Luxury Adventure Travel Means Being Prepared
By Anonymous
Luxury adventure travel appeals to me more at my age, than it did half a century ago, when back then I didn't really enjoy sleeping in the rain on a Scottish hillside, without a tent. If you're like me, you're looking for something more adventurous in your travel than beaches (been there, done that), nightclubs, foreign cities (seen one city skyline - you've seen them all).
Discover travel the slow way. You see more on a push-bike or a horse or camel, than you do in a tour bus, and you don't have to yell at the bus driver to stop for photographs.
Besides, suicide bombers stick to crowds, so you won't be bothered b y one while crossing the Simpson Desert on a camel, or finding gold nuggets with a metal detector near Kalgoorlie, or catching and eating marron from the Blackwood River.
Aren't there nasty bits of wildlife off the beaten track, just waiting to kill you with one bite? Yes. They are called mosquitoes, and you can find them in cities as well. Eat half a dozen cloves of garlic each day. It will give a flavor to your blood that mosquitoes, bedbugs, tsetse flies and vampire bats don't enojoy.
I have watched mosquitoes land on my arms then hurriedly take off again, and I was only eating one clove of garlic per day at the time. If it is a choice between drinking garlic-tainted blood and starving, the mosquitoes will drink your blood, but there are always rabbits in the countryside, and tourists who don't like garlic.
Poisonous snakes try to get away from you. Nearly everyone who dies in Australia from a snake-bite was trying to kill the snake. If I had poisonous fangs and someone tried to kill me, I would not do the politically correct thing. The lesson is quite simple - don't try to kill snakes, or bears, or sting-rays or crocodiles.
Now crocodiles and non-poisonous snakes might be waiting to eat you, so be prepared to keep out of reach of them during your outdoor adventure travel. Wolf packs are unlikely to chase you like the old movies used to imply. A study of their stomach contents showed plenty of beetles and grubs and perhaps an occasional rabbit, but the large animals (including humans) offer too much danger. An injured animal is a starving animal, so a wolf (or lion or tiger) prefers to avoid any chance of being injured, and only attack deer when they are too sick to fight back. Be prepared.
The key to luxury adventure travel lies in your own hands. Quite simply you must prepare for the conditions that you will face. If you die from thirst, it is your own fault for not being prepared. If you get lost and need a search party, it is your own fault for not being prepared. If you only have warm-weather clothing for a hot country and are caught in a freezing storm, it is your own fault for not being prepared.
More on Travel and Leisure for Baby Boomers
Planning Your Next Vacation? Try The Land Of 10,000 Lakes
Five Places to Go Whale Watching in The United Kingdom
Travelling Solo : Fun If You Survive