Abu Dhabi's 'Desert Islands' is due to open for tourists this October. It consists of eight islands and an onshore gate just off the coast of Jebel Dhanna, a 250 kilometre drive from Abu Dhabi city.
Guests will be able to enjoy a number of adventure activities including 4x4 guided tours of the Arabian Wildlife Park, hiking trails, mountain biking and snorkelling; the waters and coral reefs around the resort are notably rich in marine life.
Here is an interesting video for the end of the week, brought to us from Off The Map Tours. They also do motorcycle, train, horseriding, camel and walking tours, together with many cultural tours. The soundtrack is hypnotic.
A Phoenician Ship Expedition is searching for keen sailors and adventurers to take part in a unique international project called Phoenicia.
The Expedition has begun by building a replica Phoenician/Mediterranean vessel and crew is needed in August 2008, for an attempt to recreate a circumnavigation of Africa, as first accomplished by Phoenician mariners in 600BC. Learn more and download an application form from the Phoenicia website.
Between Friday, March 21 and Friday April 4, the Sri Lanka skies will be filled with the spectacular sight of 22 hot air ballons. Over 72 participants, including balloonists from the UK, Ireland, Japan, and Saudi Arabia will be taking part in the Sri Lanka Balloon Festival 2008
The event encourages family participation and is regarded as an ideal family vacation, in a country that is establishing a high reputation as an Asian adventure destination. Known as the 'Pearl in the Indian Ocean', Sri Lanka is proving to be a real gem for the adventurous tourist.
If you have a sense of adventure and want to stay somewhere different, try Unusual Hotels of the World. It is an interesting online guide that has been put together by a couple of friends, listing hotels around the world that offer their guests something, shall we say, out of the ordinary.
Typical hotels featured in the guide, might accomodate guests underground, inside an igloo, up a tree or even underwater. The website is a truly comprehensive resource for unusual hotels around the world, some of them are pretty famous but there are many hotels which will be new discoveries for the adventurous traveller.
Next month, American Daren Wendell begins an 18,000-mile, hike around the globe.
He begins his seven year walk along the Appalachian Trail, then travels across the Atlantic to trek through Europe. His adventure will then take him to the Great Wall of China, Siberia and Alaska. The hike is more than a backpacker's dream and aims to draw attention to and raise money for the charity 'Blood Water Mission', which is empowering Africans to build healthier communities through sustainable clean blood and clean water solutions.
There will be plenty of activities on offer. You can get a taster dive session, scale a wall of ice, tackle high ropes and try out a mountain bike on a dirt track. Then you can listen to first-hand accounts of the travels of famous adventurers and learn how to explore the world yourself. There will be the usual map-reading tutorials and also the opportunity to learn about surviving in the wild.
Two tall ship organisations have announced a search for crew. Clipper Round the World, founded by Robin Knox-Johnston, is searching for Singaporean and Singapore-based ex-pats, applicants have to be over 18 at the time of the race but there is no upper age limit.
The current Clipper fleet sets sail from Keppel Bay Marina, Singapore, on Sunday 27 January, 2008, departing the marina at 10.30am to head out to the start line for a race to Qingdao, China, which is the venue for the sailing events of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
In the second opportunity, fifty people from all over Cornwall will join tall ships in Falmouth, England, taking part in a race which leaves Falmouth on 13th September, 2008, bound for Ilhavo in Portugal, then on to Funchal in Madeira, in the Funchal 500 Tall Ships Regatta 2008.
South East Asia's first mountaineering training center has been established on Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia. It is located in Mt Kinabalu National Park, which is a UNESCO world heritage site, renowned for its rich plant and animal diversity.
Adventure seekers will enjoy the new 'via ferrata', or 'iron road', a mountain route equipped with fixed rungs, rails, cables, stemples (crossbars and supports), ladders and bridges, that makes an otherwise difficult terrain accessible to people with a wide range of climbing abilities.
Mount Kinabalu's via ferrata is the highest in the world, starting at 3,200 metres and ending at 3,800m above sea level. The next highest is in Italy, ending at 3,600m.
Ride! on BlogTalkRadio.com is a new online radio talk show, offering lively half-hour interviews every two weeks from Toronto, Canada. The realtime talks, hosted by freelance motojournalist Adrian Blake, cover all aspects of motorcycling, including international industry movers and shakers, professional racers, adventurers, custom builders, and a host of other passionate advocates for two-wheel motorised transport.
Adrian will even be conducting an interview for Ride! from the 2007 Milan International Motorcycle Show (EICMA) in Italy, which runs November 6 through 11. The fair is the largest bike show in the world.
And on November 21 at 3 p.m. EST, his guest will be Austin Vince. Austin was one of six British adventurers called Mondo Enduro, who completed a 400,000 miles around the world ride, in 400 days on 350-cc Suzuki dual sport bikes.
Their adventures were documented on video in the popular series, Mondo Enduro, shown on the Discovery adventure travel channel and the companion book to the series has just been published.
Over the next couple of weeks, mountain and outdoor adventure lovers are in for a treat on both sides of the Atlantic.
In Scotland, the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival from 19 - 21 October, 2007, is an annual event, now in its fifth year, that uses films, lectures and exhibitions to inspire an enjoyment of the natural environment.
Then, in Canada, the annual Banff Mountain Festivals gets underway, from October 27 ? November 4, 2007. The Banff Mountain Festivals, which include the famous book and film festivals, are dedicated to promoting mountain culture and offer inspiring mountain stories, together with the exhilarating beauty of mountain landscapes.
Here is a great step by step guide to escape the rat race and get started backpacking around the world. As the guys at startbackpacking say, it is not a matter of age or money, anyone can get out and enjoy a great adventure; but you can make life a hell of a lot easier for yourself by getting good advice.
One epic adventurer is Jason Lewis, he set out 13 years ago to peddle, paddle, roller blade, walk and swim around the world. Hats off to Jason, who is about to complete circumnavigating the globe, ending his 46,000 mile journey at the Greenwich Meridian, London, UK. I guess that he will then treat himself to a train ride to his home in Dorset.
Iceland, known as the land of the midnight sun, has a great deal to offer those who seek adventure and freedom. Spectacular nature, fascinating sagas, extraordinary geology and a friendly fun-loving people are all to be found there.
Iceland Worldwide is a highly recommended information website about Iceland and is both a useful resource for the traveller and an outstanding image bank.
The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, are one of the most spectacular shows on earth and we are moving into the light-show season. Take a look at the special Northern Lights feature on the Iceland Worldwide website; breathtaking.
Mississippi's Gulf Coast is recovering from the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Major tourist attractions, including world-class golf courses, casinos and outdoor recreational activities such as fishing and canoeing, are again open for business.
The Mississippi Delta is well known as the place that gave birth to the Blues and the Mississippi Blues trail is a pilgrimage for many music lovers, but the state offers a wide variety of recreational opportunities. There are numerous lakes, rivers, streams, reservoirs and over 100 miles of coastline, allowing plenty of opportunities for fishing, swimming, boating, sailing, canoeing or waterskiing. Mississippi also has more than 2 million acres of public hunting lands.
To help tourists find outdoor activities in the state, Mississippi Tourism Development, has produced a comprehensive Adventure Guide. The 300 page guide is expected to benefit hunters and anglers and to also be of value for hikers, bikers, wildlife watchers and other adventurers. You can obtain a free copy of the guide from their web site.
50 years ago, a young man and his friend took a legendary motorcycle trek across the back-roads of Latin America. The man was Che Guevara and in a new National Geographic Adventure and Geographic television series making its US premiere on V-me Tuesday, September 4, 2007, two, similarly young, Latin Americans retrace their path. They cover more than 13,000 kilometers through the same pampas, rivers and mountains, of Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela, contrasting their observations with those of Che and his friend, Alberto Granados. Exhilarating stories and stunning imagery combine to provide a fresh and entertaining perspective on Latin American travel and history.
Whatever your craving for adventure, earth, sea or sky, South Africa can satisfy it. They have world-class climbing, surfing, diving, hiking, horseback safaris, mountain biking, river rafting and a host of other adventures to satisfy even the most demanding adrenaline junkies. River trips range from mostly scenic to grade five whitewater washing machines. South Africa has fantastic rivers, so you'll be spoiled for choice. The most popular, for good reason, is the Orange, which forms the country's northern border with Namibia. It's a long, green-fringed oasis running through the mountainous desert area known as the Richtersveld. Incredibly scenic, it also has a few fun rapids. Fantastic technical rapids and wonderful scenery, are offered by the Palmiet River which runs through the Kogelberg Nature Reserve.
There are over a hundred listed paragliding or hang gliding launch sites, opportunities for helicopter rides, balloon flights, aerobatics, skydiving and microlight flights. You will find loads of excellent ridge soar and some fantastic scenic flying near the coast. In Cape Town, you can launch off Lion's Head in the evening, flying into the sunset, to land 'Bond-like' at one of the popular beachfront pubs!
Literally thousands of kilometres of hiking and mountain bike trails wind around this big country, across desert, forest, mountain and coast. Around Cape Town there are some great single-track routes on the mountain and in the pine plantations. There are escorted trips on the mountain, around the winelands and in the Cape Point section of the Cape Peninsula National Park. South Africa also offers some wonderful easy horse trails through vineyards, on the beach or in the mountains and, for the adventurous and more experienced, horseback safaris in big game country.
Source: SouthAfrica.info The all-in-one official guide and web portal to South Africa.
In a recent article in the Independent, Robert Twigger points out that watching too much television can give the idea that there is nowhere left in the world to explore. You can easily get the impression in one evening, writes Twigger, that you have gone right round the globe. Or even twice, if they're repeating Michael Palin.
However, Robert Twigger passionately believes that exploration is far from being dead and eloquently illustrates what a small percentage of the planet has actually been visited and documented; arguing that the growth in adventure tourism is responsible for a surge in DIY exploration.
To answer this growing interest, he has co-founded the Explorer School, where adventurers are offered a unique travel experience, combining learning with a genuine expedition to little visited and unrecorded parts of the world. The aim being to equip individuals with the skills necessary to organise their own trips.
Space Adventures are offering tourists trips around the moon for $100 million per person; presumably travel insurance will be a little higher than the cost of the average sea cruise. The lucky vacationers will begin their adventure by being launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. It is proposed that the spacecraft will then rendezvous in low-Earth-orbit with a booster rocket, which will propel the craft to the moon.
I came across an article in YourHub,com about the Women's Wilderness Institute that might be of interest to some of you; they offer outdoor adventures and courses for women in the Rocky Mountains, southwestern deserts and rivers. The institute is a non-profit organization that has been operating for nearly 10 years with the stated mission to "strengthen the courage, confidence, and leadership qualities of girls and women, through the challenge and support of group wilderness and community-based experiences". One of this years courses for women aged 45 and over is "Hiking with Llamas". A representative indicated that llamas play a fun role in the trip because they can comfortably carry up to 70 pounds and their sweet personality makes them a friendly addition. My knowledge is that sweet they may be, but they can be pretty stroppy if they do get upset and have the habit of spitting at anyone that offends them, so the message is keep them sweet and don't stand in front of them if they look as if they're getting brassed off. The Llamas that is.
Llama trekking has become a popular activity around the world and experience indicates that women on the hiking course will come away with many new friends. This is just one of 50 courses and trips organized by the Women's Wilderness Institute for women of different ages, fitness levels and outdoor interests; visit their web site and take a look at their programs.
The Shrine, Los Angeles, is part of Hollywood's Golden Era. Home of the Emmy Awards and of the Oscars for over fifty years. Now for five days the Shrine, is to become the biggest movie theatre in America, with 6,300 seats. The Shrine Expo center is 56, 000 sq.ft. of independent and connected exposition space, where real exploration vehicles and mini-subs meet famous Sci-Fi props & miniatures. The event is the Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival, December 6 - 10, 2007. Themed "from the abyss to the stars", the event is an extension of the annual Paris festival of films, based on or in the spirit of Jules Verne's novels, such as "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea" and "Around the World in Eighty Days". According to the sponsors, the Los Angeles event will not interfere with the annual event in France. Organizers, led by US astronaut Buzz Aldrin, said that the event would celebrate "the spirit of adventure and the preservation of our planet."
Jules Verne Adventures invites producers and directors worldwide to enter their documentaries into the competition for the Jules Verne Awards (unreleased programs will be privileged) and in the out of competition selection, showing the best of the international production. There is no entrance fee and in the competition : minimum duration is 26 minutes. Closing date September 15, 2007.
If you are a Canadian or US citizen, and you and your partner typify an urban couple, you could be in with a chance to win a guided, Northern Ontario-style, five-day kayaking adventure, by entering the Most Urban Couple Challenge. The winners will be the participants who are deemed to be the 'most urban', so I guess that it is a necessity that the winning tour be guided! The competition is part of a new website and media campaign from Sault Ste. Marie tourism, aimed at promoting the heart of Canada's untouched wilderness; Northern Ontario.
Had the press release been a few weeks earlier, many might have thought that a newly announced British Standard was an April Fool joke. The standard in question BS 8848:2007 Specification for the provision of visits, fieldwork, expeditions and adventurous activities outside the United Kingdom, is a 45 page document developed for adventurous activities abroad with the laudable aim of reducing the risk of injury or illness. It was conceived because of (British) consumer concerns about the risks associated with adventure holidays, fieldwork, expeditions and other visits, and the variable levels of competence, training and fitness of participants.
However, the standard's strategy is to specify requirements that should be met by an organiser of adventurous trips, in order to conform to good practice. Of course, the definition of 'good practice' was decided by the committee that produced the standard, but that aside, the key words are: 'specify requirements' and 'good practice'; what is being offered is a checklist of items that can be used by British nationals, or anyone else, planning adventurous travel outside the UK, and is particularly aimed at expedition organisers; universities, further education colleges and other organisers of field work and field research; gap year travel companies; providers of adventure holidays or vacations; and voluntary groups organising adventurous travel. Helping them to identify and manage risks when planning their ventures and therefore reducing the likelihood of serious harm or injury to participants.
I guess that the value of the standard will depend on the definition of 'good practice' and the way in which it is applied. The provision of such activities within Britain is governed by UK Health and Safety guidelines, and various consumer protection laws, but presumably the same 'good practice' is relevant, whatever and wherever the adventure. Participants can use the new standard, BS 8848:2007, to gauge levels of risk applicable to them and get answers to the 'what if' questions. Hopefully, the advice is universal.
By the way, the reference number for the new standard '8848' corresponds to the height of Mt. Everest in metres, the International Standards Organization unit of distance.
Bungee jumping, skydiving, abseiling, and swimming with sharks are just some of the adventures that the over 50's are enjoying on their holidays but the British, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), warns that this coincides with an upsurge in cases of over 50's needing their assistance abroad.
Over 50's now represent 35% of all trips abroad and research from the FCO reveals a trend to them being more adventurous with their trips. Over a third have visited more than 20 countries and almost a fifth have taken part in adventure activities like bungee jumping or abseiling on recent holidays. 25% of this age group are hoping to swim with sharks and 15% want to skydive. Confronted with this trend, the FCO is advising over 50's to make better preparations for their adventurous travels. FCO advice to over 50?s travelling abroad and also wise precautions for any traveller, includes:
Take out fully comprehensive travel insurance that covers you for all activities you choose to do
Buy a guide book and read up on your destination so you have an idea of the geography ? your hotel in relation to the main tourist area etc.
Know the local laws and customs e.g. acceptable behaviour and alcohol laws
Check out the travel advice for British citizens at the FCO website, or by phone from the FCO's Travel Advice Unit on (0870 6060 290)
Remember to check that your passport is valid, in good condition and that the 'Next of Kin' details are filled in. Take a photocopy and keep it with you
Ensure you take adequate back-up funds (credit or ATM cards, travellers' cheques) for every eventuality and take copies of vital numbers
Keep the contact details of your nearest Consulate with you; they could prove invaluable in times of trouble
In Europe apply for an European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) - online, by phone on 0845 6062030 or at the Post Office. This entitles you to reduced cost, sometimes free, health-care in most European countries. EHIC is not a substitute for travel insurance
Online bookers should ensure they have a record of all relevant booking reference numbers
Don?t rely on one person to make all the arrangements
Go to your GP to check whether you need vaccinations
The Institute of Adventure Research, a group of eccentric lunatics, have decided that the best way to enjoy the Christmas holiday season is to spend it in a three-wheeled, 150cc, motorised rickshaw, navigating the mountains, mud tracks and tropical heat of India.
Not to be confused with the Cannonball Run, the Rickshaw Run has been organized by the mysterious League of Adventurists, who believe that the world is far too full of health and safety regulations and have set their sights on saving the world from the tyranny of boringness and safety. However, being a jolly good bunch of fellows, they decided that all their adventures should raise money for amazing charities.
This year's Rickshaw Run started on the 27th of December, 2006, at Cochin in the deep south of India and will finish some 2000 miles and 2 weeks later, at the famous tea town of Darjeeling, in the Himalaya foothills. The exact route is left to the discretion of the teams or possibly the number of gin & tonics they consume.
Exhilarating stories and stunning imagery combine to provide a fresh and entertaining perspective on Latin American travel and history.
There are over a hundred listed paragliding or hang gliding launch sites, opportunities for helicopter rides, balloon flights, aerobatics, skydiving and microlight flights. You will find loads of excellent ridge soar and some fantastic scenic flying near the coast. In Cape Town, you can launch off Lion's Head in the evening, flying into the sunset, to land 'Bond-like' at one of the popular beachfront pubs!
Literally thousands of kilometres of hiking and mountain bike trails wind around this big country, across desert, forest, mountain and coast.
Around Cape Town there are some great single-track routes on the mountain and in the pine plantations. There are escorted trips on the mountain, around the winelands and in the Cape Point section of the Cape Peninsula National Park. South Africa also offers some wonderful easy horse trails through vineyards, on the beach or in the mountains and, for the adventurous and more experienced, horseback safaris in big game country. 
The lucky vacationers will begin their adventure by being launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. It is proposed that the spacecraft will then rendezvous in low-Earth-orbit with a booster rocket, which will propel the craft to the moon.
