The Adventurer's Blogging Chain

by Tim Moss

As the film finished, three men approached me. Between them they had walked across Iran, paddled the length of the Murray and the Amazon, cycled the Axis of Evil and prepared to swim the Atlantic. And they were approaching me.

One made a reference to reading my website, another asked if I was ready for tomorrow's run and the third made a joke about my recent hitch-hiking trip.

They were Mark Kalch, Dan Martin and Dave, whose website you are reading now. I'd only met them each once or twice before but the fact that they had come to say hello and knew these things about me made me feel welcomed. Like I was one of them.

We don't have a lot of history. I'm unlikely to be the best man at Dan's wedding and I don't know Dave's favourite colour or what beer Mark drinks (if he even drinks beer at all) but we have some things in common. We each enjoy adventures and expeditions to the extent that we are trying, in our own ways, to make them a full time occupation.

Without realising it, I had felt quite alone in what I was doing for some time but that brief conversation in the Coronet Theatre marked a turning point in my head. I realised that there are plenty of other people who are going through or have already gone through the same things that I am now. There is a community of sorts and I am beginning now to feel like a part of it.

And what is "community"?

Community is the silent nod exchanged between anonymous cyclists who pass each other on a busy road and the reason strangers stop for a chat when their paths cross on a hillside. It is the Christmas card hand delivered and the warm greeting that awaits behind pub doors. It is belonging and the sense of doing so. It is a thread that connects the disparate and a link that binds straying paths.

Community is important but it is, I fear, becoming less and less valued in the 21 st century. This is a shame because I think it could bring about a lot of positive change in the world. Might tighter-knit communities give us back some of the small, local and personal in our streets as opposed to the vast, international and faceless? Would perhaps a stronger sense of community mean less discrimination and help stem the rising tide of political parties who ascribe to it? Could a community reduce the need for ASBOs and the instance of binge drinking?

I couldn't say. Perhaps not. But I doubt that it would hurt and I can't help but wonder if the world might just be a slightly nicer place if everyone felt more part of a community.

I am as guilty as the next person of shunning community. I shamefully do not know the names of my next-door-neighbours let alone the rest of my street but this community of adventurous types is not one that I will let go so easily. It feels so good to have just this slightest taste of team-work and kinsmanship that I would love to see it flourish.

I'm new to it, I know that. It's not my place to presume anything but I've suggested a first step and got a warm reception. Some of us are starting a small chain of guest blogs on each other's sites that we hope will grow over time. Part of the aim is to introduce our readers to some of the other cool people out there and to get us each thinking a little differently to come up with new material. But, for me at least, I'm also hoping to encourage that sense of community.

This is the first article in the Adventurer's Blogging Chain. The next article will be hosted by Mark Kalch. In due course, you will be able follow all the articles here on Twitter.