A Life of Adventure

A Life of Adventure

Extreme endurance adventurer and life coach, Gaven Sinclair recently returned from the Heel2Heal challenge – a 30-day, 1000km run along the coastline from Gqeberha to Cape Town, encouraging people to make small changes to improve their health. We chatted with Gaven about what inspires and motivates him, and his advice to anyone who wants to live a more adventurous life.

“I grew up on the outskirts of Johannesburg, and I’d always been very active as a child,” says Gaven. “When I wasn’t taking part in sport, I would spend my days on my BMX with friends exploring the terrain until the sun went down.” As a child he had always wanted to be a famous adventurer, setting forth to explore the world – a trait he no doubt inherited from his grandfather who built his own single-seater speedboats and raced them along the South coast.

His first extreme adventure was in 2017, when he cycled solo unsupported from Cape Town to Cairo. “When you’re out there on your own, carrying a 15kg backpack, running or cycling insane distances with daily calculated food and hydration portions, strategy and intuition become the two most important survival skills,” he says. “I love to push myself physically, and mentally it’s about the dopamine high of feeling free, alive and liberated.”

Finding yourself

For him the experiences have all been about self-discovery. “No journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it travels an equal distance into the world within. You must go on adventures to find out where you truly belong.”

Equally, however, he’s driven to make a difference and to inspire and motivate others to believe that anything is achievable – as he himself has his own personal health and wellness challenges. “Living with chronic fatigue, attention deficit disorder and dyslexia is not easy. I accept my current situation and the risks involved because there will always be high levels of danger when embarking on a challenge.”

Gaven believes that letting go of the things that no longer serve us is the most productive way to make room for new opportunities and possibilities. He uses his extreme adventure experience to guide many of his motivational talks. “The next time you’re afraid to do something, move into it, not away from it. Fear often tells us what we need to do.”

Into the future

So, what exciting things does Gaven have on the cards for his next adventure? He’s hoping to summit K2, trek to the South pole or row across the ocean on a solo expedition – but it’ll all come down to where he’s able to make the most impact. Closer to home, he’s busy creating a cartoon character adventurer of himself to use as part of a kids adventure book series, and keep an eye out next year for Gaven’s new podcast series where he’ll interview world champions of sport, explorers and adventurers.