Photography: Favourite ‘Adventure’ Photos of 2019

I began to understand that if I wished to continue chasing adventure, then just repeating the same types of expedition was not the way to go.

The Question I needed to ask was no longer, ‘how can I keep cycling around the world?’ The question now was, ‘how can I keep living adventurously?’

Alastair Humphreys from The Doorstep Mile: Live More Adventurously Everyday

2019 was somewhat of a milestone for me. After twenty or so years of doing nothing other than cycling I finally came around to the idea of a more balanced outlook on outdoor activities. For me that meant hiking.

Between 2015 and the autumn of 2019 I cycled 1000kms every month come rain, shine, or injury (luckily not that many). But towards the end I was simply going through the motions and spinning the pedals without any real motivation. I was enjoying the fitness and the resulting endorphin rush but I’d lost that sense of adventure and when I looked at a map I couldn’t find a route that excited me. Bike packing helped, so did mountain biking and gravel riding, but it wasn’t until I started hiking that I started to feel reinvigorated for outdoor life and as you can see from my favourite ‘adventure’ photos of 2019, hiking and photography replaced the vacuum left behind by my singleminded fixation with cycling. I still ride about three times a week before work but nowadays on the weekends I try to hike more with my camera.

These aren’t my ‘best’ photos of 2019, whatever that means, but they are some of my favourites and all hold a special meaning. Click on the photos for a larger view with a short explanation.