There is a confluence within 49 miles (79 km) of you if you're on the surface of Earth...

...and potential for adventure at every point in between. The Degree Confluence Project is amazing: The goal of the project is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location. The pictures, and stories about the visits, will then be posted here.

Secret Chinatown Tunnels

A formal search (ground-penetrating radar) is underway in Fresno CA. There is endless (often rambling, but engaging) discussion regarding their possible existence in Victoria BC with occasional glimpses provided by the urban exploration cognoscenti. The rumors and hearsay surrounding the tunnels in both towns are essentially identical. Must be true.

The South Atlantic & Subantarctic Islands

The voyage of the JB Charcot has piqued my interest in this region. Paul Carroll has a great website on the subject.

Fifteen Thousand Miles in a Ketch

I've been reading obscure adventures from another era: In 1907-1909 RAYMOND RALLIER DU BATY, author of Fifteen Thousand Miles in a Ketch, with a crew of four, sailed their ketch the J.B. Charcot on an adventure from France to Australia. But how to finance this little trip? Why, Hunt sea elephants for their oil on Kerguelen island in the subantartic of course!

The oil was sold at Melbourne to pay the crew and the ship was sold to cover other expenses of what was essentially a private voyage of exploration and discovery. Calls were also made at Rio & Tristan da Cunha. The author had been the Charcot's first officer on the Pourquoi Pas? expedition in 1903-5. Good reading!

What's interesting about the adventure is that even 100 years later, the perspectives of the author strike me as very similar to those of present-day adventurers--apart from the we'll-finance-this-with-seal-oil part.

The author also mentions the discovery of a cave that appeared to have been inhabited by ship-wrecked sailors at one point, with many interesting abandoned artifacts including a sea-elephant skull soup pot which the adventures wanted but were unwilling to be burdened with on the long hike back to the ship. I wonder if it's still there...

Abandoned Plane Wrecks of the North

Abandoned plane wrecks of the north! Sometimes bold adventure take unexpected turns / end badly. Exploring/discovering/salvaging some these wrecks would certainly make for good adventuring though. This gives me one more reason to get working on my pilot's license!

Into the Wild

Over at Thepovertyjetset I stumbled across a reminder of something I've been looking forward to for about two years now (thanks Magdalenus). A movie based on Jon Krakauer's 'Into the wild' is set to be released on September 21st. The book is an excellent journalistic piecing together of the extraordinary (and last) adventures of Christopher McCandless. A 'must read' for all adventurers.

When contemplating adventures, I often think of one of excerpts from the book based on McCandless's writings (I'm paraphrasing): 'Don't kid yourself, a challenge isn't really a challenge if there's a good chance that you'll actually succeed.'

In a van down by the river

Here's a recipe for adventure:

1. Sell most of our crap. Store the rest.
2. Find, buy, steal, or otherwise get a van.
3. Pimp out said van with a custom bed, office, LCD tv, etc.
4. Get a high speed internet connection
5. Get laptops, photo, and video gear to document this crazy thing.
6. Figure out what to take along for survival
7. Go!

I look forward to following this one!

Drainsploration: Adventures in the drains of Canada

Fine underground urban adventure in Toronto: The explorers' website, The Vanishing Point, provides some great photos and very detailed contextual documentation. There is a really engaging interview with one of the adventures over at the BLDGBLOG.

I'm going to have to look into exploring some local drains.

bumfuzzle!

Here's a great sailing adventure travel blog that I recently re-discovered. It's about a couple who abandon yuppy-hood in order to sail around the world. I love how they've documented all the costs in detail (looks like about $20-25k USD per year), and how they keep a page where they quote "internet critics" who imply that their adventures are reckless. Discussion of their (mis)adventures have even been banned on a popular cruising forum. Sounds like some folks are jealous. I know I am!

Now it seems they decided to sell the boat in favor of driving around the world in a vintage VW bus (and some vintage porsche x-country racing as well). It great to see people devoting them selves to adventure.

Solar Powered Circumnavigation

Kati Rutz of transatlantic21 wrote to let us know that plans are indeed in the works for solar circumnavigation.

www.planetsolar.org

ghost towns = adventure

http://www.ghosttownpix.com/

http://www.ontarioabandonedplaces.com/

I really enjoy visiting ghost towns. A trip to an abandoned town pretty much ensures that you'll get off the beaten track.

This Fab Trek

A great (ongoing) multi-year travel adventure blog. Staged from a Foley.

Maximog!

A totally maxed out Unimog with kinked-out minimalist trailer and jet-boat, motorcycle, UAV and ROV accessories. It's totally over the top, but perfect for adventure. Unfortunately there is no sign that it has actually been on an adventure yet (aside from being exhibited at MoMA)...have to track it down.

Paddle to the amazon; Paddle to the Arctic

I recently finished reading Paddle to the Acrtic, and re-reading Paddle to the Amazon. These are amazing stories. In 1980 a man and his two sons embark upon a truly bold adventure. The plan: canoe from Winnipeg Manitoba, CANADA, all the way to the mouth of the Amazon River--completely under their own power. It takes them two years, countless encounters with extreme danger, and one son heads home early, but they do it! About a decade later, as if to prove that he is indeed complete and totally (and wonderfully) crazy, that same man, sans sons, attempts to paddle the Northwest Passage (Churchill Manitoba to Tuktoyaktuk NT) and though it takes him a few seasons, and a few friends, he ultimately awakens to find that he has pretty much propelled his half-frozen-amputation-requiring-carcass to his destination. Best of all, the book is written in diary format, and partway though he starts recording GPS coordinates with each entry! Reading the book while connected Google Earth makes you feel like you are right there, only warmer.

Mmmmm...infiltration

Abandoned: sites; churches; boats; drains; catacombs(!); hotels; hospitals; utility tunnels; subways!!

http://infiltration.org/transit-subway.html

So bold and yet so dangerous!

Oregon man 'flies' his helium balloon-levitated lawn chair across the state.

Of course it's been done before.

Around the world on a motorcycle on about $10 per day!

"Makiko Sugino from Japan has been traveling solo around the world on her motorcycle continuously for the past five years. She has logged over 250,000 miles; has toured every continent, most countries, and has been hospitilized three times due to accidents, and yet she still keeps going."

Thanks to Swan for posting this encounter with this bold adventurer!

First solar-powered transatlantic crossing

Humans have been crossing the world's oceans in zero-emission vehicles thousands of years, but Sun21 appears to be the first to make a photovoltaic-powered crossing.

Exporing ghost railway bridges--by air!

Here's a neat website by a fellow explorer who is interested in abandoned places. Exploring abandoned places always has the potential for great adventure. Not having access to a plane myself (yet) I'll have to explore these with some other conveyance. The included GPS coordinates will help.

Welcome to The Bold Adventurers Blog.

The plan is simply to post storys/links about adventures that we find interesting and unusual.

Send us storys and images from your adventures, or adventures you have heard about. They don't have to be exotic/expensive, they just have to be cool!