Interview With Adventurers - Atlas and Boots

What does adventure mean to you?

Adventure means getting outside your comfort zone. Clearly, this means different things to different people. We don’t subscribe to the idea that adventure is limited to jumping out of planes or leaping from cliff tops; for some, going on a hike is an adventure.

Take Kia: she didn’t blink doing a 134m bungy jump in New Zealand, but will freak out over a creepy crawly in our tent. Adventure is doing something that scares you and the thrill that comes from conquering that fear.

What advice would you give to other couples who want to travel together?

We’ve fine-tuned our survival tactics given that we spend 24/7 together for months at a time! We’ve shared our advice on travelling as a couple on our blog, but can summarise the most important tip as: act with kindness.

To get a bit scientific, you can choose to react to each other in one of four ways. Let’s say your partner has received the excellent news that she got into medical school. She may say something like “I got into my top choice med school!” You then have four choices in how you react: active constructive (“That’s great! Congratulations! When did you find out? Did they call you?”), passive constructive (“That’s great, babe”), passive destructive (“Oh, awesome. I’ve just won some Amazon vouchers!”) and active destructive (“Are you sure you can handle all the studying? And what about the cost? Med school is so expensive!”).

Choose the first as often as possible. This is good advice not just for travel but life as well.

What has been your best adventure yet?

Our trip around the world was our best adventure yet. We saved for a year then quit our jobs and spent a year travelling across the South Pacific before sailing from Tahiti to LA via Hawaii, taking a short road trip through western USA and then spending six months in South America. It kickstarted Atlas & Boots which is now our full-time job. 

Where in the world would you like to go on your next adventure?

We’ve been planning a three-month trip to South Africa, Namibia and Botswana for about two years now, but something has always come up. In the interim, we’ve managed to get to Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mauritius, Russia, Montenegro, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland, but still not to southern Africa! Hopefully, we’ll finally get there this year.

Have you ever been on an adventure or situation where you thought about giving up?

We joke that we broke down in Bolivia in more ways than one. We had been travelling for about seven months and nothing in Bolivia was going our way. After several weeks of cold showers, cold weather and poor infrastructure, our car broke down and that was the final straw for Kia. She uttered the dreaded words for the first time: “I want to go home”. When we got to La Paz, however, we had heating and hot water and soon got over the bump.

Now, we look back on Bolivia with fondness. It is a country of such beauty – Salar de Uyuni and Isla Del Sol are two of the most stunning places on Earth – and we always tell people to go!

If you had to pick a country (other than your home country) to stay in for the rest of your life, which would it be and why?

We’ve wondered this for so long because we’ve always wanted to live in a foreign country. Sadly, we never found the right place… until our recent trip to New Zealand. What a country! It has mountains, lakes, beaches, great swathes of green hills, fantastic hiking, delicious food and such warm people. If it weren’t so far away, we’d be living there already!

What advice would you give to someone who is tired of the 9-5 and wants to have a career in the outdoors?

Firstly, don’t just quit your day job. Form a practical plan for leaving the 9 to 5. We saved up for an entire year to give ourselves the runway to quit our jobs and try something new. Build up the time and funds to really give yourself a chance.

Secondly, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You can cut your working hours to part-time and engage in passion pursuits for the rest of time. Most of us need less that we want, so think about what’s really important to you and whether you can achieve that on a part-time salary.

Finally, be aware that everything takes time. It took us three years before Atlas & Boots was making us enough money to sustain our travels. Persevere. Don’t spend your life in an office if it’s not your natural environment. Good luck!

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