Meet the small Canberra business helping locals find their adventure gene
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It started as a simple idea: helping people who dream of outdoor adventure but don’t know where to start.
Now Tom Bartlett and Maddie Wait from The Adventure Gene are helping Canberra locals get outdoors and explore new places – and they’re loving every minute.
Meeting in a maths lecture while both studying Physics at the Australian National University, for Maddie, it was meeting Tom that helped her truly fall in love with hiking and the great outdoors.
While she considered herself a sporty child and had been camping before, she says that he introduced her to the magic of multi-day trips, where it was only them and the wilderness.
“I’d never done much hiking until I came to Canberra for university. When I met Tom, he had done a few different hikes, he showed me the ropes and took me out on a few multiday trips and I just really fell in love with it,” she says.
“A big part of it is being outside in nature and being immersed in the wilderness – it’s really quite peaceful. I find it’s a great way to step back from everyday life and there are no stresses. It’s a very simple way to spend your time…it really helps you relax and be in the moment.”
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Tom Bartlett and Maddie Wait.
Working as hiking guides for several years, Tom and Maddie loved their jobs but noticed that there weren’t many multiday experiences that offered a more immersive wilderness experience.
Wanting to lower the barrier of entry to the outdoors for people who hadn’t experienced it before, they first created The Adventure Gene as a place to share all their hiking knowledge – from what to pack and how to plan for the hike to their experiences hiking in Australia, New Zealand, North America and South America.
Now, after nine months of The Adventure Gene, Maddie and Tom have started offering two-, four-, seven- or 14-day guided trips through the Snowy Mountains to share their passion and help people get outside to explore new places.
Providing only tent-based adventures, Maddie says that through the tours they want people to develop their hiking skills, knowledge, and confidence while being completely immersed in nature.
“We provide all of the food, all of the transport and we just wanted to make it as easy as possible for people to get out and experience the Snowy Mountain,” she says.
“For us, it’s had such a profound impact on our lives that we want other people to experience it.”
With the first walk leaving in February, Tom and Maddie are also offering female-only two-day trips.
The hope is to break down barriers for women who want to give multi-day hiking trips a go but are struggling to get their foot out the door.
“This is something that really resonates with me…I find that a lot of females in the outdoor space can feel quite intimidated and not really sure that they belong. And that was definitely something that I felt at the beginning,” says Maddie.
“It’s taken a lot of time and a lot of fighting and experience for me to build my confidence levels, and I think having a female-only trip makes it even more accessible to those people who might be feeling a little bit overwhelmed or intimidated, not sure if they’re going to be able to keep up or if they’re good enough.”
“It’s about encouraging them to get out and experience it in a safe environment where they’re surrounded by people who are in the same situation as them. That’ll really help them thrive.”
And with over 20,000km of hiking trails under Tom’s belt and Maddie bringing over 15,000km of hiking experience (along with the title of the fastest woman to have ever completed Te Araroa in New Zealand), anyone considering booking a guided tour will be in safe (and knowledgeable) hands.
Explaining that all experience and fitness levels can take part in the guided tours – even if the most walking you do is a 30-minute walk around the block – Maddie says that everyone will take something different away from the guided tours.
Along with watching them enjoy the proven benefits of spending time outside, whether it’s learning how to plan for a hike or relax in nature, she’s looking forward to showing people that there’s no need to feel intimidated.
“Something that I think is really important to take away from these experiences is that sense of peace and relaxation that you get from being outside for extended periods of time,” says Maddie.
“I’m really excited to share my passion for walking in the outdoors, and I really hope that people can take that and then change their lives.”
For more information, visit theadventuregene.com
Images supplied.