Ambitions 3 - Life Begins at Forty

Hitting a dark funk at 39, faced with the prospect of turning 40, envisaging this milestone as less of a new beginning than the beginning of the end, I undertook a stock-take.
Focussing dismally on all those things I hadn't acheived would serve no purpose at all: instead I would turn that list around into a wish-list and set about making things happen.
Unachieved ambition no. 1 was to go to Madagascar.
Why?? The roots of this ambition went far back to the days of my youth, aged 7, and the advent (in our house at least) of colour television. My Dad, aspirant to technology, invested more heavily than he could afford in the best and biggest TV available - a Bang and Olufsen 32" microdot screen beast which took up half our sitting room.
Keen to get best value and make the most of the new 'colour' facility, Dad set the colour, the contrast and the brightness each to their highest setting. I sat, snuggled into the sofa, thumb in my mouth to watch my first colour TV programme.
Up came Richard Attenborough, decked in khaki against a backdrop of grey rock. Not up to much this colour TV, methinks. But then, the subject of the programme, a rare Madagascan chameleon. WOW! The result of my father's diddling with the settings was a screen view that even the wildest hallucinogen could not recreate. The chameleon blazed orange, then vivid green, now violet! Next, a parrot, wild scarlet tail feathers and brilliant turquoise plumage. Fantastic!! I simply longed to go to Madagascar to see these creatures for myself.
And so it was, approaching forty, that I resolved, by hook or by crook (or, as it turned out, by bicycle) that I would visit Madagascar. Signing up with Lepra for a sponsored cycle, 450 miles down through the Madagascan mountain ranges and rainforest regions, changed my whole approach to fortysomethingness.
I could write a book, never mind a blog, on the experience but blogging obliges me to brevity. The experience was life-changing; much of what I saw challenged the way my life had been running its course. And returning to the UK thus proved more of a culture-shock than arriving in Madagascar had been. But plenty of good has come of that.
Those who wish to know more can contact me and I'll gladly ramble on at length, or visit www.Lepra.co.uk for details of how to undertake a similar expedition of your own.