Making your Expedition a success, it can be done!

“Mikael, I had to abandon my expedition! My idea was to cycle through Africa, but I had to give up after just three months. I lost it along the way. What did I do wrong?”

My answer to this email was simple and direct: “You lost motivation and you hadn’t prepared enough!”

His email was similar to hundreds I have received in the last 25 years. After reviewing all of them at length, I realised these failed expeditions often had three things in common: Explorers had lost motivation, and they had failed to understand the need for good sleep, and the benefits of good food.

When the going got too tough, they proved not tough enough to keep on going! Key to any successful expedition is understanding why you go through all these hardships – at the most difficult of moments remember what it is that drives you, and draw on this, it can be your motivation.

Good sleep and good food are the two most important pillars of a successful expedition. If you don’t know how and where to pitch your tent, you will eventually fail due to lack of sleep.

The tent is your fortress and your home, where you spend most of your exploring life. This is where you rest, feed and recuperate. Don’t set off on an expedition until you can sleep very well in your tent. I have spent over 2500 nights in tents – many of them before even setting off.

As important, is being able to cook a great meal. You need energy and rest to be able to make the right decisions. So don’t leave before you know how to cook a gourmet meal on your petrol stove!

That said, you could just get out there! Trust me, this advice is only complementary; you really need to be out on the ground learning the lessons of exploration, if you want to succeed.

One comment

  1. Dear Mikael Strandberg,

    I live in North Baikal Area, 75 years. The last 21 years I worked in tourism, in 1994 had stroke, now use power wheelchair JAZZY 1015 (USA) but steel try to make new tours.

    I liked your web-site http://www.mikaelstrandberg.com/tourguid/ about tour guide!

    I send you diary of Hazel Tinegate (tourist from UK), IT WAS WRITTEN 21 YEARS AGO! It was for the first time when 16 foreiners came to our area. Tell me did you like it?

    Now we plan to repeat this journey. We haven’t now campsites, toilets; we support tourists by inflatable catamarans instead of boats (they make the tour more cheap!) – they take everthing: tents, sleeping bags, products, ets.

    Catamarans will make life for tourists easier! Tourists take only video cameras but there not trails or paths, it would be difficult to cover distances!

    From village Baikalskoe to Cape Elokhin no one live! There are lot of small lakes, you can fish in them, also you can make radial routes to the mountains of the Hrebet Baikalsky (hightest peak Chersky is 2588 meters above sea level but it takes 6 days to reach it and return back).

    The route: Severobaikalsk – village Baikalskoe (40 km) – Cape Kotenikovsky (40 km) – Cape Elokhin (80 km) – Severobaikalsk. 14 days, it possible to include radial route to peak Chersky, in this case duration of tour would be 20 days.

    Can you tell me about Sweden tourists? Is it possible to find tourists for this tour in Sweden?

    Yours,

    Rashit Yahin

    My Skype name: rashit.yahin

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