Mountain Of Storms: A Legendary Road Trip (2018)

In 1968, the pioneers of outdoors adventure-wear Patagonia founder Mr Yvon Chouinard and The North Face’s Mr Doug Tompkins downed tools and set out on a six-month adventure: a 5,000-mile road trip from California through South America. The destination was Cerro Fitz Roy, a vertiginous peak in southern Patagonia. But in Mountain Of Storms, their lo-fi record of the trip, the real escapades took place on the road.

Filmed on a 16mm Bolex camera, the film captures the self-proclaimed “fun hogs” in their clapped-out Ford as they ski sand dunes in Peru, hit bars in Guatemala City and catch waves along the South American coast. Fifty years on, you’ll need to switch off the sat nav and dispense with Airbnb bookings to emulate the freewheeling spirit of this legendary road trip. But even if you include modern conveniences, the route along the Pan-American Highway is an exceptional way to see Central and South America.

Watch it here

180° South (2010)

Mountain Of Storms is an iconic travel documentary; so much so that it inspired adventurer Mr Jeff Johnson to recreate the trip, recorded in the 2010 film 180° South. Johnson doesn’t so much follow the roadmap set by Chouinard and Tompkins, as wing it, travelling aboard a boat heading for Patagonia that needed crew. Along the way, he realised one of his lifetime ambitions: a visit to Easter Island.

One of the remotest inhabited places on the planet, Easter Island is the star turn of 180° South, home to the enigmatic Moai statutes and a precious ecosystem. The isolation means Easter Island is still a challenge to get to – the recommended route is by air from Santiago – but if unspoilt beauty, mystery and wonder is your thing, you’ll happily head to the end of the Earth for it.

Where to watch it: Amazon Prime

_Free Solo _(2018)

This Oscar-winning documentary is the ultimate in adventure movies, charting Mr Alex Honnold’s attempt at the first free solo climb of El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park. But this elegantly realised National Geographic production is also an argument for vacationing on solid ground.

Shot in the heart of the great US wilderness, Free Solo is a paean of breathtaking waterfalls, deep forests and realising your best Mr Bon Iver woodland fantasies. When Honnold’s not scaling the 900-metre vertical rock face, he’s sizing it up from his campervan. But Yosemite has a host of alternative accommodation options including The Ahwahnee, the national park’s only luxury hotel, which is the perfect place for a lie down if climbing gives you vertigo.

Where to watch it: Disney+

Mountain (2017)

Between energy drinks sponsored high jinks and the queue to get onto Everest, contemporary mountaineering has a rep for being brash and ill-considered. In Mountain, director Ms Jennifer Peedom explores the brasher ways we explore high places but also considers climbing as noble pursuit. It helps that Mountain is a class act, set to a score by the Australian Chamber Orchestra and narrated by Mr Willem Dafoe.

Mountain’s spectacular cinematography makes reaching the top look alluring, but the film implicitly calls for a considered approach. You can, for example, easily avoid the lines for Everest altogether by taking the Manaslu Circuit, a beautiful off the beaten trek in Nepal. And if a serious climb is your goal, there are several other 7,000m-8,000m peaks in the Himalayas to scale. The message? There is more than one way up the mountain.

**Where to watch it: **Netflix

Nomad: In The Footsteps Of Bruce Chatwin (2019)

The travel writer Mr Bruce Chatwin believed the world reveals itself to those who travel on foot. Some 30 years after the nomadic Englishman’s death, his friend the filmmaker Mr Werner Herzog set out on routes walked by Chatwin and documented in his books, including In Patagonia and The Songlines, set in the Australian outback.

Herzog’s moving tribute, with the legendary German filmmaker’s eye for sweeping vistas, will undoubtedly spark a serious wanderlust in viewers. But Nomad is also striking in how captures the wonder of strange places. The Black Mountains in Wales, scene of a Chatwin novel and the writer’s personal sanctuary, which he shared with his wife Elizabeth, are as wild and unknown as any of the further flung destinations. Nomad is a reminder that the world remains to be explored, even if it’s on your doorstep.

Where to watch it: Mubi

Sigur Rós: Heima (2007)

Music documentaries tend to err on the wild side, but nothing quite as Sigur Rós’ Heima, which sees the Icelandic band return home to play a series of free gigs in impossibly ethereal locations. Come to Heima for the music, stay for the magnificent fjords, mossy hillsides and lunar landscapes as the band play to local crowds in the far reaches of the country.

The film is an invitation to explore Iceland beyond Reykjavík, but it also has a strong environmental message. Over tourism is hotly debated in Iceland, so if Heima does awaken your wanderlust, get advice from local tour operators on how best to explore the country responsibly. Many, such as the LGBTQIA+-run Pink Iceland, are signed up to Icelandic Tourism’s care standards.

Where to watch it: Apple TV

The Endless Summer (1966)

In 1966, cold ocean currents in the California winter motivated surfers Mr Mike Hynson and Mr Robert August to seek out warmer global waves. Director Mr Bruce Brown followed the adventurers in their quest for new surf spots along the coasts of Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria.

With its breathtaking waves and sunny disposition, The Endless Summer inspired surf and travel culture and turned a little-known break off Cape Saint Francis in South Africa into a surfing mecca. Though that location is not quite the surfer’s paradise it was due to construction, many of the hotspots in The Endless Summer remain iconic. With its consistent swells and chill atmosphere, Dakar in Senegal promises an unforgettable, if not quite endless summer.

Where to watch it: Amazon Prime