~local tour guides urge youths to put down their phones and embrace nature

the coronavirus COVID-19 epidemic, the mandatory stay-at-home rule saw many persons confined to their homes spending most of their days glued to their television and cellphone screens, which in the long run is not healthy for one’s physical or mental health.

this in mind, the founders of Adventure Tours based in Linden, the Kady and Devan Sears cousins, decided to launch Adventure Tours in Linden.
In an interview with Ms. Kady Sears, she noted that during the pandemic many young people are caught up with their social media platforms and there is no better time than now for persons to reconnect with nature and their roots.

“Young people have this way of always being on their phones and on [social media]; a lot of persons now have the time to reconnect with nature, so while they are home now and they are tired of their TVs, tired of their phones and tired of Tik Tok, a lot of persons [have been] messaging saying that they want to come on a tour,” Sears related.

She added that Adventure Tours have been operating during the COVID-19 epidemic under strict guidelines, putting safety first, “During this time we obviously need to be very, very safe because we don’t want the virus to spread and Linden does not have any active cases, so we take every necessary precautions [sic] possible beforehand: we advise customers to wear face masks and [to] practise social distances and we are only accepting groups of six or nothing more than 10 persons during the pandemic.”
However, during the hike, persons can take off their masks since they will be in a big open space, but persons must at all times practise social distancing.
Sears told this publication that the idea was birthed when herself and cousin decided to take a hike around Linden in November of last year. The 21-year-old noted that she felt as though her hometown has so much to offer and she wanted to share that with all Guyanese; hence the idea of hosting tours was created.
“Linden is very, very beautiful; we have beautiful hills, lakes, nice mountains and rocks and I feel like Linden needs to be on the map for its beauty… at first it wasn’t meant to be a business,” she said.

The young woman added that she also wanted to boost tourism in Linden beyond it just being known as the mining town, “I really wanted to boost tourism in Linden, because I think that Linden needs that recognition, Linden is beautiful and all over Guyana should know how beautiful it is.”

The tour to date has managed to capture the eyes of a few investors, whom Sears related would often call for a tour of the town to see all of its glory and shine.
The packages that are currently being offered at Adventure Tours are hiking and kayaking; however, in the next few years Sears is hoping to expand the tours and add even more exciting destinations and activities.

“We want to do boat rides, so we would start from the same place we are doing the kayaking…we would also like to do camping out, so we are trying to get some tents; we want persons to camp out in Nottinghamshire because that is a beautiful space there and it has streams running,” she said.

The trail of the tour starts from Nottinghamshire leading all the way to Richmond Hill and ends at Kara Kara Creek.

those who are interested or wish to have more information about Adventure Tours, contact Ms. Sears on 643-9063.