My Wildest Adventure…

In the autumn of 2009, the indomitable travel writer Nellie Huang from Wild Junket approached me. She asked me to write about my wildest adventure. (The short version: I did, it’s here.)

This is the kind of superlative question that sends me into a quasi-existentialist paralysis (or blank-minded dithering, depending on your point of view.)

My wildest adventure…but how should I answer? How do I decide which was the wildest.

Should I mention the trip near the Guatemalan border when a woman lent me a machete for my own safety? Or my first taste of ice-climbing in Patagonia? Kilimanjaro was pretty exhausting – but is that too predictable? Or will it sound as though I’m bragging?

It’s like being asked your favourite music as a teenager. There’s too much pressure, get the wrong answer and be thrown into social Coventry for, like, ever. It was a question I never managed to get right. That’s why the music section is so short here, for goodness’ sake. I’m terrified you’ll all arrive wearing gothic Metallica shirts or screaming about Take That (the first time around) and you’ll hate me but I won’t understand why.

Then there’s the philosophical slant – an adventure into the wilderness, the inner journey that comes through working with African children or walking the filthy streets of Delhi? Perhaps that isn’t abstract enough. How about changing careers or moving to a country where I can’t speak the language?

To hell with it all. I made the decision that any blogger would make.

I went for the one with the best photos.

Read it here. Then come back and laugh at my taste in music.