Mini-Adventures…

By Sean Fagan

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Mini-Adventures: Fast Food for the Outdoor Soul?

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A while back I came across the concept of micro-adventures via outstanding adventurer, Alastair Humphreys.

The concept is simple and has probably been around for as long as humankind could amble around on two feet.

Micro-adventures are brief adventures - usually of one or two day’s duration.

Sleeping out is optional.

They are specific, short, often logistically simple & cheap and depending on the adventure - require little skill.

There are essentially very doable adventures.

Without knowing it I've been doing micro-adventures since I was a young lad.

I fondly remember many a short adventure with either my trusty border collie or with my childhood friends.

 

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Plans? There were none (or they were rather vague). We mostly made them up as we went along.

Just wandering about in nature with a bold, ‘Huckleberry’ air of mild mischief.

And we had some great times – unexpected, priceless encounters with wild nature.

One of the unexpected aspects of mini adventures is their quirkiness...

I remember one memorable overnight adventure with my friend Paul. We slept in a large hammock made from a discarded fishing net.

That night we ravenously chomped down on a large pot of potatoes we had cooked over on an absurdly over-sized campfire.

The next day we set off on our bold mission to catch sight of a local kingfisher (we were both budding ornithologist at the time, and considered the kingfisher the holy grail of all feathered creatures).

Not only did we see a kingfisher in all its tropical-hued brilliance but I fell on my backside into a mucky marsh with a loud & comical squelching sound (we were rescuing a mud-trapped lamb at the time).

We also found a badger sett, an owl roost and we accidentally disturbed a bumblebee hive (the snaking line of angry bumblebees erupting from the main entrance of the hive prompted some very strong and immediate survival instincts to kick in – we ran away - fast!).

When we ran out of potatoes we ambled home with empty stomachs and fun memories.

Talk about willing but fool-hardy amateurs.

But we had a lot of fun at our youthful, blundering attempts at adventuring - which was the whole point.

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Recently I wanted to stretch the meaning of short adventures for myself - but I didn’t want to exclusively do bushcraft on these short excursions.

I also wanted to demonstrate that meaningful, short adventures can occur in areas that are not particularly wild.

So I picked Rogerstown estuary, an estuary only 25km from the centre of Ireland's capital, Dublin.

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As I wanted to blend in bushcraft with other outdoor activities I enjoy - I came up with a list of outdoor stuff I enjoy doing…

• Cycling
• Hiking
• Bird watching
• Photography
• Tracking
• Fire-skills
• Outdoor cooking

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I deliberately included some countryside cycling because it is something I hadn't done in quite a few years.

So, with a certain amount of incredulity I did something I never did before - I committed the earth-shattering act of buying a train ticket and brought my rather basic but beloved bicycle on the train (strange I never did this before).

I picked the coastal train station of Donabate to disembark from – then cycled along some pretty coastline, before hopping off my bike to hike along an isolated shoreline of Rogerstown estuary for some bird watching.

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Just watching a rather languid flock of preening oystercatchers and black-tailed godwits brought a smile to my face (see photo below).

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I occasionally bring groups out bird watching – but I get a far more profound sense of connection to birds and the landscape when I’m alone.

For myself, bird watching is far more than just ticking off a list of birds I’ve seen – it’s also a great way to slow down and immerse myself in nature.

It was simply great to languish on a coastline – not another soul about – silently watching large flocks of waders either resting on the shore or rocketing off into the air as a dynamic, shape-shifting mass over the estuary.

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When I had my fill of bird watching, I hiked to a nearby wood.

In the woods I tracked a fox for a while – and was surprised that this particular fox was depositing its pungent scat upon the dry sections of a river weir.

Never seen that before.

Near the fox scat was some mink scat – a more typical inhabitant of aquatic habitats.

Not everybody’s idea of fun – but it was enjoyable comparing the two different types of scat on the weir – comparing their contrasting composition (a great way in getting to know the diet of an animal).

I then spark-lit a camp-fire made from gathered natural materials and fried some hearty food for a much-needed outdoor lunch.

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This was my idea of bliss, visiting two contrasting habitats – woodland and coast, while doing some bushcraft to make myself comfortable while outdoors.

I also availed of a couple of coffee shops in the two towns I encountered on my impressively un-epic cycle - so my day was peppered with some pleasant (occasionally colourful) encounters with some of the local people – which added a nice dimension to an already varied day.

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So did I have a good time?

To be honest, I had a brilliant time – I could hardly believe how much outdoor fun I had crammed into one day.

And combining enjoyable outdoor activities such as cycling with outdoor skills such as bushcraft seemed to have struck a perfect cord.

But it was the cycling that provided the perfect catalyst for the day - providing the perfect blend of outdoor freedom and bracing, vigorous exercise (a combination I really enjoy).

When younger, I greatly enjoyed cycling. I had simply forgotten how much fun I derived from cycling outdoors in nature.

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The Reality of Time Constraints

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It seems to be symptomatic of modern life that time has become a commodity that is often in short supply.

And I’m certainly no exception.

Recently, with pressing constraints on my time I wanted to make the most of what limited free-time I had.

And I felt like a change of scene - so coming up with novel ways of combining some of my favourite, outdoor activities with bushcraft was my idea of fun (as well as being a great antidote to stress).

I’m still taken aback with how cheap, accessible, fun and doable a well-planned 1 day adventure can be.

Now, I have a whole slew of 1 and 2 day outdoor challenges bouncing around in my grey matter.

I’m excited with how much I can do in one or two days.

Of course I’ll never depart from my multiple-day/week bushcraft trips.

It’s just nice to know that when I don’t have the time and opportunity to do longer trips I can pop my bike onto a train and still have a great day in nature.

I can keep some of my bushcraft skills sharp, have wonderful encounters with nature, get in some good exercise and still leave some room for the unexpected - all in one or two days!

And so can you.

Don't allow a perceived lack of time be an excuse for not packing your rucksack and getting out there to have some quality adventures.

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Imagination & Boldness are Essential Ingredients of Mini-Adventures

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One perceptual block for a lot of adventure-seeking souls is that brief adventures can seem a little lame in comparison to more lofty adventures (i.e. conquering a multi-peaked mountain range or slugging through a remote, verdant rainforest in Costa Rico for weeks on end).

But the reality is – multiple week/month adventures are great but not realistic for most people for most of the time (especially with the serious time & effort demands of work, kids & bills etc. snapping at most people’s heels).

But mini-adventures can offer the perfect solution for those of us wrapped up in the realities of modern living (at least in the short term).

However, one of the biggest challenges of many mini-adventures is that they are, by the logistical nature of being one or two days long...local.

So if you live in a city or are surrounded by great swathes of bland, agricultural land – some imagination is required to make the most of this situation.

This is where the blending of your outdoor desires with the reality of what’s locally available can seem, at first - restrictive and off-putting.

My answer is simple – there is always some pocket of nature or area that is interesting to visit.

Always.

What’s often needed is some serious lateral thinking to come up with novel and exciting mini-adventures.

Sleeping in a big oak tree, camping under an abandoned rural viaduct, following an urban river upriver to its remote wild source deep in a mountain over 3 days – the variations are literally endless (provided they are done safely and with common sense).

I suggest you take out a good map (preferably a good, accurately-scaled, topographical map) of your area and pore over it until something exciting pops out. Just keep believing that there are exciting adventures to be had from that map and sooner or later you will see something that will somewhat slake your thirst for adventure. Besides, map-reading skills is an invaluable skill-set for the great outdoors.

The other alternative is to do a reconnaissance of various local areas. Sometimes maps don’t reveal all the outdoor treasures that are in a landscape. Maybe even consider your reconnaissance of local areas as mini-adventures : )

Don’t forget – mini-adventures are not exclusive to wild places – rural and even urban areas can be surprisingly fruitful.

You might consider blending two or more contrasting destinations in an adventure – such as ambling along a city canal for a couple of miles until you hit a railway station – then hopping on a train to a more rural destination, then hiking cross-country to a small village that is on a bus route back to your home patch.

I tell you – I’ve had some great mini-adventures this way when I was younger and had more free time. It’s often amazing what unexpected experiences you’ll have that will leave a smile across your face for days.

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Short adventures can whet your appetite for larger adventures

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One of the great features of mini-adventures is that they can spark off some great ideas for longer, more challenging adventures.

This summer I plan on doing a week-long cycling & camping trip.

It’s something I’ve always wanted to do - just myself on a bicycle - passing through a wild landscape with all my camping gear & food in my panniers.

By regularly doing one or two day cycling trips over the next couple of months I'll build up the necessary physical endurance for long-distance cycling while becoming familiar with the more technical realities of combining cycling with basic, solo-camping.

To be honest, if it wasn't for my recent cycling mini-adventure I would've probably put a cycling & camping trip on the back burner.

I'm glad I didn't.

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I remember my first long distance cycle as a 13 year old kid. Hours of cycling quiet country lanes.

Cycling provided just the right amount of freedom while still moving slowly enough through the landscape to savour it all at the same time (that’s often the problem with passing through a wild area in a vehicle – it’s often too fast to take in the essence of a landscape).

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I’m thankful that my forgotten love of cycling in nature has been rekindled within me for many years to come.

But hey, cycling is one of my things.

What’s yours?

And more to the point…why not mini-adventure the living bejasus out of it? (To use a colourful Irish expression on the matter).

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Seriously though, what are you waiting for?

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Related articles on this website:

• Everett Ruess, A Wilderness Soul
• Coyotes & the Aroostook River
• Bill Mason, the Water Walker

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