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PLANNING YOUR ADVENTURE

So you’ve decided to take time out, but where do you start? Like all good things, the basic principles can be written down on the back of an envelope at the pub. However, behind a successful and worthwhile venture there is more organisation and preparation than you may realise. This particularly applies if you have not been travelling before. Fail to plan, and you plan to fail. This is a big adventure; it’s costing a few bob, so make it work.

So what kind of trip are you going to choose? You could go off with organised or semi-organised groups, on your own or with friends. All have pros and cons; it’s simply a case of thinking it through and doing what’s right for you. It is also possible, and often quite easy, to combine one of the organised options with some independent travel.

ORGANISED AND SEMI- ORGANISED ADVENTURES

If you want to go on an organised or semi-organised trip, the options are:

• Gap Year companies and charitable organisations
• Expedition companies
• Summer camps in the USA
• Adventure tour operators

Sometimes the distinctions between these can be a bit blurred. The most important factors in making these trips a great experience are a sense of humour, a positive frame of mind and good preparation.

Gap year companies and charitable organisations

These organisations put you (normally with one or more companions) into isolated environments, usually in the developing world, to carry out some form of long-term purposeful project or role such as teaching. Generally most run for about three months, although it is possible to take part in quite long projects, some lasting eight months or longer. If the project is properly managed by the sending organisation and the participants are trained and supported appropriately, these can be mind-blowing experiences. Initially, you may find it a considerable challenge, with a steep learning curve, but the depth and quality of the experience can be really awesome.

While on these longer trips, you may be able to arrange your own mini-excursion, and the sending organisations often build time into the programme for this. Many people also undertake some independent travel at the end of the organised project.

All charities and companies involved with this type of trip should have signed up to a code of conduct and include proper training and debriefing as part of their service. For detailed current codes of practice check out the web page of the Year Out Group, http://www.yearoutgroup.org/index.html

Recently, some charities have set up projects where they take you to a developing world environment for three to four weeks, to soak up the culture and see at first hand what the charity is doing. If this sort of work interests you and ties in with what you want to achieve, it may be a good way to get a taste of what you might experience before committing to a longer project. While you are not committed to a lengthy stay if it’s not right for you, the negative side is that you may just be getting into your trip and have settled down in the new environment when it is time to come home.

There are a wide variety of organisations running projects abroad. The size of the sending organisation and the price of the trip can vary significantly. It is important that you know what they expect from you, and who you are responsible to while you are working in a foreign country. You need to be clear how you are going to be supported and you need to check very carefully what they are actually offering, as there is a lot of variation. Pay attention to areas such as accommodation and how much preparation they give you, both practically and in the form of written information.

Ruth, whom I originally met when she was doing her (first!) gap year in Uganda, recently sent me an e-mail updating me on her adventures on her second gap year in Zambia. Somehow, in between she is fitting in a degree.

I've been in Zambia for just over four months and it’s been a really interesting time so far, an eye opener in many regards. Like most African countries it is a land of contrasts; contrasts between the rich and poor, the literate and illiterate, the wet north and the drier south, the traditional way of life and the emerging Western way of life and values, and between belief in spirits and demons or God. Last term I took an evening course learning about marriage and family life in Zambia, which gave me an insight into why things are done in traditional society and the meanings behind different events.

I have been helping at a community school in town for street children, playing games with the children and helping them in a drama competition and attempting a few basic English lessons. The first lesson that I taught them was learning the parts of the body in English. After drawing a picture of the body on the blackboard we tried to label the parts. I found it very challenging trying to teach the children when some could not read the word 'arm' or 'head', I didn’t know where to start! The children are really good fun and I love watching them dancing and singing, they are so uninhibited and have amazing harmony and sense of rhythm. We have been going out to a compound called George Compound to teach a group of ladies how to sell the knitted goods that they have been making. Another English lady taught 50 or more ladies how to knit and make baby clothes and the ladies wanted to sell these items but didn’t know where to start. We taught them how to work as a team, how to handle money, keep records, cost the goods, quality control, guard their capital, etc. After a few weeks many groups diversified into selling vegetables, paraffin or fish and had built up their capital to be able to sell larger goods. At the end of January we are visiting them again to see how their businesses are going and to provide support for them. I learnt that one of the ladies had lost her only two children through diarrhoea: she had been unable to treat them and they had died. At the moment I am in the process of compiling a Bemba translation of a leaflet that I have written on diarrhoea, explaining how you get it, how to avoid it, how to make an oral rehydration drink and how to eat a balanced diet. After finishing the diarrhoea leaflet I’m hoping to write leaflets on burns, fever, controlling bleeding, sprains, etc, and then translate them all into Bemba. We had a fantastic time in Livingstone, white water rafting down the Zambezi, seeing the Victoria Falls and flying over them in a 1930s Tiger Moth, which was incredible! We hopped across into Botswana to go to Chobe National Park and see all the elephants. There are over 70,000 elephants in the park as well as many other game; a feast for the eyes! Sunset cruise on the Chobe river, watching hippos in the water and crocs sunbathing on the banks and an amazing sunset. It was good!

Expedition companies

These trips tend to range in length from one to three months, and typically combine a mixture of aid work (such as a building project or teaching local children), exploration (for example going on safari, climbing a mountain or rafting a river) and relaxation, perhaps finishing on a beach. They often consist of large groups and they can be quite expensive and involve a lot of fundraising. You don’t have to worry about the organisation and you are guaranteed an adventure, with a lot of the risk managed for you. From the feedback I have had, participants find them positive and highly enjoyable. A potential drawback is that you can’t choose your companions, although generally they tend to be like-minded. You are also ultimately in the hands of your leaders on the ground, so you have less control over what you do and when you do it; you can’t have a day off because you don’t feel like trekking or working that day! You should also remember that you will need to do some thinking for yourself, be organised, be able to get on with people and be a team player.

Phil had a great time on his three month expedition, as he describes:

Quite simply the time of my life: I went to Zimbabwe, for an expedition of three months. I built elephant pens, learnt how to track rhino, did wildlife and tree surveys for the World Wildlife Fund which involved trekking for six days in the middle of nowhere, white water rafted the Zambezi from the Victoria Falls for five days, ate wild food, built a clinic and taught in a local school.

It was well run, and had the ethos of letting us learn from our mistakes. It taught us to think for ourselves, and about who we were, and gave us the opportunity to lead our group. It also showed us how we reacted to dangerous situations (including poachers, rhinos charging, running out of water in the bush, poisonous animals and people being cut with machetes). If you think this is fun, then don’t miss the opportunity of a lifetime!

Richard went on a shorter trip and also had a great time:

“Challenge” is the word. Students have ownership of their expedition from the planning phase right through to its execution. It can be quite costly, but when travelling to remoter, wilder, more exciting parts of the developing world, it’s important to have total confidence in the support systems should anything go wrong. I have experienced this at first hand – and it works! Working on projects with wonderful people from poorer parts of the globe can be the most rewarding of experiences.

Summer camps in the USA

A popular summer job is to work on young people’s camps in America, which are very much part of the American way of life. There are several organisations that deal with this. I worked for four summers on these camps and a terrific experience it was too. Depending on how you do it, they may simply provide a visa and work permit and leave the rest to you, or they may organise the lot. I turned down the first camp I was offered, after doing some research and realising that this camp would not have been the best for me. As a result I was placed in a superb camp, and spent the summer running backpacking, rock climbing, rafting and canoeing trips along the East Coast of America and up into Canada.

You may be going with an organisation, but you will still have to think. The adventure training programme at the camp I went to had become almost non-existent, and I had to start from scratch in a new country with a week to get a programme sorted. It presented a considerable challenge at the time; however, it worked, was developed and was still being used years later. The whole experience was so positive that I made my own arrangements to return the following summer. The youngsters can be very spoilt at some camps, but you can soon bring them round. Americans are very friendly and this is a great way to spend a summer in the USA and get paid too. Like many of these organised adventures, it can be done on its own or incorporated into longer travels.

Adventure tour operators

These companies advertise in adventure travel magazines and newspapers. The trips may be as short as two weeks in Morocco or as long as six months driving across Africa in a truck. You can also use a short trip as part of a longer period of travel. By their nature, they generally involve smaller groups than the expedition companies discussed earlier, and everyone has to do their fair share of the work. You can’t choose your companions and the longer trips will throw significant challenges and adventures at you on a daily basis. They can, however, take an enormous amount of organisational hassle out of your trip and often visit more unusual places which might be difficult to travel to on your own.

I went on a ten-day trip with a local operator to Lake Turkana while in Kenya, and had a great time. Hugh Matthews, The Outdoor Experience medical officer, went on a six month trans-Africa journey. Here are his thoughts:

After leaving school I booked to go on a six-month journey from England through to South Africa, in a converted truck. I hadn’t met any of my fellow travellers before I turned up at the port, and as with all groups of people thrown together it took a while to get to know each other. The leader was very experienced, which was invaluable, and knew a lot of the best places to go to, but being in a big group does reduce your flexibility and ability to make your own plans. It also means you spend less time talking to local people. However, having the truck meant we could go places that would be very difficult otherwise and the experience as a whole was very positive. It showed me countries and cultures I had never thought about before, and gave me confidence to travel on my own at the end of the trip and during the following year.

INDEPENDENT TRAVEL

Whether travelling with friends or by yourself, it means more preparation and planning compared with the organised trips, although both styles have their own unique challenges. The main advantage of independent travel is autonomy – you choose when and where you go, how long you spend at each place, and who you go with. You may also meet a wider range of people on your travels than on an organised expedition, both locals and other travellers. These advantages can be significant. An additional benefit to going as a pair or as part of a small group is that it may be cheaper, as you can share certain expenses.

So does this style of travelling present any problems? You may decide you don't want to be with your companions and have differing ideas of what you want to do, or if you are on your own you may feel lonely. If this all sounds a bit depressing, remember that you can have these issues at home. It is just that when travelling you need to be more flexible, reasonable and understanding, as it isn’t always easy to separate, so it’s best to try to resolve any minor disagreement over plans. You will also have to do more planning and research than if you were going on an organised trip – though for many independent travellers this is part of the fun.

A lot of the potential problems of going as a pair or small group can be sorted out at the planning stage. Do you really have a similar mindset and do you want the same things from the trip? Do you have similar attitudes to money and the activities you want to do? If one person does not like spending money and wants to live on the cheap while the other person likes to spend a bit more freely, you may have a source of conflict. Thinking about these basics is common sense and can save you a lot of trouble later on.

It definitely pays to have an objective, especially at the beginning of the trip. Longer-term plans inevitably change and this is to be expected, but at the beginning of your adventure having something to go for and get stuck into gets you into the swing of things rapidly and focuses the mind. You don't necessarily have to commit yourself by booking things in advance. Pre-booking the first part of your trip can give considerable peace of mind but, for example, trekking agencies can often be sourced on arrival at your destination. Nepal is a great example. We sorted out a short trek around the Kathmandu valley the day after we arrived, and left the next day.

Independent travelling is likely to leave you with memories that will always make you smile. I remember Sarah and I arriving tired and hungry, in the early hours of the morning, at a strange town in Northern India. It was pouring with monsoon rain and it had been a long and tough journey, during which we hadn’t been particularly convinced the bus was even going to where it was supposed to! Eventually we found a hotel; it’s all part of the experience. Travelling with a small group of friends is great but it can be challenging, and you will need that all-important sense of humour. You’ll certainly learn about your companions and their flexibility and capability during your adventures. It is important to be sensitive to your companions and support each other – we all have bad days.

If you go solo there can be a tendency to worry about being lonely. Clearly there will be times when this is true, but you will normally find the opposite is the case as you mix with a wide variety of people on your travels. I remember going off on my own around Europe when I was nineteen. Backpacking around the Tour Du Mont Blanc long distance path, I met some great people; 48 hours after my departure I was laughing and joking with some of them in a high mountain refuge, having had a terrific meal with a glass of wine while a thunderstorm raged outside.

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