Gadling Gift Guide: Gear For The Adventure Traveler And Outdoor Enthusiast

by Kraig Becker on

Few people appreciate great gear as much as adventure travelers and outdoor enthusiasts. They demand good performance, often under the harshest of conditions, and they’re usually willing to pay top dollar for the best equipment. Their exacting standards can often make it a challenge to find them the right gift, particularly when they already have a closet full of gear.

If you have someone on your holiday shopping list that fits the description above, then take heart. Here are some excellent suggestions for gifts that are sure to delight the adventurer in your life.

Eureka Tetragon Tents ($95-$370)
The key to any great camping outing begins and ends with a quality tent. After all, if you’re not able to get a good night’s sleep, you’re probably not going to enjoy the rest of the experience either. The new Tetragon series of tents from Eureka has everything you need to sleep comfortably in the great outdoors. They are spacious, lightweight, provide plenty of ventilation, and will keep campers dry when that unexpected rainstorm rolls in at 2 a.m. These freestanding shelters are tough and durable, which makes them the perfect option for backcountry escapes. Available in six sizes, ranging from a small two-person option up to a palatial version that sleeps ten, the Tetragon is a classic camping tent at an affordable price.

Brooks Range Mojave Down Jacket ($299)
When it comes to cold weather adventures, nothing beats a good down jacket for keeping us warm when the mercury begins to plummet. The problem is that traditional down doesn’t perform well in wet conditions, becoming a clumpy, cold mess that is virtually useless. That isn’t the case with the new Brooks Range Mojave jacket, however, as it is one of the first products on the market that uses a new water-resistant down from a company called DownTek. This revolutionary new jacket performs incredibly well, even in the worst of conditions, keeping the wearer warm and dry when traditional down gear would have failed. This is the future of cold weather gear and your favorite mountaineer, winter backpacker or skier will undoubtedly love this amazing product.Pyle GPS Watch with Wireless Heart Rate Monitor ($150)
Designed for the runner or cyclists who obsesses over their performance, this watch is a high-tech marvel that will give them everything they need to track progress over time. The included wireless heart monitor makes it easy for outdoor athletes to pace themselves while working out and the built in GPS accurately tracks distance, route and speed. This timepiece allows for five different profiles for use in different activities and the screen can even be customized to display just the information that is important for the current workout. Water resistant to 100 feet, the watch includes an electronic compass, interval timer and much more. Pyle managed to deliver all of that functionality in a package that is far more affordable than similar offerings from the competition.

Guerrilla Tags ID Systems ($30-$35)
Outdoor enthusiasts and adventure travelers don’t seem to mind taking a few risks to pursue the activities they love, but unfortunately those activities can sometimes lead to untimely accidents. Guerrilla Tags offer a bit of insurance during those unfortunate incidences by providing the name of the person involved as well as their emergency contact numbers, known allergies, blood type and so on. That information is engraved by hand on a metal tag that is then worn either as a bracelet around the wrist or as dog tags around the neck. This is one of those pieces of gear that you hope you never need, but you’re glad you have it nonetheless. They even make great gifts for loved ones who never travel abroad or participate in risky outdoor sports as it never hurts to have this information close at hand.

Hydrapack Tamarack ($110)
Compact and comfortable, the Tamarack hydration pack makes a great travel companion for everything from day hikes on local trails to excursions to the far corners of the globe. It features thickly padded shoulder straps and back panel, plenty of storage capacity for essential gear and a host of pockets to keep it all organized. Durable and tough, this little pack is capable of carrying up to thee liters of water in its included hydration bladder, ensuring the wearer always has plenty of liquids close at hand. That same bladder seals up tight to prevent leakage, is resistant to punctures and is surprisingly easy to keep clean.

Liberty Sport Trailblazer Sunglasses ($139)
A great pair of sunglasses should be essential gear for any outdoor adventure and Liberty Sport makes good looking and functional frames for nearly every kind of activity. But the Trailblazer is an especially good choice because they are versatile enough to be used while running, cycling, hiking or just about any other active endeavor. The large, wrap-around lenses provide plenty of coverage and protection from the bright sun and the fit is snug enough that you don’t have to worry about them falling off at an in opportune time. They even come with a set of cleverly designed magnetic eye cups that when installed seal off the outside world, keeping dust, snow and other debris out of the eyes. This is an especially great option for travelers who may routinely find themselves in demanding environments.

Schwinn Quick Release Collapsible Basket ($20)
Here’s one for the not-so-serious cyclist who enjoys riding their bike everywhere but could use a convenient and safe way to haul more stuff with them when they go. This collapsible basket securely attaches to any set of handlebars while riding, but quickly detaches upon arrival at your destination. Made out of durable polyester fabrics the basket is tough enough to survive exposure to the elements while providing plenty of protecting for the contents inside. A drawstring top extends that protection even further while ensuring that the precious cargo never accidentally pops out.

GoPro Hero 3 Action Camera Black Edition ($200-$400)
A few years ago a little company called GoPro released a lightweight and rugged video camera that was perfect for capturing or favorite moments while mountain biking, snowboarding and rock climbing. They didn’t know it at the time, but the company had launched an industry and inadvertently created a market for the extreme sports viral video all in one fell swoop. Today, the GoPro Hero 3 remains the top action camera on the marketing, capturing video in full 1080P and 12 megapixel still photos. The device can even pair with a smartphone via Wi-Fi for remote control functionality and for instant sharing of videos on social media. GoPro even managed to greatly improve low light performance for capturing the best shots no matter the time of day. All of that comes in a package that weighs just 2.6 ounces, giving aspiring filmmakers a powerful tool that easily attaches to helmets and handlebars to capture all of their spectacular adventures.

Click here for other Gift Guides.

[Photo Credits:Eureka, Hydrapak, GoPro]

Visiting The Christian Community In Iraq

by Sean McLachlan on


Before Iraq was conquered by the Arabs in the seventh century, it was one of the oldest centers of Christianity in the world. Even after the Arab conquest, Christians made up a sizable minority of the population – sometimes tolerated, sometimes persecuted, but always surviving.

Now it’s facing its biggest threat in centuries.

The Christian Community in Iraq is a lot smaller than it was in 2003 when the Coalition invaded. During the occupation, radical Muslims claimed the Christians were helping the invaders and used this as an excuse to attack them. Churches and shops were bombed and individual Christians were murdered or told to leave on pain of death.

In an interview with the BBC, the priest at St Joseph’s Chaldean Church in Baghdad said that in the past nine years his parish has shrunk from 1,200 families to 300. The New York Times reports that before the war the Christian population was estimated to be as high as 1.4 million, and has now dropped to less than 500,000.

I met few Christians in my 17 days in Iraq other than some shopkeepers and the owners of a liquor store when I went on a beer run in Basra. I was anxious to see some of the early medieval centers of Christianity that make the country so important to Church history. The Christian community in Iraq is splintered into more than a dozen different churches, including the Assyrian Church of the East, the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Syrian Catholic Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, and many more. Many of their rites and beliefs are from a markedly different religious tradition than what we are familiar with in the West.

Above is a photo of the entrance to Mar Mattai monastery, run by the Syrian Orthodox Church. Located in Kurdistan in the far north of the country, it sits on the slopes of Mt. Maqloub. It was founded in 363 A.D. by the Saint Mar Mattai and is thus one of the oldest monasteries in existence.

Much of the monastery is modern, with a few crumbling ruins dotting the slopes to hint at its long history. The assistant abbot welcomed us in careful, practiced English and told us how the saint converted Prince Behnam and Princess Sarah from paganism to Christianity. Sarah had been suffering from leprosy and was miraculously cured after her conversion.

%Gallery-172437%When their father King Senchareb found out, he had them put to death. He soon regretted his act, became a Christian himself, and as penance built Mar Behnam Monastery.

This monastery is much better preserved. Its stone interior is intricately carved in the style of the Atabek Emirate, which lasted from the 11th to the 13th centuries before being wiped out by the Mongols. The style is a strange one: a sort of mix of Turkish design with Christian symbolism and elements from ancient Assyrian art. See the gallery for some images, and there are more at this site. St. Behnam monastery survived the Mongol invasion and even managed to make a few converts. Some of the inscriptions in the crypt are in Mongolian.

Walking through these two monasteries I could feel the absence left by the departure of so many from the community. We saw almost no one, and the monasteries felt more like museums than places of worship. Perhaps we just went on quiet days. Both are centers for pilgrimage, though, so I was hoping to meet and talk with pilgrims like I had at the Shia holy places. But it was not to be.

While the situation for Christians, indeed all Iraqis, has calmed down considerably in the past couple of years, the persecutions continue. Iraq has broken down along sectarian lines, with Sunni and Shia Muslims fighting it out and Christians being targeted by radical Muslims.

Being such a small minority, it’s difficult for the Christian community to defend itself. Government soldiers and police guard churches and monasteries, and man checkpoints at the edges of Christian neighborhoods, but as with sectarian attacks against Muslims, the terrorists often find a way to hit their targets.

There’s hope, though. As we studied the inscriptions in the crypt of St. Behnam’s monastery, I noticed our guide and one of our guards, both Muslims, lighting candles. I went over to the guide, who I knew to be a devout Shia, and asked him why he was lighting candles in a Christian holy spot.

“In my office there are a lot of Christian women. They asked me to light candles for them,” he replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

This man, who went off to pray every time we visited a mosque, saw no conflict with his faith in doing this or with working with Christian women. If his tolerance can become common enough to push out the intolerant radicals, the Christian community in Iraq may survive after all.

Don’t miss the rest of my series, “Destination: Iraq,” chronicling my 17-day journey across this strife-ridden country in search of adventure, archaeology and AK-47s.

Coming up next: “Kurdistan: The Other Iraq!”

[All photos by Sean McLachlan]

A Caribbean Cruise Port With Adventure Travelers In Mind

by Chris Owen on

The people that steer cruise ships to Caribbean cruise ports have been looking for new places to send ships for quite some time. Formerly satisfied with the standard fare of Western, Eastern or Southern Caribbean itineraries, cruise travelers are tired of the same old thing and want something different. Cruise lines are delivering, not by just sailing to new, exotic destinations but by building their own.

Banana Coast is the newest western Caribbean cruise port destination at Trujillo, Honduras. One of the first to call, luxury line Silversea with 296-passenger Silver Cloud, scheduled to make its first visit in December 2014.

“We are pleased to have a high-end brand like Silversea Cruises be the first to commit to call at Banana Coast,” said Michael Greve, president of Global Destinations Development, one of the companies involved with developing the port, in a Travel Pulse report. “It’s a testament to how we have carefully created a destination that is culturally and historically appealing to the most sophisticated travelers.”

When the project is complete, the Banana Coast cruise destination will have a 50,000-square-foot shopping facility and transportation hub, and be far more than other cruise line made islands. Boasting “something for everyone,” it looks like this one really will be via its “Where the Rainforest Meets the Sea” theme.
“We have met with several other cruise lines and have hosted site inspections by cruise line executives,” said Greve. “We expect that several lines soon will commit to adding Banana Coast to their itineraries.”

Ten acres of beachfront land is just the start for the Banana Coast. Enabling travelers to experience the pristine area from air, land and sea, “shore excursions” are more than a ride around the island in a tour bus.

A VIP airplane trip to Mayan ruins, snorkeling, kayaking, ATV rides, a culinary tasting tour and more will be available to adventure travelers. Waterfalls, rivers, streams, mountains, a tropical rainforest, a nature reserve, coral reefs and crystal clear waters should make this destination one to visit.

This one just might have it all.

Oh, and there is some fair surfing there too, as we see in this video:


[Photo Credit – Flickr user Josiah Townsend]

Visiting Ur, Ctesiphon, And Babylon In Iraq

by Sean McLachlan on


Iraq is an ancient land. It’s seen a lot of civilizations come and go and each one has left behind spectacular monuments and rare treasures. On a recent visit, I had the privilege to experience many of these sites. Last time, I talked about the monuments of the Assyrian Empire. Today, I want to talk about three more of Iraq’s ancient wonders.

Perhaps the most famous is Babylon. It was the political and spiritual capital of southern Mesopotamia starting with the ruler Hammurabi (ruled 1792-1550 B.C.), the same king who created the famous law code. The city had its ups and downs but reached a peak under Nebuchadnezzar II (ruled 604-562 B.C.).

Babylon was home to the fabled Tower of Babel and the Hanging Gardens. Equally impressive were its city walls, which stretched for 8 kilometers. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus said they were wide enough on top to allow a four-horse chariot to turn around.

The story of the Tower of Babel may have been inspired by a giant stepped pyramid called a ziggurat. It was a temple to the god Marduk and stood 300 feet high. It was later quarried for its baked bricks and there’s little left. The Hanging Gardens have also vanished. What does remain are the city walls and the fabulous Ishtar Gate with its glazed brick reliefs of bulls and dragons. It was through this gate that the images of the gods would be taken in procession. The name Babylon means “the gate of the gods.”

The gate was excavated by a German team in the early 20th century and carted back to Staatliche Museen in Berlin. The gate at Babylon today is a modern reconstruction, and it’s not even full size. Far more impressive are the city walls, also reconstructed, and the original processional way, which, like the Ishtar Gate, is decorated with strange beasts.

Part of the original street level of the processional way remains – a flat surface of bitumen, an early form of asphalt. Strange to say, I found this simple stretch of pavement one of the most evocative sights in a country filled with ancient treasures. People walked along here more than 2,500 years ago, and there it was, stretched out before me. I desperately wanted to vault over the fence and stroll down the road, but even Iraq’s archaeological sites have guards and regulations. What a pity.

Babylon’s reconstruction was done under the rule of Saddam Hussein, who fancied himself one of the great kings of Mesopotamia. He got the cruelty part down pat, but missed out on the greatness. He couldn’t even do a decent reconstruction. Against the advice of the archaeological community, he built the new walls atop the originals and obliterated much of the ancient remains. In true ancient style he had bricks bearing his name used in the building. And now in true ancient style, his people have been busy erasing his name ever since his inglorious end. One of Saddam’s palaces stands on a hill overlooking the site – an empty shell.

%Gallery-172219%
When Babylon was enjoying its heyday, the Sumerian city of Ur was already ancient. Its foundation is lost in time, stretching back at least seven thousand years. The city grew steadily and became the center of the most sophisticated civilization the world had yet seen. Writing thrived here, with scribes producing countless clay tablets written in cuneiform, a complex script of wedge-shaped impressions.

The first dynasty of Ur, starting in the 26th century B.C., was hugely wealthy and powerful. Some of Sumer’s best-known treasures come from the royal tombs dating to this period, such as elaborately decorated harps, the Royal Standard decorated with scenes of war and peace, and delicate gold jewelry from the queens, princesses and their female servants. The British Museum now owns many of them. Click the link for an amazing slideshow.

The Third Dynasty was even greater than the First and saw a flourishing of the arts and science. It also created the first known law code, the Code of Ur-Nammu, 300 years before the Code of Hammurabi. This dynasty completely rebuilt Ur and also put up the Great Ziggurat, pictured above, which got a modern facelift courtesy of Saddam Hussein.

One archaeologist I met back in the U.S. told me that during the war, Saddam parked some of his fighter planes next to the ziggurat, hoping they’d be safer there than in the nearby air force base. They got strafed by an A-10 and some of the bullets hit the ziggurat. I intended on checking for bullet holes but got so entranced with where I was that I forgot to. Maybe next time.

Zipping forward several centuries we come to Ctesiphon, the capital of the Parthian Empire in the first century B.C. and later the Sassanid Persian Empire. All that’s visible today is the Taq-i Kisra, shown below. This was an iwan, or great hall, built by the Sassanids in the sixth century A.D. The building was a royal winter residence and it was here in the iwan that this king would sit on his throne and rule his kingdom. The giant brick vault soars 110 feet into the air and used no reinforcement. It’s the largest of its kind ever built and despite all the years and wars and invasions, it’s still standing.

All of these sites and many more have suffered from looting and neglect in the tough years since the invasion. Luckily, a dedicated band of Iraqi and foreign archaeologists have been busy preserving them. New excavations have started and hopefully, as more incredible finds are uncovered, Iraq’s ancient past will come to light.

Don’t miss the rest of my series, “Destination: Iraq,” chronicling my 17-day journey across this strife-ridden country in search of adventure, archaeology and AK-47s.

Coming up next: “The Christian Community Of Iraq!”

[All photos by Sean McLachlan]

Visiting The Great Assyrian Sites Of Iraq

by Sean McLachlan on


This Iraqi policeman is busy texting at one of the great archaeological sites of his country – Assur, the first capital of the Assyrian Empire.

Assur was founded at least as early as 2400 B.C., but it wasn’t until the reign of the Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad (ruled 1809-1776 B.C.) that it became the capital of a true empire. Shamshi-Adad’s armies took over the bulk of Mesopotamia, as well as Syria and Asia Minor.

By then Assur was a magnificent place, having had centuries of kings lavishing it with attention. Several large temples dominated the site, including one for the goddess Ishtar and another for the city’s god Assur, who rose to become one of the most important gods in the Assyrian pantheon thanks to the city’s fortunes. Rising above all was a ziggurat, a stepped pyramid atop which once stood a temple. Shamshi-Adad’s conquests weren’t to last and the empire soon fell to the Babylonians. The Assyrian Empire had to be rebuilt by later kings.

Like with many Mesopotamian sites, Assur is in a sad state today. The land has very little stone, so most buildings were constructed with mud brick, which has a bad habit of melting away in the rain, even the sparse rain of Mesopotamia. Thus the ziggurat looks like a big lumpy hill, and we can only see the foundations of the temples and palaces thanks to the meticulous excavations of generations of archaeologists. Despite the poor preservation, there’s still a magical quality to the place with the Tigris River flowing lazily by and so much history underfoot.

%Gallery-171929%Another important Assyrian site is Nimrud, established as the imperial capital by King Ashurnasirpal II (ruled 883-859 B.C.). His palace was decorated with lively bas-reliefs showing him hunting, vanquishing his enemies. This site has more to see thanks to the intact stone carvings and several reconstructed buildings. A pair of giant, winged bulls flank the entrance, and several important carvings still line the walls. Sadly, one that showed the king standing before a sacred tree with the god Assur hovering above was smashed and parts of it stolen during the looting that took place during the 2003 invasion.

The Assyrians have the reputation of being the bullies of the ancient world, always ready to lay waste to a city, salt the fields, and flay their enemies. This is partially due to their unsympathetic treatment in the Bible and partially to the magnificent bas-reliefs they carved to show off the bloody results of their conquests. The Assyrians were great warriors, but they were no more cruel than any other ancient empire and they achieved a high level of artistic development.

They also valued learning. At Nineveh, another Assyrian site in Iraq, archaeologists discovered a vast library filled with texts on astronomy, medicine, geography and history, as well as the day-to-day functioning of the empire. Ancient classics such as “The Epic of Gilgamesh” were copied and read, and new works were written. Far more than simple thugs, the Assyrians were one of the great empires of the ancient world.

If you can’t make it to Iraq, several museums in the West have excellent Assyrian collections, including the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris, and the Met in New York City.

Don’t miss the rest of my series, “Destination: Iraq,” chronicling my 17-day journey across this strife-ridden country in search of adventure, archaeology and AK-47s.

Coming up next: “Visiting Ur, Ctesiphon, and Babylon!”

[Photos by Sean McLachlan]