Moraway Adventures

When people travel on trips planned by the new local eco-adventure tourism company Moraway Adventures, owner Christopher Moriarty wants them to make an impact. “There’s a lot of parallels between Bozeman and the greater Yellowstone ecosystem and Africa,” said Moriarty, who began Moraway Adventures in October 2020. “Looking at these amazing national parks, amazing wildlife, but the water resources are scarce, you have growing populations living on the edges of these really wild protected areas.” Moraway Adventures is an adventure travel company that focuses mostly on customized travel to Africa. The company can plan full itineraries, Moriarty said -- everything from walking safaris to up close encounters at elephant reserves to mountain biking. “Adventure travel and even co adventure travel is looking at going to destinations that are a little bit more off the beaten path,” he said. “This is going to those places that have traditionally been a little bit more inaccessible … it requires a little bit more of an adventure, a little bit more of an intrepid spirit.” And what sets Moraway Adventures apart from other adventure travel companies is its focus on helping its customers fi nd causes local to Africa that they can support while on their trip. The organizations that Moraway partners with are run by locals and are established and known in the communities where they work. “This is not voluntourism, this is partnering with local experts who are from these places,” Moriarty said. “They have longstanding relationships with these communities in these places and have worked really really hard to build those relationships that allow them to accurately assess community need and community desire and then work with them to help meet those needs.” The company also does its own pre-planned trips, like the Zimbabwe conservation safari scheduled for October 2021. The focus of the Zimbabwe conservation safari is water conservation and expanding access to water resources. Those who go on the trip will be supporting efforts to update water pumps to solar or diesel and to make the access to that water more reliable and farther-reaching. “The goal of the people that we work with over there is to solarize and hybridize a lot of those pumps,” Moriarty said. Updating those pumps also helps keep wildlife in the national parks during the dry season, when migration to other water sources can increase human-wildlife confl ict. Moriarty compared that confl ict to the friction that can happen between Montana ranchers and Yellowstone wolves that can threaten cattle and the encounters that can happen between hikers and bears. But instead of wolves and bears, it’s animals that are endemic to parts of Africa, like elephants and lions. Eventually, Moriarty said, he plans to expand Moraway Adventures’ destinations beyond the content of Africa to other areas of the world, like the Galapagos, India and Patagonia. “I think travelers that are drawn to Africa are also drawn to these other types of places,” Moriarty said. Those trips would also have a major focus on supporting local causes and on doing more out-ofthe-ordinary activities. “I really do believe that travel is one of those unique win win win situations,” Moriarty said. “It can be certainly good for economies in these countries we travel to and also good for the local populations as a sustainable means of income.” More information on Moraway Adventures can be found on the company’s website, morawayadventures.com.