Nightjar Travel launches South African Adventurer of the Year competition

Nightjar will feature one adventurer a week on their site www.nightjartravel.com/magazine/adventurer-2013 after which, readers will be invited to vote for the winner. Voting will start in April. Readers' votes will make up 50% of the final vote and the other 50% will come from Nightjar's panel of experts. The panel includes recognised industry names such as adventurer extraordinaire Riaan Manser, Lisa de Speville, founder of FEAT, Seven Summiteer and polar adventurer Matthew Holt, BASE jumper and extreme rock climber, Jeremy Samson, and Robbie Stammers, editor of The Intrepid Explorer magazine.

Says Nightjar editor, Fiona McIntosh, "Unlike mainstream sports where recognition, both popular and financial, is abundant, adventure sport is much more solitary. Yet what these men and women do requires high levels of endurance, commitment, training and skill, and is often the stuff that dreams are made of."

As is often the case when presenting awards for incredible achievements, the scope of eligibility is difficult to define. Here are the guidelines:

• The Adventurer must be South African, by birth, first relation, or residence.
  
• The Adventure must have taken place before March 2013.
  
• The Adventure must be a South African (or World) First, pioneering or perilous.
  
• The judging panel has full discretion with regards to the eligibility of submissions, and the judges' decision is final.

Here is their blurb:

Adventure. It's hard wired into our genes. From game fishing far out at sea to scaling gnarly peaks, we seek it everywhere. We've been doing it since the dawn of time, when bear-skin slippers and a sharp stick were cutting-edge gear, and judging by what today's adventurers can achieve with modern technologies, we'll be pushing the boundaries of our imagination for some time yet. Why?

Because, thankfully, despite the nagging pressures of bonds, careers and children, there is still a small group of men and women who push themselves to their limit and discover what lies beyond. They are the reason the rest of us can also dream about climbing Everest or paddling down the Amazon.

Over the coming weeks, we will profile the most inspirational adventures made by South Africans over the last year, and you can help us vote for the Nightjar Adventurer 2013. So we invite you to sit back, relax, and prepare to be amazed!