Articles tagged “adventure travel”

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Diving With Great White Sharks In South Australia

by Jessica Festa on

In honor of the upcoming Shark Week beginning on August 12, we’re bringing you some unique big fish fare. One prime destination for shark diving is in South Australia’s Neptune Islands, where divers can have a very out of the ordinary experience.

Most often, divers can see the sharks from the surface; however, to get up close you’ll need to actually get in the water. On the Neptune Islands, divers will throw on a wetsuit and put themselves in a rock-solid cage to be submerged into the ocean with great white sharks.

There are two main touring operators to do the dive with. The first is Calypso Star Charters, the area’s only Advanced Eco Certified one-day charter operator with a license to use chum to attract the sharks. While chumming is a tried and true method of getting sharks to come near a dive boat, the other operator, Adventure Bay Charters, uses a more unique approach. The company has discovered that great whites can be lured using low frequency, hard rock music. Therefore, your captain will blast AC/DC tunes like “If You Want Blood” and “Shook Me All Night Long” because they are so compatible with the very sensitive hearing of sharks.

“I’ve seen the sharks rub their faces on the cage where the sound is coming from as if to feel it,” explains tour operator Matt Waller.

For a more visual experience of shark diving in South Australia, check out the gallery below.

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[Above image via Pterantula; Gallery images via South Australia Tourism]

The Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race Takes Place Today

by Kraig Becker on

One of the most demanding mountain bike races in North America takes place today in Leadville, Colorado, where some of the top riders in the world will compete in the legendary Leadville 100 MTB. The race features a course that offers plenty of difficult climbs made all the more challenging due to the altitude at which the event takes place.

The Leadville 100 MTB was first held back in 1994 and over the years grew in popularity amongst the hardcore mountain biking community. The event, which was the subject of a 2010 documentary film entitled “Race Across The Sky,” gained a much wider audience in 2008 when seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong decided to compete. Armstrong came in second behind six-time defending champ Dave Wiens, but returned in 2009 to avenge the loss, crushing the old course record in the process. His participation in the Leadville 100 led to other pro riders joining the race in 2010 and 2011 and what was once a great event for amateur riders has now grown into a much larger affair.

The starting line for the course is located in downtown Leadville, which sits at an altitude of 10,200 feet. From there, riders will begin a 50-mile out and back ride that features over 14,000 total feet of climbing, going as high as 12,424 feet. It is a grueling test of endurance and skill that requires as much mental strength as it does physical. Fast pro riders will finish the race in around six and a half hours, but most riders will come in much later than that.

If mountain biking isn’t your thing and you’d rather hit the trail on foot, next week Leadville plays host to the Leadville Trail 100 Run, a 100-mile long ultra-marathon that is even more grueling than the bike ride. Personally, I’ll stick with the bike.

[Photo courtesy Leadville 100 MTB]


“Race Across The Sky 2010” from Citizen Pictures on Vimeo.

Shark Week 2012 Comes To South Africa

by Kraig Becker on

The Discovery Channel’s Shark Week is always amongst the most highly anticipated annual events on cable television. For one week out of the year, the network is pretty much all sharks all the time. This year’s edition of Shark Week, which is now in its 25th year, begins on Sunday (August 12) and takes viewers to South Africa where they’ll get an up close and personal look at these awesome predators as they’ve never seen them before.

Shark Week 2012 begins with a visit to South Africa’s Seal Island where researchers go in search of a massive great white known as Colossus. Spanning 14 feet in length and dominating all other sharks in the water, Colossus is a legendary monster that required the development of a new camera to safely capture him on film. The crew reportedly took some amazing footage of this giant fish, but not before he nearly ate their expensive new toy.

To celebrate South Africa’s prominent role in Shark Week 2012, the Visit South Africa Facebook page has taken on a special shark theme. Not only are there plenty of frightening images of the aquatic beasts, but the page is also hosting a “Shark Smarts” quiz that rewards one winner with a trip for two to visit South Africa for themselves. That trip includes airfare, three nights stay in Cape Town at the luxurious Table Bay Hotel and a shark cage diving experience with Marine Dynamics.

If you’re a fan of Discovery’s Shark Week then set your DVR’s to capture all the action starting on Sunday, then head over to the Visit South Africa page to test your knowledge of the big fish. Who knows, it could just earn you a face-to-face encounter with a great white.


28 Climbers Summit K2 In One Day

by Kraig Becker on

Standing 8611 meters (28,251 feet) in height, K2 is the second tallest mountain on the planet behind Everest. It also happens to be one of the most difficult and deadliest peaks as well, which has earned it nicknames such as the “Savage Mountain” and the “Mountaineer’s Mountain.” But last week the savage was tamed when a record-setting 28 people managed to successfully summit on a single day.

Located in a remote region of Pakistan’s Karakoram range, K2 is only accessible for a brief period of time each year during the summer. Climbers usually arrive in Base Camp around mid- to late-July with the hope of taking advantage of a narrow weather window to reach the summit. In years past Mother Nature has not been so cooperative, often keeping anyone from reaching the top. Last year, only four climbers managed to climb the mountain and they were the first since 2008 when 11 people were killed in a tragic accident.

2012 has not been a particularly good year for climbers in Pakistan, as unusually cold and wet weather prevented many teams from achieving their goals. But for those climbing on K2 last week the conditions were nearly perfect for making an ascent. As a result, a record number of mountaineers were able to reach the second-highest point on Earth and add one of the toughest mountains in the world to their resume.

So far this season there have been 30 total summits of K2 with a few climbers still hoping to top out in the next few days. To put that in perspective, there were nearly 500 successful summits of Everest this past spring, which is an indication of the difference in difficulty between the two peaks. Everest may be 237 meters (777 feet) taller but K2 is orders of magnitude more challenging.

[Photo credit: Kevin Mayea via WikiMedia]

138 Synchronized Skydivers Break Vertical Formation World Record

by Jessica Festa on



On Friday, a world record was shattered as 138 skydivers jumped off six different planes to form the largest vertical formation to date. The unusual event occurred over Ottawa, Illinois, beating the previous record of 108 people.

According to Digital Trends, there were 15 failed attempts during the course of three days before the skydivers were finally able to join hands and form a perfect formation. The divers faced speeds of up to 220 mph, and had to perform acrobatic tricks similar to “doing a handstand at 7,000 feet,” as described by Rook Nelson, an organizer and the owner of Skydive Chicago. Their hard work paid off, however, as the group was able to create a colorful snowflake shape that lasted for a few seconds, before divers had to disband and open their chutes.

The diverse group of skydivers came from all over the world, and included 13 women. Divers hailed from France, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Australia and Great Britain to take part.

To see the record-breaking stunt for yourself, check out the video above.