Anyone looking at going to ‘Adventure Travel Live‘ at the end of the month…

Save £6 off the ticket price by booking in advance quote ”Tarka” / “Katie-Jane” / “Rachel” (£10 on the door) visit www.adventuretravellive.com

Adventure Travel Live is the must visit, one stop shop for anyone planning an off-the-beaten-track travel adventure. The show is packed with inspiration and travel advice that will help you to uncover the journey of a lifetime. From once-in-a lifetime-travel experiences, small group adventures, trekking, family adventures, career breaks, safaris, overland expeditions, volunteering, gap years and much more.

There are over 60 talks at Adventure Travel Live and our impressive line-up of travel experts includes the likes of Simon Yates (Touching the Void), Ben Fogle, Benedict Allen, co-founder of Lonely Planet Tony Wheeler, Doug Scott, Tom Avery, Simon Calder, Paul Rose and many more, oh and us of course!

We will be presenting ‘The Great Walk of China: Proof that anything is possible!’ Recounting my colossal life-change from the world of commercial fashion to adventurer: surviving blizzards, temperatures of -35°C, frost bite, starvation, exhaustion and dehydration? In 167 days and over 4500km we became the first to walk the entire length of the magical Great Wall of China from its westerly terminus to its most easterly. The equivalent to over 100 consecutive marathons with a third of our body weight on our backs. With the hope of inspiring one or two others, that we are all more capable than we think if we are just brave enough to take the first steps!

Show features include:

• 5 x theatres packed with inspiration and advice; from Simon Calder’s weekend of adventure travel, wildlife adventures, overland & expeditions to the planning the ultimate career break
• Nat Geo Adventure explorers workshop
• Royal Geographical Society Map Zone
• The Big Earth expedition planning feature
• Travel Africa safari planner
• Travel Photographer of the Year exhibition
• Nomad Travel Health & Essential Kit Guide
  

Venue & Getting there
Royal Horticultural Halls, Greycoat Street, Victoria, London SW1P 2QD.
Friday 29 January, 6pm-10pm
Saturday 30 January, 10am-6pm
Sunday 31 January, 10am-5pm

On door price
Friday / adults / £10
(£18 for the evening with Simon Calder + valid any one day)
Saturday / adults / £10
Sunday / adults / £10
Under 16s free


Advance ticket offer
I am pleased to confirm that we have teamed up with the organisers of Adventure Travel Live to offer you a discount to the show when you book in advance. You can save £6 off door price for adults (i.e. £4 valid any day), under 16s are free. Add £1.50 postage and packing per order.

Tickets for an Evening with Simon Calder are £15 and takes place from 6pm to 10pm on Friday 29 January only. Also valid any one day for Adventure Travel Live.

Order online at adventuretravellive.com or call 0871 230 7159 and quote  “Tarka” / “Katie-Jane” / “Caroline” / “Rachel”  (please use reference code where relevant J).

Also dont forget 2 days letter we will be speaking about the Rivers of Ice Expedition at the quirky ‘Night of Adventure’ in the style of Pecha Kucha, 15 speakers, 20 slides per speaker, 20 seconds per slide on February the 2nd at 7pm, at the Roxy Bar & Screen, London. This will be great fun and not to be missed, with all proceeds going to Hope and Homes for Children.

Katie-Jane

FIFTEEN speakers from across the spectrum of expeditions, adventure and travel will talk about their experiences (Tarka and I speaking as a pair being one of them) .

The subjects range from rowing oceans, climbing Everest, walking and cycling across continents, crossing ice caps (I think this is us!), trekking to the North Pole (and South Pole) all the way to flying cars, climbing Kilimanjaro in a wheelchair and spending six months living in a tree house.

Each one is an amazing story. But the twist is that each speaker is allowed just 20 slides. And each slide scrolls on automatically after just 20 seconds!! Tarks and I have never spoken before in this style and i think its going to be quite a challeng but great fun for the audience to watch. This format, originally called “Pecha Kucha” in Japan, makes for a high-paced, varied, original evening.

The Roxy Bar is a really good venue for a night out. The setting is informal so you can sit on sofas with a beer or eat a light meal while watching the event. Friendly heckling will be encouraged!

This evening of adventure is being held to raise funds and awareness for Hope and Homes for Children. All the proceeds from the event will go to support the work of this charity. So please come along, bring a few friends, have dinner, and make an evening of it. Put it in your diary today and buy your tickets here!

February 2nd 2010, www.roxybarandscreen.com, London, 7pm
15 speakers
20 slides per speaker
20 seconds per slide
£15 minimum entry. Buy your ticket online here (or below) and just bring ID on the night. There will be a few tickets available on the door for cash only. All proceeds from the door go to charity
Dinner and drinks available at the venue

On a seperate note our Great Wall of China documenatry won the people’s choice award at Dundee Mountain Film Festival…yippie! the weekend before last and was well recieved at the Autrans Mountain Film Festival in France this weekend.

In refection, looking back at the posts we have written over the last month, I think we were maybe holding back, writing only the positive elements of our journey in a bid to not come across as if we were moaning! We are after all doing these things by choice and are very fortunate to be able to do so.

So I will now elaborate slightly. In addition to the incredible beauty of the countries we past through and the friendliness and warmth of the people who befriended us, there was also a relentless hassle for money. This is partially to be expected and completely understandable. However from the moment we woke until the moment we went to sleep there would not be a single minute when the asking for money would ease. Which really takes away any enjoyment we would get out of each day. What irritated me most however, and where I had real sense of humour failure, was the ‘forced service’! Day in day out when we were doing menial daily tasks, such as pumping up Flashdance’s tyres, a local would come along and snatch the pump from my hand and would refuse to give it back despite me telling them that I was more than capable of pumping up my own tyre (even when I tried to forcefully take it back, I failed). He would pump up the tyre on our behalf and then demand payment! The first few times you pay, as many of the locals had very little income and at least they were trying to do something for their money, as apposed to just out rightly asking for handouts! However, I reached the point where I could not stand people taking or even touching my things without permission and trying to keep your cool was just exhausting! Even when we finally reached a place to stay at the end of a long day and we longed to shut the door for the first tiny bit of piece and quiet since 5am, we first had to pay off those stood in the doorway! …. as we experienced that they will stand there pleading far longer than my patience for need of sleep can last!!!

Despite my 5 previous visits to the continent, the above is something that I had never properly experienced, hence the ‘Tourist Bubble’! Mt first two visits were to South Africa, which although still has its problems, is a long way ahead of the rest of the continent and for that reason gives you a very different African encounter. I then in 2005, spent 4 months overlanding through Eastern and Southern Africa and it was an absolutely amazing experience. At the time I felt I was really ‘roughing it’ and experiencing the ‘real’ Africa, as my journey was a far cry from the luxury safari lodges and exquisite candlelight meals looking over a bustling water hole that we are tempted with on TV. It is only now that I realize how the overland truck only ever opened its doors when we arrived at a place designed to suite our needs as a tourist! Each campsite had a toilet block, shower block, bar, and western style food, and a large perimeter fence keeping real Africa at a distance!

For anyone who has not travelled to Africa and would like to in an enjoyable way as a holiday, then the ‘Tourist Bubble’ is there to provide you with such an experience. For outside the ‘bubble’ it is incredibly clear that “A foreign country is not designed to make YOU feel comfortable, it’s designed to make it’s own people feel comfortable!”

Despite the hassles and the dangers that cycling across Africa can present, I am gutted to be back home and would love to be back on the road with Tarka. Even on those days when you are pulling your hair out because you can’t communicate or people are trying to steal your possessions, it is when we are together, away on and adventure, that we feel most content with life!

Don’t you just love a cycling tan!!!