Category: Destination News (Page 1 of 42)

Transcaucasian Trail nears completion

2021.08.03 / Robert Vinet

Since 2015, the Transcaucasian Trail Association (TCTA) has been developing a 3,000km hiking trail across the Caucasus Mountains. The finished Transcaucasian Trail (TCT) will consist of two 1,500km sections spanning Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

The northern route follows the Greater Caucasus Mountains and connects the Black and Caspian Seas. The southern route spans the Lesser Caucasus Mountains from the Black Sea to the Aras River.

While the trail is still being developed in Azerbaijan, there are currently hundreds of kilometres of trail open to the public. The TCTA hope that a 1,200km route from northwest Georgia to southern Armenia will be fully open by 2022.

» Transcaucasian Trail

Video » Patrick Noonan thru-hiked across Ireland

2021.08.03 / Robert Vinet

Due to COVID, Patrick Noonan was restricted from travelling outside his own country. So he thru-hiked around 650km (400 mi) across Ireland, from Dublin to Dursey Island, at the tip of the Beara Peninsula.

Video below.

The most expensive mountains to climb in the world

2021.07.30 / Robert Vinet

Mount Everest

To compile the list of the most expensive mountains to climb, Outforia looked at everything from the cost of joining a guided climbing group, acquiring the necessary permits, the required equipment, to guides and sherpas to hire.

Carl Borg, Outforia »

Scaling the highest peaks in the world requires a combination of hiking, rock climbing, ice climbing, and cold endurance, which naturally makes it quite a niche activity. You need to be mentally and physically ready, have expert skills and equipment, be experienced and aware of the dangers, as well as being able to fund your trip.

As there is so much preparation and equipment involved in tackling these daunting climbs, they can cost eye-watering sums in total. You’ll likely be going as part of a guided group, led by someone who is familiar with the mountain and has completed the climb multiple times before.

The top 10 most expensive climbs in the world (US$)

Mount Everest, Nepal » 29,032 ft » : $84,123
Mount Vinson, Antarctica » 16,067 ft » $46,618
Cho Oyu, Tibet » 29,906 » $33,703
Puncak Jaya, Indonesia » 16,023 » $27,449
Denali, United States » 20,310 » $12,086
Monte San Lorenzo, Argentina » 12,159 » $9,095
Mera Peak, Nepal » 21,247 » $9,000
The Eiger, Switzerland » 13,025 » $8,462
Aconcagua, Argentina »22,841 » $8,395
The Matterhorn, Switzerland » 14,692 » $8,212

Neal Moore is paddling across a changing America, from Oregon to New York

2021.07.17 / Robert Vinet

Neal Moore (Source » ExplorersWeb)

Martin Walsh, ExplorersWeb »

I reached Memphis halfway, at 3,750 miles, on November 3 [election day]. The vast majority of the map I’m plying on this journey is solid red. Minus a few blue dots between Portland, Oregon, and NYC.

Funny, I just paddled past my very first Republican flag on a boat on the Ohio River the other day. It featured simply an elephant and the word “Republican”. It is the first Republican banner I’ve seen on this expedition that didn’t scream Trump. Or include a Confederate Flag on the same pole. Or shock with catchy expletives.

I think we are coming right as a nation. I took a ride over the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Bridge, the longest continuous bridge over water in the world, as the inauguration played out live. As Amanda Gorman delivered her poem of hope, The Hill We Climb. And what I found on the streets of New Orleans later that day were kids of color in motion, laughing and pulling wheelies on their bikes along lower Bourbon Street. The city, the nation, I myself, could breathe.

Neal Moore »

Book » Van Living 1971 » London to India and back

2021.07.16 / Robert Vinet

Anyone who grew up in the 1970’s in North America or Europe will know that van life is nothing new.

Months after meeting, Gay and Jack Reineck outfitted a VW van in London and set out on an adventure. Living in the van for the next 12 months, and 25,000 miles, they travelled through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, to India, and back.

Available from Rufus Guides, the couple have written about their adventure.

A travel diary, journey of discovery, and personal memoir, VAN LIVING 1971 is the story of two young designers beginning a life together.

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Along the way they created an enduring love that would last for more than 50 years.

Video » Trekking Assiniboine » from Sunshine Village to Mount Shark

2021.07.15 / Robert Vinet

Trekking from the Sunshine Village (AB) ski resort near Banff to Mount Shark (AB) along the Alberta (AB) / British Columbia (BC) provincial border.

Rick McCharles at Best Hike calls this one of the world’s ten best.

The folks in this video did the hike in 4 days. Best Hike recommends 6 days.

This area is part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks UNESCO World Heritage Site which includes the contiguous national parks of Banff (AB), Jasper (AB), Kootenay (BC) and Yoho (BC), as well as the Mount Robson (BC), Mount Assiniboine (BC) and Hamber (B.C.) provincial parks.

Video below…

Cycling the Great North Road from London to Edinburgh

2021.07.08 / Robert Vinet

Steve Silk on the Great North Road (Source » The Guardian)

Steve Silk, The Guardian »

With the smell of the North Sea in my nostrils, I feel a long way from central London, where my journey began amid the tangier aroma of delivery driver diesel. My plan was to go in search of the old road between London and Edinburgh: the one that had served the mail coaches, witnessed marching soldiers and highway robbery, and had an ancient and evocative name: the Great North Road.

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Over the last 300-odd miles I’d been pretty faithful to the old road – or at least as faithful as you can be while avoiding dual carriageways and speeding drivers. The key is to find stretches where the new has been built next to the old, rather than on top of it: an orphaned mile or so at Tempsford in Bedfordshire, Stilton in Cambridgeshire or Cromwell in Nottinghamshire. On these forgotten high streets I find it remarkably easy to visualise a time when the mail coach was the king of the road – the horses’ hooves clattering and the guard blowing his horn.

Two men from New Zealand plan first unsupported crossing of Antarctica

2021.07.08 / Robert Vinet

Gareth Andrews (left) and Richard Stephenson (Right)

Devon Bolger, New Zealand Herald »

A New Zealand doctor and his brother-in-law are attempting something that’s never been achieved in Antarctica before — the first unsupported crossing of the icy continent.

Richard Stephenson, 40, from Dunedin, and his brother-in-law Gareth Andrews will begin the 2600km journey with little more than a sled and some skis.

They are expecting it to take about 110 days and will start in November next year.

The pair will begin at the edge of the ice shelf and make their way across the continent, to the other ice shelf, by skiing while dragging their supplies in a sled.