GEOFF MARTIN an interview for Venture Magazine London

Me Being me – Heavy Trekking

An interview with London’s Venture magazine

: Geoff somewhere in the world

Geoff Martin led informal yachting and diving trips around the South Pacific for ten years before suggesting to some friends that they might like to come with him to Nepal. Since then, he has run more than a dozen tours all over the world, often using Kumuka’s tailor-made service. Venture talked to the traveller turned tour leader down the line at his home at Hallidays Point on the north coast of New South Wales.

Q What got you hooked on travel? When I was 13, Dad took me to New Zealand. Just me and him. My brother was living there at the time. I thought it was amazing, I mean culturally you could hardly distinguish it from Australia, then, but in terms of scenery and the whole outdoor experience. . . Rotorua, Mount Cook, walking on the glacier, I remember hobnail boots. My goodness. It made a deep impression.

Q What’s been your best travel experience? That’s so hard, there have been so many. . .One place that was really something? The Nazca lines in Peru. These are enormous designs cut into the desert, you can only see them from the air. We had a light plane and we did figures-of-eight over each of them. They are gigantic. There’s no way you can see how anyone could have created them without help. Without being able to fly. I’d read Von Daniken, so I knew a little bit about it. It just blew me away.

Q So this was on your South American trip? That’s right. I rounded up some mates for the first of my Martin’s Mayhems as I call them. I was particularly pleased because Kumuka was able to do something that you don’t really see offered anywhere. You know how, quite often, you’ll get a couple and he (it’s normally the bloke) will want to do adventure and all the hard stuff and his partner will want things a bit softer? So I organised in Peru for the group to split up, so at one stage for example we had 16 people doing the Inca Trail and the other 8 hung back in Cusco for a day or two and then took the train, and we all met at dawn at Macchu Pichu. Incredible. And everyone gets to do what they want to do and share their experiences.

Q Tell us about the Kumuka relationship, how did that come about? I was at Flight Centre, looking at brochures for South America. And I picked up the Kumuka one, and it looked good, it looked a bit better than the other down and dirty operators. They gave the impression that they knew their stuff, and really knew the actual culture. So, me being me, I asked around at the club and got 12 or 14 people straight away. So I rang Kumuka and Helen Dwyer came up to talk to us in my camping shop that I run. And everyone turned up. And she told us so much. And since then we’ve become great friends. It just works really well.

Q So you’re a self-taught tour leader? Yes, I am. I discovered I had a bit of an aptitude for running trips. It was Nepal that got me started, raising money for the Fred Hollows foundation to cure eye problems in developing countries. I flew into Kathmandu, my first trip abroad really, not counting the Pacific regoin. Stayed in the Radisson, which was a mistake, totally insulated. But I got really hooked on heavy trekking, and I conquered a couple of personal targets, 5200 metres and then a trip I led with a dozen of us and a 6400 metre pass, and that one was a bit over the top. We got waylaid by the Maoists and spent five days negotiating a little ransom to be allowed to carry on. We had a sherpa down a crevasse at one stage. It’s not for everybody, but in terms of trekking, that was my peak, that was my personal Everest. I wouldn’t want to actually climb it, but everyone has the need to be challenged, I believe. And I’m very pleased I did that.

Q That’s a serious responsibility, do your clients know what they’re signing up to? It’s more informal than that on my trips. They each take responsibility themselves, and if we’re on a Kumuka trip, then the company obviously looks after the group. But I’m always very careful to make sure everyone knows what to expect. Group dynamics are important, and plenty of free time. That’s another big plus point about Kumuka, they programme in so much free time, and when I’m doing my trips I’ve learned that’s the one essential item. Give people space and freedom, and never over-promise, and always over-deliver. You can gather a group together like a clutch of chickens and they’ll follow you, but they’ll be pecking each other in no time. Personality dramas will rise up. Give them some freedom and it works.

Q And more recently you’ve been to Africa? I took a group with Kumuka to Kenya and Tanzania last year, doing a safari and climbing the little hill. And that was a memorable experience. I don’t think I have the words to describe that first evening on the plains, with the tents, and the Maasai guides and you’ve been exposed to all these amazing sights and experiences for the first time, and everyone’s been clicking away at zebras. I mean zebras! You quickly get used to some things. But there are always surprises and rare sights, like crocodiles waiting at a waterhole for an unwary wildebeest or watching a cheetah make a kill. It’s just an indelible memory.

Q And how did you travel on that trip? Kumuka truck most of the time. Big old thing. And they are the best vehicles for the job. They’re so reliable and very, very slow. So you get this fantastic exposure. It’s not a case of shooting from A to B, you’re really experiencing the culture and the landscape.

Q What’s the next trip you’re planning? My next adventure is a combination of Kumuka and a private trip to China, trekking part of the Great Wall, to Xian then on the new rooftop of the world train across the Tibetan plateau to Lhasa then to the Nepal/Tibet border for a ten day trip to the Kanshung. (Hidden) face of Everest and hopefully to Sir Edmund Hillary’s Tibetan base camp before continuing on to Kathmandu then home. After that we have a number of wonderful trips planned to Tasmania, Nepal and many other amazing places.

Q Staying in the Radisson again in Kathmandu? No, no. It’ll be some half-star place in Durbar Square, surrounded by locals and banana pancakes. That’s more my style.

Geoff Martin

Profession Company Director, Consultant to the Camping Industry, has Owned Taree Camping / Barbeques Galore store for 30 years

Scariest moment Toss up between diving in a volcanic tube under a live volcano, in the Solomon Isles and sharing my air with a buddy, also in a volcanic tube, when he blew an o-ring.

What languages do you speak Only enough Italian to get me into trouble. I find it’s better to stick to English.

Food – I love all foods and have tried most around the world, my favourite overall would be all food in Italy. ( I call it death by Deli )

Music – I play a little guitar and love Blues. My favourite artists are Eric Clapton, The Eagles, James Morrison and Pete Murray

Movie – The Ghost and the Darkness, Da Vinci Code and all Super Hero movies like Zorro, Phantom etc.

You’re suddenly rich, where would you live? I’d stay where I am, but I’d spend more time in Italy and Germany. And I’d visit Africa more.