Advocating for Adventure in the Everyday

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Advocating for Adventure in the Everyday

I need to make a confession: until yesterday I do not think I really understood the word ‘adventure’. It’s quite embarrassing really. I call myself an Adventure Advocate. I produce a podcast called Seize Your Adventure. I ask all of my guests what ‘adventure’ means to them. And yet, when people ask me what adventure is, and more importantly how to have one, I could not quite get the explanation right.


You see, the word ‘adventure’ is like the word ‘love’. It is a poor signifier of a feeling that is difficult to explain. I have heard it described by multiple people in similar but differing ways. “Adventure is a mindset… it makes you feel all the emotions… it feeds your soul…it’s uncomfortable but worth it”. None of these description are wrong. If you know adventure, you know exactly what they mean. But how do you describe adventure to those who do not have it? How do you advocate for something so intangible?

The first time I remember feeling adventure, I was seven years old. My family went on the first of many holidays to Snowdonia. We drove across the country from our home in the South. My mum and dad would share the long drive and my older sister and me would sit in the back with our rescue dog between us. The day of travelling was filled with cassette tapes and car games, and the landscapes outside the car windows became increasingly unknown. It was a holiday in Britain - my own country - and yet we crossed over a border that bought a new language into my life for the first time.  I remember us giggling at the Welsh word ARAF, teasing the dog with the bark-like word for SLOW.  We walked into slate mines and rode trains along the coast. The day we walked up Snowdon, we stepped into the cloud and I never reached the top because I was too scared of the wind and rain. It was the epitome of a family adventure holiday. 

Red dragon mascot sits on wet, mossy rocks in a foggy mountain landscape in Snowdonia.

Red dragon mascot sits on wet, mossy rocks in a foggy mountain landscape in Snowdonia.

Since then, I have felt adventure many times: when I’ve stood on glaciers; when I’ve navigated Spanish streets; when I’ve pushed my body to keep walking in the hope of a bed. Yesterday, I felt adventure again. It might not have looked like much from the outside. It was a simple walk through the parks and commons near my house. There was no terrifying weather. I was not walking across a foreign country. I came home for lunch. So what made it adventurous?

It was the fact that I put myself into a situation that invited the unexpected. I did not plan my path (I rarely do) but instead took tangents where I felt like it (the confines of the common kept me safe!). I stopped to watch a robin trilling his song on top of a post. I was surprised by the spider that had taken a seat on my water bottle. I giggled at the charcoal burner that had the name ‘Norman’ embossed on the side and wondered if all charcoal burners have names. And best of all, I found myself far enough away from the bank holiday crowds that I surprised a doe on my path and had a frozen moment of mutual acknowledgement before she bounded off into the bushes. 

A black SayYesMore water bottle slants across half the photo, the other half is a blurry white and green spring landscape

A black SayYesMore water bottle slants across half the photo, the other half is a blurry white and green spring landscape

As I enjoyed this feeling of adventure just miles from my own home, I thought about how to capture the feeling and explain to others how they can find it themselves. And the easiest suggestion I have to is take yourself away from human-made comfort and out into uncontrollable nature. When you do that, you put yourself in situations where the unexpected will occur. You open yourself up to adventure.

And like love, you’ll know it when you find it.   

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How to Host a Wild Camp for Wake Up Wild

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How to Host a Wild Camp for Wake Up Wild

This blog is primarily for anyone who would like to lead a wild camp for the YesTribe. In 2019 the YesTribe has committed to hosting 100 free (or nearly free, in the case of a site charging for places) wild camps around the UK, as part of a campaign called Wake Up Wild. We’re also raising funds for a charity called Tree Aid, because we really like trees.

This is a simple step-by-step guide to hosting a campout. These steps are written assuming you’re a comfortable wild camper already, and are happy to lead and welcome a crew of people - many of whom you won’t know. If you’d like a little training before hosting your camp, then be sure to drop us a line and then attend an existing wild camp. Shadowing someone else is the best way to learn.

Ok, so assuming you’re ready to go, here’s what to do:

1) Decide on the location of your camp. If you’re not sure where to host a camp, or if you’d like some suggestions, drop Team Yes a line.

Setting up an event on Facebook

Setting up an event on Facebook

2) Set up an event on the Wake Up Wild Facebook page. Events > + Create Event > then fill in the details, ideally copying and pasting the main body of text from a previous Wake Up Wild camp and substituting your specific location and meet-up details.

The rule of thumb for organising these campouts is to make the camp as simple and easy to attend for everyone, experienced and beginner campouts alike. It’s ensure more people come along, and will also keep your admin workload down because folks ask fewer questions when they’re given all details up front.

3) Ensure the Event Name begins with ‘YesTribe Wild Camp at"‘ and then add the location or region afterwards.

The key details to enter into a Facebook event

The key details to enter into a Facebook event

4) Add ‘Wake Up Wild’ as a co-host

5) Ensure your event timings match the meet-up time you’ve scheduled for the start. Home-time the next morning is up to you, it might be a school morning so everyone will disappear fast, or a more loungy weekend. People are free to leave when they like, but put the End time as the time that YOU want to head out.

6) Feel free to leave the ‘details’ field clear.

7) Add this Justgiving link to the Tickets field: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/wakeupwild2019

Enter the justgiving link for Wake Up Wild and Tree Aid into the Tickets field

Enter the justgiving link for Wake Up Wild and Tree Aid into the Tickets field

8) Finally, ensure that this text is towards the top of the description (in case you wrote your own or copied from an event that didn’t already have it:

We don’t ask for any payment for these wild camps, it’s essentially a group of folks who like camping meeting up with other people who like camping! You just need to organise your own kit (feel free to ask for help/spares on the event page) and get yourself to the camp. Please remember you come along at your own risk, nature is wonderful but there are trip hazards sometimes.

If you’d like to say thanks we’ve got a couple of options - donate to Tree Aid, the Wake Up Wild charity partner @ www.justgiving.com/fundraising/wakeupwild2019 and/or give a pound or two to your camp leader to cover their expenses and admin time. They’re very nice people who host campouts out of the goodness of their heart :)

9) Once your event is live let the team know by posting it here. This way they can ensure it’s shared on the SayYesMore calendar, newsletter and Facebook pages/groups.

10) The Build-Up: Keep an eye on your event in case people ask questions. Remember that people sometimes click ‘interested’ or ‘going’ and then won’t turn up, so keep an open mind on attendance.

11) The day before a camp out it’s always nice to post an update, encouraging folks to sign up and remind them that it’s still happening. (When you create the event try to make it habit to set a reminder in your personal calendar to write this pre-camp post). Be friendly and open and kind and you’ll set the culture for the event in real life. It’s also a good time to remind them about social media posts. Social media is a great way to get other people interested in wild camps, and this is a really nice use of social media as well.

Here’s a bit of text to copy/paste the day before a camp. Feel free to add your own flavour :)

Hello everyone! The campout tomorrow is still on! The weather is looking (FILL IN THE BLANK HERE!) and I’m excited to spend a night outside with you. Please do post on social media about your experience before and after the event and remember to tag @theyestribe and #wakeupwild and #sayyesmore if there’s space. If you’d like to film your experience of preparing for, travelling to and enjoying the campout, we would love to add your footage to a film we’re making as we go. Send for free to events@wakeupwild.co.uk on wetransfer.com.

[Image: A screenshot of the weather app is a nice image to share here, especially if it’s sunny! If it’s rainy, maybe just a picture of a smiley person outside! The Upsplash website is a good place to get copyright-free photos]

11) Depending on the meet-up and location (ie. if the camp is a hard place to find unless you guide people) you might want to share your phone number on the event. You do not have to do this, it’s totally up to you.

12) Event time: It’s over to you now. Have a great time, look after people, perhaps start the camp by getting everyone in a circle and doing a painless introduction (ask each person to spend no more than 20 seconds sharing their name, why they came along to the camp, and something different, like the best thing that happened to them that week, or a cool fact that nobody else would know!).

13) Make sure you take a group photo before it gets too dark (or if it’s dark already, do a headlight campfire photo!). Remember to pack a little tripod for this, they’re very handy and to take a few nice photos showing the group, the approach to the camp and the site itself. Then send for free to events@sayyesmore.com (use wetransfer.com if files are big). We love archiving photos of YesTribe wild camps!

A group of people on a wild camp surrounding a pile of headtorches on the ground, which look a bit like a campfire!

A group of people on a wild camp surrounding a pile of headtorches on the ground, which look a bit like a campfire!

Finally, thank you. We think it’s important to get outside with good people, and the more wild camps you put on the more opportunity folks will have. You’re brilliant, and we’re here to support you so please, if you ever have a question or ten, say hi.

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This is very ambitious, but here goes

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This is very ambitious, but here goes

This is an account of social media fulfilling its potential to do good in the world, at a time when that message is especially important. By Chris Lee.

Early in March I left my prized Alpkit sleeping bag - the one that kept me warm while cycling across Canada - on a train bound for Newcastle.

alpkit bag.jpeg

I'd thought it was a train bound for York until we'd been sitting in York station for about thirty seconds. The next three seconds involved me realising the train was about to move; that if it did I'd miss my important and imminent meeting; and that I had to get myself and my stuff out of the train sharpish.

The sleeping bag was mistakenly abandoned in the frantic fluster that followed.

"Bugger", I thought, when I noticed its absence after the train departed. Bound, irretrievably, for Newcastle.

I asked the platform attendant where to report lost luggage. "Try the ticket office", she offered.

I asked the ticket office if I could report lost luggage. "Try the kiosk", they countered. "We're LNER, you need TransPennine". The first allusion to the multi-company rigmarole I was about to encounter.

I asked the kiosk if I could report lost luggage. "Sure. What was it? What did it look like? Which train? Where did you get on? Which coach? Which seat?" They noted everything down in a book, and told me to wait for a call.

Which I did, all morning. The prescribed time came and went, while images of my suspicious sleeping bag package being detonated by The British Transport Police filled my mind. "See it. Say it. Sorted."

I took to Twitter in an attempt to expedite things. LNER put me in touch with TransPennine, because they operated the train I'd been on. TransPennine put me back in touch with LNER, because they manage the station at Newcastle. LNER put me in touch with Northern, because they manage Manchester Victoria where I'd joined the service.

By the end of this I had the call sign of the train when I'd been on board, it's new call sign, it's current location, and various other bits of information. But no further information on the location of my sleeping bag.

Then, later in the afternoon as I was beginning to abandon hope: "Chris, great news! We've got it! I've just spoken to the conductor and he's now back in Newcastle so it must have been on a trip today!"

chris-yang-746390-unsplash.jpg

I was elated. Getting it home from Newcastle was the next logistical challenge, preferably without me having to go and collect it in person: A return ticket to Newcastle from home costs about the same as the sleeping bag did new.

So this time I took to Facebook, and more specifically to The Yes Tribe: An excellent bunch of people with the tagline "where strangers are just friends waiting to happen".

"This is very ambitious", I typed. "But here goes."

I wrote a post recounting the spiel above, then asked if anyone living near the station could pick it up and send it down to me. "I will of course pay for the postage and add the price of two pints (or equivalent treat) for your troubles."

The silence I expected was short-lived. "I have a friend who will be passing through Newcastle late tomorrow evening so could potentially pick it up?" "I can pick it up on Wednesday / Thursday if you’ve not found anyone yet." "I'm going to Newcastle next weekend so can if no one has got it by Saturday!"

The offers poured in. Seven people, formerly strangers, all willing to go out of their way to help. A few days later the postman handed me my sleeping bag, safe and sound.

The YesTribe was founded in 2015 by Dave Cornthwaite, who by then had spent a decade being led by a personal motto, ‘say yes more’. Dave dropped me a line after seeing the sleeping bag post and was delighted to hear it had been returned safely. Dave said, “If there was ever a vision for the YesTribe, it would be that its members were mirrors of those trail or river angels who once helped me, a stranger, when I momentarily passed through their lives in the midst of a personal adventure. My belief in humanity was refreshed at each encounter, and now The YesTribe has blossomed into a community that puts kindness and decency first, whether in the midst of an exciting adventure, or the hardest times in life, or like this, a little moment where making someone’s day depends entirely on you willingly offering a few minutes of your day to help someone you’ve never met before.

“It should be noted that Graham, the YesTriber who helped return the sleeping bag to you, got in touch and said he’d like to donate the postage fee you’re sending him to the YesTribe. We’ll gladly put it towards a fund to buy a sleeping bag for someone who wants to go camping, but can’t afford the gear”

If you want to find out more, follow the YesTribe on Facebook and Instagram and visit the SayYesMore website.

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YesTribe In Mind

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YesTribe In Mind

So it’s day 55 on my 1250 mile solo running adventure from Rome to London. Yesterday I’d just completed the biggest running day of my life – a mammoth 54 mile day to arrive in Paris in style. I wake up and (don’t judge me) wolf down the most-calorific McDonald’s breakfast I could stomach before making my way over to the Eiffel Tower.

Besides climbing out of Rome on the 25th of August, the 5 days crossing the Alps and dropping down to Montreux which took my breath away, this was to be another landmark moment on this ‘mental adventure’ I’d never forget. But for one reason I could never have written.

I take the customary selfies on ground level, I grab my ticket, I join the queue (with heightened senses hoping I didn’t pong too much given that it at been a few days since checking in at a laundrette), I grab the window spot in the lift to capture the majestic iron tapestry on the way up. We climb a level, then another, then another on foot, and there it was, the 360 view with a picture-perfect day across the whole of Paris. As if that wasn’t enough in itself to blow my mind at this stage having ran every step of the way here from the firkin Colosseum.

But get this. Most people would spend 30 minutes maybe 45 on average at the very top. This overly-enthusiastic adventure-runner however was going to soak up 120 minutes minimum, so I did, until the time came to head back down to Earth but not before recording my customary 90 seconds of film on my iPhone to capture the magic. Honestly, 90 seconds, 70 seconds of which I was free styling until 2 rock-stars roughly my age caught my eye off to the right.

I figured I should probably say “Hi” seeing as they seemed particularly interested in my monologue. So I stop filming, I make sure the footage saved before catching eyes and introducing myself. They do the same, they’re German, they’re super positive (and clearly a great match as a couple), I confirm exactly what I’m up to before they say, unbelievably, “Wow awesome! Have you heard of The YesTribe?”

#Whaaaaaaaaaat!

Image of Dan on the top of the Eiffel Tower with 2 friends

We’re talking a 90 second window where this coming together could have happened… at the top of the Eiffel Tower… a coming together of this British Yes-Triber with Maria & Raiko Müller, Tribe Leaders of The YesTribe Germany. You could not have written it and this just verified once again that I was being looked after out there, that something somewhere was looking out for me every step of the way and helping me bring this whole adventure to life with more colour & magic & warmth & love & generosity & high-spirits than I ever know possible.

But less of the reminiscing, let’s break this thing down.

In 2012 – after 6 months of my mood elevating - I lost my sanity and ended up preaching from the central lane of a major motorway in Italy. I’d gone from believing I was the next Mark Zuckerberg of the mental health world, to the next Steve Jobs, to The Chosen One who was put on the planet to show the world how to slow down and follow their hearts. This was only going to go one way. Then came the time in psychiatric wards, the diagnoses of Bipolar Disorder, then the 6 months of crippling depression where I simply wanted to take my own life. Not a great chapter.

With a humiliating turning point in a supermarket looking ahead to 2013 – with unreal love & support from friends, family and the pros – I stripped it all back, started again, nurtured a much healthier & simpler approach to life ridding myself of life’s excess to focus on what truly matters most, started sharing my story and then witnessing the magic on each occasion.

Every time I shared my story 1) I felt lighter as a result, 2) I started building an amazing Dream Team around me, many of you reading these words are very much included, and 3) the very best thing of all, every time I shared my story it gave huge permission to others to speak up about what they were going through. We’re talking 9 times out of 10. We’re talking unreal and heartfelt responses, so much so that now feeling much stronger & healthier both physically and mentally though 2014/15/16 I knew I had to do something with this.

I knew I had to create a huge platform to share my story on a national level given the reasons above. And what better way to do that than by returning to Italy but this time frikin running from the Colosseum in Rome back to the frikin London Eye. In the words of Lightning McQueen (huge fan) “Ka-Chow.”

Image of Dan standing with his back to the camera, in a very straight road looking into the distance- wearing a bunch of colourful balloons on his back pack

So where’s this going? Where this is going is (tracking back) to starting my research, planning my route, taking a look around to see if anyone had done this before, then connecting with the one and only Miss Laura Maisey who it turned out was running the almost exact-same running adventure the year ahead of me (2016), then being invited by Laura to come and witness the magic that was the end of Elise Downing’s 301-day 5000-mile running adventure around the UK in Greenwich Park where I was to meet (take a bow) Mr Dave Cornthwaite and this majestic thing called The YesTribe.

The Yes is history.

Between now and then I shared my story at Yestival 2016 (things may have gotten a little emotional), soaked up every second of Rome To Home as if I were living in an oil painting for 65 days straight, stepped in to this next chapter in my career as a professional speaker & mental health activist and, almost in parallel, launched #AREWEOKUK (the Red Bull of the mental health world) whilst taking on the huge opportunity of becoming a SayYesMore Ambassador.

Image of Dan speaking at Yestival 2018

So there’s your context and here’s why this… tribe… matters.

I have a vision. A vision as vivid as that day at the top of the Eiffel Tower. A vision that all 66.6 million people across the UK have the courage, the support and the safe space to speak up when we’re suffering, to feel empowered to speak up when we’re suffering so that together we can show future generations how it’s done. It’s a simple vision, one that I believe in my core can be achieved in my lifetime. And as I said to Dave when talking through the Ambassadorship, if I believe in someone, some thing or some community who’s playing their part to create the world I believe in, then I’m here to promote them, to evangelise them and ensure as many people across the UK know about them, of which The YesTribe is firmly at the top of the list.

What does this tribe offer beyond the world-class supportive network of ever-growing Yes’s? It offers courage, it offers support and it offers a safe space. Not just to share our next crazy-ass adventures and new ventures but also our doubts, our concerns, our fears, our vulnerabilities, our anxieties and our lived experiences, whatever we’ve been though, together as one.

And that, to sign off with Dream team, is why every single living soul on our beautiful little island and beyond should keep The YesTribe… firmly in mind.

With love, DK x

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Accidental Iceland- Part One

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Accidental Iceland- Part One

As all great adventures do, it started with a pint in the pub. In my case, this was a pint of lime soda as I’d had a long day working at a school and any amount of alcohol would have finished me off in seconds.

This was actually my first proper meeting with the YesTribe apart from the ambassador’s training weekend back in February. Up until Christmas, I was teaching at a school in Dorset and had never been able to make it to any of the meet ups, so now that I had the freedom to be out in the big city ON A SCHOOL NIGHT and meet some like-minded folk in Covent Garden, I grasped the opportunity straight away.

I’ve been generally blown away by how welcoming everyone is in the YesTribe and everyone was soon asking about where I had been for my daily adventure.

My adventure for the day had been a bit lame to be honest and involved me walking from London Bridge to Covent Garden after the tube station was suddenly shut and I got claustrophobic surrounded by so many people who weren't wearing any outdoor kit.

A photo of the list of tube stations Eastbound from Covent Garden on the Piccadilly Line

So, what happens when you ask a table full of YesTribers what adventure to do that night. The ideas started rolling in, ranging from walking down the Thames and getting a boat back to visiting one of the city parks. I was on the verge of simply finding the nearest tree and climbing it so I could have an early night when the suggestions escalated wildly with the proposal of getting to an airport and spending the night partying in Ibiza (This may have been boss-man Dave’s idea).

A new type of adventure this may have been for me had I accepted, but I genuinely can’t think of anything I would less like to do for an evening than consuming cheap vodka from the bronzed body of mankini-clad male stripper. I was so relieved when fellow ambassador Tom Napper presented the idea of simply getting to the airport and picking the next available flight that I accepted the challenge before any more party destinations were mentioned. At least two people at the table had brought me a lime soda at this point and so it would be terribly rude not to now follow through. The game was on.

I was delighted when I extended the challenge to the table and Ian, who I had met about an hour earlier, discovered that he didn’t need to be in work until 10am the next morning. Downing our drinks we took a rapid selfie and said a hasty goodbye to the Tribe. Sprinting out of the pub, we headed in separate directions- Ian to swing via home to grab a bag and myself to make it back to my car in Golder’s Green to pick up my passport and then dash to Heathrow.

A very blurry selfie of SayYesMore YesTribe members Jen, Ian, Jenny, Tom and Dave in the pub before departure

Italy, Morocco, Scotland, South Africa... potential locations were reeling through my head at top speed. Where would it be possible to get a flight to at this time of night? Could I meet up with some of the foreign SayYesMore cohort in their home city? Would I survive on just the contents of my rucksack?

A tube ride, a two mile run and a cruise down the motorway later, I dumped the car in the nearest car park and sprinted into the departure terminal. I’d had a very quick look at the flights for the evening and knew that we might make it in time for the last flight to Ireland. As soon as I arrived, it wasn’t looking hopeful- the airport was deserted. My suspicions were confirmed by the final two staff left at the check-in desks who informed me that we had missed the last flight by half an hour.

A picture of Jen and Ian at the door of the departure terminal at Heathrow Airport

Catching my breath, Ian arrived from the train and I broke the news to him. We made the decision that despite the disappointment, we would still make the most of the evening and so picked the nearest green patch on Google Earth that wasn’t in the middle of a run-way to go and investigate.

Realising that neither of us had eaten dinner, the plan quickly changed to finding the nearest MacDonald’s to refuel and use the wifi. After a cheeseburger and getting kicked out at 11pm, we made our way to a local nature reserve behind a supermarket depot to bivvy out for the night (luckily I carry lots of spare kit in the car for work and so had plenty to lend to Ian!).

A photo of Jen and Ian in their sleeping bags bivvying in the woods

The plan for the morning was for me to drop Ian back at Heathrow so that he could make it back to work in time. It suddenly occurred to me, as I lay warm in my sleeping bag in the woods, that just because the plan had failed for the evening, it didn’t mean that an overseas adventure was completely lost. If I was going back to the airport to drop Ian off anyway, then surely I couldn’t waste the opportunity to still make it to foreign lands and back again before work in two days’ time?

Grabbing my phone, I got straight on Sky-Scanner. I had to make a decision as to where would be the furthest away, most interesting place to visit that wouldn’t jeopardise my career in the outdoor industry if my flight was delayed and failed to turn up to work on Saturday morning.

After a few thumb-scrolls, the perfect location appeared.

‘Book Flights Now’. I hovered over the button.

What did I have to lose?

I released the breath I hadn’t even realised I had been holding and pressed.

I was going to Iceland.

A screenshot of the Iceland Air booking conformation website page


Follow Jen’s trips on Instagram (@365daysofadventure2019)  or Facebook (@365DaysOfAdventure2019) and come and join me for a day!)

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