KEY POINTS:
Do you fancy being imprisoned in Azerbaijan for running over a cow? How about racing a 150cc rickshaw along the banks of the Ganges?
Or clashing with bandits in the Mongolian desert?
It may not be everyone's idea of a holiday, but for Tom Morgan, founder of extreme travel agent The League of Adventurists, danger is the essential ingredient for an enjoyable break.
It seems he is not alone. The 27-year-old, who boasts he has spawned "a community of other idiots", has already had to invent a host of new whacky trips to stop his thrillseekers encountering each other on the road. And now the travel junkie turned businessman has won the Shell LIVEwire Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for creating an organisation that not only makes money - and lots of it - but that sets trends in an ever more competitive market.
The business, which started at the 2004 Mongol Rally with a one-off race through bandit country in "any crap car that has an engine with no more than 1 litre of power", has proved one of the most successful examples of what has become a phenomenon in the travel industry.
Huge numbers of small, quirky and smoothly marketed independent travel companies have sprung up in recent years. Offering tailored itineraries of voyages into the unknown and providing clients with service on a highly personalised, individual basis, the modern, downsized equivalents to Thomas Cook and the like are taking on the old-school giants at their own game - and winning.
They may not offer customers the traditional dream holiday with lashings of sun, sea and sand - but what they lack in reliability they make up for in spontaneity and discovery. And, the travel agencies say, their newly-converted fans wouldn't want it any other way.
"As a student I got frustrated with guides like the Lonely Planet that took all the fun out of travelling," Morgan says. "I found that when I had most fun was when I went off the edge of the map and got lost."
Morgan began his interest in bizarre journeys while on a student exchange in the Czech Republic. He decided to drive with a friend to the "most stupid place" he could think of in his Fiat 126. With "about 12" in their pockets, they decided Mongolia was that place, but they only got as far as Iran before being turned back at the border. Despite the breakdowns and uncomfortable nights, the entrepreneurial explorer describes it as "one of the most fun holidays" he ever had.
So, on his return Morgan set up the Mongol Rally, a race through the desert with wholly unsuitable vehicles to raise money for Mongolian charities. An ominous note on the website warned: "We can't guarantee your arrival at the finish line or your safety."
For three years Morgan ran the rally as a hobby, while he did a succession of non-committal jobs that ranged from waiting tables to stuffing envelopes. "I did anything that wasn't a proper job," he says.
With swathes of guidebook-guzzling travellers following each other from one predictable destination to the next, there was an emerging enthusiasm for genuinely unusual holidays. And in November 2006, when the number of cars in his race had risen from 6 in 2004 to 167, he decided to launch the rally as a business venture.
So teaming up with business partners Dan Wedgewood and Lamorna Trahair, Morgan launched The League of Adventurists, a travel company that specialised in gruelling "holidays" and whose mantra was to make it "as hard as possible for the people taking part".
Returning Mongol Rally enthusiasts have sung its praises. One keen Adventurist did his first trip on a Honda C90 commuter scooter. It took him five weeks and left him stuck in Siberian rainstorms without so much as a tent or a change of clothes. Next year he's coming back, equipped with a latex Mr Incredible costume, and an even less functioning 50cc moped.
Now the team has added the Rickshaw Run, a race of 150cc powered rickshaws through India's mountains, jungles and dirt tracks. Next year will bring fresh dangers, with a rally to the Cameroon and a dugout canoe race down the Amazon. Even Morgan admits the Amazonian venture might require a little more supervision.
"There comes a point where we can't advise people to go and kill themselves", he admits. But while a hidden support boat will be available in emergencies they still refuse to be tour guides.
The Adventurists now plan to expand into a bespoke service, arranging the logistics for the adventures of individual clients. But they will not be holding anyone's hand. As Morgan says: "If you want a support crew there's a very nice place called Butlins in Bognor Regis."
- INDEPENDENT
