An interesting debate has ensued too.

It’s difficult to say anything critical without coming across as angry/jealous or bashing people for the sake of it. But I think you’ve raised an excellent point Tom…

What Mr Davenport’s doing sounds incredibly tough and all respect to him for taking on such a challenge. But just as it’s misleading to claim that an expedition has honourable and self-less aims when it’s more about an adventure for its own sake, it’s also misleading to portray a destination as something that it’s not.

Honesty and openness, as ever, are the best policies.

Thanks for sticking to them Tom.

Tim.

Hopefully this debate, here and elsewhere, has shed some light on the complexities of communicating the reality of these kinds of journeys to lay audiences. It might just be true in the end that you can’t imagine it unless you’ve been there…

Mongolians are friendly enough not to take offence and I am sure no major cultural boundaries would be breeched, or Mongols offended, if he refused politely.
He also said in many articles that he also funded the entire exped out of his own pocket and moved to a smaller house or something.

All in all, I think he deserves credit for doing something so demanding — at the age of 40!
This morning I read in another forum, that his next desert expedition in 2011 is at the other end of the spectrum using four legged beasts and he’s taking students or something like that?

Lars

Is there an element of ‘fuelling the stereotype’ here?

I certainly wasn’t ‘slagging off’ Davenport. I’m sorry if you got that impression. I’ve never met him, no. The point was simply that Mongolia isn’t an uninhabited wasteland for which it is necessary to carry complete supplies for an entire traversal, and I wanted to make clear that this is an inaccurate view, but I think a commonly-held one — one which I myself carried before I went there.

I make no judgement on his mission in any other terms, just a point about how the place in which he’s doing it is being (in my opinion) misrepresented, and I write about my travels in order to break down cultural stereotypes, so in this respect, Davenport’s project is very relevant. As I said before — all power to him, and I hope he is successful with his human-endurance mission.

There is a more general point here, I think, about the compromises that ‘professional’ expeditions have to make. I’m lucky enough to have a set of sponsors who have simply donated pieces of equipment to test to destruction for product-development purposes, and who are happy enough with that and a logo in the sidebar. Aside from this, I fund my adventures out of my own pocket through my own hard work and I don’t have any obligations to present my journeys in any particular way.

A high-profile, sponsor-funded trip comes with a lot of strings attached, not least presenting the project in a way that makes the media ‘bite’ so the financial backers get their money’s worth of exposure. It’s a little naive to think that this arrangement doesn’t swing the PR in the direction of the dramatic!

My hope is not to create conflict, but to create better understanding, and hopefully the debate can continue in an intelligent way. Why not have a look at my and Andy’s photos on Flickr, so you can see some of the Mongolia that we experienced over these last 2 months?

I think you’re over sensitive to the tone of the post. I’ve been following Ripley’s adventure– and quite enjoying it. I never questioned his logic of towing all his food etc. It did cross my mind that he must have to refuse hospitality from time to time, but that, as Mongolia is the wasteland that we assume it is, this wouldn’t be too frequent. Tom and Andy’s experience of the same place provided an interesting counterpoint; one of an accessible enjoyable adventure rather than Ripley’s epic push.

Its important that claims are challenged and questioned and sometimes even ridiculed. That’s how we get to the core of the zeitgeist in other fields of endeavour why not adventure?

As far as making a challenge more of a challenge goes– how about walking land’s end to john o groats unassisted and un-aided? Sounds a little silly doesn’t it.

Sponsorship has it’s positive and negative qualities. Essentially sponsors what to garner as much attention as possible and talking up the expedition is a way of doing this.

A big part of an expedition is the ‘idea’ of it. That idea may not match the ‘ideal’ experience or the actual end experience. I don’t know what your experience of travelling is but Tom and I spent quite a long time with the idea of cycling around the world playing a significant part in our actions, but the idea evolved into something else. However, that’s the nature of an open-ended ever-evolving travel experience and fixing on a end goal at all costs.

Tom has some different opinions and approaches born from having just come back from Mongolia and gathered experiences and information.

Each is pushing their own envelope of experience and boundaries. Debate and sharing ideas is a very healthy process to hopefully eventually end up with more valuable and fulfilling experiences for all parties.