From the Editor Christian Schwalbach “ Most of the rough edges are now gone from contemporary travel, but we haven’t entirely lost our taste for adventure – and for good reason “ DEPARTURES 20 “WHEN YOU FIND a snow leopard, drive it like you stole it.” So says the guide to our correspondent in her chronicle, “In Search of the Snow Leopard”, of chasing the elusive highaltitude feline. Screeching out of the northern Indian city of Leh in search of the creature – I’ll let you discover whether they found it on this occasion on page 90 – is a reminder of just how enthralling adventure can be. Once upon a time, of course, all travel was adventurous. The journeys were full of danger, from armed bandits to unusual diseases. Comfortable hotels were few and very far between. And even up until the 1950s, an off-the-beaten-path journey was grounds enough for a bestselling book. Most of the rough edges are now gone from the contemporary experience of travel, and most of the globe’s corners have been explored. But as travel has been mainstreamed, we haven’t entirely lost our taste for adventure – and for good reason. Adventure is not just about exploring a place, it’s a process that forces us to confront ourselves as we push past boundaries, both known and unknown. An increasingly rare thing in our optimised and algorithmised world. We spotlight a number of contemporary adventures in this issue of Departures, beyond the search for snow leopards in the high Himalayas. Take the burgeoning mixology landscape of Athens (p34), an on-the-radar destination with an off-the-radar scene only known, for the moment, by the cocktail cognoscenti. We also visit the Australian Outback, the coral-rimmed islands of Palau and many more places in this issue. In these pages, we hope you find inspiration for adventures of your own.
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