Genghis Khan lived a life full of adventure, horse riding in Mongolia with a thrilling life story to tell. Can you recreate your story in the mould of a world conqueror? Here?s how not to waste thousands of dollars on a less than stellar ?adventure travel? experience.
And still live your own story, a tale of glory and adventure worthy of retelling?
Your dream is to climb Mount Everest. You start from the worlds highest rubbish dump, then take a ticket like you do at a Woolworths Deli and wait in line with dozens of others near the summit for your turn to get a photo and stand on the roof of the world ? before you get hustled off to make way for the next person in the queue ?
Hike the Inca trail ? make sure you book a year earlier than your planned trip so you ?get in? with the hundreds of other people you will meet on the journey. Kinda like Times Square in rush hour ?
Maybe you want to travel to Antarctica ? just take a five star cruise ship, (that is probably the only way you will get there easily) where they let you out onto the ice for a half a day at a time, and round you up afterwards into the warmth and safety of the Dining room to discuss the days events over cocktails?
You can’t step out of your own story, but are these stories worth bragging about? Your tale could be the same as hundreds of others. Worse, you could be like most people, and die with your story unlived and untold.
A "tour" with Bear Valley Adventures is a true adventure. You never quite know what is going to happen.
Sometimes, our horse trekkers will have sunshine for most of their trip - at other times, you might have to battle the elements and find out exactly why the locals wear lots of thick furs and heavy felt clothing. (If you have a look at the "About Us" page, you'll see a picture of Rick modelling just how to wear fox fur...)
The local wildlife is another unpredictable factor - you might get the chance to see a wild eagle soaring above the steppes or hear wolves in the distan... or have a fox attempt to raid your food supplies in the middle of the night when you're on a trek!
It's human and horse against the elements, rough, raw and ready - just the way an adventure ought to be.
However, we take safety seriously, and we always do our best to make sure that we have a trained first aid specialist with every tour (and hot showers and real coffee for when you come back to base).
Bear Valley Adventures is sensitive in the forms of transport we use to get around the steppes.
The last thing we want to do is to destroy the wilderness we love by damaging it through excessive use of technology. Where appropriate, we'll use 4x4 vehicles, keeping to established trails to minimise damage to the local steppe environment.
At other times, we'll use the same sort of sustainable transport that the locals use: the tough little Mongolian horses and camels.
We also work in partnership with the local people, and a lot of the profit made by the tours goes into improving the local community, especially in the areas of health and education, while still preserving and encouraging their traditional nomadic lifestyle and values.
Want to see what you're in store for if you sign up for any of Bear Valley Adventures' great trips? Our videos will give you a brief glimpse of the expanse of the Mongolian steppes that our horse treks cross (although a mere video doesn't do them justice and you really have to go there to experience the full impact of this vast wilderness). Want to see just how big a golden eagle is compared to a human and how these huge birds of prey hunt alongside people? Want to get an idea of just how big the fish are in this part of the world? Don't believe that a city slicker from Australia can master some of the impressive feats of riding that the locals have perfected? We hope that our videos will whet your appetite for the sort of adventure that only Bear Valley Adventure can offer.
And if you've enjoyed a trip with Bear Valley Adventures and took a good video showing some of the highlights, let us know so we can share it with the world