The joys and benefits of exploring the new, through travel and other adventures

Travelling is woven through the fabric of my being, both as a part of my life’s trajectory, taking me to live and work in various countries, and as an absolute passion to explore new places. In both of these ways, it has been – and continues to be – wonderful to experience so many adventures. And so, what is an adventure, actually? According to the dictionary, it is “an unusual, exciting and possibly dangerous activity”. And travel certainly provides all of that.

As just some examples, my partner and I did the young adults’ dream in our 20s, with six months to explore Europe, and thinking – erroneously – that we’d be able to afford cheap accommodation along the way. Quick calculations in the early stages showed that we were way off there, resulting in a stopover in a camping shop – while totally inexperienced in that arena – to stock up on gear and rapidly learn how to become campers in all sorts of way-out places. We survived a lot of memorable adventures. And, I have to admit, did not become addicted to camping. But we were pretty happy to get some insights into a different and most spontaneous way of travelling.

And equally happy to survive what we had had no idea would be an extremely risky bike ride from Vienna to Budapest, in our 60s, with my sister and brother-in-law. This was promised to be a safe ride on quiet back streets, but some of it proved to be on roaring highways with us being squeezed onto the downward sloping shoulders of the road. That was the most dangerous thing that I have ever done, riding with extreme care in the growing realisation that I was actually at serious risk of being killed. And as someone whose middle name is Caution, I have to admit to still having a glow of satisfaction at having experienced that feeling, and lived to tell the tale, as part of what was also a very special bonding time between the four of us.

A very different travelling challenge was our decision, shortly before the pandemic, to start fulfilling our dream of travelling with just our grandchildren, to build memories with them. That trip was with the oldest two – but seriously not that old, at nine and 13 – on an exploration of Alaska. How would we – in our 70s – manage that? Would they enjoy it? We definitely did, and so did they, still talking about it now as one of the most memorable times in their lives.

And now, in our 80s, to do our bit for the environment, we’ve confined our travels to within Australia, and love finding new highways and byways to explore small country towns (each of them with their own special features) on road trips in our EV. In addition, and more locally, as my sister-in-law and I considered all the places in Sydney that we don’t know, we decided to meet regularly at a new place, and explore that. Lots of fun!

But when it comes to adventures, travelling is only one of many sorts of adventures that we can have, and – as examples – lately I’ve come across two other ways in which we can live adventurous lives. On the one hand, there is doing or learning something new, at any age, and in a Sydney Morning Herald article about that, three people described what they’ve been doing: a man in his 40s has decided to try something new every year, in his passion to seek out “the new to maintain a healthy brain and positive outlook”, and he’s having a ball with that, with activities ranging from drumming to glass blowing. A woman in her 70s is “embracing the joy of being a beginner” by fulfilling a lifelong dream to be an artist. And a man in his 30s is handling the pressure of work by learning something entirely different in his free time: ballet dancing.

And on the other hand, in my favourite podcast series “The Moth”, a woman recovering from postpartum depression but still feeling somewhat bleak, and realising that what used to make her happy was having spontaneous adventures, decided to put out the following appeal to her family and friends: that they could set her any challenge, and if they donated money to a charity, she would carry out that challenge. There proved to be plenty of takers, and plenty of adventures, ranging from walking 100 kilometres between two cities without taking any money, to doing an act on a comedy show. It worked! And she has continued to enjoy new challenges, set by herself, and in a newly minted positive frame of mind.

And so, all up, for travel and other adventures to broaden and refresh our minds and give us pleasure, and that surge of excitement at experiencing the new, we are definitely spoilt for choices in stretching ourselves in different ways.

Anne Ring ©2025