Andrew climbs midlife milestone
As his 50th birthday neared, Andrew Maffett’s celebratory turned to typical thoughts of a themed party, a few drinks with mates and plenty of embellished yarns about past glories.
But like many others in a growing trend, the North Fremantle adventurer was soon convinced that his middle-aged milestone deserved a more significant marking.
“South Georgia is a place I’ve wanted to go to since I first learnt it existed in my 20s,” Mr Maffett said. “But it’s a pretty hard place to get to and all my other efforts had fallen over in the face of the logistics and the cost.”
Then, friend John Jacoby, who owns the sports events business that runs the annual Augusta Adventure Fest, suggested they jointly celebrate their 50th birthdays this year by finally conquering South Georgia Island by kayak.
The realisation of the dream has seen Mr Maffett become the first West Australian to achieve the feat, fulfilling his promise to live life large following the cancer death three years ago of his wife, Jennifer Cole.
“Everyone likes that theme of getting older, but still doing good things,” he said.
Mr Jacoby said there was clearly a growing trend towards celebrating significant birthday milestones, particularly among the middle-aged population.
“Very much so, especially in that 35 to 55 age bracket,” Mr Jacoby said.
“Whether it’s doing something like the Augusta Adventure race, going on a trek to the Himalayas, riding a bike to Cape York or whatever ... I guess you could call it a mid-life crisis, but I call them good crises to have.
“Maybe by that age, they’re a bit more set up, maybe have a little bit more money or the kids don’t need as much maintenance or looking after and they have the chance to get away, or maybe they need to lose 20kg. It may be as little as a week or two weeks away, but you can still have a pretty good adventure in that sort of time.”
Mr Jacoby said his maiden visit to the sub-Antarctic had been a dream come true.
See the story and pictures of their extraordinary trip in The Weekend West today.
