Putting the 'F' Back in Adventure Travel

by Adrienne Wilson on

Even if you swore you never saw it
before, chances are you’ll be seeing it more these days. And you’re probably thinking words like ‘funk’ or
‘free-spirit,’ but what I’m talking about is FAMILY. You heard right, according to this Cleveland.com
piece agencies are seeing an increase in adventure packed family vaca’s and I’m not talking about riding the Kinga Ka at Six Flags, folks. Think more towards a
Heli-Hiking tour like those offered by Chilko Lake Resort located 150 miles out of Vancouver. The story touches on the
author’s family fun-filled times bushwacking down a mountain and intense hiking up rocky ridges with her two teenage
daughters. Quite impressive.

Of course putting the ‘F’ in adventure travel is going to require you put the
‘dough’ on the table and these types of trips are certainly not cheap. Parents scraping to take their children on a
pricey trip to see Mickey Mouse at Disney World may be
tempted to look away, but the truth is some far-more incredible destination may only be a few extra hundred dollars.
When you’re talking about the kind of experiences Ogintz mentions like
kayaking along whales in Alaska, it’s soo worth it.

To start planning your own adventure travel family
vacation check out some of the sites found in the story listed below:

Red Corner: Walking to Russia

by Neil Woodburn on

Despite the theory that the first Americans walked to the continent across the frozen Bering Strait, nearly no one else has managed to do so since. Yesterday, however, it was reported that an ex-British paratrooper had just completed the opposite, traveling from Alaska to Russia entirely on foot. If this is true, he is one of only four people to have accomplished this in modern times.

The feat, however, is just one small piece of Karl Bushby’s grand adventure in which he is attempting to walk around the world. Currently, he is seven years and 16,000 miles into this 36,000 mile journey. Bushby started at the tip of South America and hopes to make it home to England within the next five years, all on foot. Check out his great website which tracks his progress and regularly posts updates and photos.

Gadling will also keep you informed as Bushby continues his trek through his next biggest challenge, Kamchatka and Siberia.

Japanese Hiker Spots Menehune on Hike

by Adrienne Wilson on

Here’s a bizarre backwoods tale out of tropical islands of Hawai’i. Apparently Mark Takehara, 24, Japanese visitor to Oahu, claims to have seen a tiny leprechaunish creature weaving on and off of a trail in Maunawili Falls during a hike. Takehara was with friends on Friday afternoon during the outing, but strayed away to relieve himself in a bush when he saw the magical looking little midget. After he made it back to join his friends, he described what he had seen to his pal and fellow hiker, Amy Fukotami (an Oahu native) who said it sounded like a ‘Menehune’ and laughed. Fukotami, believes Takehara had spent an unusual amount of time wandering off the trail alone and though he stated he was ONLY searching for a good spot to pee, he also smelled of ‘white shark’ (a kind of cannabis described by locals as mystical yet adventurous). Ha! The culprit!

Chances of having seen a Menehune (a tiny mischievous forest dweller who roam the deep forest at night) are unlikely in Oahu. Menehune siting’s in the area are rare with the last claimed being as far back as 1947. People seriously considering searching for Menehune should probably stick to Kauai where the most recent siting was in 1972.

via Japawii.com

Palin to Explore Inside of Cruise’s Head

by Neil Woodburn on

Monty Python alum Michael Palin and a BBC documentary crew will embark later this Spring on a 21 day expedition through the folds and recesses of actor Tom Cruise’s brain. Hot off the success of travelogues which have taken Palin Pole to Pole and Around the World in 80 Days, the British actor has made a career of journeying to locations so remote that many people don’t believe they even exist. The trek through Cruise’s brain will continue this exciting trend.

“God knows what we’ll find in there,” Palin speculated last month at The Explorers Club in Manhattan, “but we are completely prepared.” The team, for example, will be equipped with sophisticated GPS technology to navigate Cruise’s ego, an enormous wasteland that defies scientific explanation by continuing to inflate at alarming rates. In addition, Palin and company will all be wearing heavy-duty galoshes. “Initial reconnaissance reports indicate that 90% of Cruise’s brain has turned to knee-deep mush since the Katie Holmes affair,” warns Palin. “So we’re not taking any chances of slipping in the muck and disappearing forever into the deadly crevice of the corpus callosum.”

Palin’s greatest hope on this journey is to experience a Dr. Livingston moment by tracking down the reclusive L. Ron Hubbard who has reportedly been squatting in the depths of Cruise’s cerebral cortex for the last ten years now.

Certainly the most dangerous part of the journey will be navigating the narrow passageways of the hypothalamus where massive neurohormonal fluctuations can unexpectedly send Cruise’s brain into Mexican Jumping Bean mode. The mere sight of a couch can set off this dangerous sequence of events and if Palin happens to be anywhere near the hypothalamus when it erupts, it will be the last we hear from this great British explorer.

Nepalese Plan Everescalator

by Erik Olsen on

Here’s an odd one: The Nepalese government wants to make it easier, much easier, for people to climb towering Mount Everest . Turns out they are planning to build a working, electric escalator that will carry people from base camp to the summit in less than an hour. The engineering effort is being put in the hands of the Japanese, in a serious political snub to the Chinese who had also bid on the project. The proposed escalator will be approximately fifteen miles long and will rise and fall with the jagged gradations of the mountain. It will move approximately five miles an hour and will offer superb views of the surrounding Himalayas . There will be rest stops, as well, built into the structure, that will allow riders to stop for tea or snacks. For children who grow easily bored by gaping mountain vistas, they are planning to offer portable DVD players and a wide selection of films.

Right now, only a handful of people scale the 29,035 foot peak each year, and the government wants to change that. Those who summit today have to pay exorbitant peak fees, approximately $50,000 per climber. But with the construction of an escalator to the top of the mountain, the fee will be reduced to about $1000 per “escalatee”. The Everescalator is scheduled for completion in February 2010.