Matt & Rowan

We are your laid-back adventurers. Matt comes from a farming background in the Eastern Cape and Rowan is from the smog of Johannesburg. We met at Stellenbosch University in our first year and became close friends after doing loads of mountain biking, hiking, running, paddling and even crane climbing together. We are jacks of all trades but masters of none. Over the years we have culminated a list of travel ideas that we are keen to start ticking off!

What are some of your most memorable achievements?

1. Summiting Huayna Potosi's 6000m peak in Bolivia during an intense snowstorm (we were one of the very few groups that summited that morning). This was also after a night of food poisoning, spent on a long drop at 5200m above sea level.

2. Doing an insane hiking trip in Peru (Ausengate trek) and Patagonia (Torres Del Paine and El Chaleten).

3. Having a group of friends that have joined us for countess missions; from our weekly hikes in Jonkhershoek to the highest peak in South Africa (Mafadi).

What are the ambitions that you are working towards?

Our main ambition is to travel and go on epic adventures that will inevitably have some ‘character-building’ moments to push our limits. Our shortened list is:

An African road trip up to Tanzania with a group of friends (watch this space, the WhatsApp group has been created).

A bike packing trip through the Cederberg and Karroo.

Southeast Asia backpacking trip including a side quest to Nepal (possible 7000m summit on the cards).

The Everest Challenge- climb the equivalent of Everest on our bikes in 24 hours.

Hike across Madagascar

Summit all the peaks in the Western Cape.

What are some of your top tips?

1. There is no bad weather, only bad gear

2. If you don’t ask, you’ll never know (and most of the time rules are really just guidelines). This philosophy has gotten us on this page, as well as a lot of free food and accommodation during our travels and into many hikes we weren’t supposed to do.

What are some of your favourite gear?

FA Helio 2 tent (it survived the Patagonia winds)

Ice breaker down sleeping bag

First Ascent hammock

Aero 5.5 sleeping matt (game changer for comfort)