Lonely Planet - Everyday Adventures

Contents

Introduction .........................

Follow your senses

#1 Follow your nose ......

#2 Urban foraging ...........

#3 Fly by night ...............

#4 Macro lensing .............

#5 Alphabet Club ..............

#6 Count the birds .........

#7 Food quest ...................

#8 Memory Lane ...............

#9 water cure ..................

#10 searching the
subconscious ...............

social adventures

#11 pint-sized tour
guide ............................

#12 wild Backyard ...........

#13 Social media slave ....

#14 Life Swap .....................

#15 make-believe
Backpacking ...............

#16 Bartender's Knock ....

#17 puppy pursuit ..............

#18 fake vacation ..............

#19 modish flash mob ......

#20 trip poker ..................

Challenge Yourself

#21 Local Summit .............

#22 Airport Tourism ........

#23 Plastic challenge .......

#24 Zero budget day out ..

#25 Urban Hike .................

#26 lend a hand
locally ......................

#27 Counter tourism ......

#28 Commute touring .....

#29 long-haul
hitchhiking ...............

#30 End of the line .........

Cultural odysseys

#31 Street art .................

#32 Movie magic ..............

#33 cartographic
challenge ...................

#34 urban zen .................

#35 sense of abandon .....

#36 vintage travel ........

#37 Literary jaunt .........

#38 holiday replay .........

#39 Same-name game ........

#40 melodic travel ..........

Roll The Dice

#41 hands of fate ...........

#42 traveller's
Roulette ...................

#43 Alternating Travel ..

#44 Ariadne's Thread ......

#45 Walk a line ..............

#46 Human Chess ...............

#47 life-sized
Monopoly ...................

#48 12 Travel ...................

#49 Expedition to K2 .....

#50 out of officE ..........

Introduction

Adventure is a way of life

You dont need to travel far to see the world with fresh eyes. It was on a drizzly day
in London, clutching my camera, that I learned to love my home city again.

After years of weaving through crowds and avoiding eye contact in train
compartments, my love affair with London felt rocky. Then, on a short photography
course, my teacher urged me to zoom in on Londons hidden beauty. Through a lens,
I saw my surroundings anew. At ground level, candy-coloured high-heeled shoes
struck the pavement with haughty, rhythmic steps. Corrugated iron, Victorian-style
windows, the frayed spines of volumes in a second-hand book shop...textures and
shapes Id usually ignore looked fascinating through a camera.

The art of macro photography ( p.22 ) is one of 50 bite-sized escapades in this book.
These everyday adventures are designed to revitalise your relationship with your
corner of the world. And you dont need to spend big or travel far: transform your
commute into a holiday ( p.122 ), tap into your subconscious mind on a suburban stroll
( p.46 ), or escape from reality in your own backyard ( p.57 ).

So what kind of adventure suits your mood? Our Challenge Yourself chapter
has 10 ways to test your boundaries. Cultural Odysseys is packed with forays into
local history and art. In Follow Your Senses you can sniff, listen and eat your way to
new insights. Roll the Dice flings you out of your rut with games to guide your way.
Finally, in Social Adventures, you can bring family and friends along for the ride.

Its time to weave some wonderment into your daily routine.

Happy adventuring,
Anita Isalska, editor

ADVENTURE #1

Follow your nose

Inhale deeply, its time for an olfactory
odyssey... Use the bodys most underrated
sense and discover the sweet or sour truths
it reveals about your local area.

What youll need

An area replete with intriguing odours

Instructions

Pick a suitably smelly starting point: it could be a fish market,
bakery or a flower-filled park.

Breathe in, and let the strongest smell in your vicinity envelop
you. Is it appetising, intriguing or (better yet) eye-wateringly rancid?
Walk or cycle to its source.

Your newly energised nostrils should be picking up on all sorts of
odours by now, so sniff a second smell and walk in its direction.

Dont smell anything? Walk or cycle away from the orbit of your
starter stink until something new tickles your nose.

Complexity * ****

Case study

Virginia Jealous,
Scentsitive Cyclist

In Denmark, on the far south coast of Western Australia, we live life on the edge:
edge of river, inlet, ocean and continent. The bicycle route from town to the wild
Southern Ocean hugs this fringe and is landmarked by smells both marvellous and
malodorous. A cycle ride gives my nose, and my legs, a surprisingly good workout.

A perfect morning smell starts the day, wafting from the riverside coffee roaster.
Inhaling is almost as good as imbibing but not quite, so I stop for a caffeine hit.

Shops begin to open. A smoky haze of incense from the fair-trade store really gets
up my nose. I pause upwind to watch the responses of other passersby. These vary
from ooh, lovely to sneezing and nose-blowing. Pushing my bike along the main
street I take time out to smell the roses by the war memorial, and to talk plants with
the council gardeners who are spreading blood-and-bone manure on the flowerbeds.

Downstream a couple of kilometres, where river meets inlet, the sharp smell of
bird poo make me slow down and look up. Silhouetted against sky, the roosts and
nests of cormorants are visible in the tree tops. Mornings and evenings are punctuated
by the flap and clatter of thousands of wings as they leave and return in noisy flocks.

The clean salt air of the ocean beckons me on. In summer, beachside bushland is
pungent with the smell of eucalyptus. In winter, smoke from bonfires infiltrates my
clothes. Its a scented souvenir that lingers long after getting home.

Pros and Cons

+ Blooming plants and blooming friendships
- Unappetising pongs

FReshly baked bread
is one of a trillion
odours detectable by
your humble hooter