Tagged: adventure travel

Mountain Photos: Antarctica

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Penguins on Livingston Island, Antarctica.

Jorge Kozulj contributed this guest photo essay on Antarctica.  He is the founder of Andescross, an outdoor guiding company in Bariloche, Patagonia.

Antarctica is one of the most popular destinations for mountain travelers and adventurers.

Mountain guide Jorge Kozulj shares this photo essay of his Antarctica adventure.

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Skiing in Peninsula Antarctica with Mt Franze at the back.

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Exploring the Antarctica terrain.

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Elizabeth and Hubert skiing in Cierva Cove area. Our home is in the water, that little ship.

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Skiing on one little Island in Antarctica and the ocean below.

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First ski day in Cierva Cove, Antarctica Peninsula.

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Arriving at the Antarctica Peninsula.

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Evening light, alpenglow in Neumeyer Channel heading to Mt Franze area.

Images courtesy of Jorge Kozulj.

Top Solo Travel Tips

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Solo Gen Y travelers take guided tours of Europe with Topdeck.

Are you a solo mountain traveler?  Every summer, mountain destinations worldwide attract solo travelers.

Summer hiking and walking can be the most rejuvenating and life changing holidays.

Mountain holidays can also be simple and affordable for solo travelers.

They can save money by backpacking, camping, staying at mountain cabins and buying cheap travel insurance from companies such as Good2Go.

For mountain destinations farther afield, travelers can save money on flights by booking through flight price comparison websites like Cheapflights.co.uk.

Here are Cheapflights.co.uk’s Top Solo Travel Tips:

  • Tell your loved ones: “Always inform family and friends where you’re heading, how you can be reached and provide them with a full itinerary of flights and transportation. If you’re being collected from the airport, ask the tour operator or hotel sending the transportation for the name of the person or service picking you up. Select flights that arrive during daylight hours.”
  • Leave your valuables behind: “Apart from your passport, wallet and any other travel documentation you might need for your specific destination, it’s best to leave valuables at home. Keep the trip light and casual, leaving more room to pick up souvenirs from the destination itself.  Take the necessary amount (of cash) for use upon landing in the destination and additional amounts withdrawn when there.”
  • Choose destinations closer to home: “(If) traveling solo for the first time, (you) may want to choose a destination closer to home. For UK travelers, European destinations such as Spain and Italy are a great starting point. Flights to these destinations are frequent and short, the locals are friendly, people will most likely speak at least a bit of English, and getting around is easy.”
  • Dining out alone: “Dining out alone is almost always a daunting prospect. The first step is to smile! A smile is inviting and encourages others to approach. Select a restaurant with a casual atmosphere. Pick a table that offers good people watching or take a laptop, book, iPad, or other form of ‘companion’ along.”

Image courtesy of Topdeck.

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15 Facts About Antarctica

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A traveler revels in Antarctica. Photo credit: Aurora Expeditions.

Dreaming of an Antarctica adventure?

Travel company Aurora Expeditions is launching new Fly/Sail options to the Antarctic Peninsula and South Georgia.

The new trip departing South America has been designed to reduce sea time and increase time at Antarctica.

Aurora Expeditions specializes in ship-based adventures and small, low-impact groups to Antarctica.

Popular Antarctica adventure activities include sea kayaking, camping, photography, climbing and scuba diving.

Need to inspire your spirit of adventure for an Antarctica trip-of-a-lifetime?

Here are 15 fascinating facts about Antarctica via Aurora Expeditions:

1. “It’s the best place in the world to find meteorites.”

2. “One of the biggest icebergs ever broke free from the Ross ice shelf in Antarctica in 2000.”

3. “During the feeding season, a full grown blue whale eats about 4 million krill per day, that’s 3600 kg every day for 6 months.”

4. “Antarctic fish have lived at between +2°C and -2°C for 5 million years (-2°C is the freezing point of sea water, below zero because of the salt).”

5. “The largest land animal in Antarctica is an insect, a wingless midge, Belgica antarctica, less than 1.3cm (0.5in) long.”

6. “In 1981 a swarm of krill was tracked by US scientists that was estimated at being up to 10 million tonnes.”

7. “Antarctica is the only continent with no indigenous species of ants.”

8. “Antarctica is the coldest continent on earth, as the lowest temperature recorded here was -89o C.”

9. “The ‘Dry valley’ region on the continent has been bereft of rainfall for 2 million years.”

10. “If Antarctica’s ice sheets melt, the level of the world’s oceans would rise by 60 to 65 meters.”

11. “At the deepest point, the ice in Antarctica is around 3 – 4 km thick.”

12. “Antarctica is the windiest continent on earth.”

13. ‘The water of the Antarctica is so cold that nothing can rot here.”

14. “Owing to the chilly water in Antarctica, codfish have antifreeze in their blood to save them from freezing.”

15. “The ice cap at Antarctic contains 29 million cubic kilometers of ice.”

For more info on Aurora’s Antarctica’s adventures, visit the company site.

Image courtesy of Aurora Expeditions.

Glaciers & Icebergs

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Stunning icebergs off Greenland’s west coast.

Fancy a polar adventure?  Then take a look at Hurtigruten’s Glaciers & Icebergs voyage along Greenland’s west coast.

The 9-day Disko Bay expedition will explore Inuit culture and Greenland’s landscape including the icebergs of Ilulissat.

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A lone traveler.

This Greenland adventure will begin with a flight from Copenhagen to Kangerlussuaq.

Then MS Fram will sail to the seafaring town of Sisimiut and the port of Qeqertarsuaq, home to an Arctic research station.

Highlights of the Glaciers & Icebergs voyage will include:

  • Walking or hiking Uummannaq;
  • Calling at the traditional settlement of Ukkusissat;
  • Sailing to the three-mile-long glacier front of Eqip Sermia;
  • Visiting llulissat, UNESCO World Heritage Site, and
  • Seeing the island of ltilleq, close to the Arctic Circle.

Optional excursions will range from hiking up Palasip Qaqqa Mountain and a helicopter ride in Ilulissat.

The package includes cabin accommodation; transfers; roundtrip flights between Copenhagen and Kangerlussuaq; meals and a wind and waterproof jacket.

Hurtigruten sails to remote destinations Antarctica, Greenland, the Arctic’s Spitsbergen and year-round along Norway’s coast and spring in Europe.

For more info, visit the Hurtigruten site.

Images courtesy of Hurtigruten.

Trekking New Zealand

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Ice Climbing, Franz Josef Glacier, South Island, New Zealand.

Trekking in New Zealand, this year?  Then check out adventure travel company Kiwi Experience.

Kiwi Experience is a New Zealand hop on, hop off adventure bus touring for backpackers and independent travelers.

The company features several travel passes – Full Monty (32 days); Kitchen Sink (22 days) and The Whole Kit and Caboodle (26 days)

During their journeys, adventure travelers can book accommodation and tailor to their needs from hostels or flashpacking hotels and lodges.

Here are New Zealand adventure ideas from Kiwi Experience:

  • Explore Northland. “Rich in history and Maori culture with pristine waters, huge kauri forests and 144 islands, (there is so much to) explore.”
  • Visit Middle Earth. “Explore the bubbling mud pools of one of New Zealand’s largest geothermal wonderlands with its spectacular geyser…and descend into the depths of the underground glow worm cave system at Waitomo.”
  • Venture to Westland National Park. “Cross the Cook Straight to the South Island through the Marlborough Sounds to Abel Tasman National Park and heli-hike on the Franz Joseph glacier.”
  • Discover Southland. “Head to the extreme South with the Catlins, offering a pristine wilderness of 180 million year-old fossilised forest and beaches.”

trans Trekking New Zealand

Here are more scenes from Kiwi Experience:

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Lake Mapourika, Franz Josef, Westland National Park, South Island, New Zealand.

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The Kiwi Experience Bus.

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Hiking in Tongariro.

Images courtesy of Kiwi Experience.


Adventure Travel Film Festival

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Ride the divide two.

The Adventure Travel Film Festival will screen some of the world’s greatest adventure travel films.

Filmmaker Austin Vince and travel author Lois Pryce will host and curate the festival held once a year in the UK, USA and Australia.

The UK festival, June 3rd-5, 2011, will offer a weekend of film and camping on the North Devon coast.

This year’s festival will screen adventure travel classics such as:

  • First Overland - the 1958 Oxford & Cambridge Land Rover expedition to Singapore;
  • Colin Angus with his Yenisey River (2001) paddling the wilds of Mongolia and Siberia and
  • 1970 motorcycle movie Cycles South.

Festival sideshows will include filmmaking workshops; the legendary Roadkill Cookout; bush-craft courses and activities including climbing, abseiling, water-skiing and surfing.

For more festival details, check out the event site.

Video courtesy of The Adventure Travel Film Festival.

Photo, River & Nature

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Utah’s Green River from a vantage point just below the canyon rim.

Fancy exploring Utah’s Green River Wilderness?

Then take a look at the new photography workshop being lead by photographer John Fielder and hosted by Bill Dvorak’s Kayak & Rafting Expeditions.

A portion of the August 26-September 1, 2011 trip on Utah’s Green River will benefit the National Wildlife Federation.

Considered Colorado’s premier landscape photographer, Fielder and the rafting outfitter will give beginner to advanced photographers the chance to hone their skills and challenge themselves on 86 miles of scenic whitewater.

NWF says it will commit a major portion of the funds to support its oil and gas, climate change and wildlife protection programs throughout the United States.

This trip will begin in Grand Junction, Colorado on August, 26, 2011 with a pre-trip slideshow and dinner hosted by Fielder and the NWF.

The next day, participants will fly to the river put-in along Utah’s Green River.

Over six days and five nights, they will take on 60 Class II-III rapids, one-on-one-instruction and sunrise and sunset photo shoots.

Says Bill Dvorak, company founder and owner:

“This is an excellent opportunity for anyone to learn from a legendary nature photographer while helping the nation’s leading wildlife conservation organization on a river trip through one of the West’s most spectacular and remote wild river wilderness areas.”

For more information, visit the Dvorak Expeditions site.

Here are more scenes from Green River Utah:

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A short hike overlooks a bend in the Green River – Desolation Canyon, Utah.

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Afternoon sun catches the canyon wall above two rafts on the Green River, Utah.

Images courtesy of Western River Expeditions.

Alaska Rails & Trails

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Alaska Railroad is launching a new adventure package tour for the 2011 season.

The 10-day, Rails and Trails package will take travelers to Anchorage, Seward, Girdwood and Talkeetna by train.

The package will include rail transportation and hotel accommodations in the four destinations.

Unscheduled days will give independent travelers the freedom to explore.

Additional travel options will include:

  • Paddling Resurrection Bay by kayak;
  • Guided hikes or dog mushing atop a glacier;
  • Rafting among the icebergs of Spencer Glacier or
  • Flightseeing around Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak.

Travelers can upgrade their trip with Alaska Railroad’s GoldStar Service, which has double-deck dome cars with reserved seating; dining service; a full-time bar attendant and a private outdoor viewing platform.

For more info, visit the Alaska Railroad site.

Image courtesy of Alaska Railroad.

Borneo Three Peaks Challenge

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Dominic Hall from Fieldskills.

International expedition company Fieldskills is launching a Borneo Three Peaks Jungle Survival Challenge.

The 14-day adventure will start and end in Kota Kinabalu Borneo and include two days advance jungle training in the UK.

Adventure travelers will learn about tropical forest safety including living in a hammock; jungle survival skills; navigation and lost procedures.

The trips will also include qualified mountain leaders, food and supplements and equipment.

Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak, is a popular mountain travel destination.  The other peaks of Trusmadi and Tamboyukon are lesser known, remote expeditions.

“Our first peak, Gunung Tamboyukon, is the most rarely climbed. This is the third highest peak in Sabah. This will take us four days of jungle trekking, camping in remote spots to get up and down,” explains Dominic Hall, Fieldskills UK based director.

“Then we will continue to Trusmadi, a beautiful and again fairly rarely visited jungle peak which offers beautiful views across to the final peak, Mount Kinabalu. From here we take the less touristy and dramatic Mesilau route to the summit.”

For more info, visit the Fieldskills site.

Image courtesy of Fieldskills.

Trekking Patagonia

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Patagonia.

Patagonia is a stunning mountain travel destination.

If you’re a mountain traveler interested in guided trips, World Expeditions offers trekking adventures to this dramatic mountain region.

Here are 3 trips to Patagonia:

  • Patagonia Adventure, 11 days: This trip is an introduction to the parks of Patagonia. The trip covers Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina to Los Glaciares National Park. It continues across the border to Chile and takes a cruise from Puerto Natales via the Balmaceda Glacier into Torres del Paine National Park.
  • Patagonia Parks and Wildlife, 18 days: This trip includes viewing the Perito Moreno Glacier; cruising the Beagle Channel; visiting the Magellan penguin colony at Punta Tombo and bird watching in the Tierra del Fuego National Park.  Highlights also include Puerto Madryn; Ushuaia; national parks of Los Glaciares and Torres del Paine; a lakes crossing from Chile to Argentina and Bariloche.
  • Chile End to End, 18 days: This trip explores the best of Chile and the Patagonia region. Highlights include the Torres del Paine National Park; Puerto Natales; Serrano Glaciers; Santiago, Puerto Montt and the Atacama Desert.

For more info, visit the World Expeditions site.

Image courtesy of World Expeditions.