Why are so few Expeditions a success? By which I mean reaching the goal one set out for? This is a question from a reader I got yesterday and I remember an article I wrote about the issue in Oman two years back, which is still valid today.

Rain is pouring down in the Sultanate. Chaos everywhere, people are dying in tragic accidents when wadis get flooded and in Al Ghubra, the immigrant area where we live, people keep their kids indoors not to drown….it amazes me, because the downpours as they are called are very moderate. We would even call them drizzles back home….In any case, it has made me think about an issue which once up on a time, made me start an Expedition school (Started 1998, ended 2006), namely:

Why do  so many people fail in their hope to reach the goal they´ve set out at accomplishing in their Expeditions?

The reason I set this Expedition School up, was that I realized of those over 100 Expeditions that people asked me for advice, all of them first timers, 90% failed to reach their goal, half of them didn´t make it over three months. The main reason, which is the essential ingredient for the success of an Expedition, were these:

1. How to put up a camp and live in a tent. The two most important things on an Expedition, is to sleep and eat well. Therefore, before leaving on an Expedition/adventure/travel where you live outdoors, you need to spend a lot of time living outdoors in a tent, until the day you sleep well, feel secure and now where to pitch the tent. This is your home, your life, your tent is where you recuperate. Make it comfortable, your fortress against worries and the place of peace. Choose good equipment. I am much more for weight, than slimming it all down to discomfort. But, before leaving, lots of sleeping outdoors.

2. Learn how to cook good food! You need energy and rest to be able to make the right decisions. So get a good stove, preferable petrol since that works everywhere and than practice doing the same meals that you do back home. There´s not much of a difference! You need variety, if possible, good nutritious meals, full of carbs and fat and tasty one!

3. Motivation and understanding why you want to this expedition! If you handle these two firsts you will make it far, because it is a simple life. You work hard, eat and sleep. It is the greatest and most peaceful of life’s. It is real freedom. But, a the end of the day, when going gets tough, you really need to know why you are doing it.

However, just go…..