Adventure Travel

This city is in ruins, now, but it's one of Israel's 'Desert Cities in the Negev' on the UNESCO World Heritage list.  Standing under an archway looking at the barren desert beyond, it's easy to picture why this was a stop for traders herding camels carrying frankincense and myrrh.   Explore on your own, or during a Negev jeep tour.

If you enjoy learning about ancient times, go on an archeological dig.

Photo: © 2012 Lois Friedland

We took a multi-generational trip to Steamboat, Colorado, recently, to go skiing.  Choosing a house over condos gave us a real sense of family.  We had a perfect mix of togetherness in the spacious living room, and private time in bedrooms for all.  Here's a lodging review of Moving Mountains.

Photo courtesy of Moving Mountains

Standing on the crater's edge at sunset, shadows fill sections of the tumbled multi-colored rocky terrain, making the scene even more dreamlike. You can take a jeep ride into the Ramon Crater,  or hike on the trails threading the harsh terrain.

The ancient city of Avdat, which is one of the desert cities on the UNESCO World Heritage List, is nearby.

Photo: (c) Lois Friedland

Mountain Travel Sobek's mega-sale, when you can get thousands of dollars off some of the company's most popular trip, starts tomorrow, Monday, May 13. Every day, through Friday, May 17,  a new major offer will be revealed.

They are poised to dive on a board 27 meters (about 88 feet) above the lake, so you can't see their faces. But, have you ever wondered what these cliff divers are thinking before they spring off the board and soar downward?

Here's what two cliff divers - a  man competing in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series and a woman competing in the first ever Red Bull Women's Cliff Diving Competition -  have to say in a Q&A.

Red Bull Cliff Diving - Photographer Dean Treml

Ben Shook and his friends experience an extreme adventure, as they ski down a couloir, which narrows into an hourglass shape with a 12-foot-wide waist then funnels into a rock island.  Did I mention they are in the Antarctica?  It's a superb read, and a touching tribute to the late Doug Coombs and friends who have died.

You'll find the article in an issue of Sierra, a magazine published by the Sierra Club.  The article is by Shook and the photographs by Gabe Rogel. (Check out the one where Shook is doing a front flip off a glacier.)

Crawling into ice caves and standing between Japanese women wearing high heels in front of a ski plane, so their husbands could take a picture, are two of my most vivid memories of skiing down the Tasman Glacier on New Zealand's South Island. The snow was soft, the sun was shining, and the beauty of the surrounding wilderness in Aorak/Mount Cook National Park made it a memorable day. Any skier heading to Queenstown should carve out a day to hitch a ride on a ski plane and cruise down ski down the Tasman Glacier.

Photo: (c) Rob Lile

Were you one of the fortunate ones who got tickets to the annual Burning Man in Nevada's Black Rock Desert? If not, you might still be able to get some through the STEP program.  The only other option is the OMG Last Chance Sale in August (and just 1,000 tickets will be sold).

What's Burning Man? Is it a festival? A Pagan rite? An art event? Trying to define the annual Burning Man gathering is like trying to describe what an art festival designed around a bonfire looks like. This year's theme is Cargo Cult.

We were sitting on the bottom and the sharks were circling around us. One came so close I bopped it with my gauge. What an adventure!

Photo: (c) Dick Friedland

We were swimming with Bottlenose dolphins in the middle of the ocean when the sharks arrived. The dolphins swam home and jumped back into Sanctuary Bay, while we swam back to the boat.

We were diving with UNEXSO off Grand Bahama Island.