Kim was no stranger to journey when she booked an Uncharted Expedition by way of Central Asia again in 2019, however not understanding the place she’d be going every day gave her the form of uncooked, genuine journey moments she’d at all times craved.
Kim Murray has walked within the footsteps of Siberian reindeer herders, cycled by way of Vietnam and searched excessive and low for orangutans within the Sumatran jungle. It’s protected to say she’s no stranger to adventurous journey. But it surely was an Intrepid journey six years in the past – an unscripted Uncharted Expedition with a thriller itinerary – that proved to be Kim’s most transformative journey expertise thus far.
‘Think about entering into a spot with no expectations, no itinerary and no spoilers,’ Kim says, reflecting on the enchantment of the Uncharted Expedition. ‘Each second is a shock, each flip a discovery. You be taught to belief your instincts, embrace uncertainty and discover pleasure within the unfamiliar. An actual journey.’
Let’s take it again to 2019. As Kim’s aircraft descended into Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital, she felt like she was crossing a threshold into the unknown. Snowcapped mountains stretched endlessly throughout the horizon, their peaks ablaze within the afternoon solar. Although she knew she would arrive in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in three weeks’ time, she had no concept what the intervening days would possibly entail.
Whenever you’re unsure what the subsequent hour will convey, not to mention the subsequent day, you don’t have any alternative however to dwell within the second.
‘It wasn’t simply the panorama that stirred one thing in me,’ Kim says. ‘It was a sense – the pure pleasure of not understanding what was to return. Who would I meet? What tales would unfold? What challenges would outline the journey?’ The primary night was electrical. Twelve strangers united by curiosity, braveness and a starvation for one thing actual. They spoke late into the night time about journey and which means and why that they had chosen to be a part of the Uncharted Expedition.
For Kim, Uncharted was an opportunity to lean into the journey as an alternative of the vacation spot. Whenever you’re unsure what the subsequent hour will convey, not to mention the subsequent day, you don’t have any alternative however to dwell within the second. She has at all times courted spontaneity and shock in her travels, however she thought the expedition may take issues to a different degree. There was a purity to it, a realness that’s laborious to duplicate within the age of data, and the opposite travellers have been equally motivated. They have been curious in regards to the world; open to new experiences, to challenges and taking possibilities.
‘It’s an evening I’ll always remember,’ Kim says about that first night in Kazakhstan. ‘And to today, it’s laborious to place the [entire] expertise into phrases.’
The 2019 Uncharted Expedition noticed the group journey from Kazakhstan to Mongolia through Russia. Deliberate by Intrepid’s vacation spot consultants, the itinerary was saved secret as a method to recapture the spirit of genuine journey that impressed the creation of Intrepid in 1989 – a spirit of being challenged, stunned and, most significantly, awed.
For Kim, the journey’s spotlight got here deep within the Mongolian wilderness, hours from paved roads and telephone reception. To achieve the night’s camp, on the fringe of the Potanin Glacier, the group would wish to drive by way of a deep river fed by glacial run-off. Every little thing went to plan till it didn’t.
‘We have been driving by way of this river on the best way to the glacier and we appeared behind to see our meals van was caught,’ Kim says. ‘We have been protected, after all, and the best way everybody – the group, Intrepid, the drivers – dealt with it was unbelievable. What may’ve been a setback became a defining second. I can nonetheless image the mountains, and the glacier coming down. We have been in the midst of nowhere. Simply mountains, blue skies, the river and this stunning silence. I bear in mind considering: oh my goodness, the place are we?’
It’s a good query, given the Uncharted Expedition’s billing as a thriller journey with no mounted itinerary. Not understanding is form of the purpose. Nonetheless, every night the group’s chief, Anton, would trace at what the subsequent day would possibly convey. He’d level to a distant area on a map, or inform the group they’d be going for a stroll at a sure elevation, or taking a protracted prepare journey. Eighteen hours later, they could possibly be using the rails throughout the Jap Kazakh Steppe, breaking a sweat in a Russian banya or taking part in basketball in a distant village with children who had by no means seen a vacationer.
Kim may scarcely consider the place she was. Whose concept was it to drive Soviet vans by way of the Altai Mountains, she questioned, or to camp by a glacier and wake on the break of day to crackling ice? The journey was so distinctive, so unrepeatable, she nonetheless struggles to convey the depth of expertise.
‘That form of journey is uncommon,’ Kim says. ‘Not simply new sights, however uncooked, unforgettable moments. The type you don’t plan or pose for. It felt like actual freedom in a world the place every little thing is scheduled and reviewed. Typically, in quiet moments, or after I cross paths with one of many different travellers, the recollections come dashing again. We snicker and reminisce. And for a second, I’m again there. On that first night time in Astana on the sting of one thing extraordinary. It’s probably the greatest issues I’ve ever accomplished in my life and I’ll at all times bear in mind it.’
After a six-year hiatus, Intrepid has simply introduced its subsequent Uncharted Expedition, leaving mid-2026. The 14-day journey begins in Harare, Zimbabwe, and ends in Ilha de Mozambique, and the remainder, properly, a fortunate few travellers will discover out once they get there. Enter now for an opportunity to order a spot.
