‘We’ll die with our boots on’: Adventure couple have no plans to slow down

Three weeks after receiving one of Australia’s highest honours for adventure, Bev and Lang Kidby won’t be putting their feet up.

Instead, the Brisbane couple – both 79 – will be bouncing around remote four-wheel-drive tracks in the Caucasus Mountains after a Dutch friend handed them the keys to a LandCruiser in the nation of Georgia.

For most people, that would be a once-in-a-lifetime expedition, but for the Kidbys, it’s simply the next chapter in a remarkable partnership that has seen them recreate more than 110,000km of some of history’s greatest aviation and motoring journeys across six decades.

Their contribution to exploration has now been recognised with the Lifetime of Adventure Award at the Australian Geographic Society 2026 Adventurer of the Year Awards – Australia’s longest-running and highest recognition in adventure.

But if you ask Lang whether turning 80 has changed his outlook, the answer comes without hesitation.

“We’ll just die with our boots on,” he told Starts at 60.

“It’s really just a continuation of 50 or 60 years of one adventure after another. We keep going within our physical capacity, which is still pretty good, and our mental capacity, which hasn’t diminished.”

Bev smiles at the suggestion they should be slowing down.

“No, not at all,” she said.

“It’s not about age. We’re lucky that we’re healthy, and that’s the important part – not the number.”

Adventure never retires

Their latest epic saw them recreate pioneering adventurer Francis Birtles’ 1927 drive from England to Australia in a restored 1924 Bean 14, covering almost 26,000km through 16 countries in five months.

It was hardly a leisurely Sunday drive.

The most gruelling test came in Pakistan’s Baluchistan region, near the Afghanistan border, where temperatures climbed to an astonishing 55 degrees.

“The car was boiling,” Lang recalled. “We had an army escort and even their brand-new Hilux was boiling.”

Bev remembers the moment vividly: “I was soaking a towel and pouring water over Lang’s head. He was trying to change the spark plugs and couldn’t even touch the vehicle. It was very, very challenging.”

More than marriage

That exchange says plenty about how the Kidbys have managed not only to survive extraordinary expeditions, but also six decades of marriage.

“We each have our role,” Bev explained.

“Lang’s the doer and the one who comes up with these ideas. I’m the happy passenger and I do all the admin – the money, paperwork and bureaucracy, and Lang has no interest in that side of things, so I take it on.”

Lang agrees.

“We’ve always got on well. We’ve never had big, storming arguments.”

The pair’s adventures have included recreating Bert Hinkler’s famous flight, retracing the historic Vickers Vimy journey from England to Australia, tackling the 1907 Peking-to-Paris motor race and driving a tiny Fiat 500 around the world.

Yet when asked about the most stressful moment of them all, Lang doesn’t nominate a mechanical failure or a near miss. Instead, he remembers a diplomatic crisis that almost brought an ambitious international flying expedition undone.

The Kidbys had organised an air rally from England to Australia for vintage aircraft, with 26 pre-1950 planes making the journey. Everything was running to plan until Saudi Arabia refused permission for the fleet to enter its airspace.

“Everyone was relying on me,” Lang said.

“I’d encouraged all these people to bring their aeroplanes and suddenly the whole thing looked like collapsing.”

Fortunately, Jordan’s King Hussein had agreed to become patron of the event.

“I rang him, and he said, ‘I can’t really do anything – it’s another country – but leave it with me.’

“About two hours later I got a call from the Australian Embassy in Riyadh saying, ‘We don’t know how you did it, but here’s your clearance number.’

“King Hussein had phoned the King of Saudi Arabia – king to king – and sorted it out. That’s the most relieved I’ve ever been.”

Despite spending much of their lives retracing the footsteps of Australia’s great explorers and pioneers, the Kidbys say their strongest memories often have little to do with machinery or maps… it’s about the people.

“There have been many wonderful experiences with people in remote countries going above and beyond to help us and befriend us,” Bev said.

“After the Bean car trip, I came home and said, ‘I did not see an angry face once.’ We travelled through places like Turkey, Iran and Pakistan and we didn’t see a single angry face. It completely contradicts a lot of the fear you get from watching too much news or social media.”

Lang puts it more simply.

“Governments aren’t the people of the country, you know.”

Stop planning, start living

The Kidbys don’t pretend growing older hasn’t required some adjustments.

Lang has fitted grab rails to their vehicles to make climbing in and out easier and Bev keeps active with regular aqua aerobics, while both enjoy kayaking near their Brisbane home and walking through national parks.

The gym, however, has never appealed.

“And I look pretty bad in lycra,” Lang deadpanned.

Asked what advice they would offer older Australians wondering whether they’ve left their own dreams too late, both answers come from experience rather than theory.

“Don’t be frightened,” Bev said. “So many people are fearful of ‘what ifs’ – what could go wrong, you have to get over that mentality. Just go and do it. If something happens, it’s rarely catastrophic, and you can work your way through it.”

Lang believes too many dreams never leave the planning stage.

“I’d suggest starting with a small-group adventure tour somewhere a bit different,” he said.

“But if you never go, you’ll never know. And on planning – people plan and plan and plan. At some point, planning just becomes an excuse to put it off. You can’t cover everything. You have to plunge into the unknown, leave some things to chance and trust your ability to solve problems.

“Stop planning, buy the ticket, and go.”

For the Kidbys, that philosophy has carried them through more than 60 years of extraordinary adventures.

And if their itinerary is anything to go by, they’re not finished yet.

Want to know more?

Bev and Lang Kidby’s remarkable expeditions, books and historic recreations can be explored at Next Horizon, while more information about the Australian Geographic Society 2026 Adventurer of the Year Awards is available at Australian Geographic.