Thought I’d try launching a new conversation in the padded cell.
I’ll kick off with a solo motorbike ride to India. It was very last minute and spur of the moment. Four weeks before leaving I didn’t even have a motorbike licence, motorbike, carnet or any visas. I had to rush in order to make it to the Turkey - Iran border before they closed the roads for winter. Crossing over at 2000m in early November was the coldest I’ve ever been. There was a 1km+queue at the border of mostly traders and their families. The first thing that happened was a teenage kid jumped on the back of the bike (Triumph Tiger 800XC) and ushered me to the front of the queue where the border guards warmed me up with a cup of tea while they sorted my papers and let me through.
London-France-Italy-San Marino-Italy-Greece-Turkey-Iran-Mumbai (expedience due to finding out my wife was pregnant 2 weeks into the trip and safety concerns after an experience in Iran meant skipping Pakistan: bike on boat, me on plane)-all over South India-Mumbai-London (again, me on plane, bike on boat).
Can’t wait to retire and do some more!! Ages to go though.
Ha! I’ve been there but I did ask my young woman at the till if it was true that they had a target to scan 1000 items per hour as I’d heard. She confirmed it was and that her average was 1200 (which I can well believe as everything she did in the shop she looked like she was on speed!) but said I could take as long as I wanted to pack. She added that the trick is just to get everything scanned quickly and then select whether it’s cash or card payment and then apparently the timer stops!
No experience at Aldi, but did shop at Lidl once and managed to pack as quickly as the items were scanned. Felt pretty accomplished afterwards actually.
My peers have glory tales of amateur sports car rally across Europe and stuff like that. Sadly, I have nothing so adrenaline pumped.
At 23 I sold my hifi, bought one big suitcase and stuffed it with clothes. Took GBP1500 that I had been paid cash in hand and converted it to Yen, got on a plane and emigrated to Japan with no job and even the clothes on my back owned by the bank. It was just 1 week after I finished my last exam at Uni - I didn’t even know if I had graduated yet. I still had two holes in my mouth from wisdom teeth extractions 2 days before. I had a phone number of a friend in Tokyo who said they’d let me crash at their place but no address. I got on a one-way plane to Japan via the cheapest flight I could find (Malaysian Airlines with layovers in southeast Asia) to start a new life.
Now in my early 40s in Japan with kids and a mortgage, I think I must have been nuts to throw the dice like that. But it worked out. I often look in the mirror and wonder where that adventurous person went . I’d only make one trip to the UK after that - and it was to visit my dealer and buy a stack of Naim!
I feel slightly sad to say nothing really adventurous. Scuba diving, potholing and skiing are rather tame. Walking Helvellyn ridge with wife and two young children, their first time in mountains, when thick cloud descended was quite interesting… my wife was really scared, but to me it was what you have to be prepared for.
I’m not sure I’ve ever done anything adventurous in my whole life really other than my wife and I taking off in a campervan for a half year trip around Europe (or a small part of it) at our advanced age, although going on a holiday in safe areas hardly seems adventurous
I’ve had a few jobs with an element of risk to them, first as a diver, navy then commercial salvage, fire service (I think I must have a fetish about breathing through a pipe!!). I did give up work and go to university as a mature student in an attempt to find a well paid job which wasn’t as physically demanding, I suppose that was an adventure although the end result of that was me putting on a lot of weight but I did get a good job too
During my career as a photographer I got to do interesting stuff. Flying crew in a hot air balloon in the Alps or strapped to the side of an open door helicopter shooting air to air shots over Canary Wharf, London. Never as dangerous as questioning an Aldi checkout girl though.
Most adventure I’ve had is British mountains and the odd alp trip… Climbing or walking but like most I’m getting old now and slowing down and after so many fractures in my hands and wrists and around the body I’m finding climbing a bit hard now, still I’ve met some fantastic people some still alive but sadly most dead some where they stood on the mountains some not
Not sure about adventurous, but certainly out of my depth … given the option of being made redundant or being ‘our man in Bratislava’ in 1992, I chose the latter and worked all over the old eastern block for 20 years. At least it paid for a good few skiing trips, and my 52, Snaxo, SC, 135s and SBLs.
Having children has to rate as the challenge I was least prepared for.
Bottoming Black Shiver Pot was mentally a hurdle, traversing the Tourmalet in freezing rain in summer clothes was daft, trekking in the Himalaya was educational, getting my head around going to work each morning is challenging…
If we are talking about the most dangerous rather than most adventurous thing, then I would say giving my two cats tablets. Miraculously I survived and didn’t need hospitalisation.
. I’d only make one trip to the UK after that - and it was to visit my dealer and buy a stack of Naim!