The impact of expedition experiences on young people and how these formative adventures shape their adult lives is a topic that invites deep exploration. In this analysis, Mike Blakey delves into the long-term effects of these expeditions. By reconnecting with former expedition participants, he uncovers surprising insights into how these early experiences continue to influence their personal and professional lives.
Mike Blakey is the former Overseas Expeditions Adviser for the Royal Air Force Air Cadets and currently a member of the national adventure training support team. He has led and supported cadet expeditions to Nicaragua, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Namibia. He has also managed and accompanied young people on offshore sailing expeditions for over 25 years, sailing in UK waters, to the continent, to the Norwegian Fjords and to the north coast of Iceland.
At the beginning of the Covid lockdown I wrote about my concerns over a loss of opportunity for young people to engage in challenging and worthwhile outdoor activities, particularly with their peers. My focus was those activities provided by a cadet organisation where I have been a volunteer staff member and outdoor instructor for over 40 years. But I also reflected on the remarkable number of other similar organisations that provide those opportunities for our children and which form the bedrock of informal learning within our communities such as the Scouts, the Guides, after-school clubs, hockey clubs and football clubs, music groups, bands, art clubs and so the list goes on.
I worried about the loss of interaction children would suffer, the lost opportunity for the adolescent to experience broader society, to sound out their ideas with their peers, to watch for the nuances, the reactions and body language that mould attitudes and opinions and help to make sense of society. Worse still, I was fearful that young people would not get the opportunity to face and manage risk, that they would rely upon the safety blanket provided by a parent within the never-dare-to-go-outside environment of home where the furniture still bears the scars of the toddler and the child that has never really stretched their wings.
Yet it is strange that we were content for them to sit in isolation, exposed to the ethereal absurdity of the internet hour after hour, day after day and, what turned out to be, month after month. It really should be no surprise that the edge has been taken off the scimitar of youth, that risk is treated with fear, that communication seems much more difficult – verbal conversation replaced by the text message, that consensus is obscured by minority, and sometimes dangerous, views which present as fact and with equal gravity through the talons of social-media. Cyber bullying doesn’t need a perpetrator; it can generate its own emotional turmoil with its very existence.
We have, I suppose, returned to some degree of normality. But there is still the lingering shadow of caution that is cast over our daily lives. Activities are cancelled because of too much wind or too much sun. The snow and rain have taken on warning shades of amber or red and storms are portrayed as villains with threatening names. And, significantly, we accept what we are told and conform – without even looking out of the window.
Anecdotally, I am told that young people are suffering more anxiety than ever before, eating disorders are increasing and children are more reluctant to go to school or are kept at home more readily when they are ‘off-colour’ by work-at-home parents.
Dr Richard Winsor is an accident and emergency doctor who finds himself dealing more and more with mental health issues in young people attending the hospital where he works. Richard cites a lack of resilience as being one of the major contributors towards mental health issues in young people. Yet he also argues that it is one important aspect over which we might have some control and influence. Engaging in challenging outdoor experiences, he suggests, help to stretch and develop resilience; a resilience that helps defend against the emotional impacts of everyday, and particularly adolescent, life.
So here is the reality; we need to make sure that young people have every opportunity to explore their world and their own potential. They need a safe and supported environment to confront their fears, to face and manage risk, to develop confidence, teamwork, empathy, leadership and resilience. They need to build relationships, trust, self-esteem and the opportunity to shape their characters and their futures.
Our youth organisations are places where valuable life-skills can be taught and where, perhaps, more focussed interests can be pursued. However, across the board, they remain islands of hope in our world of caution where young people can experience exciting and challenging activities such as canoeing, rock-climbing, trekking and mountain biking under the watchful eyes of qualified instructors and with a focus on all the outcomes that will lead towards a resilient and well-rounded individual.
Ask any outdoor instructor what it is that young people might gain from climbing a rock face with a degree of apprehension written across their face or collapsing exhausted into a wind battered tent at the end of a day trekking on a mountain, and they will give you words such as ‘self-confidence’, teamwork, communication and leadership. And they mean it. They see the difference in the young people heading home at the end of a week-long adventure and they can be rightly satisfied; they have done a good job.
But what of the long-term impact and effect?
I have taken groups of young people from all sorts of backgrounds on offshore sailing expeditions around the waters of the UK, and beyond, for almost 30 years. It is one of the most powerful and influential activities I have ever witnessed.
Some years ago, I was asked by one of the financial sponsors what the outcomes were? How could I quantify it? Could I give him some statistics and facts? He was after all, an engineer.
I explained that the whole culture of sail training was complex, as complex as the social and emotional experiences of the young participants themselves. The two combined produce an infinitely complex emotional maelstrom. So much so that individual, and often subtle, gains were hard to immediately express or identify. I explained that he should have confidence in a long-standing and proven activity whose results would emerge over time and at appropriate moments. Statistics didn’t matter, I told him, holistic outcomes do.
He must have taken notice because some time later he repeated my philosophy to a gathered audience adding, “…even though I’m an engineer”.
I have held onto my opinion to this day. Oh yes, I have obediently filled in evaluation forms when requested with my groups, ticking boxes and drawing smiley faces by the dozen. Sometimes it’s best just to go along with it (but I always have my fingers crossed!).
However, I was recently reminded of the full impact, the long-term reality of working in the outdoors with young people… and the effect it has had upon me.
We are often called upon to defend the value and worth of adventurous activities and overseas expeditions at a time of reduced funding and greater accountability. This has caused me to reflect upon the water that has passed under the bridge during my time as an outdoor instructor, quantified by four large boxes of photographs sitting in my loft. They depict the same locations, in the Lake District, North Wales and Scotland, at the helm of a boat or the bow plunging through the waves. Each very similar, apart from the hundreds of different faces grinning back at the camera!
One group I remember particularly well is the cohort who attended our regular courses in North Wales and the Lake District at our Adventure Training Centres and who went on to join me on an expedition to the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua in 1999. We have kept in touch and meet occasionally; individuals moving on to a variety of careers, to families and the world beyond their cadet experiences. With the benefit of 25 years reflection and a certain degree of maturity, I thought I would ask for their opinions; how did their experience in the outdoors impact upon them, both at the time and in later life.
I wasn’t prepared for their responses; their stories revealed far more than I could ever have imagined. We took care of them of course, looked out for their welfare and wellbeing and always made sure everyone was treated equally. Any issues disclosed were treated in confidence, but it was probably much more an age of stiff-upper-lip and keeping personal details to oneself; a time of just getting on with it.
Here then are some of the comments that came back to me. I don’t think I need to interpret the data; it doesn’t need much analysis; I don’t need to raise any statistics. The stories speak for themselves and provide a convincing argument for outdoor adventurous activities to continue and prosper.
“As a kid growing up in a rural area, my world was very small. I’m one of five children and my parents didn’t have the money for holidays, youth sports and clubs etc. My mum left when I was ten and walked out on the family, never to be seen again (until I was 35!). My siblings are all older than me so from age 12 onwards, it was just me and my dad. He had to work a lot of hours to get by so my teenage years were spent alone or with other kids. I joined the Air Cadets as my older brother and sister had been there and often came home with tales of exciting adventures such as shooting, flying and gliding. Looking back, I was very fortunate to have been a member of such a great youth organisation.
“… one crucial foundation of my air cadet upbringing that has undoubtedly been a cornerstone for adult life; I cannot begin to adequately describe how grateful I am for the trips to Windermere and, of course, Nicaragua!
“Adventure training was so much more than just another Air Cadet adventure. It was essential character building and lifelong conditioning. The importance of proper planning … being someone who can be trusted and relied upon … we need to be able to improvise, adapt and overcome. There’s no room for ego, only professionalism and teamwork. Optimism and enthusiasm are infectious, just as negativity and pessimism is contagious… the example that was set on those trips stood me in good stead for my career as a Royal Marine, I could give numerous examples…“
Adrian (Former Royal Marines Commando and Police Officer)
“Building physical and mental resilience, trust in yourself and others, problem solving, selection of and caring for equipment, dynamic risk assessment and so much more, have all proved very useful in building a military career off the back of those cadet days. So much of adventure training is deeply rooted in Science Technology Engineering & Maths subjects (STEM). (Overseas) expeditions helped me to develop an understanding of the world, its people and cultures. Building trust and relationships that transcend language and culture will be ever more vital in the future.“
Charlie (RAF Officer)
“I came from a working class broken home in the 80s… with a backdrop of parental alcoholism… spells in prison for one parent and the other being detained under the mental health act at times.
“Both school and cadets were stable ports in very stormy seas. My only aspiration as a teen was to leave the small corner of the world I lived in and be nothing like my parents.
“… adventure training taught me resilience in the most stressful situations… and adaptability in problem solving. It has also given me a lot of options for work-life balance which has kept me in better health and functioning in the workforce.“
Sarah (General Practitioner)
“The first and the most obvious (thing) is the positive effect it (adventure training) had on me as a teenager. I lived in a remote village with a good upbringing but void of interaction with others and lacking in confidence. This inability plagued me at school and made it difficult to form friendships.
“Cadets changed this. I met like-minded individuals, got into a disciplined routine and soon started to make real friends. However, what really made the difference was adventure training…
“In 1999 I was… part of a team that went to Nicaragua on an aid expedition. All these years later I am still talking about it and passing on the stories… to my own children.
“My cadet adventure training experiences propelled me into a successful career as a police officer and helped me beyond measure.
“Sadly, my career was ended early due to Post Traumatic Stress and landed me in a mental hospital for twelve weeks. During the time spent on an isolated ward I had a lot of time to reflect on my life. I can’t explain why, but so many memories came flooding back of the times I went to the Lake District or Wales with the Air Cadets. I think it is because of the genuine happiness these experiences gave me.
“On the realisation that these experiences were some of the best times of my life I decided to create a plan of rehabilitation which included adventure and travel.
“Part of my Post Traumatic stress is… (that I am) triggered by certain circumstances… Here is the most significant point I want to make. Adventure training and the expedition embedded something in me that allowed me, in a time of turmoil, to do something that some would have said was too difficult.
“Mental health is now a subject close to my heart. Remove adventure from young people’s lives and you remove the chance for them to develop… continuing to give people the chance to get out into the natural world wherever possible must be a priority in any circumstance.“
Adam (Former Police Officer, Personal Trainer)
Reflecting upon these comments, and the times that they represent, I am reminded that, as young people, these now professional and mature individuals might have been naïve and inexperienced, but they had a latent potential and ambition. The confidence and resilience they developed through the world of outdoor adventure helped them to release that potential and, in the words of T E Lawrence, allowed them to “…act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible”. (TE Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom)
Michael Blakey, MBE, FRGS, CF | 15 March 2024
About the author:
Mike is a Churchill Fellow and would encourage others to explore the opportunities that a Fellowship can bring. Outside his Air Cadet role, he is a member of the British Standards committee for adventurous overseas visits (BS8848), a member of the International Standards committee for School and Youth visits (ISO 31031), an active member of the Outdoor Education Advisers Panel (OEAP), a member of the Ulysses Trust grant awards committee and trustee and Director with the charity, Norfolk Boat Sail Training. When he can, he likes to ride a bike and paddle a canoe, particularly when he is travelling away from home.
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