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DETAILS: Adventure Travel Vacation:
Slickrock Adventures |
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At
Slickrock, |
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And After Your Vacation,
Take A Vacation On the final day of the Eco-Challenge Adventure Travel Vacation in Queensland, Australia, Stewart Jensen introduces us to a new and vile concept: the "power set." We are racing another six-person outrigger canoe through heaving swells from the mainland to an island six miles away, and we are being soundly thrashed. Disgusted, Jensen, our tour guide, informs us that our exhausting, 65-strokes-per-inute pace is puny. "A power set," he barks from the rear of the boat, "is four sets of 14 paddle strokes each, going flat-out. Everything you've got." |
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Finally, after the 37th stroke of the fifth power set, our sorry crew tumbles from the canoe onto the sand, damp and wheezing. We limp up the beach. And there, as if in a dream, we find paradise: a white-clothes table spread with boiled prawns, lemon-baked chickens, kangaroo filets, steamed vegetables, cheesecake, and glasses of 1994 Tatachilla Cabernet sauvignon. . Such is the schizophrenic nature of the travel option know as the extreme multisport adventure, which combines kamikaze-type activities with more conventional luxuriating. Most even deign to call themselves vacations -- which requires a rather elastic definition of the term. Although it may be enough for an organized "adventure" trip to provide bicycling or diving or climbing, billing as a multisport adventure requires, well a lotta sports. And, in an attempt to appeal to the AAA-type go-go-go personality, many of these multisport outfitters advertise their particular trips as the most strenuous or eclectic or adventurous ones available. Which guarantees that virtually every moment of a client's vacation will be jammed with aerobic activity.
All of which makes multisport adventures a good choice for those vacation tweeners drawn neither to long, lazy sprawls on the beach nor to living out of a rucksack. A few days on my vacation in Australia lent a little insight into what makes for a successful multisport trip: Most important, it must be diverse. why pay someone money to send you on a ten-mile-long run, which you could manage easily enough on your own? What you need is an outfitter who can supply a kayak or a mountain bike, climbing ropes or an outrigger canoe. The best multisport trips include offbeat, interesting new activities, together with all necessary gear and instruction -- and to my mind, a hot tub and resident masseuse. From the dozens of multisport offerings that met these criteria, we culled five of the most intriguing, including the Eco-Challenge. Each provides plenty of both scenery and sweat, a variety of aerobic activities, and swank dining and accommodation options. Those pleasures don't come without hazards, however: spoonfuls of noxious Vegemite and high-intensity biking, for example, do not mix well. Trust me. |
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Adrift
in Belize
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Outside
Sea Kayaking
There's a certain queasy feeling that comes from bobbing up and down in three-foot swells while ensconced in a slightly wobbly sea kayak. It's not quite seasickness, but it's close enough to make you long for flat water or, better yet, terra firma and a big bed to flop on. Luckily, all three are in ample supply at Slickrock Adventures' sea kayak base camp on Long Caye, a skinny patch of dry land 35 miles off the coast of Belize on Glover's Reef. You can brave the waves on the south side of the island, or paddle the 82-square-mile lagoon inside Glover's Reef, where the Caribbean water is so clear and shallow that you can stop almost anywhere, hook your bowline to a piece of dead coral, and find yourself snorkel-to-fish-eyes with moray eels and grouper in a matter of seconds. If only everything were that easy. |
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On Long Caye, it is. Daily sea-kayaking instruction is comprehensive but painless: No one's barking orders, and by the third morning you'll be planning a half-day paddle to nearby Middle Caye or learning how to do a roll. And instead of cramming the kayaks with tents and sleeping bags for an island-to-island camping trip, your home for the week is a cozy thatch-roof cabana on stilts -- complete with private hammock, a kerosene lamp for reading, and the sound of crashing waves to lull you to sleep. Finding the balance between nap-induced delirium and watersports burnout, however, can be tricky -- especially given all the alternative activities. You should forgo long, blister-inducing stints on the windsurfer if you plan on surf-kayaking in the sandy break off the point. Likewise, an afternoon dive at the famed 3,000-foot wall just offshore will require fortifying yourself on fresh conch stew. Linger too long in the shower and you'll miss the evening beach volleyball game. Then again, you can't miss the sunset: the view from the palm-lined outdoor stall is spectacular.
OUTFITTER: Slickrock Adventures; 800-390-5715; www.slickrock.com. |
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Lead Us into Temptation Best Islands for...SEA KAYAKING
Glover's
Reef, Belize |
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PHOTO CREDITS TOP IMAGE: BILL HATCHER
Copyright
© Lucy Wallingford and Slickrock Adventures, Inc. |
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This wouldn't be so withering if we
hadn't spent the past week of our vacation sailing in a torrential
rainstorm, dodging charging cattle on mountain bikes, leaping off a
25-foot cliff into a raging river, rock-climbing without ropes, trekking
up and down steep valleys, and eating -- or trying to eat -- Vegemite.
None of this suffering impresses Jensen, however. "Power set!"
he yelps. We dig in. Unfortunately, we catch the competition, which only
inspires Jensen. "And another," he cries.
Truth
be told, such cardiovascular gymnastics may not appeal to everyone. fear not.
despite brochure-speak describing full-on "adventures," most of the
newest multisport jaunts more closely resemble packaged cross-training -- with
chateaubriand and shiatsu thrown in. so dump the image of a week long bivouac
with powdered eggs and freeze-dried tuna casserole. Accommodations on these
trips are deluxe and meals copious. "People sometimes gain weight,"
one outfitter admits. 
