Intrepid adventurers, a great charity and Austin Vince without his trademark overalls on a school night? That sounded exactly like what we needed to lift our spirits and inspire us now that summer is gone and pullovers have been dug out of the wardrobe.

A Night of Adventure, organised by the charity Hope and Homes for Children, brought together a panoply of inspiring adventurers to address a sold-out cinema room full of punters in search of their escapism fix. The format is well planned and brilliantly executed; each speaker presented a Pecha Kucha of their adventures; 20 slides, each 20 seconds.

Now multiple this by 14 and you have all the inspiration you’ll need to see you thought the winter! The lineup was impressive; to name only a few: Austin Vince who’s presentation was done in prose; Phoebe Smith, the editor of Wanderlust Magazine who has the dream job of being paid to go on adventures; Alastair Humphreys, creator of the event and National Geographic Adventurer of the year in 2012 and Debra Searle who, at the age of 35 has rowed solo across the Atlantic and was awarded an MBE. I must also mention Dick Willis who gave a brilliant presentation about his career in speleology, including exploring the “Great Crack”. All this talent was host by one of our favourite adventurer; Dave Cornthwaite, whom amongst other things has skate-boarded across Australia and swam 1001 miles along the Missouri River.

Here are a few of our favourite take-aways from the evening:
– take a photo tomorrow and tweet it to @davecorn using the hashtag #1000photos
– ‘adventure is just a decision to do something different’ @Leonmccarron
– the Duke Of Edinburgh award is a great way to inspire youngsters to go on adventures – Debra Searle
– Help other travellers you meet along the way – @mattonabike1
– You’ll come back remembering the good and bad times.  It’s not until you’re on the adventure that you can understand what it means to experience claw hand, sleep deprevation and busy shipping lanes – @explorerstweet
– ‘Do one thing a day that scares you’ Richard Harpham
– Extreme sleeping is all about finding the most remote places to wild camp. The only things in the UK that you need to worry about are cute sheep, ramblers and midges – Phoebe Smith
– write a bucket list of challenges you want to complete. Don’t think about what you haven’t done – Paula Reid

We recommend looking at the tweets from the evening using the hashtag #nightofadventure

All this on Leicester Square for only £20? Yes!

And it’s all for a great charity too. Hope and Homes for Children works with governments to close their orphanages through a process called Deinstitutionalisation by enabling children to return home to their families or into alternative, family-based services. This is a brilliant way to ensure better lives for children whose families have broken down based on the principle that institutionalising a child isn’t a solution; helping families keep their children is.

A Night of Adventure is a yearly event, held in a few different UK cities so don’t miss the next one!