If British adventure has a face, that face looks a lot like Ben Fogle, whose travels around the world have seen him row across the Atlantic, cross the Middle East’s dusty and desolate Empty Quarter on a camel and swim with crocodiles in Botswana. He tells Escapism what adventure means to him, why we should embrace failure (but still hate it), and how anyone – even Londoners – can enjoy a taste of the wild…
Adventure is anything away from the norm. It’s a form of travel that takes you away from what you know and what you have done before. It doesn’t have to be tough, it doesn’t have to be arduous – but what it should do is challenge you in ways that you weren’t expecting.
When it comes to adventurous travel, I enjoy spontaneity. The unexpected is always more exciting, but I have also learned the importance of preparation. Somehow, you need to be able to strike the balance – plan, but don’t become a slave to organisation. If you go in with an open mind, the sky is the limit.
My adventure heroes are the old-school pioneers. From Scott and Shackleton to Fawcett and Livingstone, they have incredible tales of derring-do. I also think that Armstrong’s unbelievably brave trip to the moon must rate up there with those incredible achievements.
Adventurous travel comes in so many guises. It doesn’t have to cost you in time or money. The Rat Race or Nightrider in London can offer you a day – or night – of adventurous escapism in the capital, while there are plenty of great opportunities just a short train ride away. For something that’s a little more exciting than that, Bales Worldwide offers trips to great adventurous destinations.
I’ve done some remarkable things and been to some remarkable places – so many moments stand out. Free climbing the sheer, 2,000 metre-high Castleton tower in Utah; visiting the remote islands of Tristan da Cunha and St Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean; trekking across the Empty Quarter of Oman; watching great white sharks in the Farallon Islands off San Francisco. But swimming with crocodiles in Botswana is one of the scariest things I have ever experienced. People have since been killed swimming in that river so perhaps, looking back, it’s something I should have avoided – but I do feel happy to tell the tale.
Failure is all part of adventure – you just have to face it. It wouldn’t be adventurous in the first place if there weren’t a risk attached to it. I hate failure – I have a fear of it. One of the strategies I use to cope with my phobias is to face them, but it doesn’t always work and I’ve failed plenty of times. I ended up in an ambulance with a broken finger and a black eye after crashing in the Etape Caledonia bike race in Scotland, and I failed to summit Chimborazo in Ecuador. But it’s important to remember that failure is all part of the challenge. It makes you stronger in the end.
There are still plenty of adventures I’ve yet to tick off my list. The Great Wall of China sounds fun, and then there are my ultimate plans to swim the Atlantic Ocean…
Adventurers have the inability to say no. I have always lived by the adage ‘add life to your days, not days to your life’. Adventure has made me a better, more confident person. I owe it everything.
Ben Fogle is Worldwide Touring Ambassador for Virgin Holidays and Bales Worldwide. For more information, visit virginholidays.co.uk/tours. More episodes of his 'New Lives in the Wild' will be coming to Channel 5 soon.
