Adventure insurance?

All adventurers are self serving to some extent.

If they weren’t they wouldn’t have the drive to push the boundaries we normal folk have and strive to see just what they’re capable of.

Most recently Australian’s have been watching two young girls. Both 16 and both sailors – one of course the overdosed-on-pink Jessica Watson, and now the missing-now-found US based Abby Sunderland.

I admire most adventurers. I’m also jealous of them to some degree as I have a little bit of adventurer in me that is sadly kept bubbling below the surface by the responsibilities of maintaining a normal life like family, career and mortgage.

We should be thankful for adventurers. The human species would not where it is today if it weren’t for these individuals and groups.

Our early ancestors leaving Africa were the first adventurers – pushing past the known lines of their domain and heading over lands and waters to places beyond what even their imaginations could throw forth.

The globe was opened up by the adventurers who packed up and headed to the East, West, North and South. The early trailblazers who dared to try something different just to see if it could be done. This is one type of adventurer.

Then the pioneers’ whose work is often not associated with adventure – the scientists. Many men of science (and later a few women of science too) tried all manner of experiments on themselves just to see if it might work. Of course there were many disasters – but the successes have led to the outstanding calibre of modern medicine we have today. We can thank these adventurers for that.

Moving beyond our little blue-green rock we have the next round of adventurers looking literally to the stars. They are the next wave of people of courage and vision and who knows what will come from their ability to step beyond.

Back very much on the ground, we have plenty of modern day adventurers who load packhorses and ride around Australia to raise awareness of melanoma, or who grab a few mates and jump on pushbikes then peddle from Perth the Sydney – again to raise awareness and finance for worthy causes.

There are also adventurers who overcome huge odds to make significant journeys to show people with disabilities are as able as the able-bodied.

All these people make great personal sacrifice and achieve great personal glory – but they’ve set out to do it for altruistic reasons. To help others in some way.

Then there are those who are purely self-serving.

I don’t begrudge these people and their entourage having their adventure. If you want to have a crack at something and you have the means to do it – great! Go for it.

BUT if you are only doing it to make a name for yourself in the process, or to show that you’re better than the bloke who went before, then please don’t ask the rest of us to pick up the tab if something goes wrong,

If everything goes well I’m sure you’ll be happy to accept the media spotlight, the book/tv/magazine/telemovie deals, the product endorsement contracts and so on. And well deserved too. You’ve done the hard yards so I’m happy for you to reap the rewards.

But similarly, if the proverbial poo hits the fan, then don’t come calling for the taxpayer to cover your costs.

I’m not for one second suggesting these people shouldn’t be rescued. Of course they should be rescued. No question. But when air and sea and land rescue resources are utilised largely at the taxpayers’ expense then there must be a degree of “mea culpa”!

Due to Australia’s position on the globe we have had numerous calls to our resources to rescue sailors in the Southern Ocean and the southern part of the Indian Ocean (in some cases the same person twice! Did he not learn the first time???).

Perhaps some sort of rescue insurance should be developed for self-serving adventurers - no doubt there would be an obscene premium to ensure funds were available to offset any rescue costs.

Don’t like the premium? Don’t go on the adventure.

If your adventure is purely self-serving, then maybe paying a premium up front would give you a little perspective on how worthy your adventure truly is to human progress.