A question about adventurers
 

What causes a person to have that adventurous spirit?

The way they grew up?
They don't want to work?
It is in their DNA and they can't help it?
They just like seeing new places?
Their parents kicked them out of the house? (That is my excuse)
They drank too much whiskey one night and got this crazy idea in their head?
They are running from the law?
They like to eat strange foods and have diarrhea?
They have Scottish blood in them? Remember David Livingstone?

:biggrin:

What has being English got to do with being an adventurer? And Livingstone was Scottish.

The ability to laugh in the face of danger and cry at the roadside when it all gets a bit much.

Hyperactivity helps as well.:rolleyes2:

Yep ADHD & a Bike does it for me! :innocent:

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.... Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
Helen Keller, The Open Door (1957)

All of the above
 

Although, I too blame being hyperactive. My therapist says I'm allowed, its not my fault.

:biggrin:

Ummmm....it was a joke! BTW, us Brazilians don`t know the difference between a Scott and an Englishman, they look and sound the same to us!

:laugh:

Och, here's a couple of more, and one's a Jock
 

Hi Bamaboy,

Two more RTW people:-

BBC NEWS | Americas | Adventurer Fossett declared dead

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Edinburgh, East and Fife | Scot smashes world cycle record

Yes, there was a guy called Scott (in Antartica around 1912), but I don't think he was a Scot (funny old world).

I expect we can all think of a few more people who tick some or all of your boxes :rolleyes2:

bored to death with current lifestyle

A G R E E D !!
That and a mum who couldn't afford to take me and my sister 'out' to places in the summer holiday from the ages of 6+ so instead taught us to map read and how to make camp fires...

End result: 1 Ex army son, with a passion for bikes and travelling, and 1 Captain as a Sister with a Passion for travelling on her 3rd tour of Iraq

Metus! You dont want to agree to ADHD! Thats just an excuse and a copout for people who are antisocial. And there's a new acronym comes along every month - its just a fashion.

It's a wiring problem, there is an extra connection between the curiosity switch and your eye's which produces an override signal to the brain causing it to constantly want to know what over the horizon, which in turn produces a signal triggering itchiness of the feet, and an overwhelming desire to climb on a bike and ride off.

Or we suffer from dromomania n. An uncontrollable impulse or desire to wander or travel.
Main Entry: dro•mo•ma•nia
Pronunciation: "dräm-&-'mA-nE-&, "drOm-
Function: noun
: an exaggerated desire to wander [/SIZE]

Source: The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary

Ah, the funny Cammy lady came out to play!

And you are soooo spot on!

Still - I'd rather make an EXCUSE for being antisocial - than just be plain nasty to the core...

At least nutters on medication, do something about their state --- its the bitter, undiagnosed a***s that really need help.

Don't you agree???

xxxxxx

Hubris
 

"--its the bitter, undiagnosed a***s that really need help---"



I think you "hit the nail on the head" there impasto !

Fashionable? I'm Fashionable?! My girlfriend would never agree!!!!

why why why
 

I only do what my crispy breakfast cereal tells me to.

The other thing I think you missed though: is intelligence.. It rare to find a truly dumb person that wants to see and experience (hence learn) new things... I would put money that (most) Travelers have a higher then average IQ. :cool4: I also would predict that the "dumb" ones just dont survive.

'When I can't stop my fiddling
I just take my Ritalin
I'm poppin' and sailing man'

(to the tune of popeye)

take a metaphorical chill pill people!!

Back on topic... :)

If I can claim to be 'an adventurer' (I guess we HUBB'ers all can in our own way, compared to 'average' folk) it's probably due to too many Biggles books a boy.

I think, in my subconscious, I'm a bit dissapointed that life doesn't involve as many explosions and trans-continental investigations in ex-RAF Halifax's with a ginger sidekick and a toff with a gammy leg and a monocle as I'd been led to believe. I therefore climb mountains, ride motorbikes etc. to compensate!

Matt :)

LOVE IT!!!! I guess i have always wanted to be james bond....:thumbup1::thumbup1::thumbup1::cool4::cool 4::cool4::scooter::scooter::scooter:

and my post was on topic... :(

I think its relative...

For the person who's actually doing it, it seems different yet normal AND fun...
For those who are reading or hearing about it, if its different from what they consider to be normal AND fun, its adventurous.

Either way, its relative.

Yep, I was reffering to the previous spat!

Matt :)

Just do it
 

Relax and do a little seat surfing while waiting for spring. It helps if you keep it above 60 MPH.

i just go away (or travel) to see my friends that i did not meet before. ;)

we are no different, there are just diversities between us and wanna experience it.

taste different food, sleep somewhere else (just under a tree may be) a bit adrenalin and do the thing that i cant do while i am sitting at home.

i wanna go away from comfort. first you get used to it and then you cant live without it..

i travel to see how light can i live, how many t-shirt or sock do i need in a month, or to see how much or how little do i have to eat.

i went to psychologist for a long time when i was child, mainly due to stammer, scaring of ghost and dead, and couldn't stay alone at anywhere. now, i like camping alone, went to funerals a lot of time, speak normaly, etc.. as a conclusion, i think i feel free when i am away and it helped to cure my problems.

maybe it's Deep Play
 

psychologists use the term 'Deep Play' to describe the phenomenon of people indulging in activities where the potential reward is apparently far exceeded by the consequence of failure, e.g. getting off your face and then soloing a big route on a sea cliff (soloing is climbing without ropes). Best case scenario you get to the top, worst case scenario you die. but yet we feel compelled to do it anyway...

Does overlanding count? In most 'extreme sports' (forgive the expression - the most lethal sport in the UK is crown green bowls, hardly anybody ever dies surfing, climbing or mountain biking etc) only a few will go as far as deep play, normally the risk of minor injury is enough to give the required kick.

Studies done on a broad cross-section of people showed that there was a very strong correlation in the difference in brain chemistry between deep players and others - any HU members willing to have a small cerebral biospy to see whicch camp we fall into?

Ozhanu gets my vote!
 

The BEST explanation EVER! I'm saving this one for future reference!!

Practice makes perfect
 

As it happens, you can practice that, and get better at it, at home Ozhanu! No problem though - take a look at how Nick Sanders travels; he has a couple of metal panniers on his bike but he says that one of them is for his toothbrush, and that's it.

Also, if you can see it, try watching "Mondo Enduro", the DVD, for some aspects of living on the road.

Cheers,

the wandering spirit
 

That and alot lot more

I dunno about you lot, but at least it gets me out of doing the housework!!

I think I got the spirit of adventure from Canadian TV programming ...Rainbow Country, Junior Forest Rangers, The Beachcombers. Sad but true. Got a dirt bike and never stopped exploring. For dealing with obscure situations while on route I learned everything from PBS marathons of Monty Pythons Flying Circus. When things go bad on the road I think of the 4 Yorkshiremen skit. LUXURY!

Henry,

It's interesting how some things have become known as 'extreme sports' eh? Back in the early days (the 1970's) the expression meant doing a sport at it's most extreme level, where the risk of death was substantial, although in reality it was just a new way of describing things people had always done.
Now it apparently means any sport where the exponents wear baggy jeans, the term having been hijacked by soft drink manufacturers. I mean, how is skateboarding an extreme sport!?

I think it's interesting you divide people into those who indulge in 'deep play' and those who don't, because I think there is probably a grey area, and there are people who perhaps 'deep play' in their youth, then grow out of it! :)

I would never have described myself as 'extreme' (partly because it sounds so sad!) but in my youth have soloed in winter and snowboarded slopes where a muck up would have certainly meant snuffing it. But, not any more. Although I sometimes wonder if this is because I no longer do these things often enough to have the confidence in my skills, or whether I just got old and scared.

Your point about potential rewards versus potential death is interesting. I never thought about it that way. Sure, you feel pretty good topping out a hard route or leaving a monster rooster tail of pow off the bottom of a mad couloir, but is that feeling really worth the risks? Probably not, if you take it as an isolated event, but if you consider an entire life without those feelings, then suddenly the risks sound more reasonable.

Matt :)

PS: Please tell me you don't get loaded and solo sea cliffs! ;)

you can do eveything at home Walkabout. i think, the point is doing it when you are away. my first travel was with 75 kg laguage. now my target is 30 or 35 kilograms. if i can do that, maybe my second pannier will carry only my toothbrush too. thanks for the dvd advice. i'll try to find it and watch it soon.

Yer, the Mondo boys certainly know how to travel light. Round the world sleeping under a poncho?!

Now that's hardcore!

Matt :)

answer's,answer's,answer's
 

all the answer's to the question's of why we travel are here on this website! try this link- www.horizonsunlimited.com
it's this site that reall got to me! reading other people's fantastic adventures of foreign lands and strange beings but being made welcome wherever you are.it's a good start to blame grant and sue johnson for all our bizzare dreams of going place's where there are no people or petrol garages!
as to the point of alcohol this was'nt the cause! that only caused me to buy a 3 wheeler robin reliant on e-bay last week! but i'm still blaming jack daniels!
happy trips people!:mchappy::mchappy::mchappy::mchappy::mchapp y::mchappy::mchappy::mchappy::mchappy::mchappy:
on the bike that is and not from the bloke down the road!:D

Seat surfing on your XS650 Bill ?
Seems a little eXceSsive !

Actually these are the questions to be asked to "other" people,

Is it ;

The way they grew up?
It is in their DNA and they can't help it?
That they just dont like seeing new places?
Their parents locked them in the the house when they were small?
That they afraid of diarrhea?
Their afraid to getting lost?
They dont know how to look at a map?
They cant bear to be with alone themselves?
They lost there curiosity some where along the way?

I believe they all want to "do it" ... they all want "to be there and do that" ... they are just lazy.

Dreaming but finding excuses not to, is easier than actually "do it"...:)

I've always assumed the opposite. Most people will SAY they want to do the adventure, because it's a bit lame to say "I dream about sitting my fat ass on the couch and doing nothing," but they don't really, which is why they spend their time watching television and their sundays in B&Q.

Matt :)

I travel in the hope that one day I will have my own aftershave !!

http://www.basenotes.net/images/Davidoffadventure.jpg

Before you have an aftershave you must shave.

Tell that to the woman who has to wax my ass !! :innocent: