UKC

Not really a rock destinations topic (suggestions welcome though), but around the world none the less.

I've just been reading a book on travel destination must do's and I to be honest I'm not really that impressed, sure they're amazing places, but I want to go right off the beaten track, somewhere thats not in the books, or been on TV. I'm not fussed if it's a town in France or a visit to long lost tribe in the Amazon. I'm happy to hunt for the rare the lesser known and the outrageous but, somewhere to start would be nice... Basically I'm after a real adventure.

Suggestions please!

In reply to Gaz lord:
Book a flight to somewhere in South America or Asia, and just go. Don't have any clear ideas about exactly where you are heading,, but just go wherever looks good once you're there...

In reply to 1234None: oohh sounds a plan! but everyones done South America though.

In reply to Gaz lord: How about Iceland? There are obviously parts which are well trodden by tourists but the interior is true wilderness, especially the far North West. There's also a bit of rock climbing if you really want.
The following has some useful info http://www.outdoors.is/mountaineering
Iceland can be expensive but if you camp and self cater its not bad at all and with the Icelandic Krona being one of the few currencies more worthless than the pound right now there's probably never been a cheaper time to go.
If your going for long enough its cheapest to take your car on the ferry but to get to the most remote bits you'd need a 4WD.

In reply to Gaz lord: Trekking in northern Afghanistan?

In reply to Gaz lord:

If I was you I would solo kayak across the Tasman sea from Tassie to NZ as almost done by Andrew MacAuley.

In reply to Gaz lord:

Here's a Real Adventure close to home, if I could get the time of I'd love to have a go. Still needs a second ascent as far as I know, never been done in the opposite direction.

http://members.madasafish.com/~exmoorwalker/page100.html

In reply to Gaz lord:

Drive to Timbuktu?
jk

In reply to Gaz lord:

the aleutian islands then off to Eastern Siberia.

In reply to jkarran:


Been there, done that. By motor bike, anyway.

In reply to the real dr gav: PMSL. Like it. I was going to post with lots of suggestions. Unfortunately they all involved high risk.

In reply to Gaz lord: How about a solo winter attempt on Denali?

In reply to Gaz lord:
THere is apparently climbing in Zimbabwe....
Have a look on the planetfear site.

In reply to Gaz lord:
Go to Svalbard
Plenty unclimbed peaks there and you'll be camping out with the locals,i.e. reindeer and polar bears.
Utter bliss

In reply to Gaz lord:

Yep - of course - everyone has done every part of South America!

In reply to Gaz lord:
Panama to Columbia on foot via the Darian Gap

In reply to David Hooper:


Yep. Fantastic. Its been done by foot and by motorcycle (sort of). Bloody dangerous though.

In reply to Gaz lord: Join a 4x4 guided trip across the Canning Stock route, WA.

In reply to Gaz lord: OK Gaz, seriously. Assuming you can drive. You buy a car costing no more than £100, you spend no more than £50 preparing it. You then head directly East and see how far you can get before the car packs in. My suggestion is that you head towards Lake Baikal in Siberia. If you manage to do this, you give the car away then head back to Moscow on the Trans Siberian railway. have alook at the Plymouth to Banjul banger challenge also.

In reply to Gaz lord:

I went to Papua New Guinea when I was 19, had some hairy moments but a great place to explore and came away with some life enhancing memories and views on life.

In reply to Gaz lord: Gaz, take alook at extreme trifle.com

In reply to Mike Doran:

http://www.normanphillips.co.uk/john_blashford_bio.htm

http://www.4wdonline.com/Places/CentralAmerica/Darien.html

In reply to Gaz lord: Can you ride a push bike? Fancy a little ride from Cairo to Cape Town? Try Tour De Afrique. Sorry, I can go on and on. I realise you may be limited to a budget, buy an old car or an old C90 Scooter and see how far you can get, seriously.

In reply to David Hooper:

ok, that sounds cool I shall have a gander.

In reply to JPG:

With a Union Jack stitched onto your rucksac?

In reply to Gaz lord:

for Darian Gap-related japery, read The Cloud Garden by Paul Winder (of this site) and Tom Hart-Dyke.

In reply to Tall Clare:

I spent a very interesting evening in the pub with Paul chatting about that (interesting for me; old ground for him) - the transition from scared-for-his-life to really, *really* bored happened faster than I'd expected.

Anyway, to the OP:

Depends what sort of thing you want. Your examples suggest that "an objective" isn't a big part of the need - so perhaps go to a varied but minority country?

Belize is fantastic and, if you get away from the city, pretty untravelled.

J

In reply to Gaz lord: How about driving a rickshaw across India?

http://rickshawrun.theadventurists.com/

In reply to Trangia: That, would be quite cool! And if I don't get shot by the Taliban or stand on a land-mine, I can turn myself in at bastion and get a free ride home in a Hercules, courtesy of the British tax payer.:P

In reply to Moacs: Hmm, plus there's also this little wonder there...

http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images/2007-07/belize-blue-hole.jpg

In reply to Gaz lord:

Yes - but that one (in the north) is a tourist-trip and usually swamped with divers.

There's a better one (IMHO) virtually unknown in the south, about 90 minutes' boat ride north of Freshwater Cay which is where the Bull sharks go to mate. Truly awesome!

J

The Kazakhstan side of of the Tien Shan mountain range?

In reply to Gaz lord:

Consider Azerbaijan, (went there, had adventures every day, met great people) then cross the Caspian to some Stans - Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Lesser known, off the beaten track, as you want it, but just arriving somewhere totally fresh to you is adventure itself. Just f****** do it ....research and thinking won't add to the adventure. Go east young man, soon......

In reply to full stottie: Where abouts in Azerbaijan have you been? I was there with work so didn't get to see anything interesting.

In reply to Alasdair Fulton:

there is an area north of Almaty past Genges Khan camp site, 7 rivers area - some un-kayaked ! grade 5-6

and lots acres of Granite cliffs and 4000m high peaks unclimbed ...

up the valley east of Taldykorgan 44°54'54.59" N 79°19'23.49"E up to the Chinese boarder...

I have some photos of these big cliffs... and one of the rivers .

I never do get to actually climb here so I may be up for a trip here ... any one up for it ??? Next Year ?

In reply to Alasdair Fulton:
(Apologies to Gaz for going off-piste on your thread)
Arrived Baku during the troubles early 90's (Russian tanks enforced nightly curfews), travelled up west to mountains, remember place called Sheki - earthquake centre for Az, Caucasus very alpine, big observatory, up to Georgian border. Banned from going to Armenian border - still some fighting. Later, south of Baku along Caspian coast, some weird sandstone outcrops - daft bouldering, towards Iran border. Very distinctive country, all types of landscape, totally gnarly drivers, endless vodka toasts, and sturgeon and caviar with everything....
I hear many changes recently - when you there?

In reply to Gaz lord:

Friends of mine cycled to Australia via Russia (unsupported apart from the odd DHL drop to major stop offs). Pretty much all off any beaten track as far as I could tell.

Hows about going to a saudi beach dressed as a nurse and doing a striptese to a rage against the machine tune (killing in the name of maybe). You'll get to see a whole different side to the country full of unique experiences.

Or hows about going to Vietnam dressed as Gary Glitter.

In reply to Gaz lord:

circumnavigate arround the whole of antartica on a pedalo.

In reply to Ian McNeill: I'm flying out to Uralsk in NW Kaz in week....the flattest and most unfeatured place I've ever been to!

It would be pretty cool to go to Almaty and do some climbing! (not sure if I'd be able to saty out there though!)

In reply to full stottie: I was out there last june, just airport-heliport-oilrig-heliport-airport-home.

It's pretty much a building site just now. New roads and ahlf-built buildings all over the place. Some taxi driver tried to charge me $50 for a 2 minute taxi ride!!!

In reply to Mike Doran:

What about insurance and bribes to take the car across borders etc, that would be a lot of hassle surely?

Phil

In reply to Gaz lord:

How about overland from the Arctic Circle to the Tropic of Cancer? You could take in a climbing trip at the beginning and end at Lofoten and the Sahara!

Dammit, I might just do that

In reply to newkid:

No problems with insurance and bribes, all part of travelling in Africa, i'm afraid. See it as being part of the adventure. Never ever use the word bribe to anyone in Africa though. Always best to ask if there is a fee to be paid, that might ease your passage.

In reply to Mike Doran:

Someone I used to work with was heading off to one of the West African nations and said he had to pop out to get some Dollars for his visa, at which point someone in the office said "but you don't need money for your visa there??", after a short silence, the penny dropped "ah... yes your 'visa', I forgot...".

Btw, cheers for the bike tips

In reply to doz generale:

Or for first prize, circumnavigate half of Antarctica on a pedalo; that means you have to pedal across the middle, BTW.

In reply to GrahamD:

I've thought of doing that. It must be boring as hell cycling on the trans-Siberian highway(s) though!

Stuff that springs to mind for me includes; a decent of the R.Amazon, an east-west crossing of Australia (someone mentioned the Canning stock route?) which hasn't been done unsupported on-foot/mtb (for good reason, I think!), ascent of Carstensz Pyramid in West Papua (continental high point at nearly 5000m and the most technical? 7 summit), follow the tropic of Capricorn or Cancer..

It all depends on how much money and time you have to spare!

Various 'adventures' are listed here http://www.extreme-planet.com/exptype.asp?exptype=0

In reply to Gaz lord:

I'm rather surprised nobody's mentioned Doncaster yet...

Believe it's quite nice this time of year

In reply to jkarran:

That'd be bloody amazing, I went as far as M'Hamid in Morocco (Where the road runs out) and just looking at the absolute wilderness was breathtaking.

I can't imagine what it'd be like to keep going for the remaming 52 days by camel...

In reply to jkarran:

Drive to Timbuku? Surely you must kayak down the R.Niger in the style of Mungo Park Kira Salak did it recently. The Scot, Mungo Park is well worth a read!

Much better than the Welsh lad, Sir Henry Morton Stanley. :P

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mungo_Park_(explorer)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cruelest_Journey

In reply to 2pints: No need to. Go by bus and bush taxi like everyone else. Tarmac most of the way. BTW, how come your not at Glencoe? Thought you were into these meetings.

In reply to Mike Doran:

No no, a bit far/cold for me.

It's also a bit too far to escape back to my house after "upsetting" any UKC'ers ha ha.

In reply to Mike Doran:

I think they've even got electricity and running water in Doncaster too now-a-days...

In reply to Gaz lord: This might provide some inspiration and info- it certainly did for me. Dirt cheap travelling around asia and tibet, plenty of info and advice too. The bloke's an absolute legend. http://www3.utsidan.se/corax-e/

In reply to Bo Robertson:

great site there! Try http://www.mountainbike-expedition-team.de/ (mostly in English) also for some inspiration!

In reply to Gaz lord:

La Ronge, Saskatchewan. Canoe the Churchill river or treck into the boonies.

In reply to Removed User:

Here ya go:

http://www.kayas.ca/communities/laronge/laronge.html

In reply to Gaz lord:

Lake Malawi - kayak end to end. I'd like to do that one!

youtube.com/watch?v=97kRiKpO9So&

In reply to Gaz lord:

out of interest - what time of year?

In reply to Removed User:

Yeah, some of those Canadian rivers look good fun if very long. I've had a look at doing the Yukon or the Mackenzie. Lots of scope for fishing and dare I say trapping/shooting

In reply to Neil Kazimierz Sheridan:

The hunting is well regulated especially for anyone from out of Province but the fishing is easy.

The wilderness is very real and needs to be treated with due respect. There's bears and wolves in them there woods.

In reply to Gaz lord: Go live on a really rough council estate.

In reply to seankenny:

Ha ha. Like it.

In reply to Gaz lord:
A mate of mine got a flight out to cape town, built himself a cheap touring bike and just set off. He got as far as uganda before he contracted malaria and was flown bak to the uk... proper adventure
I imagine something similar to this could be done elsewhere

In reply to Gaz lord:

1. go to aiport with stuff for any weather, warm, cold whatever.
2. see what flights aren't full
3. Go somewhere you've never head of
4. Have Visa issue (maybe)
5. Adventure! (the adventure probably being getting home)

You could try a spot of rock climbing at Fastcastle Head...

In reply to Gaz lord:
go to Ethiopia