When bushwalking becomes adventure

[mikethepike]

When is a bushwalk a bushwalk and when is it an adventure? Or in other words, what features turn a bushwalk into an adventure or can be used to differentiate between the two terms. Or is there no difference but instead it's just the way individuals reflect on things, as in the eye or mind of the beholder. For instance, in the same terrain, one party's bushwalk could be another party's, or individual's, adventure. Perhaps even on the same walk, one person may regard it as just another bushwalk while another may think of it as a real adventure. I'm interested to read your thoughts on the matter and especially to hear of examples from your own experiences that in your mind, illustrate the differences between the two ways of describing a walk, whether it be a day walk or an extended walk. To my mind, adventure does not necessarily equate with grueling. Walking waist deep in Tassie mud may be very grueling but it's not necessarily adventurous. Unless of course you think it is?

[davidmorr]

Hmmm, interesting question. If I was to try to distinguish, I would probably suggest that an adventure is something challenging that is out of the range of your normal activities. In other words, it is a new experience, whereas a "bushwalk" may be something that you have done before, or have done similar things before.

And no, I don't think that "gruelling" implies adventure. Adventure could be something as simple as going to Europe or South America on a coach trip. Not likely to be anything gruelling about either of those.

[gayet]

I think it is very much in the eye of the beholder.... An adventure one day, may become just another walk the next. So its very much a personal thing and suggests once an adventure now a repetition, albeit in varying conditions. The adventure could change partway through to a long hard slog, its all how one looks at it.

Just a thought, very similar to Davids.

[Mark F]

I agree with davidmorr, to me an adventure suggests going into the unknown or facing a challenging change of conditions on more familiar territory. Doing a walk that I have done before is a walk but embarking on the AAWT last December of which I had only done quite short sections in the past was, to me, an adventure. Even on walks I know quite well, changed conditions can make some parts an adventure. On the AAWT dealing with the the very high water levels in the rivers from the Cotter south to Valentines was challenging.

[taswegian]

well it also depends on how old you are.
My young 8 yo had an 'adventure' on a couple of occasions.
One example was when the Nat Parks helicopter swooped down to where we were walking asking about some 'poachers' they were chasing.
Another was when she asked if she could walk on ahead. I foolishly said yes and then she not knowing there was a fork went down the wrong track and 2 hours later we found a very hot and bothered girl with relief all round.
I wouldn't call them adventures but she does in looking back, particularly the former.
For me I endorse davidmorr's comments.

[WarrenH]

Being at home planning a trip can be an adventure.

Having anticipatory nostalgia, about what I might find on a tour, is an adventure.

Finding putrid green water or a muddy puddle and knowing that that, is what I'll be drinking today, is an adventure.

Asking a grazier for permission to cross their property, to gain access to a wild place is always an enjoyable adventure.

Climbing a mountain in the twilight, to get good reception on my Next-G setup, to chat to my wife before she goes to sleep, is a wonderful adventure.

I can have an adventure just walking around my house block.

Players are always adventurous, spectators are less adventurous but they have the best GPSs, SPOTS and other EPIRBish type stuff, to help feel more adventurous.

I will always remember a saying by a early American explorer ... "We go to the wilderness to be brave." To me those are the words of an adventurer.

Warren.

[wildwalks]

I am a bit nerdy, but I do love Mihály Csíkszentmihályi theory of Flow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%29

I often wonder if what we describe as 'Adventure' is something just on the challenging side of Flow. Hence why the 8 year old experainces adventure in the camping in the backyard, and why people with more experience in the back country need a bit more challenge. But there is obviously more needed, as not all flow experiences lead to a sense of adventure, this I think is where a sense of unknown comes in.

So I would say any experience with a hint of unknown that is on the challenging side of Flow will lead to an adventure. But maybe some people would consider that mis-adventure??

But maybe that is just a nerdy way of saying I agree with Davidmoor too

Matt

[neil_fahey]

Adventure - Noun: An unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity.

Sounds like life in general to me

[mikethepike]

I am a bit nerdy, but I do love Mihály Csíkszentmihályi theory of Flow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%29

Thanks for the link wildwalks, A very long treatise so here's its the opening sentence:
"Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields."

"

Post by neil_fahey » Fri 30 Dec, 2011 4:12 pm
Adventure - Noun: An unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity.

Sounds like life in general to me

Agreed! And if you look at it in those terms of course, a lot of things fall into the adventure category. Just taking the opening quote, even work can be an adventure (if you're lucky maybe). I recall once when I worked in research and setting to work at 8am and the next thing I'm aware of it's 5 PM and people are saying goodbye - I was so involved with the thinking and doing that day that I had no idea of time's passage. And No, I wasn't sleeping! I had flow or so so I now learn!

I think in bushwalking terms, as in anything else, the sense of adventure is felt most keenly when outcomes are a bit uncertain and you feel that there's a some challenge - facing the unknown. It's why rockclimbers mainly attempt grades at the edge of their established ability and not doing climbs that to them, offer little or no challenge. Rock climbing is about living out of your comfort zone I think while somehow trying to find it enjoyable. In bushwalking, solo walking off tracks can really make the walker 'face his demons', as someone put it recently (Wild 117) about his solo walk to Tassie's SW Cape. I think this extra sense of personal challenge which is surely adventure can be a large part of the attraction of solo bushwalking.

Equally I think that there are many bushwalkers, and I'm especially thinking of walkers in a club environment here, who while they might enjoy the environmental, physical and social aspects of bushwalking, often appear to me to have little or no sense of adventure. There main concern is sticking to 'regulation' rest and munch times and having someone assure them exactly how many hours the day's walk will involve and where they'll be camping that night, even before they break camp. That doesn't sound like adventure to me. Adventure excludes the predictable and boring.

[tom_brennan]

From Lindsay in another thread:
http://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3788#p43039