FULLTIME ADVENTURER

In the organizer's words:

The full-time adventurer

Lecture by Tamar Valkenier


At the age of 28, Dutch-born Tamar swapped her promising career for a life on the streets - on a bicycle she had built from second-hand materials. Homeless and unemployed, she embarked on a journey that would last about a year, but is still ongoing ten years later. Despite living well below the poverty line, she has never felt so rich.

After two years on a bicycle, she also traveled many miles on skates, on camels, with a pulka and skis, with a donkey, with a dog sled and, of course, on foot to the remotest corners of our planet. She talked about her three-month crossing of the New Zealand Alps, carrying only a rifle and a fishing rod to feed herself.

However, it was her first journey into the heart of the Altai Mountains that touched her the most. Far beyond the last town, telephone reception and flushing toilets, she traveled to the eagle hunters of Mongolia. She had to learn how to ride a horse (as transportation), how to pack a camel (no supermarkets) and how to stay out of trouble in the remote wilderness of these rugged mountains. With her own horse, camel and dog, she set off on an epic four-month journey.

She crossed wild rivers, the Death Pass and faced snow as early as August. She learned the hardships of a nomad and earned the respect of a culture that was more hospitable, forgiving and playful than any she had ever encountered. While she lost her animals in a storm, her horse was injured and her dog once killed a sheep, she learned the value of animal companions and recounts how her camel saved her life.

Tamar regularly returns to the Altai Mountains and has befriended a special family of eagle hunters. After years of training, she finally caught her first fox with an eagle and won first prize at a local eagle festival in August 2022. She founded a non-governmental organization (NGO) to support nomads in need and wrote a book called "The Full-Time Adventurer". As icing on the cake, the local nomads organized a lavish Kazakh wedding for her and her husband last year.

Price information:

Globetrotter Club 12,00 € Normal price 16,00 € Store Box Office 20,00 €