In January 2022 we went on a wonderful trip to Tasmania.

This trip had been postponed once due to COVID-19 – the original date having been for my significant age birthday. A part of the trip was doing the Bay of Fires walk and staying at the beautiful Bay of Fires Lodge – a place I had been wanting to go to for many years. I wasn’t doing the trip for the walk in particular, but to see this beautiful part of Tasmania and to stay at the lodge, relax, read books, drink wine and appreciate being somewhere like this.

We had never done a ‘walk’ like this before, however, this seemed one that would be at a good pace over the even terrain of the beach. We walk A LOT when we go on holidays and find it a great way to get to know and see a place. We have done many food walking tours, which is a obviously a different thing. However, we had never done a specific walking, active type tour.

On this trip we encountered something we had never encountered before – active tour snobbery.

It started almost immediately after we had started off on the walk along the beach to the lodge. That’s when one of my fellow ‘walkers’ questioned me about why I had never done a walk before and that surely I would be looking at doing something more challenging than this walk! When I said I am doing this because I have always wanted to and no, I may not do a similar walk again, I was tut-tutted and my fellow traveller exited the conversation.

The judgement hit an elevated level when we said we wouldn’t be joining the kayak trip the next day and instead wanted to just enjoy the surrounds, get a spa treatment and have one of those aforementioned glasses of wine while sitting on the deck. I will note here that the itinerary does actually say you can opt to spend the day at the lodge. We had been shut away for two years in Melbourne, a sizable amount of that time under curfew and not being able to go beyond 5 km of our home, so just enjoying being somewhere different and having no stress was why we had come here.

The shock of our decision not to join the ‘active’ prople was made known by some of our fellow travellers.  After that we were of no interest.

We became persona non grata when the next day, three of our fellow travellers also said they wouldn’t be joining the kayaking. Looks came our way as if we had somehow started a rebellion of the lazy. One of the other travellers and fellow Melbournians came and told me they were really glad when I said we weren’t going as they too, after having months of lockdown and being in a stressful job, just wanted to enjoy the beautiful Tasmanian landscape. I also had been kayaking before down rapids, so I had done this before and wasn’t very good at it.

When our kayaking friends returned that day, I was sitting out on the back deck watching the sunset with that glass of wine and just enjoying the beauty and quiet. The same person who had questioned me on the first day again approached to interrogate me about my decision to not go kayaking. I reiterated that I just want to enjoy this beautiful place, that’s why I was here and I had been kayaking before, wasn’t very good at it and didn’t enjoy it.  

They then not so subtly suggested that it was because I was there with my husband, he had influenced my decision and had I been there on my own, would I have gone! Now anyone who knows me, (this person obviously didn’t!) would know very well that I make all my decisions of my own free will and that if my husband said I’m not going somewhere, I’d say ‘see you later’. Fortunately I was feeling very relaxed and just answered a simple no and did my best to regain my serenity while my fellow traveller left the scene.

The view that you can only be active or adventurous if you ride 50kms on a bike with a flat tyre or do a walk over mountain peaks carrying your own freeze dried food, was expressed with great emphasis both nights at the dinner table. The travellers who were ‘experienced walkers’, ran marathons, competed in iron man and woman events and did endurance runs dominated the conversation and showed no interest in any people who quite clearly weren’t up to the grade. There was one couple where the man had done endurance runs and again surely his next step was ocean swims, and the woman was completed ignored because she didn’t express any interest in doing this.

The thing is, there are different types of adventure. Yes, doing the type of walks where you carry your own food and equipment over difficult terrane is adventurous, but so are other things. I travelled on my own to the Middle East and have travelled over-land across the Middle East, Asia and Africa. I have also been an MP – I can tell you that is a pretty wild adventure! Of the other people on the tour, one had been a health worker in emergency during COVID-19, another had fled their home where they were born to live in a different country – that’s a couple of very brave situations!

I know I can be a food snob at times and I try to catch myself when I do it. I know I have made comments on this blog about food as I do want to say ‘no!!’ to someone when they are in a city and say they only ate at the hotel when there is a whole world out there they are missing out on. But again, each to their own and it’s about how comfortable or adventurous someone feels when they travel. Perhaps just leaving the country was adventure enough for someone and fair enough.

I will admit I had a slight moment of ‘aha’ myself when one of the ‘active’ travellers said they should have told the staff not to add spice in their food when we had a vege curry for dinner. Trust me this curry wasn’t spicey, but I thought there you go, you’re not adventurous with your food. There are all different types of caution and adventure and there is one of their boundaries. This same person, when there was a brief conversation about where people had travelled overseas, had said they had only been to Hawaii and the US. Another boundary for them and again different ideas of what is adventurous.

Everyone travels differently. This blog is about how I like to travel and it won’t be for everyone. I love getting out and trying different foods but I also enjoy staying at boutique hotels and sitting out on a balcony with a glass of wine every now and again. This won’t be for everyone.

No, I possibly won’t do a walk again, or I might. If you go on a trip and enjoy it, regardless of what level of activity or ‘adventure’ you do, that’s what you wanted to get out of it. As with everything, if we all liked to do the same types of things, the world would be pretty boring.

Now don’t get me wrong, we had a wonderful time on this walk and overall trip to Tasmania. As mentioned, it had been postponed due to COVID-19 and actually being able to get on a plane and go somewhere was just wonderful.

It was just such as interesting experience seeing how we judge each other in different ways and can’t see things from outside of our sometimes limited worlds. I know I have done it and I will admit it. I have learnt over the years, particularly from being involved in politics, that you should never judge from first impressions and that all people have a story to tell and motivations for doing things.

Travel is no different. If you decide to go somewhere, you have every right to be there whether it’s a fancy restaurant, going camping or indeed doing a walk in the Bay of Fires. Everyone will have worked hard to get there, have different reasons for being there and any of these are OK.

Sometimes you just need to let people be and tale them time to stop and listen and learn. That’s the beauty of travel and meeting people from different worlds to yours.