With the ongoing warm and sunny weather of July 2026 I was delighted to have my annual visit to Mount Edgecombe booked in, for the Armchair Adventure Festival 2026
As usual I enjoyed a succession of talks by various adventurers, who have completed an amazing array of adventures, big and small. Whilst I wouldn’t hope to follow in their footsteps I find the talks inspiring, and also humbling as so many are overcoming mental health issues – being outdoors and doing stuff is a great antidote for modern life.
I have been to these Festivals for most years since they started (in Covid times – the first Festival was online and those attending logged in from their armchairs). Some overriding messages always resonate with me: the kindness of strangers around the world; the accessibility of different countries by ordinary folk; the variety of ‘adventures’ available, which can be as big or small as you like – it isn’t necessary to climb Mount Everest to have an adventure (but you can if you want to…)
The speakers I listened to this year were
THURSDAY
The event opened at 3pm, and the stage was given over to an Open Mic night when anyone could go up and tell a story in 5 minutes from their own travels
FRIDAY:
- Africa on 125cc motorbikes – a couple’s road trip down through Africa, and back again, with various mishaps on the way (not least ending up in the Middle East when the war started)
- Retirement Rebel’s Alaska Adventure (Siobhan Daniels) – a 67 year old lady proving the age is meaningless, hiring a camper van in Vancouver and driving up the Alaska Highway in April
- Power of the Wild (Abbie Barnes) – the importance of nature and stretching personal boundaries – such an inspiring person I had heard talk before, but certainly worth hearing again
- Postcards from the Peaks (Stu Skinner) – a bi polar sufferer who walked to all the peaks in the UK national parks with a 26kg Royal Mail post box on his back to highlight the issue of loneliness
- The Warrior Walker (Paul Harris) – an ex marine, again struggling with his mental health, walked around the perimeter of the UK one way and then back again
- The Africa Rally (The Sidecar Guys – Matt and Reece, the founders and organisers of the Festivals) – a change from their usual talk about their round the world adventure on their motorbike and sidecar, this time talking about their entry to the Africa Rally last year
- Conrad Humphreys – see below
- Darien Gap to the Congo (Daniel Eggington) – two of the most dangerous parts of the world, but the speaker was obviously happier in the middle of the jungle than he was speaking to an audience!
SATURDAY:
- The Lu-Crusade (Damien Gabet) – used his summer holiday last year to cycle around the UK along a route in the shape of a Lucozade bottle, litter picking, to highlight the rubbish left behind (a lot of Lucozade bottles, but also Red Bull cans)
- 3000km solo across New Zealand (Zuzanna Puchalska) – a lovely young Polish woman walked for a year from the bottom of South Island to the tip of North Island, camping, living on noodles
- Dis Big Pella Walkabout (David and Emy Woodburn) – a fascinating glimpse of the life of this couple who travelled the world on a motorbike and sidecar from the 1970’s, bringing up a daughter on the road
- Father and Son Cycle the World (George Kohler) – a chimney sweep gave up his business for a year to cycle around the world with his adult son, the first father and son combination to do so
- More Than a Mountain (Jo Bradshaw) – a previous Business Adviser turned adventurer Jo Bradshaw has now completed the Seven Summits (the highest peaks in each continent, including Mount Everest) and made a film to commemorate the first woman to summit Everest, a tiny Japanese lady, Junko Tabei, in 1975
- Travelling Together (Stace Martin) – a man who had been planning for 10 years to circumnavigate the globe on his motorbike talked openly about the compromises needed when he met and married a woman who wanted to travel with him, and the pain of running out of money (a common theme in a lot of talks)
- Asgard Legacy (Niall McCann) – a man who can tell a good story! I was captivated by his talk – whilst hardly seeming to take a breath and speaking very fast he narrated his life story, which included a life threatening accident which should have left him unable to walk, culminating in a climb of a perilous looking mountain Asgard, on Baffin Island in the north of Canada, with his brother. The mountain had been discovered and first climbed as part of an expedition led by his grandfather Pat Baird in the 1950’s
SUNDAY
- UK Record Breaking Freediver (Gary McGrath) – his video showed how his heartbeat slowed to 10 beats a minute as he completed a freedive to 112 metres on a single breath. Fascinating but definitely not something I would be looking to emulate!
Every year I had attended this festival I had been aware that there was the possibility of taking a boat trip on the ‘Bounty’ around the bay, but hadn’t understood what it was all about. For some reason this had caught my attention a week or so before I attended this year, so I read the blurb – the boat was a reconstruction of the boat given to Captain Bligh and some loyal supporters after the ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ in 1789. Channel 4 commissioned a recreation of the voyage for a series which I found on YouTube, called ‘Mutiny’, about 10 years ago. Nine men, including Conrad Humphreys, were given the same rations as Captain Bligh and his men had, to see if they could sail the tiny boat the 4000 mile route taken from Tofua near the Kingdom of Tonga, to Timor. I enjoyed watching the series before I went to the Festival and then booked a 1.5hour trip out in the boat for the Sunday morning
Walking down to Cremyll slipway, overlooking Plymouth Sound, the wind was whipping down the valley and Conrad had some trouble bringing the boat alongside. We had had a beautiful weekend of lovely sunshine, but the winds had arrived with a vengeance on the Saturday evening/Sunday morning. Conrad was unsure whether he would be able to land the 3 of us who had booked the 10am sailing safely back at the slipway, so it was agreed that he would see how it went, and perhaps we could join the later sailing planned for 11.30
I returned to the camp, and had the bonus of being able to listen to the talk about freediving, before receiving a message that we were on for 11.30am. With now 6 of us booked Conrad felt that with the extra ballast (!) it would be safer to take us out.
I was sat at the front of the boat and saw the place where one of the crew had scratched into the wood the number of days they were at sea
Conrad has installed an electric motor which he used to get around the headland to Barn Pool inlet and beach.
I helped to raise the main sail in the quiet of the bay. We then zipped along towards Drake’s Island, before tacking back around Royal William Yard
Other sailors were out making good use of the conditions:
At times the gusts of wind made the boat list to one side and Conrad got us to shift our weight accordingly (but thankfully not to the extent the other sailors were!)
Whilst I passed up a go at the tiller, quite happy at my place at the bow, a few of the others had a go until Conrad took over again as things got a bit choppier heading back to the quay
Conrad made the decision to return to the sanctuary of Barn Pool rather than trying to tie up at Cremyll slipway – the only problem was then how to get us all of the boat! 2 decided to swim in their underwear, but the remaining 4 of us Conrad transported to the beach on his paddleboard, one by one. I was last off, and Kirsty caught a picture of me hanging onto the paddleboard on my way to the beach!
Another thoroughly enjoyable weekend, topped off with a glorious boat ride (even if my face got sunburnt on the water, unnoticed until I got home and looked in a mirror for the first time over the weekend!)