The Adventurists:

I have come to the opinion that the most inspirational, defining and useful periods of our lives are those where we have to endure a little bit of hardship. Having a midlife crisis is probably no fun but just like having a wobbly tooth or indeed getting kicked in to touch by the love of your life, there are some upsides. There is nothing so liberating as being dumped and then realising that you’ve a legitimate excuse to fully focus on spending time in front of the tv, alone, getting plastered, watching the washing mount up before leaving to join the French Foreign Legion. A midlife crisis must work in pretty much the same way. The day when you suddenly realise there’s no point in anything and you’re whole life has been a sham buy a sports car, dye what’s left of your hair and hit the festival circuit must be truly invigorating, however, there are better ways to escape: The Adventurists.

We have admired The Adventurists from afar for a long time as they organise some of the nuttiest, most dangerous, glorious jaunts known to man and coming up later in the year is one of their vintage offerings: The Mototaxi Junket. This is a race across Peru in a Mototaxi which, for those in the dark, is pretty much a sofa with a moped attached and by their own admission is not much good at steering, stopping or lasting anything over 10 miles. And there’s the problem, this race is 3500km. Well, actually that’s just the start of the challenges because there’s no set route, buttock clenching drops, climbs so high that the engine gasps for air and other that pass under 6 foot of water.

It kicks off in September 2012 and each team of up to 3 members will cost a set fee of £1095 and this covers all the paperwork, blogging app, T shirt, parties and even a woolly hat. The rest, however, is pretty much up to you – there’s a start and a finish but in between there’s two weeks of nothingness that will see you and your friends battle to push the Mototaxi through rivers, over boulders whilst trying to work out just where the hell you are. Where you sleep, how you get there and what you eat are all completely up to you.

Their adventures are very real, very dangerous ones and even state on the website that past participants have been permanently disfigured, permanently disabled and in some cases died. You won’t go in completely cold, there’s also 3 days of test driving built into the package that should allow you to get the measure of the beast and therefore drastically reduce the likelihood of an accident.

But that’s not the point is it? Adventure works because there is some danger. Getting older or getting dumped have never looked so tempting.