In a mood for mischief. Was looking around at various sites and blogs. The Mumbai Hikers Blog, Lonely Planet, wikitravel.org, Trekshitiz …. and I was wondering what do I write on my blog. This is what came up – my intense need to know.

What is it in the outdoors and adventure travel that calls to people? Honestly there is mud, mosquitoes, snakes and other creeps. There are no easy lifts and clean beds. Food and cooking is primitive. We exhaust ourselves climbing a mountain and risk life and limb to come down again. So why?

Why is the world so passionate about (to quote some inquiry emails I get) weekend gateways, hiking, treasure hunt riddles clues, rappling, climbing and so many other things that they don’t even know how to spell? What about those things tempts them? What makes them leave their warm and cosy homes in pursuit of strange hardships with even stranger people?

If I were to live a comfortable life, I wouldn’t want to sleep one more night in a damp cave with water dripping down its sides and garbage from a previous crowd catching a stray breeze that comes in…. I certainly wouldn’t want to have monkeys steal my food and a scorpion bite my friend. I wouldn’t have to deal with enthusiastic groups that sing to bring the sky down and drown out any sounds of the night.

Here’s a list of some of the strangest un-want-to-repeatable experiences I have had in the outdoors or related with going to the outdoors:

• A snake coiled around a rat fell from the roof of an ancient temple we were staying right next to a sleeping friend.
• Overprotective parents who think their kids can’t really survive this world. There is a difference between mothering and smothering.
• A diabetic patient who lost his medicine kit while crossing a stream on a trek. Needless to say, trek cancelled and we returned back at double speed.
• Groups who “love” the environment. You’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all, and they aren’t fun.
• Clients who want you to work for them for free.
• Really safe dangerous adventures. This post talks about a client request, but in the outdoors, there are many clients who don’t want to sit peacefully and stare at the world. They want you to rig up something dangerous and exciting, but it should be safe…. what ever that means. Last year, a man wanted his team to climb a difficult rock face without assistance from adventure professionals as a team challenge. They wanted my team to ensure no accidents happened. And how do we do that without going near the clients or telling them anything at all?
• I have slept in wet clothes under the sky all night waiting for a raging stream to lose its power in the night….. in Spiti
• Walked for 72km non stop and on reaching set up camp, cooked, took the horses out for grazing…
• Walked a lazy fatso for 3km in 2.5 hours…. without losing my serenity

And there are more. Some days I just wonder why I keep coming back for more.

Any clue guys?