FAR AND AWAY

The latest luxury travel trend calls out to ‘extreme escapism’—and finding yourself along the way.

- KATE SPICER

If the most adventurous thing you did on holiday was wear a dress with cut-outs and sheer panels to the hotel nightclub, then you won't be calling up James Willcox of Untamed Borders to book next year's fortnight away. "If you can't afford to go to Mars," he says, "there's always the Danakil Depression (in northern Ethiopia). I recently took a group of 11 very driven businesswomen for a six-day mountain-biking trip. And it was extraordinarily challenging, not just the 50C heat, noxious gases and lava lake but also in terms of culture and language. It was humbling for them. But in my experience" and, as the originator of some of the most extreme travel out there, his experience is significant "most successful people view humility as the ultimate teacher."

Willcox also arranges tours to places such as Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan. He does not invite risk. "But I can only do so much. I can't control the inevitable total chaos that is part of the adventure." Having said that, he doubts he will ever do another Danakil cycling trip. "But I'm personally proud of it. Not least because no one died." I'm really not sure if he's joking or not.

Get Lost

Welcome to the world of extreme travel, a trend for which you will not need this summer's essential crochet top. If the words "extreme" and "travel" conjure images of North Face jackets and exploding volcanoes, that's also not quite what it's all about. In this post-ostentation age, the cool tribe shaping mainstream luxury travel are the global nomads, the perma-travellers who rove the planet searching for meaning, community and the perfect tie-front harem pants. For some, though, true luxury must be earned. There cannot be pleasure without first being cast out into the stony desert wilderness, just like Jesus.