Episode 4 | Just Take the Next Step

🏔️ Adventure Geek Radio #4 | Just Take the Next Step

This week we’re reflecting on an unforgettable adventure in the Albanian Alps, where sixteen walkers faced steep climbs, challenging trails and a few moments of self-doubt… only to discover they were capable of far more than they imagined.

In this episode:

🥾 Lessons learned from the Albanian Alps
 🤝 Sandie & Carol share how Adventure Geek helped create friendships for life
 ☕ Introducing Plan B: Coffee, Cake & Chat
 🏴 Ken reveals his three favourite things about next year’s Isle of Arran adventure
 🎯 Celebrating members doing extraordinary things
 🌿 A wellbeing recommendation from Maxine
 😂 A very unusual round robin from this week’s dog pack walk
 🥾 Featured Trip: Hadrian’s Wall Self-Guided Adventure

Plus, we explore this week’s quote from Martin Luther King Jr:

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”

Whether you’re out walking, driving, or enjoying a quiet moment with a brew, thank you for listening.

🎙️ Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast app and never miss an episode.

🌐 Adventure Geek: https://adventuregeek.co.uk

#AdventureGeek #WalkingCommunity #OutdoorAdventure #Wellbeing #Friendship #AdventureGeekRadio #AlbanianAlps #HadriansWall #HikingLife #PodcastForWalkers

Adventure Geek is a friendly adventure community based in the UK, helping people improve wellbeing through walking, travel, friendship and real-life experiences.

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 🌍 UK & overseas adventures
 💚 Wellness, community & connection

Find out more:
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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:05

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome everybody to another episode of Adventure Geek Radio. My name is Julia Doherty and I'm your host today and whether you're out walking the dog, driving to work, making a brew, sitting in your camper van somewhere interesting, or perhaps even listening while you're out on one of our walks, thank you so much for joining me. I've got loads to share this week, including a podcast update, some exciting new merchandise, a self-guided Hadrian's Wars success story, a possible trip to the Isle of Aaron, congratulations to several members, a One Pound wellbeing challenge, and of course our featured trip and latest travel blog. But first But first let's start with the quote of the week. So the quote of the week is you don't stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing. I love that quote because it ties in nicely with something that happened this week. This week's newsletter photo was taken on our Brixworth walk, and the lady opposite me on the seesaw is a lady called Kelly. Now here's the interesting bit. Kelly and I first met at school, and until recently I hadn't seen her since 1987. Yeah, that's nearly 40 years old. God, I'm old. Anyway, uh careers have come and gone, families have grown up, life has happened, and yet there we were sitting on a seesaw, laughing like a pair of teenagers. It generally felt as if no time had passed at all. It got me thinking about how serious we become as adults. We're always doing something or planning something, we're always worrying about the next thing on the list. And if you're anything like me, that list never ends. But one of the things I love most about Adventure Geek is that it creates those little moments where people simply have fun. Moments where people forget about work, they forget about the bills, they forget about responsibilities, and they just have a laugh and just have a giggle. So to prove this point, um when we were walking through a tunnel last week on Friday, we were doing the morning miracle walk. I also recorded this little snippet on my phone just as we was walking through the tunnel. So have a listen. Yeah, you can see we're just big kids at heart. Can you spot yourself there? Uh just rest assured I will never record anyone's conversations or anything like that unless I've uh have permission. So, but I thought the oo-oo was fine in the tunnel. Anyway, let's talk about podcasts. I need to confess something. So last Friday I had a full-blown paddy. Yeah, I threw the Marattle out the pram. The latest episode took far too long to produce anything that it should have done, and then it all had a massive hiss behind it. Poor old Claire Cousins got cut off mid-interview, um, and it was just it only uploaded like 10 minutes out of 22 minutes, and it was just a nightmare. Uh at that point I just convinced myself, you know, the self-talk starts, doesn't it? I convinced myself that no one was listening anyway. It sounded bloody awful, so I wasn't gonna do this anymore, it was just a waste of my time. But then you know something happened, the messages started coming in, so I had WhatsApp messages, I had emails, uh, and then someone mentioned it on the Brixworth Walk on Monday night and saying that they enjoyed listening to it and what happened to it this week. And I was just thinking, do you know, okay, it's actually both encouraging and mildly terrifying. So here I am, I'm trying again, and uh yeah, just let me know if you if you like this content. Um, hopefully it's not gonna take me as long this week. Anyway, I've I've sorted out a much better workflow, and hopefully things should run a lot more smoothly going forward. Uh, and I can thank uh ChatGPT for that. It took me through the settings in audacity, so it made it sounds now much better. Anyway, I'm waffling. So if you haven't heard Claire's interview or Pete's contribution, uh you can now catch up in this episode, and I'm gonna put them both in right now.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Pete from Daventry. And I've never been up in a hot air balloon, but I did I briefly worked in a helium balloon factory, but I left because the boss was so rude. I'm not gonna be spoken to in that tone of voice.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

It does brilliant, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 4:34

Alright, so we are on the morning miracle walk on a Friday, and I've got the lovely Claire Cousins with me, who's also known as the Dog Mum. So, how long have you been with us, Claire?

unknown 4:45

Um I was trying to point this out, Julia.

SPEAKER_04 4:48

It must be seven years. Seven years? Six years. I think it was the year after you started, was that change? Right, I bet you've seen some changes. Well, a lot of people have come and gone, but that's a good sign of a of a living club. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 5:03

So can you remember can you remember your very first walk? Absolutely, salty forest.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

Oh okay. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_04 5:09

Is that because it's near you or because that's most people's fence? It is near me. But um I used to walk the dogs in Salty Forest, and um I I I like walking with people, with my dogs. So uh it was it was ideal. Right, fantastic. And what what's your favourite type of walk? Uh shorter. The short ones, okay. Yeah, up to six miles. Okay, yeah. And you like you like the dog pat walks? Absolutely, because they're a little bit slower. Yeah, that's true. Yes. That is true. And of course the morning miracle walks does have to be my favourite.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

Okay, what attracts you to what morning miracle walks? Breakfast. I was gonna say that.

SPEAKER_04 5:49

I look forward to it from the from the moment I start having my menu. Yes, I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

So And what is what's your favourite cafe? Oh, it has to be Granny's. Yeah? Yeah, yeah, and super sausage. Super sausage in Pottersbury? Yes, depending on the music though. It gets a good bit tacky, yes. So I think they're both good value for many as well. Yes, they are. And you can order sausages for the dogs. You can, yes. So let's tell everybody about your two dogs. We've got two dogs with us.

SPEAKER_04 6:21

Yes, yes, we have Bruno, who's uh uh a Daxon, a very noisy Daxon. He is, yeah. Yes, he he he struggles to get on with new dogs. But after a couple of walks, uh we're all part of the pack and it's all fine. And I have Beagle, who's he's an elderly Beagle now. Yes, he's changing.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

He gives the best hugs. He does, he does.

SPEAKER_03 6:45

And at home we don't have Jazzy coming anymore, but you've still got Jazzy at home.

SPEAKER_04 6:49

Yes, she's a greyhound. She's going to be eleven. And she loves to have a little run. And that's you can't do that if you're on a group walk because she does her own things. She does. What do you do? We have lost her a few times. So so so no, I walk her. When I've recovered from this walk, we go out again. Right, so you just m must walk your socks up.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

So you contribute a lot to the leaderboard as well, so we're getting across the world. Very good. Thanks very much for today.

SPEAKER_04 7:22

Okay, thank you. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

Bye bye.

SPEAKER_03 7:28

Thanks so much so much for that, you two. Yeah, I've just looked it up, and Claire, you joined you joined us in January 2019. So you're right, it has been seven years that you've been with us, and so you have seen some changes over the years. Anyway, on to Adventure Geek news. So a bit of adventure geek news for us. First thing is I've got some sun hoodies. Um, I've spoken to my embroiderer, and we're looking at adding Adventure Geek Sun hoodies to our merchandise range. I've become a little bit obsessed with getting the quality right for this particular product. Um, so before I unleash them to the world, I'm waiting for a final sample to come through. And if they're as good as I hope they'll be, I'll get an order list started. So if that is something you'd like, then please just drop me a message. Uh, I don't know about you, but I can't stand sun cream. Like, I obviously I'll put it on my face, but I can't stand it over my arms and over my um ears and stuff like that. I like it, like to wear a sun hoodie and like to cover up, so that's why I'm doing it. Second thing is um Hadrian's Wall success. So last week, some of you know that uh Die, who's an adventure geek member and Bev completed Hadrian's War, and afterwards Die sent me this wonderful um feedback, it's on our Facebook page, and what struck me wasn't really the walk-in, it was the phrase um smooth and worry-free. Uh, because that's exactly what I wanted people to feel. When someone books a self-guided adventure with me, I don't want them worrying about things like luggage, transfer, accommodation, navigation, logistics, that sort of stuff. I want them focusing on the experience. So reading that feedback finally gave me the confidence to launch Hadrian's Wall as a self-guided adventure on the website. Um, so if you whiz over to adventure geektravel.co.uk, so that's adventure geektravel, that's the new website.co.uk. Click on trips, you'll see that there. So if you ever fancied walking Hadrian's Wall, um, or if you know someone that does want to walk it, it is now live on the website. Next one is Isle of Aaron. Um, I'm also exploring the possibility of an Isle of Aron trip next year. Um so Isle of Aaron is often called Scotland in miniature. Yeah, you've got things like mountains, coastline, wildlife, castles, waterfalls, standing stones, pretty much everything we love wrapped into one island. So if that sounds like your sort of adventure, then let me know and I'll start up an interesting group. Um, a thank you section. So a huge thank you to our walk leaders. This week, especially I've got Annette uh who's covering three walks while we're away in Albania. Thanks. Annette, love you today. Michael's also leading the Monday morning walk as usual. He's at a gem. What would I do without our Monday morning Michael walks? Uh and I've said it before, but adventure geeks simply wouldn't work without the volunteer leaders. Um, they give up their time to so that others can enjoy adventures, making friends, uh, and and spend time with the outdoors. So thank you so much to our walk leaders. I'm sure you'll all give them a pat on the back next time you see them. Celebrations! Okay, so we've got some things to celebrate this week. So the first one is congratulations to Mandy and Darren who tied the night in Cyprus last week. The photos looked absolutely incredible. Um, the other congratulations is to Chanel and Mark. They got engaged in Bournemouth. Uh Amanda, she completed the Trek 26 challenge for Alzheimer's Society in some pretty grim conditions, and apparently it's been like that the last three years, which is crazy considering it's by the sea uh down in Swanage, and um yeah, she's done it for three years. Absolutely brilliant effort. Uh, and a huge well done to everyone who tackled the Forsley Foot Festival uh trails this week, uh last week I think it was. Apparently, it worked out one of the walks worked out to around 29 miles. I think it should have been 26, and uh there was more than 60 styles. Yeah, that's 6-0. I mean, who even counts 60 styles? That's not a walk, you know, that's an obstacle course. Anyway, massive respect to everyone who completed it, and finally, uh, another congratulations to the Scottish Ascent group. Uh, the photos looked amazing, especially the deer and the views, the weather looked interesting as well. What an experience. I must admit, I was in the WhatsApp group and I had serious FOMO every time the photos came kept coming through, especially when they were doing the pictures of the deer and then the waterfall, it would just looked absolutely brilliant. Uh, if if we run this one again next year, 100% I'll be there. Albania update. So by the time you're listening to this, we're hopefully somewhere in the Albanian Alps. Probably eating too much food and taking too many photos and wondering why we pack so much stuff. Um, I'll be posting travel blogs as usually through throughout the trip, so keep an eye on my Facebook personal page. It's public so anyone can follow. Or if you're not on Facebook, uh there will be a link in the newsletter to find penguins, um, and then you can just follow along on the blogs there. That's it for you if you're interested. So, treat of the week. So this week's treat costs about a quid a yeah, that's it. One pound, a bottle of bubbles, not for your children, not for your grandchildren, but for you. No, seriously. At some point this week, go outside, spend five minutes just blowing bubbles. No phone, no multitasking, but just bubbles. And if you've got a dog, I recently discovered that dog friendly bubbles actually exist. Like if you just go onto Amazon and search it there, it comes up. And that just means that you know your four-legged friends can join in too. I know it's ridiculous, I know it's silly, and that's exactly why I think you should do it. And if you do take the challenge, then please upload some photos in the WhatsApp group. That would be Ace. And I'll put that hopefully as a smile of the week next week. Alright, talking about what's on next week. So, a quick reminder that we've got a few people booked onto the Bosworth Battlefield Trail next week. So, if you if you want to go, we've got loads of spaces left. It's one of those walks, it just tends to surprise people. It's brand new. We've only wrecked it once earlier in the year, uh, and it was raining then. This time round, we've got lovely weather schedule for next Thursday. So, fingers crossed. Lovely villages, loads of history, great training hike. So, if you've been thinking about joining us, come along. It's 12 miles, it's free for members, and there's a page ago option as well for non-members. So come and join us. I've been talking a bit too long now, so I'm gonna pop in some more audio, and this one is from Louise, who's gonna give me some hints and tips about walking with dogs in the heat. Over to you, Louise. Alright, so we're on the dog cat walk on Wednesday to Norton. It's actually meant to be the Dogford Hobbit House walk, but I've got Lou with me from Momentum K9.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Oh, it's clean wrong, I don't know if it's Momentum Clinical Canine.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

Clinical Canine. Absolutely. So Lou just made the dog cat walk for this every Wednesday. But he didn't message me yesterday saying Julia clear this weather, and then it's another thing to be suggested that we change uh change walk, which we've done. So why did we do that?

SPEAKER_01 14:52

So we're looking at the temperatures, um, and we all know that it's been really, really hot the last two days. So it reached 33 degrees yesterday, um, and it was like 25 degrees mid-morning. Um so you really don't want to be taking this out when it's that hot, really. So we've we've had a look at the temperatures, what we're going to be like in the morning, and then we thought, you know, it's not fair on the dogs um to be out in that temperature. So we moved the time, so we've got come out early, didn't we, this morning? Over an hour this morning. Yeah, rather than quarter to ten. Um, and then we also had a chat about the um about the route because some of the routes involve lots of fields and a little bit of path, but this one had quite a bit of road in it, the original one. Um, so then luckily Drew's got a mega map memory, and remembered that another walk came from the same place, and we thought, oh okay, we'll do that one because it's got a little bit of road that we can do at the beginning when the roads are cooler. Um, and then we're in the field, so it worked quite well, really, in that sense, didn't it?

SPEAKER_02 15:57

So, what's the yeah, what is about road walking though? Yeah, I know it's hot, but oh god, I'm just falling down some minutes. Sorry, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

What is it about road walking? Why shouldn't you take your dogs on a road when it's hot? So it's the pavement, so any surfaces that can oh, get hot, isn't it? So um, so people say astroturf, but um so you've got astroturf, um pavements, roads, um, because it gets the temperature, it can burn their their pads, and I have seen dogs that have had their um the skin or their pads burnt off and they blister, and oh it's just yeah, it's not nice or whatever. So let alone the heat stroke potentials and heat exhaustion, you've got the potential of like burning and blistering their paw pads as well.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

Yeah, it's just not good, is it?

SPEAKER_01 16:48

So message out there to all dog owners.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

It's just please keep your dogs on the verge if you've got to go near a walk, uh near a road.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Is that yeah? I mean, yeah, get them on the grass, really. Yeah. Um, I mean that's why they say at the moment, isn't it? Is like if you want if you have to walk your dog, and this is the big thing, is that your dog doesn't need a walk every day.

SPEAKER_03 17:07

It's not gonna die from not getting some hot dogs.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Yeah, but it's gonna die from getting too hot, so or burning its paws and stuff, you know, causing them injury. Um, so if you're gonna walk your dog, then try and get them out before nine or ten in the morning, and then just walk them later on at night, like after seven, eight o'clock.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

Is there a is there a like an ideal temperature to if you look at it and you see it's like 22 degrees or 25 degrees or and what's the sort of temperature that you just say no that's way too hot?

SPEAKER_01 17:38

Well, it depends on your dog. Oh, okay. So it depends on your dog and it depends on the age and their condition. So if you've got a really elderly dog or a puppy, they can't manage their heat very well, okay. Um, and then also their weight, so if they're overweight, they're not going to cope in the heat. Why can't a puppy like cope with heat? Because they're not used to regulating the temperature yet. So like babies. Right. So you have to look after babies as well, don't you? So it's the same sort of analogy. I think there's some great posters going out at the moment on Facebook, and I've saved one, so I'll share it with the likes of the dog WhatsApp group if you like. And it's a little chart that shows you the size of your dog, and then it shows you all the different temperatures, and it sort of gives you the red zones like don't take your dog out, you know, you'll you'll cause them more harm in certain temperatures, but it sort of does it according to their weight and their okay.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

That one can you send that to me and I'll put it on the newsletter?

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Yeah, yeah, it's really good, and then the other thing to take into account is we were chatting earlier about bulldogs. Yeah, you've got your brachiocephalic breeze, it's a big word, brachiocephalic brachiocephalic. I've got it, which I mean so um it's just uh confirmation of their face, like pugs and stuff, yeah. Um so what it is is they've got shorter nasal passages, so they struggle breathing at the best of times, and then put them in the heat, and they're gonna be really bad. So, you've got certain other breeds that you know like that have struggled to breathe in the heat, so you have to be more careful with them. And then you've got again you've got other dogs that have got. We were chatting about German shepherds, they've got big, massive double coats, so they're really heavy coats, all right. So, again, it's like really just being aware of what breed you've got, yeah, and making sure that you know you you do as best as you can to try and make sure that your breed is as safe as you can be in the sunshine, I suppose.

SPEAKER_03 19:37

So there are there any sort of if someone's thinking of getting a dog, um and is there any dogs that any sort of dogs that are really good in the heat? Because you must have dogs in like Spain and California or wherever, I'm just thinking of hot places that thrive in the heat.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Yeah, you say that. Um I don't know if anybody's heard about uh living with life with Charlie over. I think he lives just outside Barcelona and he's got two Pedenkos, so he's really big Padenko charity ambassador, so he's rescued two.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Right, I don't know, I'll have to Google that.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

So Padenkos look like very tiny greyhounds, and they're they're they're bred to be hunting dogs in Spain and Barcelona. Okay, so they are the skinniest dogs you've ever met in your life, and they are they've got the thinnest fur as well. Um, and it's just like but but they're used to the temperatures, right? Okay, they're bred in that bred in that sort of environment. So, yeah, there are dogs that can cope with it, but just put your common sense out on really cool. Well it's the same with us, and that's where I do laugh. You see a lot of people out there, they say you put a great big duffel coat on, and you and you go out in your bare feet on the pavement and see how you'd like walking for five miles in that sort of thing. So it's just like you say it is common sense, but it's just cool. So let's not do it. We say that actually, um under the Animal Welfare Act, yeah. Living with the when you took talk about um you've got your five freedoms, so your freedom from thirst, your f you know, you there is a f uh freedom that we're supposed to be looking for, so we're not supposed to do any injury or harm to our dog. So you basically you could be prosecuted under the five freedoms if you don't look after your dog properly, so yeah. To be right, absolutely right, that's why it's there, isn't it? Yeah, so that's where the Air OS BCA could come in, but um they generally probably just give you a warning, but it's um but every everybody has a duty to own a dog is to yeah, look after the dog according to the five freedoms, so cool, and you're right doing these little snippets with us once a week.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

Yeah, it's great. Look out for some more tips next week. Thanks, Lou. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

Isn't she great? We love Lou. She just so loves dogs, and she just got so So much knowledge. Um, so yeah, I'm looking forward to doing some more regular slots with uh Lou. I've also got um upcoming slots as well with uh Maxine um talking about breathing, and I've got um Hailey as well doing some meditation stuff with us as well. So as the weeks go on, you know, hopefully we should get more and more uh interesting stuff and not just me talking. Anyway, smile of the week. This week's smile of the week has gone to Annette. If you've seen the photo, you'll know exactly why. It's just a huge smile at silly o'clock on a Friday morning. Uh the step up challenge as well. So we're nine days into June and we've already walked 808 miles, which isn't bad at all. We've still got a long way to go to meet uh beat uh May's record. We've got all the way to like West Africa uh last month, so we've got some we've got a way to go yet. But with Albania happening this week, uh we've got a fighting chance because 16 of us uh all doing some big hikes over there. So keep walking and remember that every mile counts. And finally, uh this week's travel blog takes us back to Cappadocia, one of the most magical mornings I'd ever experienced. There was three days of cancelled balloon flights by the time we'd arrived, and we woke up at half past four in the morning not knowing whether the balloons would fly or not, and then it was just like pure magic. Hundreds of balloons drifting across the sky as the sun came over Cappadocia. It was one of those moments that makes all the early alarms worthwhile. But the day was uh also included underground cities, pigeons, uh mistaken identities, rooftop dinners, and dancing with strangers, which is pretty much uh peak adventure geek. So if you'd like to read the full blog, uh head over to the Adventure Geek travel website and click on blog and you can read it there. So that's it for this week's episode. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed the podcast, please do subscribe, leave a review, or tell a fellow Adventure Geek about it. And before I go, I'm gonna ask you one last question. When was the last time you did something silly? Maybe this week is the week to change that. Play the bubbles, play on the seesaw, laugh until your face hurts, and go make some memories. Until next time, go live your best life. Bye for now, I'll see you on the other side.