“I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”
While travel has been paused, I still seek reading and hearing the stories of others’ travels – what nature they’ve seen, activities they’ve got up to, the people they’ve met. In a world that seems scary to many at the moment, these websites have filled me with excitement to get out, explore and adventure again with great gusto and I hope it does for you too!
1. Erin Sullivan – www.erinoutdoors.com
In her own words, Erin shares her ‘adventures, advice and mishaps from the road and the trail.’ She is an outdoor photographer and travel writer and in this season has pivoted beautifully to creatively capture the ‘Great Indoors’, whilst still giving us that feeling of adventure.
I mean how inventive is that to recreate an ice cave using bedsheets!!!
I’m still getting my outdoor fix on her Instagram just seeing the inventiveness of using household objects and little figurines to recreate outdoor scenes for us to enjoy whilst stuck inside. This is indeed a new way of experiencing the outdoors! Maybe you too can take up the challenge of recreating the outdoors inside.
2. Lola Akinmade Åkerström – www.lolaakinmade.com
Lola is a storyteller – through her words and mesmerising portrait captures of the people she meets on your travels. She captures their soul, their laughter, their strength, that wrinkle here, that crease there, and all in all drawing you into that person’s life.
We are a culturally rich, global village and listening to an individual’s story, just fills me with such feels of adventure. For it is the people we meet, the people we now know exist, that make that trip all the more alive. Lola introduces us to those very same people that make you want to pack up and go meet them for yourself and add to the adventure called life!
3. Linn – IG @Microadventuregirl – www.instagram.com/microadventuregirl
I first interacted with Linn on Instagram when she had created a ‘Lockdown Cinema’ for her daughters whilst camping in her back garden and star gazing and I though what an innovative idea during this season for those missing their microadventures of camping and hiking.
A microadventure was a term created by the adventurer Alastair Humpreys meaning an overnight outdoor adventure that is small, cheap, local and achievable, for normal people with real lives. I have had a few microadventures of my own but I particularly like the ones Linn is creating and participating in at this time. As well as Lockdown Cinema, she has participated in a Virtual Everest Base Camp Expedition Challenge where individuals climbed whatever they could find in their house (usually stairs but one lad used a ladder) to ascend 85000ft indoors to ‘summit’ Everest. The video created of this challenge certainly put a smile on my face and showed the strength and need for community when adventuring.
4. Wonderful Wild Women – www.wonderfulwildwomen.co.uk
This community is passionate about all types of adventures and aims to inspire to get women outdoors and in nature. A community of women like me! Usually, they organise local meetups and events in and around the UK. In this season they have been sharing lists of adventure films to watch at home, organising virtual social run clubs, and on the website, you can read of all the explorations taken on by the women within the community from Stand Up Paddleboarding to Swimming in Snowdonia, UK. It is a worthy website, which I have spent hours on, pouring over various stories.
5. Clé Hunnigan IG @alivelikethewind www.instagram.com/alivelikethewind
For a platform that is so visual, its not Cle’s IG photos that have me welling with excitement to explore the world. It is simply his beautiful penmanship to create such feelings of wanting to explore every crevice of the world and experience how he feels for myself. His description of India below makes me close my eyes and be transported to the land he carefully describes.
Clé also directs, produces and pens the words of cinematic short films with his creative team at The Wind Collective and for this Easter, since I couldn’t travel to experience the celebrations they brought it to our devices with this visual beauty ‘Semana Santa’, shot on location in Guatemala. Honestly, this dude is gifted and will inspire daily wanderlust in you. In this Stay at Home season, he is using it to write his first book full of short stories, poetic prose, notes and essays all gathered up within him from the years of travelling. I for one cannot wait to read it and patiently await its creation!
And there you have it, 5 new and diverse set of people, you may have never heard of, or perhaps you have, all creating adventure in their unique way. I hope it still keeps that adventurous spirit alive within you during this time.
Let me know your thoughts about them in the comments.
From my ever exploring heart,
Stay Home for now & keep safe
The Five to Nine Traveller
xxxx
The Five to Nine Traveller 
I love the Wonderful Wild Women account! That’s such a great recommendation!
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Its great…I discovered it through my friend who runs Black Girls Hike UK
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