian winter, crossed the Arabian desert and hiked the Masar in the Middle East.

Andy Kirk-Patrick

“Hull’s second best climber”. Accessible and entertaining writing about tough mountaineering trips in cold places.

Alex Hibbert

Polar guy who has completed the longest ever polar journey and various other hard, cold trips. Writes opinion pieces with a strong sense of purpose.

Tom Allen

Tom Allen spent several years cycling all over the place and has produced the most amazing film of his journey: Janapar. He’s also done some other excellent trips like cycling the length of England without spending any money.

Sarah Outen

First woman to row the Indian Ocean, Sarah has since completed a broad circumnavigation of the globe by human power alone, cycling the continents, kayaking between islands and rowing across oceans.

Alastair Humphreys

Mentioned several times above, Al’s cycled around the world, rowed across the Atlantic and crossed the Empty Quarter desert on foot. But, more importantly, he is as dedicated to his blog and encouraging other people as he is to his own expeditions.

Mark Kalch

Mark’s on a mission to paddle the length of the longest river on every continent. So far that’s included rafting the entire length of the Amazon river and kayaking the Missouri-Mississippi and Volga. Mark is Australian but otherwise fine.

I’d also recommend James Borrell for anything scientific/conservation related.

Stories & Articles

The two purposes of this website are to encourage people to go on adventures and to help them do so. Other the years, I’ve written loads of articles with the aim, either directly or indirectly, of getting people to turn their computer off and get outside. Here are some of them…

Need an excuse to get started on your expedition? Consider this your excuse

“If you want to go for a run in the morning but lack the motivation, just start tying your shoe laces…” – Start!

“How can you get that thrill of freedom in your everyday life…?” – Here’s how…

“What defines an adventure?” – Learn how to have an adventure every day…

“You don’t need an event to train for” – Start Training for Life…

Books & Films

Sometimes inspiration happens in an instant but sometimes it takes a while to seep in. If you’ve got to the end of this article without having quit your job or booked a flight to Timbuktu then perhaps you need some slow-burn inspiration.

Here are some books that have inspired me over the years:

Blood, Sweat & Charity

by Nick Stanhope

It was partly reading this book that made me set up this website. It’s all about how to do a charity challenge and I thought I could be a human/website version of it.

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Waterlog

by Roger Deakin

If you have never swum in a river or lake then I guarantee you will have done by the time you finish this book. The most beautiful writing that really encapsulates the spirit of adventure.

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A Year of Adventures

by Lonely Planet

I got this book for Christmas many years ago and it blew my mind that there were so many amazing adventurous things out there in the world.

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Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know

by Ranulph Fiennes

Fiennes’ book describes his realisation that he could repeat a pattern of planning an expedition, going on it then talking and writing about it to make money. I thought I would try the same.

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Grand Adventures

by Alastair Humphreys

Based around the idea of saving up for a £1,000 expedition, this book is really just crammed fully of fascinating tips and stories from dozens of different adventurers.

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Feeding the Rat

by Al Alvarez

In Alvarez’s telling, some of us have a rat inside that’s hungry for adventure. Through the story of legendary climber Mo Anthoine, Alvarez tells a wider one about the wanderlust inside us all.

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Janapar

by Tom Allen

There is a book of this story but it’s actually the film I’d recommend first. Self-filmed over months and years of cycling, Tom’s journey is inspiring and uplifting.

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