Episode 101: Alastair Humphreys

The Adventure Mindset – the Highs and Lows of Leading an Adventurous Life

I had the absolute pleasure to interview Alastair Humphreys, a renowned Adventurer, Author, and advocate for microadventures, to discuss his incredible journeys, his love for storytelling, and the philosophy behind adventure.

Choosing the Adventurous Path

Alastair Humphreys is not your average traveller. His adventures have taken him from cycling around the world to trekking across deserts, hauling a ski sled in the Arctic, and even busking through Spain with a violin. But beneath the surface of these grand journeys there’s another side. That of trying to find balance between seeking adventure, to staying rooted in one place.

He expresses candidly how his first big adventure—cycling around the world—was both the best years of his life and something of a curse. The journey bestowed upon him the privilege of experiencing the diversity of our world, but also highlighted the real challenges of returning to ‘normal’ life’ and finding a way to deal with post-adventure blues.

The Emotional Spectrum of Adventure

Throughout the podcast, it became clear that Alastair is not just an adventurer but a storyteller who captures the emotional highs and lows of traveling. It’s something I’ve learnt from his books, that there is an open and honest approach to ‘telling it like it is’, for every huge high out on the adventure trail, there were equally lows. He talked about the duality of adventure, where feelings range from fear to satisfaction, from the mundane to the exhilarating.

When asked to describe a single day of his journey, Humphreys recalls starting his trek along India’s Kaveri River, a day filled with trepidation that turned into excitement. This encapsulates the essence of adventure: not knowing what lies ahead and finding joy in overcoming initial fears.

Often these emotional swings are what make adventures unforgettable, but when it comes to mental health, Alastair shares that while the life he has led has been enriching and fulfilling, it doesn’t necessarily mean it has been a happy life.

Microadventures: Redefining Exploration

Alastair is a champion of the microadventure, a concept he pioneered to show that adventure is accessible to everyone. By encouraging people to seek out small, doable adventures close to home, he has been able to redefine what it means to explore. One of his famous quotes is “Adventure is a state of mind,” and it’s a philosophy aiming to look beyond traditional adventure paradigms. Alastair firmly believes that we can find excitement and that feeling of our adventure much closer to home.

A Vision for the Future

In more recent years, Alastair’s commitment to environmental consciousness has reshaped how he undertakes adventures. We discussed the idea that local acts collectively can impact global change if we all ‘thing global, and act local’.

While he has been more focused on local explorations and microadventures, he did hint that bigger journeys might still be in his future. He muses about the idea of cycling through the southern states of the U.S. as well as exploring Australia’s Canning Stock Route – an adventure that he dreamt up well before taking his 4 year round the world cycle tour!

Embracing the Feeling of Adventure

A concept I really grabbed onto from listening to Alastair speak was that of being able to find the ‘feeling’ of adventure without the need to take on longer journeys. Feelings of excitement, anticipation, curiosity, freedom – they can be found by keeping it local and exploring our immediate surroundings.

If like me you are drawn to the call of adventure, Alastair encourages us to seek out local possibilities, embrace the unpredictable, and most importantly, embrace an adventure mindset which doesn’t require weeks, months or years of adventure to develop. After all, spending a night sleeping on a local hill under the stars, can invoke the very same feelings and emotions had on those longer, grand adventures.

Find out more

You can keep up to date with what Alastair is up to via his website – www.alastairhumphreys.com or find him on social media on instagram – @al_humphreys. If you haven’t done so yet, I also encourage you to seek out some of his books – you can find ones for adults – as well as children.

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