The Get Up & Go Magazine Award

Winner of the 2006 Get Up & Go Magazine Award for Australia’s most adventurous traveller, Margaret Smith, is proof that you don’t need to search for the fountain of youth if you’re living it.

People who have walked the intrepid Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea count it as a monumental milestone in their lives. Margaret Smith not only endured the trek as a rite of passage but also marked the occasion with the celebration of her 62nd birthday this year.

There’s a ‘birthday’ thing happening with Margaret. She entered the third stage of her life with a bang not a whimper; for her 50th birthday she asked for a backpack and began backpacking; for her 60th birthday she did the 17-day desert hike on the Larapinta Trail in the West McDonald Ranges in the Northern Territory.

Margaret changed her travelling style from four-star to adventure using hostel accommodation where she met a variety of people with like minds. Her backpacking began by taking one and two-day adventures, and then she discovered Tasmania and New Zealand when she joined a local walking club. “Once I joined the club, I was spending up to eight days away from home and then I retired,” she says.

“I love travelling; as well as being such a pleasure it’s also educational and I get to meet other people with whom I share similar interests,” Margaret says. “Excitement and adventure add to the spice of life and my trips have had the ‘excitement’ ingredient. I’ve white-water rafted down the Nymboida River in NSW while it was in flood – this trip was done on adrenalin. I’ve also parasailed down the cliffs of Christchurch in New Zealand, which was a thrill.”

The Get Up & Go Magazine Award finalists

George Cheesman, 69

George Ross Cheesman is a man of action, and after years of working a seven-day week is making up for lost ‘working time’.

He goes trekking, mountain climbing, plays tennis, runs and coaches children. He has climbed the French Alps and in Borneo he completed an intrepid jungle trek, which covered much of the area where prisoners were force-marched in World War II.

And for fun he and his wife camped on permafrost in Alaska when the weather was minus 40 degrees.

In 1997 he camped in Uganda to track gorillas; he’s danced with Massai people and has been charged by elephants and lions. Adventure and the beauty and spirit of the place are what George searches for in his travels.

Sharon Gibson, 63

Sharon Gibson doesn’t let any grass grow under her feet. Living in the remote, lovely area of Kandanga in rural Queensland she’s into yoga, walking and swimming.

Last year Sharon travelled to Borneo to see her adopted orang-utan, as part of the Australian Orang-Utan Project. Initially Sharon was inspired by an article about this project in a magazine she read while waiting in a doctor’s surgery. She went home and visited the website and this led to her adopting an orang-utan. She then went to Borneo on an eco-tour to see first hand how the program worked and to meet her ‘adoptee’.

John Henshaw, 66

Retired builder John Henshaw has embraced the ‘third’ stage of his life with gusto. Although he is doing a little consultancy, “I’ve been roped in by my son, who is building, but it’s an advisory capacity only, I’m too busy walking!”

And walk he does. John bushwalks and cycles and believes that the best way to see a country is by foot. “You get the exercise, have time to take in the views, get to meet and talk to local people and venture into remote areas,” says John. “You know, I’ve never had a bad day outside.”

He’s been trekking in New Zealand, Tasmania, the South Pacific and the Solomon Islands. “I travelled to Hawaii last year and walked up volcanoes and across lava fields and at the end of the year my partner and I flew to Norfolk Island where we walked the island, cycled, hired a boat and snorkelled the pristine waters.”

Margot Grant, 78

Margot Grant has just turned 78 and is planning her next volunteer time in Cambodia and Thailand, where she does a six-month stint every year.

Margot originally visited Cambodia and Thailand in the early 80s and has forged a powerful link with the two countries.

Working with refugees is what she does; she teaches swimming (many children drown in reservoirs in both countries) and set up a lifeguard program that has saved many lives; she has taught English at a leper colony and run an arts program.

Margot has written a book of her adventures called ‘Bamboo & Barbed Wire’. Find the book by Googling, search Australia ‘Margot Grant’.

Terry Hammond, 77

Terry Hammond has clocked up more than 110,000 kilometres sailing around the world. Terry retired in 1992 and indulged his passion for navigation and sailing. He was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2004 and he had his colon removed, but he recovered in rapid time, in fact in time to sail to Alaska to compete in a race from Canada to Hawaii.

You can’t keep this man on land – later this year he will be sailing to New Zealand and there are plans for a sea journey to Mexico and the US in 2007.