Adventure Travel – then and now

This week I was reminded of just how much travel and in particular, adventure travel, has changed.

I just finished reading the book ‘Ride the Rising Wind. One Woman’s Journey across Canada’ by Barbara Kingscote. The book  is about Barbara’s journey by horseback from Mascouche, Quebec to the British Columbia coast, alone at the age of 20. She completed the journey in 1950, taking 16 months to cross the country, relying on the kindness of strangers for lodging and food. The impossibility of repeating the jouney in 2010 speaks loudly to how rapidly Canada was tamed.

Another book, which is among my favourite all time reads, is High Endeavours: The Extraordinary Life of Miles & Beryl Smeeton by Miles Clark. This is a story of two remarkable and very unconventional human beings who came of age in the late 1920′s. The two of them traveled to remote regions of Asia including Burma, China and Russia, often on foot. Beryl rode alone on horseback through Patagonia in the 1930′s and the two of them sailed the world together for years. They ended their years in Alberta trying to save endangered species.

So not only do my adventures pale in comparison, they feel positively safe. It’s hard to imagine what the face of adventure travel will look like in another 30 years. What do you think the future of adventure travel will be?

Leigh McAdam

www.hikebiketravel.com

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