Jack-n-Jill Looking for Thrills
Jill: “Say Jack, just how adventurous are you?”
Jack: “Depends. Exactly how much do I get to drink prior to you…”
Jill: “NO, silly! I’m talking about taking a trip.”
Jack: Oh. Nevermind.”
And that is how the discussion began. What exactly are some outlandish travel adventures that sound way cool. Whether or not we would commit to them is unimportant. We’re talking… sit around, let the wine pour and the imagination run free (before our hands and lips do).
Go on Safari… in Chile!
Spend six days with Quasar Expeditions, tracking the largest puma (“here, kitty kitty”) in the world through the mountains and grasslands of Patagonia (not the sports apparel company). In Torres del Paine National Park, these mountain lions stake out home ranges of over 100 miles. You’ll be guided by a pair of experienced trackers as you make your way from forests to mountain caves. There’s no ‘hit or miss’ in this adventure—a dedicated tracker will radio in when a puma is spotted.
You might also see other critters too, including the African camel that are among the puma’s food sources as well as gray foxes, red foxes, hairy armadillos, hog-nosed skunks, and birds such as Andean condors, Chilean flamingos, Austral parakeets, and crested caracaras. It’s a smorgasbord of wildlife!
Peak Puma time (dawn and dusk) are also optimal times to take in the natural splendor of the park’s best features. Watch the sun hit the granite towers of the Torres del Paine, make a halo of a guanaco’s furry coat, or illuminate Sarmiento Lake’s otherworldly blue.
Tracking the World’s Largest Mountain Lion: The Patagonian Puma
From $6,250. Departures year-round.
“Row, row, row your boat… “ in Oregon
Fifty years ago, when the Rogue River became one of eight rivers in the United States protected by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the surrounding rugged, complex canyon landscape in southwestern Oregon was protected, too. ROW Adventures makes the region accessible to voyagers of all levels with three or four-day rafting excursions that don’t even require you to sleep in a tent (now, what fun is that???). Pummel through white water during the day and unwind at riverside inns every night (I’d still rather camp).
You will experience peak adrenaline as you navigate no fewer than 80 rapids over the course of more than 40 miles, all the while looking out for wildlife such as black bears and river otters along the way. Rare plants, including the endemic Rogue River stonecrop, a flowering succulent, bloom on the slopes of the surrounding Siskiyou and Klamath mountains, and trail hikes and walks to historic homesteads break up your time on the water.
Rogue River Rafting
From $895. Regular departures through October 2018.
Venture to Eastern Greenland (is it really green?)
Natural Habitat Adventures leans on more than thirty years of Greenland expertise, and it apparently shows. It runs the only luxury base camp in East Greenland, outfitted with safari-style tent cabins that have private verandas, and its expedition leaders are among the most experienced in the business.
During the nine-day summer excursion, a helicopter or boat delivers travelers to the camp on the shores of East Greenland’s Sermilik Fjord (say that five times fast). By then, the snow has melted, giving way to plentiful berries and Arctic wildflowers. The views of icebergs as large as buildings, of the Greenland ice sheet (stretching over 1,500 miles from north to south), and of seals at play in the frigid waters, are unparalleled. Guided kayak excursions allow visitors to get upfront and personal. That being said, always remember- wildlife is exactly that; WILD.
Despite harsh conditions most of the year, traditional living still thrives. Meet artisans who make handicrafts of stone and bone in Tasiilaq, drink tea with a local and learn about traditional bead-work in the village of Tinit, and watch a traditional drum dance in Kulusuk. And if that wasn’t enough of a deal, Natural Habitat Adventures offsets 100 percent of the carbon emissions from its trips. Monty Hall would be envious.
Discover Greenland: The Natural Habitat Experience
From $10,995. Seasonal departures begin in July 2018 and July 2019.
Walk the Deserts of Oman (I got nothin’ for this one)
The inland beauty of Oman with its jagged mountains, vast sand dunes, rocky wadis (seasonally dry gorges), and preserved fortresses, is the star of a seven-day Butterfield & Robinson tour. The journey starts with a visit to Wadi Nakhar (also known as Oman’s Grand Canyon). Take the three-hour “balcony walk” along its red rim or hike through the gorge itself, where the changing light and shadow on canyon walls and acacia trees mark the passage of time. If you choose the latter, you might also catch craftsmen making rugs of goat hair once you arrive in the valley village of Al Nakhar. Day three marks the trip’s midway point in Nizwa, the site of one of the oldest souks in the country. There, bargain for a silver khanjar, a curved ceremonial dagger so important that it appears on the national flag. Its scabbard forms a 45-degree angle, unique among other Middle Eastern specimens. You’ll spend time with Bedouins while camping in the Wahiba Sands and take a day to explore the waterfalls, turquoise pools, and pockets of palm trees among the cliffs of Wadi Shab.
Oman Walking: Mysticism Among the Mountains
From $6,995. November 10–16, 2018; 2019 departures also available.
Cruise the Kimberley Coast of Australia (“… on a Sunday afternoon”)
Australia’s Kimberley region is an immense and diverse landscape in the northern part of the country that encompasses gorges, waterfalls, rain forests, cave systems, and a variety of wildlife. It is also one of the world’s last great wilderness areas. The luxury adventure ship Le Laperouse carries 150 passengers/adventurers through archipelagoes and along the wild Kimberley coast on this 13-day Abercrombie & Kent tour, which blends nature and culture.
Take a jet-boat tour through the Horizontal Falls of Talbot Bay, waterfalls created by massive tidal currents squeezing through two narrow gorges. Helicopter to sandstone-carved Mitchell Falls, where passengers may soak or swim in the emerald pools at the bottom and take a nature tour on foot (now doesn’t that sound nice!). Or get a glimpse of the striking, beehive-striped Bungle Bungle mountain range on a scenic flight over the northernmost reaches of the Kimberley (Jill has an obsession with bees). An onboard specialist lends insight into the region’s history of Aboriginal peoples, and the cruise itinerary includes outings to see ancient paintings and rock art sacred to the indigenous Wunambal and Worrorra populations. Visits with local residents help illuminate modern-day life in these cultures, and their connection to ancient ways.
Kimberley Cruise: Australia’s Last Frontier
From $12,495. June 20–July 2, 2019.
So you wanna be a cowboy, huh
For more than 1,000 years, the Nenets people have lived on what is called “the end of the world” in the local language: the Yamal Peninsula, a swath of peatland extending from northern Siberia to the Arctic Ocean. Join them there on a 17-day journey with Secret Compass, and you’ll help herd their reindeer during the annual migration to pasturelands near the Arctic Circle.
Intensive cultural immersion with the Nenets is a key part of the experience. Guests live with some of the families, wear traditional fur and hand-sewn herders’ clothing, sleep in reindeer-hide tents known as chums, and brave the Arctic weather conditions. Beware, it can get a wee bit nippy (temperatures can drop to −40 degrees). Daily life involves dismantling the tent, packing the wooden box sledges pulled by snowmobiles, and rounding up the reindeer every few days to move to fresh pastures. A highlight is crossing the frozen Gulf of Ob. Because there is no food for the animals on the frigid surface, herders and travelers must urge the reindeer on until they reach the far shore, a distance of some 37 miles. That leg of the journey can take up to 24 sleepless hours.
The migration culminates in the annual Reindeer Herding Festival in Yar Sale village. Hundreds of Nenets arrive from the surrounding taiga forest and tundra to compete in such traditional contests as reindeer lassoing, sledge racing, sledge jumping, and wrestling.
Nenets Reindeer Migration
From $2,326. March 24–April 9, 2019.
Take a Walk On the Wildside
When was the last time you met someone who just got back from a vacation in Pakistan? OK, when was the FIRST time??? Well, now YOU can lay claim to being the ‘first’ by taking a 20 day Geographic Expeditions adventure that opens the door to corners of Pakistan and China that are difficult for most travelers to reach.
It begins on the Silk Road in Kashgar, China, the center of regional trade, where artisans still craft wooden musical instruments and copper tea urns as they’ve done for hundreds of years. From there, guests travel along the Karakoram Highway over the 15,397 foot high Khunjerab Pass and into northeastern Pakistan. In the Hunza Valley, glacier-fed rivers run at the foot of jagged peaks, and the area’s ancient capital, Karimabad, sits atop a green hill overlooking the expanse below.
Kick into four-wheel drive for an amateur archaeologist’s dream ride through the valley. A 7th century Kargah Buddha carved into a nearby mountain, and 13th and 14th century mosques testify to the region’s layered religious history. And for nature enthusiasts, crossing the Deosai Plateau offers the rare opportunity to traverse regional habitats of endangered Himalayan brown bears and threatened snow leopards before spending a final night in a peaceful evergreen forest. All the while, you can have friends track your exploits via social media. Actually, you can’t.
Hunza Valley of Pakistan
From $9,625. June 15–July 4, 2019 and August 31–September 19, 2019.