Photo courtesy of Justine Curgenven

Travel technology. Is it all it’s cracked up to be? What do the serious adventurers think? In our quest for answers at the Adventure Travel Show, we talked to (officially) one of the UK’s top 20 living adventurers: Justine Curgenven.

Justine Curgenven is, by her own admission, “addicted to kayaking.” The award-winning filmmaker has paddled her way around and along wild coastlines in Tasmania, New Zealand’s South Island, Isla Grande in Patagonia; Ireland and Sardinia. Most recently, she completed a 2,500km kayak along the Aleutian island chain and Alaskan peninsula with round the world adventurer Sarah Outen (you can watch their journey here).

It was the remotest of journeys in a part of the world where, for 101 days, there was just wild weather, formidable waves and suspicious bears. And just to add to the challenge (as if they needed it) Sarah wasn’t a very experienced kayaker.

So when you’re about as far from civilization as it’s possible to get, can technology help?

What are your feelings about travel technology?
I enjoy getting away from the temptation and obligation of instant access to emails, messages, adverts and work. I am self-employed and make films of my adventures from home. I find it hard to switch off from work and detach my umbilical cord to technology. One thing I love about trips is that I can’t check my emails, can’t deal with issues, can’t get FOMO about my friends having a great surf while I’m working, can’t feel guilty about not being on top of things. It’s invigorating and freeing to get away from all that. The connection to nature, the real interaction with people and the buzz from fending for yourself massively outweigh the ability to know what is happening all over the world all day every day.

Do you use technology when you head off on an adventure, or is it merely a useful tool when planning?
Despite what I just said… If there is cell phone coverage on a trip then I’ll use my phone. I kayaked around Ireland 2 years ago and as well as checking the weather forecast, I posted daily photos to Facebook, replied to any important emails and even checked up on my friends every now and again.

In remoter areas, I’ll often take a satellite phone. A friend sends me twice-daily weather forecasts as text messages and I’ll also send daily reports which will get forwarded to a select group of family and friends, uploaded to my blog and posted to Facebook and Twitter. With forward planning I can do this by emailing one address and setting that up to forward to a Facebook, Twitter and WordPress address.

While kayaking 1,000 miles around “Isla Grande” in Tierra Del Fuego, we also had to inform the Chilean and Argentinian coast guards of our whereabouts. The same text went to both, saving time and money.

Last summer, I kayaked 2,500km from Adak in the Aleutian Islands to the nearest road in Homer, Alaska with Sarah Outen. Sarah is sponsored by Iridium so we had lots of great Iridium goodies to play with. We used an Iridium access point which turned the sat phone into a mobile hot spot. We could connect to this with our smartphones and use them to send daily updates to social media sites, a blog and friends. I used the same method as before so that one email went everywhere. This took at least an hour every evening which I sometimes found annoying because that’s time I could have spent exploring, sleeping or just enjoying my surroundings. But I also enjoyed imagining friends and family reading about our daily run in with a bear, or being pounded by waves. I’ve learnt I’m too lazy to write a diary, so my daily blog post doubled up as a diary.

We navigated along the coastline using charts, compass and common sense, but on our longer crossings our GPS was essential to tell us where the undocumented currents were taking us!

Do you use tablets, wearable tech like watches or solar packs to recharge stuff on the go?
I have never taken a tablet or laptop, partly because I’ve never had room in my sea kayak on longer trips.

My smartphone can do almost everything a tablet can, it just takes longer! I’ve used solar chargers on long remote trips. Sarah had a waterproof one fixed permanently on her back deck in the Aleutian Islands and we had a non-waterproof solar Gorilla charger that we could use when on land. We had two Gorilla power batteries that we charged from the panels and charged our electronics from these. It was a great set up with the added advantage that the Gorilla batteries stored enough power to charge a phone or small camera at least 5 times.

Having said that, spare batteries are small and cheap these days so I’ve been away from people for 3 weeks before without a solar charger and my spare batteries kept me going.

Apple or Android?
A Samsung phone has 2 advantages over the iPhone – firstly you can buy spare batteries for it very cheaply and secondly it has a micro SD slot. I could put the card from my camera into my phone and upload photos to the internet.

What are the drawbacks of travel technology?
The main drawback is the time spent playing with gadgets when you could be immersed in your surroundings!

Is there some item on your wish list that manufacturers haven’t created yet?
It would be nice if it was cheaper to send photos back from an expedition via a sat phone. I think the technology is there but it’s expensive unless you are sponsored.

Tell us about your Australian travel experiences
I have sea kayaked around Tasmania in an all-female team and island hopped by kayak across the Eastern Bass Strait. I’ve climbed at Arapiles, camped in Kakadu, driven the Great Ocean Road, taken a Contiki bus through the Northern Territory, snorkelled on the Great Barrier Reef, attended the Country Music Festival in Tamworth, pulled an all-nighter at the Gondawindi B & S party & overnighted at a tiny town that most tourists pass by in Elliott in the Northern Territory. My favourite experiences were the first and last 2!

Inspired? Follow Justine on Facebook and Twitter.

Want to emulate Justine’s Australian travels? Take a look at our Australian destination pages, or tell us about your own Australian travel experiences here.

Read more interviews from Adventure Travel Show 2015
Planning your own Australian adventure / trip
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