News24 | Riaan Manser | What a year! How Adventure Dads and Moms can reflect when making memories

Riaan Manser is a busy ‘Adventure Dad’ and forced himself to stop and reflect on the new memories his young family have made as the year comes to a close.

Riaan Manser leads a busy life, and often the craziness of travel can distract from the things learnt over a year. He reflects on the amazing memories and adventures his two boys got to experience for the first time this year.

People who have followed my career journey over the past 20-odd years know me as a person who is easily bored.

I am constantly asking why people repeat the same things over and over, year in, year out.

This Christmas, I was asking my family what we could do differently this year.

“To make new memories,” I said.

“You’re wrong,” they said. “All we do is make memories.”

And what a year of investing into adventure and the outdoors it’s been.

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Investments that certainly made memories but also connected us, even more so, as a family.

This does make me think, though: An aspect of my career that I have personally reflected on has been my inability to mentally reconcile the pace – for the lack of a better word, the CRAZINESS – of my “life” into tangible and meaningful results.

My world has been extreme at every corner.

In adventure, my journeys have been well documented. But in business, it has been equally adventurous.

Not a quiet week, nor a month, never mind a year. And come to think of it, I have never had the chance to reflect properly.

Many of us are guilty of the same.

But there are benefits to the distraction of making memories.

There’s a famous book by author James Clear, Atomic Habits, designed to enable us to become high-functioning individuals.

This past year, our sons have been learning a wider share of habits, designed to allow them to grow into Young Explorers... if they wish!

In 2025, these tough young kids have learned so much. I needed to pause and reflect – my boys have experienced all this!

• We sailed up the coast of East Africa into the Indian Ocean, albeit on a cruise ship. They had the chance to see islands, people and culture that many adults have not had the privilege to experience. And developed an understanding of the old world of trading and how it shaped the new world we have inherited. Ilha de Mocambique, Dar Es Salaam, Zanzibar and the Seychelles, are just some of the places they imprinted into memory.
• We discovered the incredible country of Georgia. As east as one can go before stumbling across the Caucasus mountains into Russia. Us parents loved the discovery of the world’s oldest wineries, and the boys discovered snow for the first time in their lives.
• We visited the only two countries with names that begin with “Z”: Zambia and Zimbabwe. To make the trip to Zimbabwe more memorable, they jumped down the gorge on the famous Victoria Falls gorge swing.
• We braved the Cape of Storms to cross an ocean on our small sailboat, throwing anchor in one of the most isolated places on the planet: St Helena. We met the oldest living creature on earth, Tortoise Jonathan, who is all of 193 years old. And we stood at the grave of the most famous army general ever: Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.
• And our next stop on our yacht will be Brazil!

In 2026, be kinder to yourself and your family, Adventure Dads and Moms.

You’re probably nailing it already.

Find those things that make your family unique. The memories you share may not all be the most pleasant or joyful, but they do make you who you are.

It takes an astonishing array of skills, understanding, discipline, character traits, patience, resilience, tenacity, self-forgiveness and courage to become a high-functioning human.

And hopefully my boys will get there... one day.

But for now, they’re being equipped with a few basics to enable them to live their lives as wild as they wish to be ... and be free!

Happy 2026, everyone.

*Riaan Manser is a pioneering international explorer with multiple world-firsts and has joined the team as the new editor of News24 Outdoors, driven by Ford.