Safari: conservation in action

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts, safariadventureholidays     Africa, eco-holidays, eco-tourism, safari, safari hoidays, tanzania

Each hostel New York has will have people staying who have travelled all over the world. It’s part of the hostel experience to mix and share stories, reveal travels far and wide, and soak up the experience of others. And one common theme or sensitivity comes through when socialising with well-travelled people: a love of nature.

Zebra in Tanzania Image: Flickr/ David Berkowitz

Our appreciation of the planet’s fragility is a relatively new thing. Until recently, surprisingly few people realised what impact we were having on the environment. Happily things are changing. One noticeable move is the interest in conservation holidays and eco-tourism. If there is one way to see nature up-close while directly supporting its protection, it’s by taking safari holidays.

Conservation, however, is not complete protection: animals on wildlife reserves are not hidden from natural predators, nor are they shielded from the worst nature can throw at them – just from the dangers we can pose to their survival.

Keeping animals in zoos helps breeding programmes for those truly endangered species, but to better understand how eco-systems and natural environments are preserved, it’s always best to get to the countries where these animals originate and see what’s being done.

Previously people went on game safaris to collect trophies; today tourists prefer to shoot animals with cameras. By going on safari your money goes into the local economy and helps create jobs. Well-trained guides help find you the best picture opportunities, and thanks to funding and international initiatives, some of the most precious habitats on Earth are helped. When managed properly, the safari offers real-time conservation and unforgettable travel experiences.

New movies help book snowboarding holidays

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     aspen, Skiing, Snow, Snowboarding, snowboarding holidays, US

Skiing in Aspen is big business. The resort is one of the best-known locations for snow sports and has continued its tradition of screening the year’s best snow sports movies. At this year’s ‘The Meeting’ 12 movies were shown to audiences already stoked about the coming snowfalls and the potential for powder.

Mad moves, mad movies

So if you are getting ready for your season, or just hankering after some inspiration to get you booking a winter holiday in France, Austria or even Aspen, check out this clip.

It’s not a shiny pr vid showing you perfect slopes and shimmering snow crystals – this is definitely more up our street. We picked it as our favourite for its homegrown, homemade and half-jackass madness. It’s the latest offering from the damn juicy Meathead Films.

Now, is it going to be lazy beach Xmas or a full-on snowboarding holiday? If you’re still undecided, watch this:

“Prime Cut” Official 2011 Movie Trailer – Meathead Films from Meathead Films on Vimeo.

‘Creatively Adventurous’ 25 ways to travel 1,000 miles

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     Adventure Travel, america, australia, expeditions, explorer, Kayaking, skateboard, South America, SUP, World record

Being adventurous is just not enough for some people. Take Dave Cornthwaite: he’s set up Expedition1000, a series of 1,000-mile challenges each using non-motorised transport. With world records falling along the way and the media knocking on the door, we thought we’d grab a word with the man (he just paddled the Mississippi on a SUP!)

Best described as ‘creatively adventurous’, Dave is bringing fresh ideas to the world of expeditions and endurance challenges – and a considerable amount to his growing charity pot. Read on and find out what it’s taken to get this far, and where this remarkeable journey is headed.

Dave on the Mississippi

SUP is fairly new to the UK but increasingly popular, as long distance transport how does it compare to kayaking or canoeing?

In 2009, I kayaked over 1500 miles along the length of Australia’s Murray River, at the time it was easily the most enjoyable journey I’d ever made. Now I can safely say that I will never travel by kayak again. Not only is SUP a much better form of all-round exercise, it’s a more rewarding experience. The vantage point is better, it’s more simple, less impact. People will be travelling long distances by SUP until the end of time, it’s glorious.

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Celebrity news: stars face real survival battle

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     Adventure Travel, botswana, Discovery Channel, expedition, Freddie Flitoff, I'm a celebrity, survival, travel gadgets, trekking, winter Olympics

I’m A Celebrity Get Me A Wet Wipe! Yes, any TV show that puts celeb contestants in ‘extreme’ environments is usually a farce – punctuated with weeping, flirting and general faffing around with maggots: Until now.

The don't look so good after 6 days in the wild!

That’s because The Discovery Channel is about to air Alone in the Wild a programme that is, as far as I can see, pretty much the real thing.

Eight celebs dumped off for six days and six nights to fend for themselves, with only what they could carry and a digital camera for company.

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SunnyCam Video Glasses Review: Mountain Biking

Luke    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     Downhill, Mountain Bike, mountainbiking, riding a mountain bike, SunnyCam, video glasses

It is not often that I keep an eye out for the postman, however when the SunnyCam video glasses were expected I was camped out on the doorstep in anticipation. The excitement was thanks to a piece of gadgetry that puts a 3MP 30 frames per second video camera into a pair of sunglasses! Perfect if you have James Bond fantasies, but much more fun if you want to record madcap adventure sports videos!

SunnyCam glasses

Many good products fail on their looks – not something SunnyCam was going to let happen. Even from the Apple-like quality packaging, they’d clearly put the effort in, and yes I’m keeping the box!

The glasses look good, and although not the coolest sunglasses you have ever seen, the fact that they discretely contain the video camera, battery, 4GB internal memory, space for a microSD card, a USB slot, and controls all in a pair of glasses is pure genius. Most of the clever stuff is in the arms of the specs, with a 3-hour battery on one side, and the memory and controls on the other. It makes them a little bulky, but considering what they contain I feel they have done a great job.

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Top 10 Travel Gadgets 2011

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     laptops, travel gadgets, travel gear, travel kit, waterproof

Travelling can be done on a shoestring: you can rough it in Rio or doss on a bench in Buenos Aires; we’ve lost count the number of times we ended up crashed on a beach somewhere – but, given the choice, there’s at least ten gadgets we’d have packed in our travel bag.

Panasonic HX-WA10EB:Waterproof HD pics and clips

Waterproof/shockproof digicam

Camera manufacturers have woken up! We need ruggedized models, and we need ones that take both pictures and HD movies – and can do it anytime, anyplace, and anywhere. This year a raft of new models has landed on the shelves. We’ve tried the Panasonic HX-WA10 and can vouch for its ease of use and reliability.

SunnyCam Video Glasses

Always an odd choice, but for capturing the POV action without spending a small fortune, there’s no other totally hands-free solution. This model SunnyCam glasses served us well on some downhill mountain bike sections. While the quality can’t compare with the HD camcorders, it still uses a 3 MP webcam, running 30 frames per second. There are also interchangeable lenses and a decent 3-hr memory on offer.

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Ski Touring? Why skiing without ski lifts isn’t rubbish.

James    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     off piste, ski holidays, ski resort, ski touring, Skiing, Skiing Holidays

In the first of a new occasional series explaining the basics of less well-known adventure sports, we use the classic journalistic trick of a fake interview to give a basic overview of the activity, starting with SKI TOURING

So, What is Ski touring?

Ski touring is skiing without lifts. Using special bindings you can hike up and then ski down slopes and make cross country routes.

Ski Touring and free from the slopes. Image Flickr/ Stephan Mantler

So it’s like skiing but with no ski lifts? Sounds rubbish.

If you think of it purely as hugely inconvenient regular skiing then you’d be right. The ski touring experience has more in common with hiking but with the added bonus of having a lot more fun on the downward sections.

I’ve tried walking up hills in skis. You just slide backwards!

With ski touring you attach a grippy felt layer called a skin on the bottom of each ski. The skins, which were made from seal skin in the old days, ensure that you can grip the snow with the bottom of the skis and can easily walk up slopes. You then take off the skin when you want to ski down.

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