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This IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card asks you to talk about an outdoor activity you'd like to try, covering what the activity is; where you would do it; what you would need for it; and explain why you want to try it.. Below is a band 9 sample answer with tips on structuring a two-minute talk.
Describe an outdoor activity or sport you would like to try for the first time.
You should say:
You have one minute to prepare and may make notes. Then speak for one to two minutes; the examiner may ask one or two short follow-up questions.
The activity I have been promising myself for years is trekking in the Himalayas — specifically one of the beginner-friendly high-altitude treks that take five or six days and reach a glacial lake or a mountain pass. My interest began through videos and a colleague's photographs, but it has hardened into a genuine plan for next year. I would join one of the organised groups that handle permits, guides and camping, because attempting mountains alone as a novice seems more foolish than brave. In terms of preparation, the equipment list is manageable — proper trekking shoes broken in well in advance, layered clothing, a rucksack and trekking poles — but the real requirement is fitness, so I have started climbing stairs with a loaded backpack and walking long distances on weekends, which my friends find hilarious to watch. I want to try trekking for three reasons. First, I have lived my whole life in flat, crowded cities and have never once seen a snow peak with my own eyes, which feels like an absurd gap in experience. Second, I am drawn to the digital silence — five days without network coverage sounds frightening in exactly the way I suspect is healthy. And third, I want to discover how I behave when comfort is removed: cold mornings, aching legs, basic food. People who return from treks always describe the same thing — not the views, but a strange reset of perspective — and I would like to earn that reset rather than keep watching other people's videos of it.
After your talk, the examiner moves to more abstract questions linked to this cue card.
Comfortable lives create an appetite for controlled discomfort. Urban work is safe, sedentary and abstract, so people crave experiences with real stakes, physical effort and visible achievement. Social media accelerates it — summit photographs are powerful currency — and a growing adventure industry has made previously extreme experiences accessible to beginners.
Sensibly, yes. Regulation should target operators rather than adventurers — certified guides, equipment standards, weather protocols and honest risk disclosure — because most accidents come from negligence, not the sport itself. Beyond that, informed adults deserve the freedom to accept personal risk; the line is protecting people from deception, not from choice.
I would call it a necessity disguised as a hobby. Evidence consistently links time among trees and open sky with lower stress hormones, better sleep and improved mood — effects city environments actively reverse. City dwellers need scheduled nature the way they need scheduled exercise: the body assumes it, and modern life forgot it.
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