When Adventure has to be where you can find it.
Adventure for me was big, I want to cycle up South America, Off road motorbike across Northern America, ski the Arctic Circle line and so on…
All these took a back seat when we had a baby. We vowed to not let it stop us, it has been a lot harder than we anticipated, that said Covid also played a pretty big part.
Now we have moved to the country, on the edge of the Bowland Forest and my immediate future looks a lot more adventurous, just not the big bold abroad type of adventurous. It means River (the new addition) and I are putting on our boots and getting out to explore the local hills. We are on the look out for a bike trailer so that we can explore further afield, who knows where that will lead, maybe we might even get the coast to coast done together if Grace will let us.
My other new adventure is I have joined the local canoe club and will be learning to canoe on a Wednesday, first session in and I am looking forward to the next one. The first session mostly consisted of learning how to do everything correctly, rowing, holding the oar, getting in and out. I have never been good and doing things slowly but I am excited about where this new hobby might take me!? The guys running the evening mentioned trips to different rivers during the summer to get some more experience, so who knows, maybe one day you will see me on Koshi, Gandaki or Karnali!!
It's been difficult giving up the idea of bigger trips. that said it was always coming back to reality after a bigger trip, somewhere to live, a new job, save up some money, maybe small adventures is the way forward.
There are some very high profile experienced outdoor experts on social media taking their kids on all sorts of adventures, this is very inspiring and a little demoralising at times… should I be doing more? why aren't we (River and I) hanging off a ledge but I what I know is that firstly I need to worry about the little adventures before we worry about the big ones.
For now my goal is to show River all the things she can look forward to when she is old enough to make her own choices!
I also wrote about our time in the Arctic, you can read about that here.