Despite living abroad twice in my life I’ve never actually traveled that much and I’ve only visited 11 countries (3 of which I lived in). I’m always day dreaming of exploring far away places like Australia, New Zealand or South America but I haven’t even begun fully exploring the United Kingdom yet – which is crazy considering it is literally right on my door step.
After recently watching a Ted talk with Yorkshire born explorer Alastair Humphreys I became inspired to start having ‘micro-adventures’ – a phrase coined by Humphreys himself. The idea is a simple one – start small, just go and sleep on top of a hill under the stars.
The idea of exploration or adventure can often be shot down by the off-putting voice in our head saying things like ‘the Inca trail sounds amazing but isn’t that really far away? Doesn’t it cost a lot? How are you going to get the time of work? Isn’t the gear really expensive?’ and so on. By exploring locally, there’s not really any foot for that pessimistic voice to stand on. It’s right there and it’s so accessible!
Definitely keep working towards getting out there but in the meantime there is nothing stopping you from exploring locally and being adventurous on your home turf.
Humphreys really helped me realise this and I’d love to share his video with anyone who hasn’t seen it yet:
Of course, the first thing I did after watching this was to create a sort of ‘wish-list’ for micro-adventures I’d like to have. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:
1. Sleep in a Bivvy bag outside
2. Sleep in a hammock in a Forest
3. Go Stargazing
4. Swim in a lake
5. Go Kayaking and wild camp on the other side of the lake (we saw people doing this in Loch Lomond and I’ve wanted to do it ever since)
6. Watch the sunrise
7. Watch the sunset
8. Build a fire from scratch without using matches
9. Catch my own food by fishing
10. Cook dinner on an open fire
Well there you have it, those are going to be the top 10 micro-adventures I am going to focus on having the most. I’m sure everyone’s will be slightly different so if you have any interesting ones please do share!
Oh, Alastair Humphreys also has a really kickass blog that’s worth checking out:
Wild Click Go 
Great list!
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Thanks Jason! Alastair Humphreys has some great suggestions on his blog too.
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Btw if you are in the south and want to go out with like minded people I can suggest some groups and trips?
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I’m more towards the Midlands so we tend to go North most of the time. Are there any places in the South you would recommend?
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Oh loads within reach of London. I think you’ve seen a few recent ones on my blog. Good luck, loads of cool stuff in the midlands and north for you!
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If you’ve never experienced the hammock camping community first hand, you’ll quickly learn that they’re lovingly called “bear burritos”.
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I’ve never done it before but really want to give it a go. How intriguing, are they very snug?!
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There is a lot of information that goes in to answering that question. I’d be happy to chat with you in depth about hammock camping. They are, generally, quite comfortable though. The biggest issue is convective cooling caused by air blowing under your body while you sleep. It can make a 60 degree night feel like a 30 degree night.
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The great thing about your list is that you could complete multiple things in a single hike~ hike and set up camp, watch the sunset as you build a fire, cook a meal over the fire, star gaze, and then wake up in time to catch the sunrise! Maybe that defeats the purpose of micro-adventures, but maybe several micro adventures combined make a macro adventure? Still sounds great either way.
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You’re totally right and that would make a pretty good trip! Although I’m keen to do them all individually so I have more micro-adventures aha – which is silly! But then I can end it with an awesome macro-adventure that has all 10!
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