Ripcord Adventure Journal 2.2
Our sixth issue of Ripcord Adventure Journal is a very different beast to its five earlier siblings, whose articles and images were, in the main, submitted by adventurous travel writers and photographers; in this issue however, we have brought together 11 accomplished explorers and adventurers who write about their unique experience of life, lived to the maximum and danced to a different beat.
Our sixth issue of Ripcord Adventure Journal is a very different beast to its five earlier siblings, whose articles and images were, in the main, submitted by adventurous travel writers and photographers; in this issue however, we have brought together 11 accomplished explorers and adventurers who write about their unique experience of life, lived to the maximum and danced to a different beat.
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51<br />
Around the World with 80 Kids<br />
Kev Sidford<br />
I blame it entirely on a conscripted French coastguard who, during<br />
the Franco-Prussian War, began to wordsmith a book that would<br />
eventually become an internationally recognised title, “Around the<br />
world in Eighty days.” Not that I have ever read the works of Jules<br />
Verne, but the title alone was enough to set the seed for my<br />
adventures.<br />
My quest for adventure started in my misspent youth, plagued by<br />
teachers’ disputes, school was not the best place for me to learn, so I<br />
opted for other avenues to occupy my mind. It was on one such<br />
occasions when I was about thirteen years old, full of the skills and<br />
knowledge gained from an American Survival book and armed with<br />
a map that I had absolutely no real idea how to use, I ventured out<br />
into the White Peak of Derbyshire, UK.<br />
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA<br />
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA<br />
Getting completely lost, I remember reading “If lost, find a stream<br />
follow it down until you reach civilisation.” This I duly did and<br />
within ten minutes of following the stream, and discovering with<br />
abject horror, that the water flowed down a sinkhole, seemingly into<br />
the bowels of the earth. Even in those days of being young and daft,<br />
I realised that I had a lot to learn. Never did I suspect that I would<br />
eventually be an instigator, leader and adviser of many an<br />
expedition.<br />
Like many others over the years I had to learn my trade, amassing<br />
endless days in the mountains getting soaked through, thinking<br />
“Why?” and then that comic book bubble appears above my head,<br />
reminding me that I want to get qualified as a leader of expeditions.<br />
More days in the mountains, climbing up ridges, getting snowed on,<br />
rained on, chased off the mountain by thunderstorms, all character<br />
building stuff, to eventually gain the qualification of UK Summer<br />
Mountain Leader.<br />
By 2006, I had made it up my proverbial ladder with a handbag of<br />
qualifications including European Mountain Leader (Now<br />
International Mountain Leader), Joint Service Rock Climbing<br />
Instructor and Joint Service Advanced Mountain Expedition Leader.<br />
I felt like a student on graduation day, throwing the Mortar Board<br />
in the air. I had earned my spurs so to speak, or so I thought,
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