WHAT is an ADVENTURE ?
 

1... IS IT GOING TO YOUR LOCAL SUPERMARKET ?
2.... IS IT SPENDING 4 WEEKS IN SAY .MOROCCO ?
3... OR DO YOU HAVE TO GO AROUND THE WORLD ?

:oops2:

Well it's certainly an adventure going to my local Waitrose. It's the whole world in miniature the moment you arrive in the car park. Aggressive, thrusting, out-of-my-way, important-person-coming-through individuals scattering pedestrians like confetti as they try to park their BMW X5s in spaces designed for 60's Minis, elderly couples arguing in the aisles over whether to buy the Merlot or the Chardonnay, children throwing tantrums because their sibling's pony is better than theirs and "nouveau pauvre" widow(er)s trying to keep up "standards" but who would be better off shopping in Lidl. The only thing I haven't seen is people turning up in their nightwear - you have to go to Tesco's for that.

Tongue in cheek (and class warfare) aside, the whole concept of "adventure" in the way it's used at present doesn't sit that well with me. It comes at it from the wrong end. Adventure now seems to have become something that can be packaged and sold, something marketed at people who want a bit more than the usual "fly and flop" two weeks in the sun but don't want to put the effort in themselves to arrange it. I don't particularly want an "adventure" when I head off somewhere on a bike (or any other form of transport), I want to broaden my horizons. I'll decide for myself whether what I do / did qualifies as adventurous or not.

What I have noticed is a kind of "grade inflation" that's crept into travel (and diy travel in particular) over the decades. Your fellow "adventurers" are harder to impress than they used to be. That's partly because expanding commercial travel has made it easier to access remote areas of the planet - you can get "there" now overnight with a glass of champagne in your hand whereas it would have taken months and a few tropical diseases on the way not that long ago. Dr Livingstone anyone? The barriers to going rtw on a bike (for example) these days are not so much the "there be dragons" worries about the unknown that people faced in the past as issues with finance, red tape, family, giving up career / job etc. You could argue that a good part of the adventure happens before you even start the engine.

Anyone going to the Adventure Travel Show in London this weekend? :rofl:

I have to agree that adventure is something that happens. Considering that adventure really is just a feeling of a new experience, then when setting off with the sole aim of having an adventure ... well, it might not happen.

A visit to your local market can become an adventure, if you are just open to new experiences and not in tunnel vision.

Backofbeyond, you are right that the whole trip experience (which may be adventure) really starts from the moment you start preparing for the trip. It's like a race, for spectators it starts the moment the race starts but for the participants it started in their own garage.

Adventure:

noun
1.an exciting or very unusual experience.
2.participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises: the spirit of adventure.
3.a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome.
4.a commercial or financial speculation of any kind; venture.

Thing is when we all go on an "adventure" we usually go and do it in someone's back yard, I often wonder how adventurous the locals feel we really are? I think an adventure is in your own mind not in any "place"

The where is no longer an issue. As the previous posters noted, you can just buy a ticket, do some paperwork and go. You can also find a local guys web cam or blog. There are no new poles, mountains or continents and won't be until they sort space travel. In Ted Simons day the bits between post offices were not documented, paper didn't have the bandwidth.

The when and how is now probably the thing. This can be just finding an empty road by getting up early. It unfortunately also spawns the "First person to juggle chainsaws on Everest" thing. If you want excitement I know a pub in Leeds. Wear a red shirt on a Saturday afternoon.

Adventure is whats new to you.

Andy

An adventure is the oposit of a planed trip with a fall back insurance. An adventure is something were you dont know what will happen. An adventure is something, were most of the people are affraid of.

If you go to a supermarked without money thats an adventure. You might never return because you start to think that you never been to new york before...

The less you plan and the less money you spend, the bigger will beyour adventure: http://afrikamotorrad.eu/?report=en_westkueste


http://afrikamotorrad.de/small/haus.gif

An adventure is doing something where you can't predict the outcome because it's totally new to you and there's not much information available. A degree of trepidation, butterflies about whether you are doing the right thing.

Going on an organised tour with a leader who knows the ropes and where all the hotels are booked in advance (!) is not an adventure. Doing a similar trip solo with a bivvy bag in case you have to sleep beside the bike would be an adventure.

^^Totally agree. I'd be more impressed if someone headed off solo to Dartmoor for the weekend than on an organised fly/ride trip.

You could argue Morocco is not an adventure for me because I've been so many times, but then I am always striving to get to unexplored places in the most remote areas. When I do it becomes an adventure.

Why does it matter.

I know the archives here are littered with "what's an adventure" discussions but, like oil threads, they're good for a laugh as long as enough time has passed to let everyone recover.

As you can probably guess I'm not a great fan of the term "adventure" but that doesn't change the nature of what a lot of people here enjoy doing, it simply begs the question what am I going to call it instead? Instead of going on an adventure what will I be doing when I load up the bike and head off into Canada in a few months time. I've heard it said (in these hallowed pages iirc) that you can't, by definition, have an adventure in North America or Europe as it's all too easy. The infrastructure minimises the risk element and that's what separates adventure biking from touring. Strangely enough though I don't see football crowd sized groups of people pointing their Touratech laden GSs south in the summer (although they'll quite happily head for Moto GPs / IOM TT etc). If it was that easy you'd think everyone would be doing it.

My local free newspaper (just shoved through the door a few minutes ago) has (coincidently) an article on "codger adventure" (an age group that I now, sadly, fit firmly into). The gist of it is that "we" are spending the kids inheritance on "adventure travel" instead of stuffing it under the bed for the kids to find when, post demise, they're clearing the house out. Instead of sticking to "conservative short breaks" the market for "adventurous long haul" trips is (the article says) rapidly growing. Not only that but participants are described as "intrepid", "exotic", "spontaneous" and "carefree". Yup, that's me exactly. I associate myself with all those positive attributes. Gonna wander the world on my bike, taking wimmin as I need them. No responsibilities, no stress, a life lived by my rules. (last couple of sentences mostly courtesy of a 70's Ogri cartoon about a wanabe RTW biker).

Moral of the story - 1st rule of marketing: don't believe your own (or anyone else's) publicity. Find your own adventure in your own way.

A motorcycle adventure is the result of a decision to ride somewhere where the outcome could easily become a bad decision, but it didn't.

adventure [ad-ven-cher]
noun
1. an exciting or very unusual experience.
2. participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises:
the spirit of adventure.
3. a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome.
4. a commercial or financial speculation of any kind; venture.
5. Obsolete.
peril; danger; risk.
chance; fortune; luck.

verb (used with object), adventured, adventuring.
6. to risk or hazard.
7. to take the chance of; dare.
8.to venture to say or utter:
to adventure an opinion.

verb (used without object), adventured, adventuring.
9. to take the risk involved.
10. to venture; hazard.

badou24

I'll just keep it simple.
No matter what you're doing, if it feels like an adventure to you then it probably is. :clap:

Every day and everything we do no matter how hum drum we or others think it is, CAN be an adventure if we want it to be.

The fact is that all that we do has been done before, and doing it should be a personal "ADVENTURE" even if it means riding in a group ride just for one day if its not what is the norm, or going solo RTW its still just DOING it.

As already been stated an Adventure is what you make of it because its new to you.

And for organised trips, that only takes care of the business side of things one still has to attend and take part in what has been planned and anything can still happen.
The world is too small now for what some want to call Adventure but I suggest that those are really talking about Exploration not Adventure.

Go have fun and travel, open your eyes to the world you see before you and make your own mind up on the diversity and beauty not what the media wants you to believe, just to suit the Arms race or Corporation expansion into making us all in "Yes men"

Amen

Exactly. I love exploring, new places and more familiar ones too. Sometimes they turn into adventures but not always and usually I'd rather they didn't.

Some guys say that it's not an adventure unless you almost died or spent time in a foreign prison. No thanks.


...............shu

Is it only an adventure the first time you do it? Can you not have the same adventure more than once???

Something with a sense of trepidation, fear or uncertainty as Tim said.

But as Mark said, you have to be doing something PRETTY dam knarly to get a nod of respect these days. Everywhere is so 'Facilitated'.. It's only fun if you refuse to pay someone to do half of it for you.

I remember doing my first 'big trip' in about 2003 when I was in my early twenties. I was so hyped up, paranoid and nervous. I set off with an Readers Digest of Europe as a map, a tent in a carrier bag and a very volatile but bendy lady friend.

In the trip was a massive anti-climax. I still had a great time but the realisation that I'm just 'on holiday' came very quickly. At least there was no GPS then so getting lost daily was 'An adventure'.. Point is, it was too easy.

Isnt that the point of doing?

Thats why people sign contracts and buy expensive BMW bikes. Theyr looking for "respect" but become a slave of a bank and cant repair anything but allways have to pay someone to do the adventure for them HAHA

On my first bike trip my friends started a pool-make it to the city limits, state line, into Mexico, back in a pine box? I did not make it as far as I wanted, but I collected a lot of funds for my next trip. These days I get a cup of coffee, check the obits, if I'm not in its an adventure.:D

To tweak Rene Descartes's saying, If I think it's an adventure, it is one.

An adventure is something that motivates you to go out and experience life and people.

I've lost my virginity more times than I can count :rofl::thumbup1:
My vision of adventure is loose planning & no timetable :mchappy:

Pretty much the same here. When four of us went off to Greece on two bikes in the early 70's just about everyone - friends, parents et al were convinced it would be a one way trip and we'd all end up mangled in a ditch somewhere. After all everyone knew the Germans were psychotic, the Italians anarchic and the Greeks lawless. If crazed Italian drivers didn't get us some Deliverance style community in the Balkans would. And no, I'm not making this up, people were really pleading with us not to go.

I suppose that's the contradiction of youth though (and quite possibly the essence of "adventure"); enough naivety to believe it'll all be ok without enough information or experience to know what you're actually getting yourself into.

These days Greece by bike is a kind of entry level trip with people more interested in how you pack your luggage than what you saw on the way.

I leave on trips................but mostly return having had an adventure

You can't have a life without adventure, be it a trip to the nearest fast food chain, or backpacking through multiple countries.

Definitely number 1. Make sure you ride into your local Asda or Lidl (Or Mr BoB: Waitrose) standing on the pegs (arms and legs straight = great for speedbumps) and with GoPro mounted on top of your helmet in that special Tellytubby look. Ignoring the height restriction/anti Pikie caravan 6 foot 2 barrier makes things particularly adventurous.

Quite recently, I met a 60+ American lady, and her trip to NZ was her first trip out of the USA. She seemed terrified of everything
- wouldn't sample any of the breaded items on a shared platter because she couldn't see what they were (despite the menu describing them as prawns, mushrooms & chicken)
- didn't think she could get a 'decaff' coffee in NZ, so had never asked for one
- paid for everything on her credit card because she didn't understand 'foreign' money (NZ uses dollar bills)
etc .....

Her concerns may seem perplexing, but I am sure she will mark the trip as her greatest adventure. Adventure is how you perceive it.

I think there's a little bit of that in all of us - out of our comfort zones and fearful of the unknown. I've seen it in many people and recognise it in myself from time to time, where, for example, it's easier to head for KFC rather than try to work through strange looking menus in a language you don't know (not the case in your NZ example I hasten to add :rofl:).

I once read a bike trip report where the mature (UK) rider had been to France for the first time and spent the whole time surviving on filling station snacks, crisps etc and wild camping as he didn't speak French and was fearful of making a fool of himself trying to ask for things in English. And if that's what happens in Europe where you have a choice of half a dozen foreign cultures a short ferry ride away how much harder must it be if you're from e.g. the mid west of the US where it's exactly the same for thousands of miles in every direction. I presume that's why package type tours are so successful as they remove much of that uncertainty.

The older I get the more I see people (of similar age) settling for what they're comfortable with. And not just with travel, I see it in all areas of life so I'd guess it must be part of human nature. We're all supposed to "settle down" once the frantic entry of youth passes. "Adventure", I suppose, is the process of pushing those boundaries and there are surprisingly few people willing to do it, at least not without taking a bubble of home along with them anyway.

Agree with ChrisFS. For me adventure is a cauldron of excitement mixed in with a generous dollop of fear then topped off with large portions of uncertainty!
For some, that may be the feeling when they finally pluck up the courage to go to Lidl or Tesco, for others it might be their first wingman suit experience!

Adventure is trying to find the way back to your wild campsite in the pitch black darkness after too many shandies in town..

beer:oops2::rofl:

Probably anything that can take you over your comfort zone, that first step into the unknown, into situations and events way beyond your control.


The more I travel the less I feel I am beyond my comfort zone, the less I feel the anxiety but also the tremendous excitement of my first big overland trip. Internet and current Apps have also made our life easier on the road, more organised and less prone to unexpected events.


Last summer, riding 3 months around Russia and Central Asia, it just felt like a long holiday, not a comfortable one, and with many problems, but certainly not an adventure.

Or maybe I am just getting old and grumpy...

In the first Lord of the Rings book, the two Hobbits come out of a cornfield, and one stops. Asked why, he says this is a place he has never been, and everywhere he goes from there will be new. A good description of an adventure.

We like to go on trips when we can get some time off work. Most of our trips are relatively short and we fly to our destination. We just bought a new to us touring bike (today) so are now planning where we going on it this spring, summer and autumn amongst our already booked trips. This has been going on for a few years now and our friends describe us as 'adventurous'. Our trips are definately not planned to the nth degree - we sometimes find ourselves stranded at an airport without a word of the language having arrived on a delayed flight and trying to find a hotel at 2am.

Bike trips are are also on the fly, we try not to have a destination on any given day as it then becomes just a ride rather than just stopping as and when. We often book hotels at 6pm and arrive at 6.30.

So there you have it - many people we know think we're really adventurous, we think it's just what we do and you lot probably think that it sounds more dull than going to bofb's Waitrose.