To my mind, a great journey is one that inspires others. This past year has seen some great feats of endurance and adventure, with new ascents pioneered on remote mountains or implausible rock faces. Some have dived into flooded underworlds; others, inspired by history, have retraced the routes of the past; and large areas of challenging territory have been crossed on foot, or by bike or motorised paraglider. Whether famous or not, most have been shared with followers online. Here are a few journeys with soul and heart that have caught my attention this year.
Karen Darke: hand-cycling the “Wild Highway” of Patagonia
You’d be forgiven for thinking that having trained for years to compete at the Paralympics in Rio that gold-medallist Karen Darke might want a break from extreme physical exertion. Not so. Along with fellow paralympians Jaco van Gass and Steve Bate, and Bate’s wife Caroline, Darke is currently hand-cycling the Carretera Austral, a 770-mile route through rural Patagonia from Puerto Montt to Villa O’Higgins. They estimate that the challenge will take them 25 days, and aim to cover 35-40 miles a day. Darke says she is not an adrenaline junkie: “I just love the wilderness. I love mountains. I love adventure. I love sharing these places with friends, and meeting strangers.”
Begin your own adventure Paseos en Bicicleta has a six-day guided cycling tour along the Carretera Austral from £1,445pp, flights extra
Mark Evans: crossing the Empty Quarter
In 1930, explorer Bertram Thomas and Omani sheikh Saleh bin Kalut made the first crossing of the Rub al Khali, or Empty Quarter – the biggest sand desert in the world, stretching across Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. They had to cope with warring tribes, an unforgiving landscape, scorching heat, freezing nights and sandstorms, surviving on a diet of brackish water, dates, dried meat and packet soup. In November 2015, Mark Evans and two Omani companions, Mohammed al Zadjali and Amour al Wahaibi, set out to retrace their route, walking some 600 miles from the coast of Oman, through Saudi Arabia, to the coast of Qatar. The area is even today one of the world’s last true wildernesses. This modern journey was far better supported than the original, but Evans encountered many of the same challenges with the aim of inspiring a new generation of Omanis to explore their beautiful country.
• Photographs, film, maps and memorabilia from the first expedition and Mark Evans’s journey are on show at the Royal Geographical Society until 2 February
Begin your own adventure Wild Frontiers has an 11-day Oman Desert Adventure, exploring the Hajar mountains, the shifting sands of Wahiba and the Empty Quarter, from £2,565pp
Sacha Dench: by paramotor from the Arctic to the UK
On 13 December 2015, conservationist and freediver Sacha Dench took to the skies in a motorised paraglider for the start of a daring 4,500-mile expedition across the Russian Arctic. Her aim was to draw attention to the decline of the UK’s smallest, shyest species of swan. Over 10 weeks, Dench acted as a “human swan”, following thousands of Bewick’s swans on their annual migration. From the Pechora delta on Russia’s north coast, she headed west and south across Siberia, before crossing 11 countries, including Finland, Poland and Germany, to the swans’ wintering grounds in Gloucestershire. Often flying as low as 100 metres, Dench provided a bird’s eye view of the challenges facing this endangered species. Landing at night on the endless taiga, she dodged polar bears, helped with a reindeer rescue and had to contend with engine failure, freezing temperatures, thunderstorms and a dislocated kneecap.
• Sacha Dench will be at the Festival of Swans at Welney Wetland Centre, Norfolk, on 21 and 22 January, to tell her story of the Bewick’s swan
Begin your own adventure UK firm Skyschool has a range of paramotor courses in the UK, France and Italy, and can help arrange bespoke adventures. A six-day beginners’ course costs £795pp
Stephen Fabes: cycling around the world
In January 2010 Stephen Fabes waved goodbye to family and friends from outside St Thomas’ Hospital in London, where he worked as a doctor and set off on his bicycle. His plan was to cycle the length of all six continents. On that first day, he didn’t get far. He pedalled off, did a U-turn and headed to the pub, where he hunched over a pint, fraught with self-doubt, while his loved ones supposed he was pedalling towards France. Eventually, without coming up with a good excuse not to go, he set off into the night. Six years and 53,568 miles later, he was once again peddling back across Westminster bridge. While many have now travelled the world by bicycle, his journey was more than an adventure: it was an opportunity to learn more about health inequality in remote areas. He visited medical projects, hospitals and clinics, and interviewed patients and staff.
Begin your own adventure Exodus has cycling holidays for all levels, from family-friendly itineraries in Europe to challenging tours in the Himalayas. Its self-guided Danube Cycling Weekend costs from £479pp
Sigurd Aase: across the North Atlantic in a Viking ship
Fascinated by Viking history, boatbuilding and sailing, Sigurd Aase, embarked on an extraordinary project to build the world’s largest Viking ship of modern times, and retrace a legendary Viking expedition – the first transatlantic crossing, and the discovery of the New World more than a thousand years ago. In late April 2016, the Draken Harald Hårfagre left its home port in Haugesund, Norway, and set sail across the North Atlantic, following the route of Viking explorer Leif Eriksson. The crew sailed past ancient Viking settlements in Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland, dodging icebergs and battling storms, before reaching Canada. En route, they discovered first-hand how tough Viking sailors must have been.
Begin your own adventure Hurtigruten’s 12-day Voyage of the Vikings tour sails from Bergen to Kirkenes on the Barents Sea, stopping at many historic Viking sites, from £1,863pp
Federico Cabrera: Andes with a portable studio
A couple of years ago, photographer Federico Cabrera came across The Burning House, a project where blogger and adventurer Foster Huntington asked people what they would take with them if their house was burning. This struck a chord with Cabrera, who had nearly lost his own home in a fire. He also found himself increasingly annoyed at tourists taking photographs of people who didn’t own a single family portrait. For his new project, Their Only Portrait, he is cycling thousands of miles through developing countries with a mobile photographic studio, creating, printing and giving back family portraits of people he meets. He is also giving water filters and solar lights to those who need them. He has already covered more than 3,000 miles along the Andes in his home country of Argentina and plans to visit a new country every year.
Begin your own adventure Saddle Skedaddle’s Andean Adventure, a family cycling tour in Peru, with full- and half-day rides, and visits to Inca ruins and local markets and a train journey to Machu Picchu, costs from £1,495pp. Exodus has range of photography holidays worldwide, from £979pp
George Bullard and Olly Hicks: kayaking home from Greenland
Inspired by tales of Inuit hunters who paddled from Greenland to the Orkneys in the 1700s, George Bullard and Olly Hicks decided to try the extraordinary journey themselves. They left southern Greenland on 1 July and landed in Iceland before crossing difficult open water to the Faroes, a stretch they called the Devil’s Dance Floor. From there they kayaked to the Scottish island of North Rona, and after 66 days arrived at Balnakeil Bay near Durness in Sutherland. They had paddled 1,200 miles.
Begin your own adventure Arisaig Sea Kayak Centre organises experiences in Shetland and the Orkneys. A 10-day adventure costs from £940
Vivienne Rickman-Poole: swimming Snowdonia
Two years ago, photographer Vivienne Rickman-Poole embarked on Swim Snowdonia, to explore every llyn, lake, river and pool in the region and record her experiences. What started as a hobby turned into a more ambitious undertaking: to discover and experience 400 permanent bodies of water. It will take her years to complete, in all weathers. To Rickman-Poole, tramping over snow and breaking ice on frozen lakes amplifies each encounter. It is, she says, “a life changing personal adventure” that feeds her creativity.
Begin your own adventure For information and advice on wild swimming and outdoor swimming events visit outdoorswimmingsociety.com and wildswimming.co.uk
Ian Finch: the people of the Yukon
In May, adventurer and researcher Ian Finch and photographer Jay Kolsch began a 68-day, 2,000-mile canoe journey from the source of the Yukon river in Canada to its mouth at Emmonak on the Bering Sea in Alaska. The journey across remote wilderness explores the home of the Athapaskan First Nations people, who, more than 10,000 years ago, crossed the Bering land bridge from Asia and settled in the Yukon region. Finch’s aim was to research the Athapaskan way of life and tell how environmental and cultural change is affecting their communities.
Begin your own adventure Yukon Wild’s eight-day Best of Yukon Wild tour gives a taste of canoeing, hiking and cycling from £1,085pp, flights extra
Natalia Spencer: a year-long walk around Britain
On 10 December 2015, Natalia Spencer’s five-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, died suddenly and unexpectedly. Grief-stricken, Spencer decided to focus her energy on a year-long 5,000-mile walk around the coast of Britain, starting at Durdle Door in Dorset, the beach where she and her daughter had their last seaside visit. Over the past 11 months, she has tramped through freezing fog and staggered over bogs and marshes. Now, having covered over 4,000 miles, she is on the home stretch. Her efforts won her Endurance Fundraiser of the Year at the 2016 JustGiving Awards. She is raising money for the Wallace & Gromit Grand Appeal, which improves the lives of children with rare, critical conditions.
Begin your own adventure Track Natalia’s progress at elizabethsfootprint.com, and perhaps join the final stages of her walk
• Kari Herbert is co-author of Explorer’s Sketchbooks: The Art of Discovery and Adventure (Thames & Hudson, £29.95), one of the Guardian’s top 10 travel books for Christmas
