In 2007, the vacation of choice for the person who has almost everything is increasingly becoming a deliberate walk (or dive) on the wild side.

Adventure travel — which once meant little more than a fully escorted luxury trip to an exotic destination — now requires training, gear and guts. Caving, round-the-world sailing, coasteering, squid diving and African bush skills camp are five ways to push the envelope.

The Descent

Ever since mankind got out of them, caves have been a mysterious lure for the imagination. In reality, however, caving can be a thrilling adventure that gets in the blood and makes dedicated troglodytes of the most sophisticated travelers.
I’m in the UK, standing in front of a sign that says, “Porth Yr Ogof Cave” and then, ominously, “Many people have died here. Cave responsibly.”

I blanch and figure that’s a good enough reason to back out — plus the fact that we’re wearing stiff yellow boiler suits that make all three of us (my instructors and I) look like giant Teletubbies. No, no, don’t worry, they assure me. Those were people who didn’t have instructors with them. They also went into the really dangerous parts, like where the underground river could drown them.

We start the descent into the echoing blackness. As we get farther in, the roof above dips down lower and lower. It’s like crawling into a stone vise. Here in the matrix of the cave, an adult can’t stand up straight. It gives you a heart-pumping sensation of fear, mixed with adrenalin (enough to get you out) and intrigue at the glittering underground world unfolding around you.

Expert cavers take the smaller passages that lead to challenges such as the slot-like apertures called “letterbox” holes. You basically flatten yourself into a letter-thin shape and mail yourself through. Real cave fanatics often wear wetsuits and combine swims through underground rivers with repels from precarious underground cliffs.

After two hours of exploring a magical environment that feels like something straight out of Lord of the Rings, I get to emerge from the other side of the cave triumphant. I unzip the boiler suit and stretch my arms and legs in the warming Welsh sun. The next day, I’ll find bruises and welts beneath my knee and elbow pads and in other more unexpected places. I’ll also find that it’s hard to shake the feeling of being in the earth’s core from your mind. It catches, and you find yourself with a bad case of cave fever. Caving is a love/hate proposition: If you don’t freak out, you know you’ll be back.

Caving in the U.S.: www.caves.org
Caving and adventure sports in Wales and Porth yr Ogof: www.visitbritain.com

Around the World

For Brian Luster, a Brooklyn, N.Y.–based performance analyst, extreme travel means going the distance—across the North Pacific Ocean, to be exact, on the longest leg of the Clipper (www.clipper-ventures.com) amateur sailing race in 2006.
“I grew up around sailboats and had done lake sailing, but never anything this extreme,” says Luster. “But I’ve always wanted to race sail around the world. I guess I just felt like it was time.” Luster put his life on hold for the 30 days of his “leg” of the race (some sailors went the whole 10 months). He ponied up more than $10,000 in fees and airfare and flew to the UK, where he took intensive crew training before hopping another plane and flying to Qing Dao, China, to begin his journey across the North Pacific to Victoria, British Columbia.


“The fact that it was an ocean crossing and we never made port once made it more thrilling,” Luster explains. But his first major adrenalin rush came during his first storm, three days into the trip. “I could feel the boat rocking, slamming into the waves. I put on all my gear, I climbed up onto the deck and thought, ‘Holy cow, what am I doing here?’ and then it was me steering the boat through it all.”


The North Pacific leg of the 10-month race is “the longest, coldest and roughest,” says Luster. “It was one of the most challenging experiences of my life. We came in third place, but winning wasn’t the most important issue. Even now, as I look back on it from the comfort of my sofa, it just keeps getting better and better. And doing the sail gave me great street cred with my sailing friends.”

Hemingway for a Week

The African bush version of street cred is just what you need when threatened by an enraged adult rhino or a pride of hungry lions on the kill.

You can get it in South Africa at CC Africa’s Bush Skills Academy (www.ccafrica.com). The Bush survival school is located in the Phinda safari camp and “aimed at executives who fantasize about being game rangers.”

The fantasy becomes real during this four-day “school,” where Hemingway wannabes get to train with rifles (but no shooting the animals, please), as well as learn fauna and flora, tracking techniques, and the secret wilderness survival strategies of real rangers.

“The scariest part of bush skills [differs] for different personalities,” says Mike Karantonis, Phinda specialist ranger. “Some find sleeping out in the bush pretty intimidating; some people get quite weary when they see how big a rhino really is when you are viewing them on foot; and some people get real nervous when we do driving skills and the vehicle is at extreme angles.”

When school ends for the day, take out a Montecristo and sip a brandy at the luxury lodge, or camp out in tents under the stars, protected by your newfound ranger skills, your trusty rifle and the elite crew of experienced rangers at your side.

Take a Dive

You take a deep breath, then dive off a craggy cliff into the pounding, punishing North Atlantic Sea. Buoyed up by your equipment, you try to swim, but in the end, you let the waves thrash and play with you like you’re a giant doggie toy, sometimes slamming you into rocks, sometimes pulling you further out to sea. Then, when you finally get a hand on something solid, you drag yourself up the wet cliffside and do it all over again. Is this insanity? No, it’s coasteering.

Coasteering, which sounds like something you’d put under drinks at a party, is one of the world’s fastest-growing extreme sports. Developed in West Wales — known for its ruggedly beautiful coastline — in the ’80s and ’90s, it combines swimming in wet suits, climbing and diving off sheer cliffs along coastal routes.

The sport is catching on across the globe, but it originated in Pembrokeshire, which has the attraction of a vast, unspoiled coastline and remains the premier spot for this mad adventure. UK-based operators such as TYF (www.tyf.com) specialize in coasteering for beginners and experienced adventurers who want to explore the area’s natural offerings.

Jeff Loo, finance director for The Guardian newspaper, first heard about coasteering as a way to help build management capability. As a PADI-certified rescue diver, Loo isn’t scared by much, but he does note that coasteering teaches you “to respect the sea and the enormous power and strength sapping ability it has.”

Loo has brought staff to the coasteering experience since 1992. “I always get a great sense of achievement from watching people who would say, ‘You’ll never get me in there. I can’t do it.’ Afterwards, they say, ‘That was fantastic.
It was the most exciting, stimulating thing I’ve ever done. I feel like I can do anything.’ ”

Facing Down the Red Demon

The giant Humboldt squid, aka “the Red Demon,” is watching. “He’s scrutinizing you,” says diver and photographer Ivo Kocherscheidt. “He is big, clever and aggressive. The Humboldt squid is also one of the most unpredictable animals in the sea. You don’t know what he’s going to do.”

At least trying to predict what the Red Demon might do is a good thing when you’re squid diving. “This animal has three hearts, blue blood, eight arms, two tentacles and 70,000 teeth,” says Scott Cassell, team leader for Sea Wolves Unlimited (www.sea-wolves.com), a San Diego–based adventure outfitter that takes experienced divers to deep-sea encounters with the ornery but fascinating creatures. “Even though you are wearing chain mail armor, his beak can snap a hand, arm or foot off if you’re not careful.”

Divers learn to be very, very careful during Cassell’s Squid School training program. Then they’re brought out to sea, where they dive (without cages) with these mysterious and misunderstood animals.

“The unique thing about encountering the giant squid is that it is unpredictable,” explains Kocherscheidt. “They think and evaluate conditions as they change. We are going into new territory here. The squid is one of the few problem-solving animals in the sea, and that’s why they are dangerous.”

Certified divers willing to go head-to-head with the giant squid can combine the trip with Sea Wolves’ partner Sharkdiver (sharkdiver.com) for deep-sea submarine shark encounters.

Scott’s final word to the wise on squid diving: “Don’t overestimate yourself, and never underestimate a giant Humboldt squid.”

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When she’s not on the road living like Lara Croft, GRETCHEN KELLY can be found curled up safely in bed with a hot cup of Earl Grey and her two cats, Boots and No Boots.