The easiest, safest source for water is bottled. When drinking bottled water, make sure the container is sealed: it is possible that you may be served tap water in a bottle because your host thinks you like drinking from bottles, not because you want to make sure the water is clean. As the use of bottled water has spread, this problem is becoming less common, and bottled water is readily available. Other drinks from sealed bottles, such as soda, will be safe to drink, as will hot drinks, however, these do not help rehydrate you.

Water contamination can come from other sources: if it has come in contact with dirty water, it can carry disease. This includes everything from plates to fresh vegetables. Fruits and vegetables should be peeled before eating. Lettuce should probably be avoided because it retains a lot of water on its surface and is rarely cooked, making it easy to pass along bacteria. Fruit juice is fine, but some fresh fruit drinks may be mixed with water.

The other problem expedition members must deal with is food contamination. The fewer steps food has to go through to reach you, the less chance it has to become contaminated. While a piece of freshly cut, fully cooked meat is probably fine, ground meat may have been through equipment that had not been properly cleaned. Likewise, eating fish caught off the coast nearby will be much safer than seafood that has traveled any distance, as refrigeration in transit may be questionable or non-existent. Eggs in developing countries are rarely refrigerated either in transit or while in storage, creating an environment can grow salmonella very quickly, so they should only be eaten fully cooked.

Don’t forget your hands: no matter how clean or safe your food may be, you can still transfer bacteria from your hands to your body with food you are handling. Wash your hands before every meal, and keep your fingernails clean to keep from transferring bacteria to your food. Remember that you need to use water that you know is clean.

All this may seem paranoid, but there is one step that will make an expedition healthier and more fun: eat like the locals. Most people in developing countries eat healthier than those in the developed world, as their diets tend more toward fresh foods and less meat and processed foods, and locals are more likely to safely prepare foods they are familiar with. When shopping at a local market or eating at a restaurant, keep one rule in mind: busy is better. Flies indicate food had been out for a while, so it probably isn’t fresh.

Finally, make sure you know what to do when the inevitable tummy bug hits you and that you have the necessary rehydration solutions handy in your expedition medical kit.

What happens when you are given strange food, but don’t want to offend – click ‘expedition‘ to find out!

Expedition training can vary on length and severity of issues covered depending on the areas (geographically) you wish to visit. For example, expedition training for you to be comfortable and safe during time spent in the British lakes district is going to be hugely different in length, topics covered and the depth compared to a team who wants expedition training for a two month study project in the Amazon Basin.

The team here at S2Si have all undergone various forms of expedition training to begin their careers….. but they say the best way to learn is to teach so now many of our staff are qualified and experienced enough to take groups into every environment we have on our planet and provide them with professional expedition training.

However…. expedition training is not just about joining a group of like minded individuals and heading out into the trees with an instructor, you can start the ball rolling yourself! Here are a few examples of how you can help train yourself ready for your adventure:

• The Discovery Channel – the comfiest and easiest way to have Bruce Parry, Tribes, come into your house and provide you with expedition training for travel to areas with an indigenous population. Or the late, great Steve Irwin, on how spot dangerous animals in the wild!
• Do a first aid course – if your adventures take you into areas where you have a fairly good chance of contact with local emergency services then a simple first aid course will help save lives until help arrives. Or, one step better, a more advanced course like the one provided by Wilderness Medical.
• Read, read, read – luckily for us most great explorers love to tell of their tales, also survivors have books written of their escapes from the clutches of doom and I can’t even begin to tell you how much information is available on the internet (from sites like ours) on the various topics needed for your expedition training.
• Try and get yourself into any environment similar to where you are going – if you have never camped out but want to visit the Amazon your own personal expedition training will start by finding some trees and sleeping amongst them, sounds silly but a tree is a tree in UK, USA and the Amazon, get used to seeing them (or snow, rocks, rivers etc, where ever you’re going!).

Here is some more expedition training advice.

• Finding restaurants with nutrition-based meals, especially when on a budget or in poor countries, can be difficult.
• It’s easy to grab a sugar coated snack or low cost fast food instead of fresh produce when on the move.
• In certain climates food perishes quickly.
• When visiting remote areas there are logistical restraints on getting the food from the shops to the camp.

Your health can be at risk if these situations aren’t addressed properly. For most people, taking a vacation or going on an expedition is a well planned and well financed investment, and the last thing you need is to come down with an illness or intestinal cramps.

For people who are sticking to a ‘well worn’ adventure travel route it is simply a matter of self-discipline and common sense with regards to keeping yourself healthy.  However the further in the wilderness you go the harder it is to eat healthily. Lets look at the far end of the expedition food/logistics dilemma:

• Fresh food perishes quickly and is damaged easily whilst you are on the move or getting to the base camp for your expedition.  So a 2 month expedition will run out of fresh produce by day three!
• Tins are heavy and when empty need carrying back out with you.
• Many liquid forms of goodness, such as milk (and even egg) can be purchased as a powder – but is lacking the original nutritional qualities and if it gets wet it becomes useless.
• Whatever is claimed to last longer or doesn’t need refrigeration is highly processed, meaning again that the difference between it and its natural counterpart is massive (there are a few small exceptions such as tuna).
• Many food containers are glass, which is trouble to transport and then has to be brought out.

Above we looked at what you eat… now let’s look at how much.  Have you ever sat down and made a pile on the floor in front of you for a week of ‘transportable’ food with suitable containers?  Now let’s assume you are going into an area for some research and need to be there for a month.  Times the pile by 4.  How many people are in your team? Now times the pile by the number of people in your team – add 10% for dramas, breakages, delays etc, and you are now faced with quite a large heap. Never underestimate the logistics involved in moving your food.  In over three quarters of expedition locations water will be readily available (with some purification obviously), you only need one tent per trip, one set of boots etc,  but food is a ‘constant factor’.

Below is an old photo of ours from an expedition in Belize, 2 months, 20 people… this pile was half way though the trip!  Notice how it is raised off the floor away from the bugs and the dirt.

It goes without saying to take out of the jungle/mountains/desert all your waste you can’t burn (by burn we mean paper!).

Some good advice for a longer term project or expedition – using locals on your project is a must, not only for culture, language assistance, help with the geography/ecology, but they know they nearest villages and probably the people in them.  When in Belize, we had our Mayan helpers return, after time off to visit their families, with bags of fresh fruit and vegetables (not to mention one sneeky chap who paid a few dollars for a bottle of rum!).

Give the link a click to read some more expedition diet advice?

You don’t have to travel far with your family, adventure travel can be anything you are all not familiar with in outdoor surroundings, all the way up to a full blow, well organized family adventure travel vacation with a company like ours.

We are going to look at hiking.  This can be done anywhere at any time and in almost any weather.

To make hiking a family activity without the fear of unhappy or lost children, remember these six tips:

1. Wear and Bring Proper Outdoor/Hiking Clothing

Having the correct clothing on will make all of the difference while hiking. If you only plan on a half day hiking trip to the park, a comfy shirt, casual shorts/tracksuit, and sneakers will do just fine. For more serious hiking, bring coats, long and short pants, t-shirts, sweaters, rain outfits, and hiking boots. Try on your clothes before you leave home. If they don’t fit right or they’re too uncomfortable and your kids are complaining, switch outfits. Having the proper clothing can prevent you all from being too hot or cold, or dry and wet.

2. Plan Out the Route You Wish to Take Before You Get There

You definitely don’t want to roam around for hours trying to find the right path. Get a map of the location you’ll be hiking at and plan out a route beforehand by highlighting it, or at least go somewhere you are familiar with. Consider how far you’d like to walk each day if you’re camping as well, and how far you think your kids can walk before they become irritable. Allow your kids to use the map and guide you, as this is a great learning experience for them. We all know how quickly the young ones can lose interest, so involving them will help keep their mind focused.

3. Food and Water

Whether you’re hiking for an hour or three days, it’s essential to bring food and lots of water. Don’t bring foods that perish easily or contain too much sugar. The best snacks for hiking are trail mix, sandwiches, granola bars, fruit, and crackers. Keep your food safe from nature’s wildlife and teach the little ones the importance of taking home with you your waste! Don’t forget you are there first outdoor coach, they will remember what you teach them.

4. Bring or Find Hiking Sticks

Hiking sticks provide not only stability, but the feeling of being an actual explorer, which is great for kids. Hiking sticks also provide safety on more challenging trails and terrain. When buying or finding hiking sticks, be sure to pick sticks that are a good height and weight for children. Or, if in a wooded area and on a short stroll pick up a suitable stick (don’t snap one off a tree) and let them poke around the leaves with it.

5. Pack a First Aid Kid

This is very essential. Nothing ruins a day out than the start of a blister! Make sure your first aid kit has things like band-aids, anti-biotic creams or sprays, anti-itch creams, bug spray etc, and extremely important is any immediate medication they might need during their time out (inhalers, Epi-pens for severe allergies, insulin). Children are more likely to complain about a little scratch, so having the first aid kit with you at all times can prevent hours of discomfort for your kids.

6. While Hiking

Start your hiking day early and learn to be patient with your child’s hiking efforts. Smaller children may only want to walk so far, while older children don’t mind longer hikes on rougher terrain. Make the trip exciting for your children; make them find certain animals and plants. Know what the poisonous plants and animals are and keep a good eye on your kids at all times.

7. Be Prepared for the Worse

Being prepared is essential when hiking with your children. Taking simple precautions can prevent anything from a tiny scrape on the knee to missing a child. If you’re bringing young children especially, get footprints of your child’s shoes in tin foil and carry it with you, give your child a whistle or a bright plastic bag or poncho with holes to wear in case they get lost, and establish rules to keep together; like hiking buddies. Having radios and walkie talkies are great as well to keep track of everyone. Stop to rest and reconnect occasionally. If in range use mobile phones and make sure you know the right numbers to call in emergencies.

The end of part one. Remember … don’t hide your kids away from the great outdoors. Family adventure travel is an excellent way to bond, get fit and have fun.

(Thanks to Paul de Bruin of Spain for letting us use this excellent family picture)

The Mountain Leader (summer) Training takes a leader to-be through top-level navigation in all weather conditions and at night, group management and what to do if it all starts going a bit wrong on the hill, crossing rivers, belaying and abseiling with just a rope, and route planning among other things. Now a consolidation period starts before assessment where over 40 quality mountain days must be collected.

‘This was a tough but amazing course, I have so much knowledge and just need to get out on the hills as much as is humanly possible to practice and get ready for assessment – I’m now on my way to fulfilling my dream of becoming a full-blown Expedition Leader’ Izzy says.

The list is actually a very very long one but we will start with four very important ones.

1. Logistics. When and expedition leaves civilization there are many things that have to be taken with the group, then there is the transport to be arranged to move the group and the supplies and then it is obviously important that all that gets to the right place at the right time.  If the expedition finishes in a different area to where it started then that makes the logistics of being returned to civilization a little more difficult. So before the main expedition starts the leadership team already have their hands full.
2. Health and Safety. An expedition leader must also oversee the well being of the group from the angles of health and safety.  If they are in the jungle, are the volunteers playing Pirates of the Caribbean with their machetes, is fresh water available from a suitable source (or purification means available), is the food being stored and prepared in a hygienic manner?  What happens if someone is sick or injured?  The expedition leader has to make the final call on the casualty evacuation procedure after receiving the best medical advice available.
3. A shoulder to cry on!!! The success of an expedition is the completion of its goals and the safe return of all involved… however, I like to make sure everyone also had a good time! An expedition leader might be well trained and used to the environment they are in but a volunteer might be having trouble dealing with blisters, bug bites or even being so far away from home.  A sympathetic ear and a sense of humour helps in these instances, as does being aware of the moral of the group…..  because the individual doesn’t always come to you!
4. Expedition Training. As a leader of a team or group Izzy will have to ensure everyone has had adequate expedition training.  If not, preferably at the beginning of the adventure/project, expedition training will have to be carried out to a level where individuals can remain safe and well even if split up from the main group for a while.  Expedition training also means giving proper safety briefs at the beginning of new phases or at random moments during the trip where dangers occur.

There you have it Izzy….. but we are actually quite sure you’ll make a good expedition leader.