Articles tagged “adventure travel”

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2011 Tour d’Afrique heads toward Sudan

by Kraig Becker on

The 2011 edition of the Tour d’Afrique got underway last week when more than 40 cyclists from all over the world set out from Cairo, Egypt on a four month long epic ride through Africa. The annual event has become a favorite amongst adventure travelers looking for a unique way to experience that continents cultural and natural wonders, while also challenging themselves physically along the way.

Each year, the Tour begins in Egypt and heads south, passing through ten countries along its well planned route. The riders spend 95 days in the saddle, with 23 rest days scattered across the schedule as well. Factor in 2 days of travel by ferry and you have 120 days of adventure that eventually culminates at the finish line in Cape Town, South Africa. All told, the journey covers nearly 7500 miles with the cyclists averaging roughly 77 miles per day.

Last Sunday, the riders hit the road for this year’s edition of the Tour, rolling past the Great Pyramids of Giza before heading out into the Sahara Desert for their first few days of the ride. Over the past week, their route has taken them to the shores of the Red Sea, past sprawling sand dunes, and along the fabled Nile River, all the way to Aswan. Once there, they boarded a ferry for a long ride across Lake Nasser, departing on the other side in Sudan, where they’ll continue their ride today. For updates on their progress so far and througout the entire Tour, check out the offical blog of the event.

The Tour d’Afrique has become the premiere adventure cycling tour in the world, but it is a little too late to join the 2011 edition, at least for the full ride. Cyclists can elect to take on various stages of the Tour, which offer a much shorter, and less expensive, but just as adventurous option for cycling in Africa. These segments are roughly 18 days in length and include such options as “The Gorge,” which runs from Khartoum to Addis Ababa or the “Masai Steppe,” which connects Nairobi to Mbeya. For an overview of the available stages, click here.

If you missed this year’s Tour but are interested in riding in 2012, keep an eye on the official website for announcement about the future of the race. Even though the riders just got underway, next year’s edition is already in the planning stages.

[Photo credit: Kristian Pletten]

Find your mileage runs with Mileagebrain

by Grant Martin on

It’s never too soon to start planning out your frequent flyer miles earnings, and there’s a new tool out on the interwebs to help you along the way.

The concept of mileage running, to refresh you, has to do with earning *just enough* miles to achieve certain levels of status with a particular airline. If I, fancyeditor of Gadling, for example, fly 97,426 miles on American Airlines in one year, then it actually behooves me to fly another 2,574 to reach 100,000 miles and all of the rewards therein.

What sort of rewards, you ask? Well in this case, 100,000 miles on American Airlines earns me eight system wide upgrades (ie: pay $1200 for a ticket to India and then upgrade to business class, a $12,000 ticket off the shelf) priority boarding, exemption from a full range of fees and a little plastic Executive Platinum card that I can wave menacingly at other passengers.

Anyhow, mileage running is a necessary evil for many frequent travelers, and until now, finding a route to exactly fit the miles you need at the lowest price was a manual endeavour. Draw a circle 1,287 (2,574 divided by two) around your departure airport then find the least expensive ticket outside of that window.

The new robot over at MileageBrain takes much of that manual computation out. All one needs to do to find a good run is plug in departure airport, length of travel and favorite airline — the crawler then automatically finds routes that are the least expensive “per mile”.

Mileagebrain is still in its alpha release and so there’s lots of improvements still coming down the line. Plugging in O’Hare, on American Airlines, for example, yields several routes for over 40 cents a mile (yikes!) but with time and some patience the service often pulls up interesting fares.

You can check the development discussion over at the MileageBrain flyertalk thread. If you want to know more about the art of mileage running, check out Gadling’s guide from 2007.

Skier sets South Pole speed record

by Kraig Becker on

Norwegian explorer Christian Eide has set a new speed record for traveling to the South Pole on skis, smashing the previous record by more than two weeks and setting a new standard for Antarctic expeditions to follow.

Eide set out from Hercules Inlet, located along the Antarctic coast, on December 20th of last year and proceeded due south towards the Pole, a journey of more than 700 miles. Averaging 29 miles per day over some of the harshest and most extreme terrain on the planet, the skier completed the trip in just 24 days, 1 hour, and 13 minutes, battling whiteout conditions and subzero temperatures along the way.

The previous speed record was held by American Todd Carmichael, who made the same journey back in 2008. Carmichael completed his expedition in 39 days, 7 hours, and 49 minutes, which at the time seemed like a very impressive accomplishment. Eide’s new speed mark raises the bar substantially, and is likely to be a record that will remain unbroken for years to come.

To further put Eide’s accomplishment into perspective, when explorer Roald Amundsen, who was also Norwegian, became the first person to reach the South Pole back in 1911 it took him 58 days to make the journey. He also had the benefit of doing so by dogsled. Now, a century later, we have modern day explorers covering the same distance in less than half the time and under their own power no less.

We’ve come a long way in a hundred years.

[Photo credit: Christian Eide]

Endurance athlete to run across Chile’s Atacama Desert

by Kraig Becker on

Canadian endurance athlete and adventurer Ray Zahab is in Chile this week where he has just launched an epic long distance run across the Atacama Desert, a place that is renowned as the driest environment on the planet. Zahab is making the attempt as a challenge to his own abilities, but also as part of an educational outreach program with the hopes of delivering an ongoing message to students about the importance of biodiversity to the health of the planet.

All told, the run will cover approximately 750 miles, starting in the northern part of the desert and heading south. Ray hopes to complete the expedition in a little over two weeks and will average more than 43 miles per day on foot. (That’s a marathon + 17 miles each and every day for those keeping track at home!) All of his gear will be carried in a backpack, along with the 8 to 10 liters of water that will be necessary for each day. A support team will make strategic water drops along the route, so that Zahab can count on a fresh supply when needed.

Along the way, Zahab will use satellite communications technology to interact with school children in classrooms all over the world. As part of the impossible2Possible program, a non-profit organization that seeks to educate and inspire young people through adventure, he’ll reach more than 16,000 children to deliver a message about threats to the environment. The desert will make for a stark contrast to a similar expedition that he conducted last year in the Amazon Jungle.

Zahab is no stranger to these kinds of challenging adventures. He has already run across the Sahara Desert, traveled to the South Pole, and set a speed record for traveling the length of Russia’s Lake Baikal on foot, a distance of nearly 400 miles. On each of those journeys he was joined by his partner Kevin Vallely, who was to be included on this expedition as well. But just days before the start an illness in the family forced Vallely to pull out, leaving Zahab to run the desert solo.

Caught in the rain shadow of both the Andes Mountains and the Chilean Coastal Range, the Atacama Desert is considered the driest place on Earth. The region averages just 1mm (.04 inches) of rain per year, and many areas have not seen rain throughout recorded history. One study suggests that river beds in the Atacama have been dry for more than 120,000 year, which gives you an indication of what Ray will be up against over the next few weeks.

You can follow his progress at AtacamaExtreme.com where he’ll be posting daily progress reports and updates from the field.

Biking is easier in the Big Easy

by Gadling Staff on

New Orleans is a magnificent city by bicycle. It’s flat, temperate for much of the year, has lots of streets with slow or no traffic, and, as reported in the Times-Picayune, a growing number of bike lanes (about 30 miles and counting). To tap into the local biking scene, start with the Metro Bicycle Coalition. From there you might check out the monthly New Orleans Critical Mass ride, and the racing group New Orleans Bicycle Club.Rent some wheels from any of several services throughout the city. I got a comfy coaster bike from Joy Ride Bike Rentals (504-982-1617). $30 gets you a bike, helmet, and lock-all delivered to and picked up from your hotel or other location anywhere in the city. That was the cheapest and most convenient of the services I looked into, but others include Mike the Bike Guy in the Touro district (4411 Magazine St., 504-899-1344); or in the Faubourg Marigny district, there’s Bicycle Michael’s (622 Frenchman St., 504-945-9505).

Now, what to do once you’re on your bike? There’s ample information online about the city’s famous French Quarter, Garden District, and other areas. For information on these and other districts, visit NOLA.com, or check the comprehensive listings offered by the alternative weekly Gambit New Orleans. That said, let me highlight a couple less well-trafficked neighborhoods, both of which happen to be just north of more famous and touristy areas.

Cruise around Central City (just north of the Garden District) and look for signs for the “I-Witness” project. Dial the main number on the sign (504-265-1116), punch in the code for that spot, and you’ll hear a story from a local about what the neighborhood used to be like, or maybe a jazz funeral that took place there. Stumble upon stories at random, or check the website for a map. (I must reverse myself to say just one thing about the Garden District. A lazy trip on the St. Charles Avenue streetcar line, which runs through the district, is one of the most sublimely pleasant experiences I’ve enjoyed in the city. You might consider taking the streetcar-or your bicycle-all the way out St. Charles Avenue to Audubon Park, which is also home to the city’s zoo.)

Just north of the French Quarter, it’s fun to cycle around the Trem (“Tre-MAY”) district, which is the setting for the HBO series of the same name. I’m a fan of the Backstreet Cultural Museum (1116 St. Claude Ave., 504-522-4806), a house museum about the Mardi Gras Indians and other black New Orleans traditions. Just a few blocks away is the New Orleans African American Museum, with small but strong art and history exhibits (1418 Governor Nicholls St., 504-566-1136). A short ride north of that is a veritable gallery of murals (commissioned by the African American Museum) painted on the pillars supporting the I-10 overpass, on North Claiborne Ave. between Orleans and St. Bernard Avenues. After your exertions riding around, go have a po’ boy sandwich or the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet at Li’l Dizzy’s Café (1500 Esplanade Ave., 504-569-8997).

A ride to the gorgeous City Park is well worth the effort (northwest on Esplanade Ave. from the Tremé, or zigzag on smaller streets). Take a relaxing ride or stroll among the oak trees that populate the park, or take a boat ride (weather permitting), or visit the New Orleans Museum of Art. For cheap eats, visit the Parkview Café. If you’re in the mood for something more upscale, try Ralph’s on the Park (900 City Park Ave. 504-488-1000), a pleasant spot for drinks (I had their tasty lychee margarita) or a meal.

New Orleans, of course, has ample festivals for bicyclists to ride to. Check complete listings here. The Mardi Gras season kicked off on Twelfth Night, January 6, and continues through Fat Tuesday, which falls on March 8 this year. Throughout the season, there are parades and parties for nearly every taste (not just those drawn to the famously raucous French Quarter). For complete Mardi Gras coverage, go here.

Eager to get deeper into the city’s culture? For a street-level look at New Orleans (and some inspiration about places to ride your bike), be sure to pick up one or more of the excellent books published by the Neighborhood Story Project, available online or at many bookstores and other shops throughout the city.

For the soundtrack to your trip, tune in to New Orleans’ “Jazz and Heritage” station, WWOZ, 90.7 FM. For safety’s sake, don’t listen on headphones while biking. Instead, check the website for listings of live music, and don your safety gear for a ride to clubs where some of the city’s superlative musicians will transport you beyond where your bike can go.