🙂
I saw this on Facebook.
great multi-day treks low altitude
Lonely Planet:
… just want to want to enjoy a good trek without worrying about acclimatising?
Altitude sickness, which usually kicks in around 2500-3000 metres (8200-9850 feet) and higher, affects some (but not all) of us, no matter how healthy you are.
And while we love Peru’s Inca Trail and Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro, both of these iconic treks hit heights that can affect your health and prevent you from summiting.
So we’ve rounded up the five best treks that feature unique terrain and boast fantastic scenery …
• W trek, Torres del Paine, Chile
• Bathali village treks, Nepal
• Milford Track, New Zealand
• GR20, Corsica, France
• Grand Canyon: rim to rim, Arizona
BBC has sold Lonely Planet, by the way.
walking 4132mi down the Nile
Stretching for 4132 miles and crossing through ten countries, the Nile is the longest river on the planet.
… During the 19th century, the river inspired explorers to go in search of its headwaters. Numerous expeditions were mounted to map its length. But none of those explorers ever managed to walk the entire length of the Nile from source to sea.
That’s exactly what two British adventurers intend to do when they launch a 12-month long expedition later this year.
Levison Wood and Simon Clarke are in the final stages of planning for what they call the Walking the Nile expedition. The two men, who met and became friends while serving in the British military, say that they were inspired to undertake this epic trek by fellow countryman Ed Stafford. In 2010, Stafford famously completed a 4000+ mile long trek along the length of the Amazon. That journey helped Wood and Clarke come up with the idea of hiking along the world’s other great river – the Nile. …
British Adventurers Announce Plans to Walk the Length of the Nile
Ciudad Perdida (Lost City) trek
Daniel has a blog all about his year spent in the town of Soledad, Barranquilla, Colombia.
One Adventure took him on a 5-day guided trek to one of the best walks in the world.
Ciudad Perdida (The Lost City) is like the Machu Picchu of Colombia: located deep in the Sierra Nevada it is an old city built by indigenous people where their Shaymans (religious leaders) lived with their wives and families. …
… Some of us bitched about the ones marching on ahead to the front, others bitched about those coming up too slowly behind- and everyone bitched about bloody Mosquitos. …
… The terrain ranged from the clay sandy trails, to riverside walks and treks into deep jungle. Colourful butterflies seemed to constantly encircle us, we spotted a (dead) snake, and lots of tropical birds.
After night 2 the novelty of sleeping in a hammock had disappeared, and the reality of an uncomfortable nights sleep in the cold was hard to deal with. The food was great- our chef Yorman made great meals and often surprised us with treats of chocolate bars and lollipops. Everyone’s dietary needs were taken into account …
read more – CIUDAD PERDIDA / THE LOST CITY
They made it.
related – our Lost City information page
rest in peace Mark and Rob
Lifelong friends, Rob and Mark Glaser, were killed in an avalanche on Saturday, January 15, 2011 in the area of Burstall Pass, Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, Kananaskis Country, Alberta.
The families of Mark and Rob Glaser are in deep shock at the news of their tragic passing. Both were loving husbands and fathers and will be greatly missed by their families and legions of friends. Both were seasoned back country hikers and skiers who shared a deep passion for the outdoors.
Mark lived in Calgary and was in the oil and gas industry for over 25 years including senior management positions in recent years. Rob lived in Bragg Creek and was a captain in the Calgary Fire Department.
Rob was a firefighter, expert in all things backcountry. They had left their avalanche beacons in the car making family speculate that this ski was intended to be simply a short warm-up.
Over 30 years (1978–2007), avalanches have been responsible for 329 deaths in Canada, with a recent rate of 14 deaths per year. …
Avalanche accounts for over 90% of outdoor recreation deaths, most of those in Alberta or B.C.
Be careful out there.
Walking on the Thin Ice
Warren Long sends a link to this odd and magically entertaining edit.
Published on Dec 2, 2012
Japanese polar explorer Yasu Ogita’s video “Walking on the Thin Ice”
Extreme Arctic expedition solo on foot
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
close encounter of the whale kind
kids not getting outside
Bad news.
… a new study of nearly 9,000 U.S. children found that almost half of preschool-age kids are not getting outside at least once a day with their parents.
Girls were even less likely to be taken outside than boys, and some families reported not taking their young children outside more than a few times a month. The findings are in Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine. [Pooja S. Tandon, Chuan Zhou and Dimitri A. Christakis, Frequency of Parent-Supervised Outdoor Play of US Preschool-Aged Children]
Scientific American – Kids Fail To Get Outdoors
Children Spend 56 Days A Year Playing Videogames And Watching TV!
air bag for your head
How often have you, or someone you know, eschewed a bicycle helmet to look cool at the expense of safety?
Well, gamble with a traumatic brain injury no more. Two Swedish inventors created an invisible helmet called Hövding …
The helmet is actually a thick collar — like one you might see on a heavy winter jacket — with an airbag hood underneath that deploys should you get in an accident. …
Great idea. But it’s single use, $450.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Colca Canyon, Peru
BBC and Lonely Planet posted an article on one of the best hikes in the world:
Most first-time visitors to Peru make a beeline for the ruins of Machu Picchu, without realizing that they are passing within a bus ride of the epic Colca Canyon.
Slicing through the High Andes like a giant fissure for more than 100km, Colca is the world’s second deepest canyon, approximately 3,400m at its deepest point — a shade shallower that the nearby Cotahuasi Canyon and nearly twice as deep as the US’ Grand Canyon. …
With a few days to spare and minimal planning, it is easy to shoehorn Colca Canyon into a wider Peruvian trip. The area is best accessed via Arequipa, Peru’s second largest city …
The Calera hot springs are an acclimatizing 3km walk up the valley to a scenic spot by the Colca River. Once there, recline in a simple alfresco pool as screaming zip-liners slide terrified across the canyon overhead. The zip-line stretches for 600mbetween the canyon walls simulating the flight path of an Andean Condor. …
read more – Exploring Peru’s epic Colca Canyon
Check our Colca Canyon information page.
Consider climbing 5822m (19,101ft) Misti Volcano on the same trip.
You need enough time for acclimatizing to altitude, of course.
besthike.com 