Stretching from Marrakech to the Galapagos Islands, Maui to
Lapland and everywhere in-between there are hundreds of exciting and beautiful
travel destinations. Millions of people look forward to their yearly holiday to
discover another beautiful place, explore a new country, relax, and spend time
with their family while on vacation.
However, the face of tourism is quickly changing as people
look more and more for something out of the ordinary. Adventurers, in
particular, have an insatiable appetite for the extreme. Here are ten extreme travel destinations to seduce the daring
adventurer.
1. Coldest inhabited
place: Oymyakon, Russia
This rustic village in northern Russia gets the unenviable
award of being the coldest inhabited place on the planet. On a typical January
day, the temperature averages -50°C (-58°F). On one particularly cold day in
1926 a reading of -71.2°C (-96.16°F) was recorded, can you imagine this?
Temperatures here are usually way below freezing point from
October to April each year. Yet, despite this extreme weather, the village has
a population of about 500. Enterprising locals have turned the harsh weather
into an opportunity for adventure travel. The Pole of Cold festival was
launched in 2001 and provides visitors the opportunity to enjoy ice fishing,
reindeer sledge riding and the chance to make various practical experiments on
the effects of cold and frost in several situations.
2. Hottest inhabited
place: Dallol, Ethiopia
A National Geographic interview described Dallol as the hell
hole of creation. It is situated in the Danakil Desert in northern Ethiopia,
where temperatures average 34° (94°F) all year round. In addition to this
extremely hot weather, the area is geographically unstable. Scientists have
established that during prehistoric times this territory used to be a gulf, the
sea bed rose briefly before retreating and forming the Afar depression.
Tremors are common and there are several active volcanoes.
Geysers spew a salty concoction that results in stunning color surfaces.
Despite this inhospitable environment, Dallol is home to the nomadic Afar
people. Their economic mainstay is sheep herding and trading salt extracted
from several small lakes that dot the Afar Depression.
3. Flattest place:
Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
You will have to visit Salar de Uyuni to believe it; for
miles all around is a flat endless sea of white. With almost 11,000 square km,
this Bolivian salt flat is the largest in the world. It is remarkably level;
the variation in elevation is less than one meter over the entire area. The
salt flats are the remains of a prehistoric lake and there are no drainage
outlets. Hence, the water evaporates and the salt is left on the bed of the
lake.
This massive white lake is dotted with kaleidoscopic chasms
of red, blue and green caused by sediments containing copper. Pink flamingos
occasionally provide a startling contrast to the bright whiteness. Salar de
Uyuni is a photographer's dream, providing a great backdrop for some amazing
shots. If you have ever wanted to visit another planet, this comes pretty
close.
4. Remotest Island:
Tristan da Cunha
There are only 275 residents on this island located between South
Africa and South America. The nearest neighbor - St. Helena Island - is
2,430 km away. There is no airport which makes getting to the island and
adventure in itself involving a six day trip aboard the SA Agulhas, a former
South African polar research vessel.
You would think that the world's most isolated community
would relish the chance to entertain visitors but the official website states
that there are no tours for tourists, no hotels nor airports, no restaurants
nor night clubs and no safe sea swimming nor jet skis.
Ok so, why would anyone want to visit this island in the
first place? Well, it happens to be a Unesco World Heritage Site and also
offers some of the world's best preserved marine ecosystems. Tristan da Cunha also has
one of the largest bird colonies and spectacular cliffs overlooking the
Atlantic.
5. Deepest Cave:
Krubera Cave, Georgia
The world's deepest explored cave extends 2,197 meters into
the earth's surface. Krubera-Voranja is found in the Arabika Massif. It
attracts adventure seekers, scientist and explorers from all over the world. The
cave was recognized as the deepest cave in the world following a 2001
expedition organized by the Ukrainian Speleological Association.
Since then, successive teams have managed to penetrate
further in the cave by diving and alternative routes downward.
There are several hundred amazing caves in the Arabika
Massif region. Early French explorers were motivated to explore the caves by
Jules Verne's literary classic "Journey to the Centre of the Earth".
They discovered arthropod species inhabiting the cave and the deepest
terrestrial animals were discovered here in 2010. Krubera can only be accessed
four months in a year due to the remoteness of the area.
6. Worst weather:
Aleutian Islands
A persistent combination of heavy rain, fog and wind give
these islands in southwest Alaska
the dubious distinction of having the worst weather in the world. A missionary
priest who lived on one of the island for seven years recorded only 53 days of
sunshine during the entire seven years!
It is a perfect destination for the truly adventurous
seeking untamed beauty courtesy of active volcanoes that rice from the ocean.
The ancient Native American Unangan (Aleut) people have mastered living in this
extreme environment. Beyond that, the beaches are strewn with ornamental stones
and more than five million birds make this their home during the summer.
However, a large majority of visitors go there for the fishing opportunities,
halibut and various salmon species are abundant from June to September.
7. Most dangerous
airport: Lukla, Nepal
To say that a flight to and from this airport is sheer
terror is to make the understatement of the century. Lukla is the gateway to
Mount Everest. Adventurers on their way to Everest have two options, they can
hike for an extra five days to Everest Base Camp or they can choose to take a
45 minute flight to Lukla thus saving time and energy.
Tucked 2,743 meters high on the slopes of the a snow capped
mountain in the Himalayas, the Tenzing-Hilary airport has a 457 meter runway
that ends in a precipitous cliff on one end and a mass of solid rock on the
other; Pilots only have one shot to land or take off. Once planes start
hurtling down the runway or make a landing approach, there is no turning back.
It's no wonder that this airport leads in crashes - at an average of one a
year. Despite this, adventurers on their way to Everest continue to transit
through this airport.
8. Most dangerous
waters: Gansbaai, South Africa
There is a consensus amongst marine scientist that the Cape
of South Africa contains the highest concentration of sharks and specifically,
the dreaded great white. If you want to come face-to-face, quite literally,
with one of nature's most efficient killers then the Shark Alley sea channel
off Gansbaai town in South Africa is the place to be.
The huge concentration of great whites is attributed to a
colony of about 50,000 cape fur seals that live on Geyser Rock. Seals are a
favorite prey of great whites.
There are so many great whites in Shark Alley that tour
companies guarantee tourists a close encounter. Some companies go as far as
offering a cage diving experience. Things have occasionally gone terribly wrong
such as the incident in March 2013 when a great white ignored bait and forced a
cage door open the occupants - astonishingly - escaped unhurt.
9. Most dolls: Isla
de las Munecas, Mexico
The intention was never to become a tourist attraction but
Isla de las Munecas or the Island of Dolls, South
of Mexico City ended up as one. It can only be described as a perfect
combination of creepy and weird. The island is dedicated to the lost soul of a
young girl who died under mysterious circumstances. There are several baby
dolls hanging from trees.
Some have severed
limbs while others have decapitated heads. They are believed to possess the
soul of the departed child.
It is said that the caretaker of the island found a dead
girl who had apparently drowned under unclear circumstances. Later, he saw a
floating doll which he assumed belonged to the dead girl. He picked up the doll
and hung it on a tree as a sign of respect.
Haunted by the spirit of the dead girl, the caretaker hung
more dolls on trees a way to appease her spirit. Fifty years later he was found
dead at exact the same spot as the drowned girl. By the time of his death there
were hundreds of baby dolls hanging from the trees.
10. Most rats: Karni
Mata Temple, India
Now, this one borders on the bizarre. One would not expect a
rat infested place to be a tourist magnet. Yet, Karni Mata Temple in Deshnoke,
Rajasthan State of India is a crowd puller. There are thousands of brown rats
(estimated at over 20,000) scurrying all over the beautiful marble temple.
Karni Mata was a 14th century Hindu sage believed to the
incarnation of the goddess Durga. According to the legend, her stepson drowned
in a pond and she begged the god of death to bring him back to life. Yama, the
god of death, obliged reincarnating Karni Mata's stepson and all her male
children as rats. Since then, she is said to have declared that everyone from
her tribe would temporarily inhabit the body of a rat before reincarnation.
It is considered a good omen if a rat runs over your feet
and even better if the rat is white. Eating food nibbled on by the rats is akin
to eating with the gods. Killing a rat attracts severe sanction, it must be
replaced with one made of solid gold. Interestingly, there has never been an
outbreak of any rat borne disease among the people who have visited the temple.
Are you still holding
your breath? I am sure I am not alone on this, are you thinking the same as I
do a WTF moment eh!
Apparently I'm not the daring adventurer because I have -
unfortunately - never been to any of these destinations (yet), although a few
of these places are on my list.
How about you? Have you gone to any of these places? Would
you like to go?
A travel blog post by Eva. I'm a Polish born traveler, travel photographer, writer and runner living in Montreal Canada. In the 10-plus years that I've been travelling, living and exploring various travel destinations, I've explored much of the America’s, Europe and the Caribbean Islands.
A travel blog post by Eva. I'm a Polish born traveler, travel photographer, writer and runner living in Montreal Canada. In the 10-plus years that I've been travelling, living and exploring various travel destinations, I've explored much of the America’s, Europe and the Caribbean Islands.
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