WRITING A UNIVERSITY ESSAY CONCLUSION

Central Asia, through a lot of the "stan" countries. In particular I was heading to a place called Samarkand. When I was at university I daydreamed about whether I should get a proper job or whether I should cycle around the world. I read this poem about the golden road to Samarkand and it sounded like the most exotic, far off place imaginable, "We are the pilgrims we should go always a little farther." Though, wow, one day, I love to go to Samarkand. And so to arrive there, it's a wonderful place to get to, but the reward really was the slog I got into, rather than the place itself.

Technical point, this is Bukhara, not Samarkand, for any pedants out there. On I went across the rest of Asia, till I saw the sign post to Istanbul, the end of Asia, the start of Europe. All I needed to do was a quick dash across Europe back home again, for a nice cup of tea. By the time I got home, I had cycled 46,000 miles, 72,000 km through 60 countries, 5 continents. I did it by living in a tent, eating banana sandwiches. The whole journey took four years and three months and it cost me less than ÂŁ7,000. I was rewarded with a lifetime of memories and lessons and experiences, that just continue to overwhelm me and influence everything I do from now on. I got home, I thought, I've cycled around the world, I'm 28, what am I going to do for the next 60 years? (Laughter) One thing that struck me from this experience was that what I really loved was having adventures and in all sorts of different forms, living adventurously, and it seemed to make sense to me that surely a good strategy for life is to find what you love and do a lot of it. Do it well, with relentless enthusiasm and passion, and I thought, What I do love is having these adventures so I'm just going to try and live adventurously in all different guises and just follow whatever path that takes my life down.

All of these adventures, they're all good fun for me and they're fun but they're a bit stupid as well. The more I've done them, I've realized that by sharing the stories it starts to have a bit more of a meaning to me than just me sitting in a tent by a waterfall. The amazing world we live in now, the world is as huge as it's ever been, geographically it's as massive and fascinating as ever, but it is also tiny. The Internet technology has made things so small now, you can get a high definition camera smaller than your fist that can broadcast beautiful footage and the potential for sharing your stories is better than ever. Up in the Arctic Ocean, you can get: (Video) Good morning Internet, my name is Alastair Humpreys, I'm looking forward to be chatting with you - That's meant to say, "Chatting with you on Twitter later." I did a live Twitter interview with kids in a school from a tent on the Arctic Ocean and there is no limit to the age you can influence children at. There is awe and wonder that children have even young ones, you can get in touch with small ones as well. (Video): This is the communications tent, this is the science tent, this is the kitchen tent, and this is the toilet tent. AH: Children love hearing about toilets around the world. (Laughter) It's all you need to talk about really. Earlier this year I rode across the Atlantic Ocean. We did a daily blog from the ocean. Which seems a fairly normal thing these days, unless you think about it. The craziness of how easy that is to do. I phoned up schools, I spoke to this wonderful school in Yorkshire, who started to follow our expedition. An amazing teacher decided to recreate our rowing boat in the classroom, with living quarters, a rowing machine, a toilet poo bucket. And the educational potential: the science, the math, the geography, the creative writing; but more importantly just the subversive notion that there are oceans to be rowed, there are adventure to have, there is so much to do in our lives.

It's great, to just be able to do, to touch children around the world like that. Last week I came home from an expedition in Greenland, a really tough journey, but we thought nothing, after a long day hauling sledges, to update our website. Just seems, if you are going to spend your life banging your head against brick wall, simply for the pleasure of stopping, it becomes slightly more useful if you share this with the world. Like a lot of aspiring non-famous writers, I wanted to try to become a travel writer. I've been doing the long, tortuous journey towards getting books published, which is a painful, long process. A year or two ago, I was on a journey, I was walking across Southern India from coast to coast. As I was walking I realized the story I wanted to tell from this trip wasn't really a linear A to B book type. I thought there might be another way of telling it. What do I love? I thought I know: I really love travel, writing and photography, maps. Why not mix all these three things together and tell my story in that way rather than through a normal book. (Drum beats) (Video) (Vocals) AH: I decided to abandon my hard-won publisher, go back to selfpublishing, and trade fame, fortune, and glory for the freedom of being able to innovate and be creative and take the responsibility for what I do. Things that I write now, that's self-published, if they're good, if it's rubbish that is because of me. I love that responsibility that that gives. All sorts of different adventures, and I'm sure most people have no desire to cycle around the world, run through the Sahara or anything stupid like that, but equally I think, adventure is vital for everyone. They don't need to be big adventures, they can be tiny little adventures, whatever you want really, adventure is just about doing something you've never done, with enthusiasm and curiosity. Doing something difficult, doing something with enthusiasm and passion really. If that is true, you can have an adventure anywhere: a small adventure, a tiny adventure, so small, it can be a micro adventure. Adventure is everywhere. To prove my point, I set out to have the most boring adventure possible. I set out to walk a lap of the M25 motorway. (Laughter) In case you're fortunate enough to not know the M25, this is the monstrosity of a road that circles London, 120 miles long,