Why 'expect the unexpected' is terrible travel advice

Getaway magazine editor, Cameron Ewart-Smith, takes offense to givers of terrible travel advice.

‘Expect the unexpected.’ Excuse me. What sort of crap travel advice is that? Isn’t the unexpected exactly that … unexpected? To give people advice that includes platitudes such as this is like suggesting that when they fall off a cliff they should simply avoid gravity in order to survive.

But back to the unexpected. I found this little nugget of advice tagged onto a recent online news story about some poor bloke who, while camping in Limpopo, narrowly escaped the nefarious intentions of a crocodile that tried to drag him out of his tent. The incident followed just a few weeks after the story about two overseas morons tourists, who had a rather unpleasant run-in with an irritable bull elephant. Sadly, this encounter left the couple injured and led to the termination of said elephant.

Now, I’m not going to be drawn on my opinion about whether killing the ellie was justified or not. The problem I have here is with givers of advice such as ‘expect the unexpected’. In each case there was a certain level of sense required to avoid the completely obvious

– sorry, I mean unexpected – happening. Camping on, or very near to, crocodile-infested water is a bad idea. Driving too close to irritable elephants is a bad idea. It’s just obvious, folks – it’s a bull elephant for heaven’s sake, not a Gummy Bear.

What worries me most – and I really agonise over it – is that this whole way of thinking smacks of an Amero-European approach to warnings about things that should be completely flippin’ obvious. Caution every- body: hot coffee. I don’t know how we better educate people about the risks inherent in everyday life, travel even more so. But I suspect it’s not by plastering the world with Caution! Danger! Life is dangerous. In fact, it ends up killing us all eventually. But it’s also beautiful, wonderful, amazing … even unpredictable. It requires living. You have to take responsibility for your actions, and their consequences. Warning! Danger!

Taken from the March issue of Getaway magazine (on shelves now). Click on the magazine cover below to see more, subscribe or buy digital issues.