Respect the Adventure

Is all the preparation necessary? Others are managing without it. Why does no one else do it like this or carry all this gear? Why do I need to know how to do that? I'll figure it out if I have to... These are all questions you will rarely hear in disciplines like high-altitude mountaineering, rock climbing, paragliding, scuba diving, etc. Yet we come across these same questions in the 4WD and Overlanding discussions often, even though help is often even further away. Why?

I'm not saying that the room for error is the same in a 4WD or Overland vehicle as it is when you're hanging off a cliff on ropes, or that the wind will impact you in your vehicle the same as if you were looking for a place to land through the clouds. But for sure the implications when things go wrong are just as severe. And the access to help is very often much further than we realize.  

What do I mean when saying that help is far away? As Overlanders we often find ourselves in places where there is no one else around for kilometers, or hours. As the crow flies you might be aware of a town within the horizon just a few kilometers away, but if you've driven 6 hours over rough terrain in Low-Range to get to where you are, an ambulance will have to drive over the same terrain, given there is an ambulance nearby, given that said ambulance is capable of driving in Low-Range. The next thought might be a Helicopter, but keep in mind that they don't cover everywhere. Certain areas where hikers or climbers often need help tend to be quite well covered by air help, but not necessarily the vast open desert, especially in Africa. Also, if your vehicle is stuck or broken down, a Helicopter isn't going to be of much help either unless spares are being flown in. An expensive courier that would be.

Just to bring the access to help into perspective; the term "wilderness" or "remote" in wilderness medicine is defined as any situation where advanced medical care is more than an hour away. This sounds like an extreme way of looking at it but if you've ever been in a situation where someone suffered trauma, you'll understand that waiting for help to arrive feels like an eternity even if it is just an hour. Extend the time, worsen the road conditions, add some weather elements and very quickly you understand how desperate a situation could become. Just think how often help would be an hour away when we drive a car even on main roads.

We encounter the unpreparedness because of a lack of knowledge. I can take on any of the 8,000-meter peaks with little climbing experience, basic mountain knowledge, decent cold-weather clothing and a couple of the more serious bits of kit like crampons and fancy snow goggles. But it won't be respectful of what I could and most likely will encounter on the mountain. And I'll probably not make it back home. The mountain, the weather, the altitude, none of them will consider my lack of understanding and give me an easy time to take a summit picture. The Adventure won't forgive my ignorance.

This draws us to Adventure, the fact that it's a level playing field. But it also means that we have to be prepared in terms of our gear and skills. You see, when we pack our vehicles we often give a lot of thought to luxuries, like having something cold to drink with a bit of ice and a tent with all the latest features on it. But we neglect to prepare ourselves for the less ideal but very likely scenarios.

If you're on the side of a 8,000-meter mountain, and you get caught out by a storm, things can play out in a couple of different ways. If you didn't notice or recognize it and get caught out, hypothermia, snow-blindness, frostbite, etc. can become very real dangers. You didn't respect the Adventure. On the other hand if you did act with respect, you would've been aware that a storm could be on its way. Be it with a satellite warning message or having researched a timeline of when it might hit. Thereby winning valuable minutes to prepare. Then, just like having a method of comms you'd have proper gear as well. Emergency bivy for the wind, facial protection, and proper clothing for the weather to name a few. Things don't always follow the plans and that's when you have to be prepared to rely on your skillset as well. Having to figure out a belay or staying focused when a freak gust pushes you off course and now you have to figure out a new landing spot on the other side of the hill. In these moments you need the gear but your hands on skills are what you'll rely on dealing with the situation.

Point is, during Adventures the risk of things not going according to plan are higher. The very nature of the activity result in a higher risk of certain situations arising. And then you have to count on your gear and skills.

How this is all comes into the world of Overlanding is through the same formula. Situations arise, you need to deal with them yourself, and therefore be prepared. However, I think we often have a false sense of safety when it comes to traveling in a vehicle.

Two things contribute to this. The fact that you have a vehicle with you, and the road or tracks you are driving on. I've thought about this on many occasions when I look around while driving through the vast wilderness. If I remove the road or set of tracks out of the windscreen view, would this be an area to comfortably drive a vehicle through? Often the answer is no. The same applies if you remove the vehicle with all it provides. But our lives revolve around the notion that if we have access to motorized transport, we're actually fine. We can get to help, help can come to us, we can go to whatever it is that we need like shelter and sustenance, all because of a manufactured figure we can sit in with wheels underneath it rolling over a piece of ideal surface we call a road. And for the most part this is as far as we need to think. However, when you head further from human development (i.e. wilderness) things change, and most of us that go traveling are oblivious to this shift.

A skill as simple as changing a tire or fuel filter gets overlooked, even though the vehicle is rendered immobile if they can't be dealt with. Medical emergencies suffer from the same ignorance, if not more so. I've unpacked many client vehicles after a major solo trips. I then dig out a dusty canvas bag with a cross and the words "First Aid" on it, in one of the drawers. It might as well not even be in the vehicle. The contents are inadequate and the location renders it worthless. This just shows how unprepared they would've been in the event that something did go wrong.

Many people go traveling with recovery gear that is not rated to the applicable vehicle, and without certain items altogether. And it doesn't seem important until you find yourself frantically waving down vehicles in the distance to come and pull you out of the mud. Making the wrong call to head into the mud without walking it through, and then not having the means to deal with the possibility of getting stuck, not respectful of the Adventure...

Situations like these are more common than we realize. I myself have been caught out and had a wheel fall off. My experience took me far enough to have everything I need to get home, and to drive slowly with a badly balanced muddy wheel, but I didn't check the wheel nuts after I drove a few kilometers. A lesson I learned the hard way. I think that we often don't realize just how tricky situations could get if things go wrong.

Gear and skills, the two aspects that form part of preparation and ultimately respect as mentioned. But just how do we as Overlanders and 4WDrivers determine the level of preparation that is required for our unique travels? Surely you don't need the same prep work for a multi-day hike through the Cederberg as you would for an 8,000-der.

The reality is that there is no perfect answer, just like there is no way to know exactly what will happen on an adventure. Road conditions and access to help are things to consider. Both of which can only be researched to a point and assumptions will have to be made. You'll only truly know once you're there. Hopefully you never find out the second one, because then you need it. For the most part past experience is valuable. And if you don't have it, talking to someone that not only has driven there, but that did it like you're planning to is important. The exact roads aren't necessary, but information on the region and time of year is valuable.

This video was taken in the beautiful Outeniqua Mountains. It’s a mere couple of hours from Mossel Bay, a town with a Private Hospital and everything. But driving here we had no cellular network. If we needed help, things could get tricky.

It’s a wonderful feeling of exploring, but we are further from help than you might think.

In terms of recovery gear, we are as sorted as we can be, as long as we stay on the track…

A major consideration is whether you're traveling alone. If you are, the gravity of every other aspect is amplified.

I recently finished reading a book titled "Free Ride: Heartbreak, Courage and the 20,000-mile Motorcycle Journey That Changed My Life" by Noraly Schoenmaker. A.K.A the creator of the hit YouTube channel Itchy Boots. In this book she explained the realization so well at one stage of what the term "solo" really means. That feeling of no one being around, no one to ask an opinion from, no one to give a hand or ask how to deal with something. Crucially, no one to turn to if something goes wrong. If you get stuck, you have to get yourself out. If you get injured, you have to pick yourself up.

Adding the term solo to your remote travels impacts the other considerations. When packing, when deciding what and how much to take with, you have to think about the fact that you'll be alone. The basics are important, like fuel and clean water, but being competent with skills like your Satellite comms become more important. Navigation, fixing the vehicle, dealing with certain medical situations, all these skills become more critical as you won't have someone else to fill in the gaps.

I used to think that a lot of it is overkill. But I quickly learned that when traveling, you don't get caught out by things that go as expected. It's the funny things that catch us, the things we often didn't anticipate. I've never needed this bit of kit. Everyone else questions my decision to take it along. And then you have a funny thing that happens on one trip and you end up having to pull out all the stops. These examples are endless. Spare wheels, winches, paper maps, tool kits, etc.

The thrill of going out to experience nature in its raw beauty is what draws us to it. That is what Adventure provides us. It's a bridge to the untouched. And it has become increasingly more accessible in recent times. Which is a good thing, as I believe that the more people experience and appreciate nature, the better. And experiencing it on your own makes it even more special. And as part of this I also believe that we have to respect the Adventure.

Heading into the unknown is invigorating. We learn more of ourselves and what truly matters to us. Experiences add to our wisdom. People add to our understanding. And we have the privilege to go and savor all this...

"By discovering nature, you discover yourself." - Maxime Lagacé

"With Freedom comes responsibility." - Nelson Mandela