As we celebrate a year of penning our thoughts online, we reflect a little on what the next year may look like, after the coronavirus lockdowns start to ease.
Our travel and adventure philosophy here at On The Doorstep is essentially searching for local adventures, or perhaps more accurately, how to find adventure in our local surroundings. I think that with a general lack of travel and a sense of uncertainty, this theme will become even more prevalent for the remainder of the year and potentially from now on.
Limiting our future travel certainly doesn’t have to mean a limit to future adventures, rather a change in how we approach them. An adventure can be found around the corner and doesn’t mean flying off to a far flung corner of the world. We are both believers in getting to know and making the most of our local surroundings, this is for sustainability reasons, but also for a more general philosophy of living and enjoying the present moment.
We started off the year with huge plans, trying new outdoor activities each month, clearly this hasn’t worked out in the midst of a health pandemic, however we have most definitely learnt a lot. Instead of trying ski touring, I have learnt to grow vegetables in the garden, instead of learning to surf, Zoe has learnt the perfect technique for chopping logs. Rather than planning an epic adventure each month, we’ve learnt basic skills that will serve us in the outdoors but also in life.
In that sense we perhaps need to refocus and rethink what we mean by an adventure. After spending 9 + weeks confined to my home, I’m most looking forward to going past the garden gate, down to dip my toes in the sea, to walk up to the top of a hill, just to see the view below. Being at home has meant that something we previously took for granted, could now be considered a genuine adventure – walking down the hill past the village to the sea, something I haven’t been able to do in 8 weeks, now seems like quite a trip!
When I think about planning for my future adventures, I am thinking about a day at the crag with friends, a weekend hiking trip to the mountains, stopping in a hut for the night, running along the canal nearby my flat, walking around the city, walking anywhere! I am thinking about all the trails nearby that I haven’t yet had the chance to walk.
In the end, adventure can be found wherever you’re willing to look for it. My approach will likely be taking it slowly and in the same way that I’ve been getting to know my home, get to know my surrounding area even better, step by step, by venturing out a little past my doorstep and into my immediate surroundings.