Adventures

We woke up at a reasonable hour, grabbed our bags, and headed over to HarbourFront, ready to swap skyscrapers for sea spray. A quick raid of 7-Eleven for breakfast and lunch supplies later, we found ourselves trying to figure out how this whole ferry thing worked. Turns out, boarding a ferry here is a lot like boarding a plane. First stop: a counter upstairs to get printed boarding passes, then through security and passport control before being herded into a cramped holding pen that felt far too much like an airport waiting lounge buried inside a shopping mall. Singapore never fails to surprise. ...

Like all great Singapore-based adventures, this one started at Changi Airport on a Friday evening. After a cheeky Burger King dinner and a last-minute grab of family-sized bags of M&Ms (essential adventure fuel), we breezed through security and were soon boarding our flight to Bali. Touchdown was easy thanks to our e-Visas on arrival—highly recommended if you don’t fancy queueing—and before long, we were in a taxi winding our way to The Niche Bali, our home base for the weekend. The room wasn’t anything to write home about, but after a long day of work and travel, we didn’t care. We set an early alarm and crashed out, ready for two days of dirt biking chaos. ...

Day 1 – The Airport & Jervinio the Frog Leaving St James Power Station at 4:45pm leaves more than enough time to catch a flight at 7:55pm for future reference. Rocking up to Terminal 4 at Changi Airport proved a very easy and stress-free start to the holiday (Other than Matthew convincing Elliot he needed to wear all his clothes to make his bag weigh under the limit). ...

With a free day and itchy feet, we headed out to Pasir Ris, ready for a day on the water. Our destination: Adventure Paddlers, a small outfit tucked away on the coast that rents out kayaks for exploring the wild side of Singapore. After a quick gear-up and safety check, we slid our boats into the water without too much drama. Spirits were high—until we looked out at our first challenge: a shipping lane. ...

This year, my mum and I headed to the Adventure Bike Rider Festival at Ragley Hall, bringing along our BMW F750GS and KTM 450 EXC. It turned out to be a cracking weekend on two wheels. Setting Up and Hitting the Trails We found a decent spot for the van and wrestled with the tall roof tent before settling in. Once set up, I took the BMW out for a ride around the 50km adventure trail — a great mix of off-road sections and flowing gravel. Mum explored the festival while I was out, and we met up later for food and an early night. ...

With the Thames just down the road and some stand-up paddleboards ready to hire, it didn’t take much convincing to get a group of us onto the water for a day. We’d been watching Ed Pratt’s Source to Sea series and figured… how hard could it be, right? Our mission: paddle 18km from Cricklade to Lechlade. Getting Set Up Our adventure started in classic style — almost according to plan. We were meant to have four boards, but only three were actually available when we arrived. Luckily, the carpark near Cricklade had just enough wiggle room between the bollards to squeeze the cars through. A few hundred meters from the river, it made for an ideal launch spot: spacious, easy to access, and a handy wooded area nearby for getting changed. ...