My name is Adeel Akbar. I am a traveller, adventurer, explorer and a nature lover. My love for the outdoors started because of my traveling with my father or my grandmother at a very young age. We visited villages, dams, cities, canals and what not. There has been no looking back since then and I have continued to travel and adventure around the world. I have been to 30+ countries and have lived and worked in a few. My earlier travels were in the Northern Areas of Pakistan, then I was just in my teens. I have the best memories of my life from those travels. Hats off to my parents who allowed me to travel solo or with friends at that tender and young age. It would not have been possible if they didn’t trust me then, especially my father as he was my travel guide who helped me in organizing my trips, helped me draw maps by hand for all my travels and always guided me where to stay and where not to stay during my travels. Of course he is a well travelled person.
I hiked through the northern areas where I only met the foreigners and not Pakistanis. I travelled with them and really enjoyed the way they conducted themselves, they had maps and books about Pakistan that I had never seen in Pakistan. They were organized but raw in their approach to travel and they were brave to venture out to the unknown locations in countries foreign to them. That notion always captured my attention and I was amazed to see solo girls or boys from the US, Canada, Germany, UK and other countries traveling through our beautiful mountainous regions and I was able to join them on some adventures. I had only finished grade 11 at that time and I was absorbing all that alongside my own travel experiences and studies. I had no gear at that time, I used to wear some Chinese joggers or shoes by Service shoes, there was no grip on them to go to high altitude on mountains or on rough treks. However, I was eager, I had the energy to compensate for my gear deficiency and I never let those obstacles stop me from doing some crazy and unforgettable adventures. I enjoyed every moment of my travels, and after more than 30 years passed, those memories are still etched into my mind so deep as if I just travelled those areas yesterday.
Those years passed quickly and changed my interests slightly, now I was traveling the high altitude areas on a small motorbike 70cc or 100cc and I was camping along the way. Again, no countrymen were doing this kinda travel solo and I felt proud to be one of the pioneers to do so in the mid to late 80s. I travelled the whole Northern areas and all districts of Kashmir. For doing so I had to make several trips all the way from Lahore and each of my trips were a travelling movie in itself, because every time I travelled I learned something new, I learned about the people, I learned about life and I learned about myself and my own potential. Motorbike traveling was really fun as this was extremely satisfying for me, I could travel far and wide due to the mobility of the motorbike and did not worry about where to stay as I always had my tent and sleeping bag with me. Eating was never my priority, I ate what I found or just a cookie with water were my meals in the far flung areas.
There were no complaints, there was no tiredness, there were no obstacles that I couldn’t cross, once I left my home for my travels. I can write books on each of my travels, so one could imagine how satisfying my journeys were. I would not say that everything comes easy because travel brings its own challenges that one has to pass through, nothing comes easy as one needs to work very hard to strive. I never took anything for granted and was very thankful in all circumstances and that was giving me more and more opportunities and my strength was increasing with every year passing, my love for adventures was just ripening slowly, and my mind was growing faster than my age group due to the experiences I was able to gather by my travels, by meeting people from my own country and from the other countries. Morale was all time high, young age was on my side, I was learning martial arts and that helped me increase my endurance, patience and stamina.
The journey of my life just began and I used to dream of traveling through the world one day. I dreamt of backpacking through Western Europe, the Americas and much more. Then the opportunities came and I grabbed them with both hands and my international travels started. I was introduced to the world with a bang and I humbly accepted it as my fate and explored several countries of the world in the years to come. I got more and more windows to see the wider world and see how those places were.
Today I look back and I see that I was able to avail all those opportunities and feel proud to have all those adventures under my belt whether that is camping through Western Europe or North America, off road adventures through the deserts of Rub’ al Khali, climbing mountains in Nepal, visiting jungles in Chitwan or the Far East, cross country travels through several countries or adventuring through the backcountry of Canada. Have I done everything that I wanted to do? Probably not, I am just a tiny spec in this universe and I have done and seen a tiny spec of what is available out there. I want to still dream and continue my adventures and I am more passionate than ever. I recently started documenting my adventures on a YouTube channel called “Adventures with Adeel” where I would be able to show the world to my dear audience.
I would definitely continue to reflect on my journeys and adventures in my upcoming blogs and videos but am recalling all those memories which give me satisfaction of my humble achievements but one part of my brain tells me that my achievements are still minute and I need to do more. Therefore, the journey of my life and adventures of my being are just continuing and I am as unstoppable as I was when I was 16 years young. I would not miss out on giving credit to my better-half who has joined me on several of my travels around the world and without her I would not have been able to do all these adventures. She is not only my life partner but also a partner in all my journeys for the last many years. While I am writing these lines we are planning our next adventure to the Arctic Ocean and we are so looking forward to that.
This is a short intro to my travel journey that is full of adventures, the journey will not end until I am kicking!
If you want to join my journey then here are links to my social media.
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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA5v9ld2d5XwdmwrhI5dYiw
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https://www.facebook.com/adeel.akbar/
https://www.facebook.com/adventureswithadeel
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https://www.instagram.com/adventures_with_adeel_/
