Episode 5

full
Published on:

15th Apr 2026

Redefining Everyday Adventures with Alistair Humphreys

Why do we think adventure has to be big to count?

In this episode, I’m joined by Alistair Humphreys, one of the world’s most well-known adventurers, to challenge that idea. Alistair has cycled around the world, rowed oceans, and crossed some of the toughest landscapes on earth… but it’s not those big expeditions that have shaped how he thinks about adventure today.

We explore what adventure really means in the modern world. Why it often feels out of reach, and how that perception might be the very thing holding us back. And why curiosity, not distance, is the real starting point.

We also get into the difference between an explorer and an adventurer. The role of discomfort, risk, and uncertainty, and why those elements might matter more than we realise. Plus, how modern life has changed our relationship with adventure altogether.

Alistair shares a simple idea you can try this week too. No flights. No gear. No complicated planning. Just a map, a random place, and a willingness to see things differently.

If you’ve ever felt like adventure isn’t for you, this episode might just change your mind.

In this Episode, We Explore:

  1. Adventure is shaped by mindset, not scale – it’s less about distance or difficulty, and more about curiosity and a willingness to see things differently.
  2. The biggest barriers are often self-imposed – time, money, and expectations can hold us back, but “microadventures” remove those excuses entirely.
  3. Discomfort is part of the experience – uncertainty, risk, and even a bit of misery are what separate adventure from a comfortable holiday.
  4. Less planning creates more possibility – when you loosen control, you open the door to surprise, serendipity, and the moments you couldn’t have predicted.

Episode Timestamps:

  1. 02:14 - Microadventures Mindset
  2. 04:33 - Modern Adventure Meaning
  3. 07:38 - Misery Versus Holiday
  4. 10:01 - Gratitude and Home
  5. 11:44 - From Masochism to Curiosity
  6. 14:29 - Plan Less Discover More
  7. 17:23 - Serendipity Ice Cream Story
  8. 20:05 - Try This Local Map Challenge
  9. 22:10 - Books That Sparked It


Links Referenced in This Episode:

  1. Alistair's Website

Got a Story Idea?

If you have a mystery, legend, or adventure you’d like me to explore, drop a comment or email me at hello@lukerichardsonauthor.com. I’d love to hear from you!

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A missing Picasso... A master thief... A thrilling race against time!

When a priceless Picasso disappears in Paris, legendary thief Bernard Moreau is the prime suspect. But as two unlikely allies—Eden Black and Adriana Villa—hunt him down, the chase turns deadly. It’s a race through the shadowed streets of Paris, where every twist is as unpredictable as the city itself.

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Thanks for tuning in! See you in the next episode of The Adventure Story Podcast. 🏆🎙

Mentioned in this episode:

Join us on the trail of the Knight's Templar

www.lukerichardsonauthor.com/templartour For the first time ever, we're inviting you to join us on one of our adventures. And what better place to start than one of my favourite destinations… Portugal. But we’re not just going for the beaches and the wine, we’re following in the footsteps of one of history's most enigmatic organisations... the Knights Templar. We're going on the trail of the Templars in Portugal! Over five days and four nights, we'll guide you from the winding streets of Lisbon to the hilltop castle of Almourol, the sacred halls of Tomar's Convent of Christ, and the enchanting esoteric grottoes of Quinta da Regaleira—the very place that inspired my book The Templar Enigma. www.lukerichardsonauthor.com/templartour

Transcript
Speaker A:

I used to think that adventure was something that belonged to people trekking across vast deserts, rowing oceans, or cycling around the world.

Speaker A:

I thought that adventure was for those at their physical peak.

Speaker A:

You know, strong people with time and money to make it happen.

Speaker A:

But I tell you what, I was wrong.

Speaker A:

And today's guest helped me realize that.

Speaker A:

Because now I know that adventure doesn't have to mean crossing a desert.

Speaker A:

Although, if that's your thing, you definitely should go for it.

Speaker A:

Sometimes it's far simpler than that.

Speaker A:

Sometimes it's just about stepping away from your everyday routine and choosing to do something a little bit, well, adventurous.

Speaker A:

Hey, I'm Luke.

Speaker A:

I'm an author of archaeological adventure novels.

Speaker A:

I travel the world looking for stories to put into my books and to share with you right here on the Adventure Story podcast.

Speaker A:

Just quickly, though, before we dive in, put the brakes on that for a second.

Speaker A:

Most podcasts grow through recommendations, so please share this with any adventure lovers in your life.

Speaker A:

It would help me so much.

Speaker A:

Right, let's get going.

Speaker A:

Alastair Humphries, who joins me today, is the one who changed my mind.

Speaker A:

Yes, he's done the big things.

Speaker A:

He cycled around the world.

Speaker A:

He rode across the ocean.

Speaker A:

He trekked across some of the harshest landscapes on Earth.

Speaker A:

But it wasn't those epic journeys of his that shifted my thinking.

Speaker A:

It was hearing him talk about having an adventure within a few miles of home that, for me, was the moment the word began to feel really different.

Speaker A:

So I've invited him today right here onto the Adventure Story podcast to see if he can change your mind, too.

Speaker A:

Alistair, welcome to the Adventure Story Podcast.

Speaker B:

Thank you for having me.

Speaker A:

Oh, it's brilliant to have this conversation.

Speaker A:

It really is.

Speaker A:

So tell me, is it true that adventure doesn't have to be this big, grand thing?

Speaker B:

Yes.

Speaker B:

End of podcast.

Speaker A:

Great to have you on.

Speaker B:

Well, many years ago, I would have been reluctant to say that because I first got into adventure through reading about expeditions, the great explorers in history, and the crazy, crazy stuff that they did.

Speaker B:

And when I started to adventure myself, it was driven by a sort of slightly weird, macho, masochistic chip on my shoulder, desire to go further, faster, higher, all that sort of extreme stuff.

Speaker B:

And I think all that is, of course, very valid for a definition of adventure.

Speaker B:

But over time, my approach has broadened and softened and I think actually got more nuanced and more interesting to now be much more along the lines of, yeah, you can find adventure wherever you choose to do so.

Speaker B:

And then it's more about a mindset of curiosity and A willingness to try new things and go to new places.

Speaker B:

They don't have to be far away, but just a curiosity and an enthusiasm is far more important than getting a.

Speaker B:

A visa to go climb a big mountain in Nepal, for example.

Speaker A:

I love that and I love the idea that it sort of democratizes it too.

Speaker A:

There's can often be, and I put myself in this.

Speaker A:

I didn't want to row across an ocean, so adventure's not for me.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

And you're sort of shifting that on its head and saying that sort of adventure's not for you, but all these other sorts of adventures might be.

Speaker B:

Yeah, very much so.

Speaker B:

So I think there's a lot of barriers in the way for adventures in life, not least of all the tediousness of real life getting in the way.

Speaker B:

A lack of time, a lack of money, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker B:

We've all got many barriers stopping us doing adventures, some far more than others.

Speaker B:

And what I've been trying, encouraged with the idea of adventures and then smaller adventures, which I call micro adventures, is to not focus so much on the obstacles that stop you having adventures or that put you off, but rather to look at the positive things, the opportunities and the things that do excite you.

Speaker B:

So in this instance, you don't want to row an ocean.

Speaker B:

Very sensible choice.

Speaker B:

So, but don't then just write off everything.

Speaker B:

Then ask yourself, what do I want to do?

Speaker B:

What feels like an adventure to me.

Speaker B:

It doesn't have to be a measured thing.

Speaker B:

Just because it's too easy for Bear Grylls doesn't mean that it's not relevant for the rest of us, for example.

Speaker A:

Mm, no, I get that.

Speaker A:

I get that.

Speaker A:

Do you think this is sort of a symptom of modern life, that sort of things are a bit more comfortable now?

Speaker A:

Right, so 100 years ago, 200 years ago, or whatever, the adventurers adventured for a reason, right?

Speaker A:

They were discovering things, they were getting stuff, they were doing things.

Speaker A:

Nowadays, does it seem like a frivolous thing?

Speaker A:

Is there some frivolity in the idea that you're doing it for yourself rather than for any sort great human necessity, I suppose.

Speaker B:

Oh, gosh, this is a.

Speaker B:

This is more like a PhD thesis, I think, because I think this then goes to a little bit of unpacking what the word adventurer means.

Speaker B:

Are we talking about an explorer who is discovering things for the great benefit of humanity and science, or are we talking about someone who goes off to some land and exploits it and steals all their stuff?

Speaker B:

There's been plenty of that within the explorer world.

Speaker B:

But both of those people, I suppose, are doing some sort of work for better or for ill. And then you come on to more recent times.

Speaker B:

Now people have a little bit of spare time, enough to therefore have hobbies like, oh, I'd like to climb a mountain for fun.

Speaker B:

And that moves us on to a more modern era of what adventure might be about, where it's a thing that we choose to do.

Speaker B:

And something I've often thought about my own adventuring is that it very much reflects the ease and comfortableness of my life that I am choosing to go out and have a miserable time.

Speaker B:

I'm choosing to go out and have a uncomfortable night's sleep and to eat terrible food rather rather than lounging in my comfortable bed eating crisps all night, which I could easily be doing.

Speaker B:

And there's 1 billion, 2 billion people on this earth who tonight won't have very nice food and won't have a very comfortable bed through absolutely no choice of their own.

Speaker B:

So I think the fact that I'm willfully choosing to make my life more simple and more miserable is very much symptomatic of a modern comfortable age, for sure.

Speaker B:

I can't actually remember your question now.

Speaker B:

Did that vaguely answer it?

Speaker A:

Yes, it does.

Speaker A:

Yes it does, I suppose.

Speaker A:

Yeah, it does answer my question.

Speaker A:

I suppose what I was getting at was that adventure in the modern era is more self reflective, it's more personal than perhaps it would have been.

Speaker A:

And I suppose you're pulling the difference between an explorer and an adventurer, which of course there is a difference there and I suppose I hadn't thought of it in that way also.

Speaker B:

Yeah, there's also then I suppose the aspect of.

Speaker B:

Is the adventure trying to achieve something good, eg, discover something for science, Is it trying to achieve something commercial, for example, steal all the gold from some other person's country, which we don't approve of.

Speaker B:

Or is it for yourself?

Speaker B:

Is it because you want to feel good in yourself or do you want to put it on social media and show off to other people saying look at me, look what I've done.

Speaker B:

So I think there's now quite a performative side to adventuring and I guess, I guess that then depends whether the rewards of what you're trying to get out of this stuff are intrinsic or extrinsic.

Speaker B:

And I've definitely done bits of both at different times in my life.

Speaker B:

For better or for worse.

Speaker A:

No, that's true.

Speaker A:

Why do you think then that the barrier to adventure feels higher than it is?

Speaker A:

Do you think we look at These people like yourself, right, like yourself, you've done these big things.

Speaker A:

And further, do you think you need to be uncomfortable?

Speaker A:

Do you need to be scared?

Speaker A:

Do you need to have the horrible food and sleep on the floor for it to count as an adventure?

Speaker B:

Yes, I, I think the barrier for why an adventure might feel difficult to participate in is by its nature it's hard.

Speaker B:

You know, the stuff you see of people climbing mountains, deserts, that's hard.

Speaker B:

And it's hard and it's uncomfortable and it's difficult and there's a very significant chance of failing at these sorts of things.

Speaker B:

And I think all of those ingredients are integral to an adventure.

Speaker B:

I think that an adventure must involve some degree of misery, discomfort, risk and risk of failure.

Speaker B:

And if it doesn't include those things, then you're not on an adventure, you're on a holiday.

Speaker B:

And I love a holiday.

Speaker B:

But I think there is an important distinction between the two.

Speaker A:

And what's the benefit of these adventures?

Speaker A:

If I am used to going on holidays and I have a comfortable life and I'm very happy about those things, I.

Speaker A:

What's the benefit of me going.

Speaker A:

I'll tell you what, I'll give this a go.

Speaker B:

There's lots of reasons along the lines of personal development and personal growth and building your self confidence and your.

Speaker B:

And stuff, which I'm saying in a slightly glib voice, but I think are actually really important.

Speaker B:

But I think another good distinction here is why do you go on holiday?

Speaker B:

You probably go on holiday because you're tired of your life at home and maybe your house is a bit rubbish and your job's a bit rubbish and you see this brochure that shows you, oh look, a lovely hotel and a lovely life.

Speaker B:

And you go escape from your life and you go off and be happy for a week and then you come home again.

Speaker B:

So that's, that's what a holiday is.

Speaker B:

An adventure might be.

Speaker B:

You leave that very same house and you head out and you have a more uncomfortable time and a more miserable time and you eat worse food in a worse place and then you come home and suddenly your home feels lovely and luxurious and it teaches you to be grateful and appreciate normal life a lot more.

Speaker B:

And in that sense, maybe it has longer term benefits, a brief week long escape to a hotel somewhere for a holiday.

Speaker A:

Yeah, I totally understand that.

Speaker A:

I had Rolf Potts on the podcast last season and he was talking about the travel being a conversation between home and another place.

Speaker A:

And so you sort of can't have the travel without having the home you need to sort of.

Speaker A:

Of course there are people that are nomadic or traveler, you know so much that they sort of don't have a home.

Speaker A:

But yeah, you need to sort of have that baseline from which to measure your experience when you walk out of the door, I think.

Speaker B:

Yes.

Speaker B:

And then, and then come home, hopefully with a greater reappreciation of what you've left behind.

Speaker B:

T.S.

Speaker B:

Eliot style.

Speaker B:

The end of all our exploring will be to return from where we started and know the place for the first time.

Speaker B:

So I think, yeah, learning about yourself, but also about your home and perhaps becoming a little bit more grateful for it.

Speaker A:

I love that.

Speaker B:

It's sort of along the lines of one of the greatest and wisest books of all time, which is A Squash and a Squeeze by Julia Donaldson, which anyone who owns a child under the age of five is probably quite familiar with.

Speaker B:

And there's a book that's taught me a huge amount in life.

Speaker B:

I think about it a lot.

Speaker B:

A squash and a Squeeze for those who don't know the plot.

Speaker B:

A lady lives in a house and she's quite fed up with it because it's small and rubbishy and she says, oh, it's a squash and a squeeze.

Speaker B:

And this wise old man comes along to help and in order to help, he gradually just piles more and more animals into her home until it's total chaos.

Speaker B:

And she's like, how is this helping me?

Speaker B:

My house is a squash and a squeeze.

Speaker B:

And then he takes them all away and suddenly the house is empty and, and feels spacious and wonderful.

Speaker B:

And she has a reappreciation of what she had in the first place.

Speaker A:

Oh, that's fantastic.

Speaker A:

I like that.

Speaker A:

It's sort of the hero's journey, but involving animals and.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

Julia Donaldson does the hero's journey.

Speaker B:

That's gotta be a commercial triumph.

Speaker A:

It absolutely has.

Speaker A:

It absolutely has.

Speaker A:

So I wanted to sort of circle back to your previous adventures and they were numerous and clearly very scary and clearly very grueling in places.

Speaker A:

At what point did you think, you know, halfway up a mountain in Peru with your bike or wherever it was, there's gotta be an easier way, you know, it doesn't have to be this hard, it doesn't have to be this difficult.

Speaker B:

Gosh.

Speaker B:

Well, I mean, people go off on adventures for lots of different reasons.

Speaker B:

And I'm sure some people go off on adventures and are very happy people when they're happily adventuring around.

Speaker B:

But my big adventures were very, very masochistic and sort of self flagellating and very much about trying to push myself and prove myself and test myself to myself and feeling, wanting to try and become better, tougher, stronger, whatever.

Speaker B:

But they were very much willfully and deliberately masochistic and miserable and it, it took me a many, many years of adventuring before I was able to maybe grow to a sort of newer mindset whereby adventure became more about the positive curiosity and the positive enthusiasm and searching rather than the self imposed misery fest of early years.

Speaker A:

Do you think there's an element of you're thinking about before you even set foot out of the door, you're thinking what do I want from this?

Speaker A:

And as such, what do I need to do to get that?

Speaker A:

You know, if I want to change my environment, I don't need to go as far as wherever, right?

Speaker A:

I could go to the next town, to a different coffee shop, to a different supermarket, right?

Speaker A:

If I want a change of environment, I don't need to go as far as perhaps I thought I did initially.

Speaker B:

Yes, I guess that's true geographically in terms of going places, but also in terms of the aims of things.

Speaker B:

And when he sets off out on an adventure, normally it's a sort of A to B type journey.

Speaker B:

I want to go from A to B and if I get to B, then the whole thing has been a success.

Speaker B:

But that's a very simplistic approach and I think is quite an important approach because if I don't have a destination to be heading towards, then I'm quite a lazy person and I'll just sit down under a tree and read a book and drink a cup of tea.

Speaker B:

So I need to have that goal to work towards.

Speaker B:

But actually the real rewards of the journey and the real successes and the real learnings, they tend to come unexpectedly and often belatedly.

Speaker B:

And, and you, I don't think you can plan or predict those before you set off.

Speaker B:

You can say I'm going to go cycle to South Africa and if you make it on your bicyc to Cape Town, in one sense that's a success.

Speaker B:

But you won't be able to predict right now before you set off all the other challenges and successes and things that might unfold along the way.

Speaker A:

I think you're absolutely right because there's an element I think of over planning and I wanted to ask you that, you know, you, you sort of have now these off the peg adventures, don't you?

Speaker A:

You know, trek wherever, walk wherever, the guide will meet you in this place and take you to this place.

Speaker A:

Do you think that that is sort of making it a consumer Product making, making adventure.

Speaker A:

You know, making adventure, a one size fits all thing that you can, you can buy with your, your Amex and be on the plane within, within 28 days and off you go, you know.

Speaker B:

Yeah, I, well, I.

Speaker B:

First of all, I would say that whatever it takes to help you overcome whatever doubts and nervousness or inertia you might have in order to get out the door and begin that adventure is a good thing.

Speaker B:

And if for you, in order to have an adventure you feel you need to have had it scheduled out by the guides and you'll go and hopefully you will have an adventurous and transformative experience, then great.

Speaker B:

However, I would really, my own experience by adventuring would say that the less you plan, the less you predict, the less you research, even the less you know, the more you open yourself up to serendipity and surprises and yes, disasters and delays, then the better the adventure is.

Speaker B:

So what I try and do now is I have an approach I think of as pragmatic recklessness.

Speaker B:

So I do enough planning so that I hopefully won't die.

Speaker B:

I do enough planning so that things will be able to progress, you know.

Speaker B:

So for example, I get the visas for country A, B and C. I try and be subsensible.

Speaker B:

I get the vaccinations for country A, B, C. But.

Speaker B:

But beyond that, I try and dare myself to do no more planning.

Speaker B:

I try and dare myself to do the least amount of planning so that when I head into countries A, B, C, I don't know where I'm going to sleep, I don't know what's going to happen, I don't know what it will be like.

Speaker B:

And then the adventure unfolds from that.

Speaker B:

If that sounds too scary to you, then add another little step into it.

Speaker B:

But try not to add all the steps.

Speaker A:

Do you worry though, with that approach that you'll miss something?

Speaker A:

For example, you could walk two miles past the pyramids of Giza not knowing they're there, and have missed, you know, this wonder of the world that you, that you might have liked to have seen.

Speaker B:

Absolutely 100%.

Speaker B:

I cycled around the world for four years with no guidebooks and paper maps.

Speaker B:

Without a doubt.

Speaker B:

I missed gems of restaurants and museums, without a doubt.

Speaker B:

But equally, I saw X, Y, Z. I met Bob and Jeff and Muhammad and who knows else, who were funky, cool, interesting, great, surprising things.

Speaker B:

So yes, by not planning, I definitely miss out on some highlights.

Speaker B:

But I also open myself up to surprises and serendipity and I'm willing to go for that trade off.

Speaker A:

Yeah, No, I totally understand that.

Speaker A:

And that's right.

Speaker A:

And sometimes it's those little moments.

Speaker A:

In fact, do you.

Speaker A:

Have you got an example for you where things just went beautifully?

Speaker A:

You know, you walked into this town and you'd never heard of it before and you were invited to some stranger's wedding and ended up dancing at whatever.

Speaker A:

You know, I'm just making this up.

Speaker B:

I mean those things are.

Speaker B:

Those things are part and parcel of all good travel books, aren't they?

Speaker B:

And the reason that they're in all good travel books is because they're so surprising and joyous and so much more exciting than having pre scheduled books that five star restaurant that you've heard about on TikTok.

Speaker B:

So.

Speaker B:

And another reason they're in all these books is because they happen all the time.

Speaker B:

If you can just dare yourself to just go with curiosity and openness, then stuff just happens galore.

Speaker B:

And it doesn't even have to be big stuff.

Speaker B:

So here's a tiny, tiny example that just popped into my head when it's.

Speaker B:

When you said that one adventure.

Speaker B:

I did.

Speaker B:

And this would.

Speaker B:

This was the adventure actually that turned me from being a, a sort of masochist into someone who is more positive and open about my thinking about adventure.

Speaker B:

But I. I spent a month walking through Spain playing the violin incredibly badly in the footsteps of a book by Laurie Lee.

Speaker B:

And I had no money at all.

Speaker B:

I had to just busk.

Speaker B:

And whatever money I got I could spend on food, but I'm incredibly bad.

Speaker B:

I was really, really not going to eat very well.

Speaker B:

And one day I set up my little violin thing in this little town and started playing.

Speaker B:

And then a big bus turned up and it was a tourist bus in a fairly small sort of.

Speaker B:

I don't even know what they were there for in the town.

Speaker B:

But all these tourists trooped off, ignored me going because I sounded so bad.

Speaker B:

Two hours later, when they return from whatever museum or something, I was still soaring, like maybe they'd had a glass of vino or two by then.

Speaker B:

People were more generous.

Speaker B:

I received in my violin pot €20, which was by a factor of 10, 10 times more than I normally got in a day.

Speaker B:

This was riches beyond my wildest dreams.

Speaker B:

€20.

Speaker B:

No man needs €20.

Speaker B:

And I had a rule to myself on this trip that whenever I got money I had to spend it all.

Speaker B:

So I wasn't allowed to hoard it for safety net.

Speaker B:

I had to spend it all so that tomorrow I'd be backed as being skint and have to start again.

Speaker B:

So that meant Now, I had €20 to spend.

Speaker B:

I remember I bought ice cream.

Speaker B:

Oh, I was like the king of the world.

Speaker B:

That was Joy galore in my pocket.

Speaker B:

Now I've got £20.

Speaker B:

It doesn't.

Speaker B:

It's not a great big deal to me now, but €20 of surprise and serendipity and ice cream, oh, that will live with me forever.

Speaker A:

That's wonderful, isn't it?

Speaker A:

And it reframes that.

Speaker A:

As you've said, on a normal day, that's nothing, is it?

Speaker A:

That's a half a bag of groceries or something at the shop.

Speaker A:

But on that day, as you say, it was such a wonderful experience.

Speaker A:

I love that.

Speaker A:

So, just to sort of bring us to the end of our conversation, can you give me a small idea for someone who's listening, who still doesn't quite.

Speaker A:

Isn't quite with us on this yet?

Speaker A:

One small idea they could try in the next week that would be adventurous in their place, wherever they live, there's not a barrier to entry, something they could do to just.

Speaker A:

To just try it, to just give this a try and experiment.

Speaker B:

Well, my adventures have gone smaller and smaller, from cycling around the world to.

Speaker B:

Recently I spent a whole year exploring just the single Ordnance Survey map where I live.

Speaker B:

So wherever you live in Britain, town or country, you live on an Ordnance Survey map.

Speaker B:

You might remember those maps from your geography lessons at school, or if you've ever been on a walking trip, you can buy them in any bookshop, buy the one for where you live, and the whole map is divided up into 1km grid squares.

Speaker B:

And what I would suggest to you is to close your eyes, wave your hand around, around, and then stab it onto the map, to a random grid square on the map, and then go there, explore that place.

Speaker B:

And it might be a country park, it might be lovely, it might be some random streets you've never been to before.

Speaker B:

It might be some sort of industrial yard, but go there with an open mind of curiosity and enthusiasm.

Speaker B:

And bear in mind that if you see something you've never seen before, then you're being an explorer, you're having an adventure every bit as much as if you got on an airplane and flew eight hours around the world.

Speaker B:

So get a local map, find somewhere you've never been before and treat.

Speaker B:

This is important.

Speaker B:

When you go off to some country, everything is interesting, isn't it?

Speaker B:

You're like, wow, look, God, everything's interesting, it's fascinating.

Speaker B:

And then you come back home and suddenly you go, everything's so boring and we become very humdrum.

Speaker B:

So Imagine you'd flown.

Speaker B:

Imagine someone had flown from the other side of the planet to your random little grid square in X town, wherever you happen to live.

Speaker B:

How astonished they would be and try and treat your little local area with that open minded astonishment.

Speaker B:

And then you can be an explorer wherever you happen to live.

Speaker A:

I absolutely love that and I think that's brilliant advice.

Speaker A:

So the final question I ask everyone on this podcast, looking back, what adventure stories, whether they're books or movies or legends or perhaps even yourself, in terms of adventure travels that you've, that you'd heard of first sparked your imagination?

Speaker B:

Well, reading adventure books was definitely what got me into the whole world of traveling and discovery.

Speaker B:

And actually one of my here's me weaving in a quick plug.

Speaker B:

I wrote a children's book a few years ago called Great Adventurers, which I really enjoyed doing because it was my chance to just showcase all of these people who very directly influenced and inspired me.

Speaker B:

From the extreme hardcore sort of end of expeditions like Ranald Fiennes down to Laurie Lee, who I mentioned earlier, who walked through space drinking wine and playing his violin and having a lovely time.

Speaker B:

That very much inspired me too.

Speaker B:

Or D' Oeuvla Murphy, a tough Irish woman who loves drinking Guinness, who cycled from Ireland to India back in the 60s.

Speaker B:

So yeah, reading those sort of books was very much my gateway towards going to do them by myself.

Speaker A:

That's fantastic.

Speaker A:

Alice, this has been such a lovely conversation.

Speaker A:

Thank you for making the time to join me on the podcast today.

Speaker B:

Thank you, Luke.

Speaker B:

I've enjoyed it.

Speaker A:

Where can people find you in your books?

Speaker B:

Gosh, I've wasted far too much of my life making sure I can be found anywhere on the Internet.

Speaker B:

So if you look up Alistair Humphreys, wherever you waste time on the Internet, you will find me lurking there.

Speaker B:

And yeah, I've written a bunch of books and I do some email newsletters and I've got a podcast too.

Speaker A:

Wonderful.

Speaker A:

Thank you so much.

Speaker B:

Thank you, Luke.

Speaker A:

This is the Adventure Story podcast.

Speaker A:

Thank you so much for hanging out with me today.

Speaker A:

If you've enjoyed the show, please subscribe.

Speaker A:

Please like and please share.

Speaker A:

It'll take you just seconds, but really helps me spread the word about this show.

Speaker A:

If you have a story you'd like me to explore, let me know in the comments or on the email, which is helloukerichardsonauthor.com if you need more adventure in your life, and let's be honest, who doesn't, you might like the Adventure Society.

Speaker A:

This is my weekly newsletter and it's your ticket to travel with me to share my real world adventures and to find out when a new story or a new season of this podcast drops.

Speaker A:

Head to Luke Richardson, author, Adventure Society to learn all about that.

Speaker A:

And of course, if you're a fan of adventure stories like the one we've talked about today, check out my books@lukerichardsonauthor.com Bon voyage, enjoy the adventure and I'll see you next time.

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Show artwork for The Adventure Story Podcast: For lovers of Adventure, Archaeology, and Historical Mysteries.

About the Podcast

The Adventure Story Podcast: For lovers of Adventure, Archaeology, and Historical Mysteries.
Ever wonder really lies beneath the Great Sphinx? What secrets are hidden in Tesla’s lost notebooks? And seriously, where did they put the Ark of the Covenant?
Hey, I’m Luke and spend my time writing adventure novels and daydreaming about ancient mysteries (Probably 30% writing, 70% daydreaming).
The Adventure Story Podcast is my excuse to talk with the dreamers and the doers of adventure—those who craft epic quests from their laptops, and real-world explorers who laugh in the face of GPS.
Plus, I'll share some of the misadventures that inspired my books and look back on some of the classic adventure stories we all know and love.
Each episode is part Indiana Jones, part behind-the-scenes adventure novel, and part late-night conspiracy session—but with better jokes and less tin foil.
*Disclaimer: This podcast is based on true events. Maybe. Possibly. Okay, probably not. But that's half the fun.

For fictional international adventures, check out my books:
https://www.lukerichardsonauthor.com/

I’m also on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/lukerichardsonauthor/

Or email:
hello@lukerichardsonauthor.com