sam Bencheghib

Adventure Quickies: Climate Activist Running Across America, Half-Priced Polar Adventures, and More!

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By: Kraig Becker
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Due to my busy travel schedule, it has been a while since I’ve had the chance to post my weekly “Adventure Quickies” round-up. Generally appearing on the blog on Fridays, this post is a round-up of all of the travel, gear, and adventure news that I couldn’t find time or space to cover elsewhere. Delivered in rapid-fire fashion, you’ll find a number of news briefs below, along with links to learn more on the topic elsewhere. So, without further ado, here are this week’s Adventure Quickies:

  • 22-Year Old Climate Activist Running Across the U.S.: In an effort to raise awareness to threats against the environment — most notably the ocean — a 22-year old environmental activist by the name of Sam Bencheghib is running across the U.S. The endeavor began back on July 26, and earlier this week, he achieved a major milestone by reaching the halfway point in Kansas City. So far, he has covered 1258 miles (2024 km), crossing through the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas. Follow his adventure at MakeAChange.world.
  • Wildlife Tourism is 5X More Profitable Than Illegal Trade: An interesting new report out this week says that wildlife tourism directly contributed $120 billion to the global economy, supporting 21.8 million jobs. Conversely, the illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be worth roughly $23 billion annually, while threatening the long-term health of many species. Naturally, this would logically mean that developing a tourism infrastructure around wildlife travel would be a good strategy. Now if we can just get the poachers and illegal traders to comply. Find out more here.
  • Want to Go on a Global Scavenger Hunt?: The 16th annual Global Scavenger Hunt (aka the World Championships of Travel) is set to take place April 17-May 9, 2020. The event sends teams of two travelers on a globe-spanning adventure, visiting ten secret destinations while en route. Along the way, they’ll have to take part in a series of authentic local challenges while learning to adapt to customs and cultures. If that sounds like fun to you, applications to take part can be found here.
  • Arc’Teryx Launches Travel Brand: While we’re on the subject of travel, premium outdoor gear manufacturer Arc’teryx made the surprise move this week to announce that it is launching its own line of adventure itineraries under the Arc’teryx Trips banner. Options include climbing int he Dolomites, mountaineering on Grand Teton, and trail running the Matterhorn, amongst others. As you’ll see, these excursions are all about small groups, staying very active, and unique access.
  • Save 50% on an Antarctic Expedition: If visiting the Seventh Continent is on your bucket list, Quark Expeditions is here to help. The company is currently offering a 50% discount on select trips to Antarctica, with prices starting as low as $4998 for departures in November.
  • Entries for 11th Annual XPD Adventure Race Now Open: Want to take part in one of the biggest and best adventure races in the world? Entries are now open for the 2020 XPD event scheduled to take place July 18-25 in Queensland, Australia. Find out more here.
  • Chimani Launches National Parks App on Subaru Vehicles: Frequent visitors to America’s national parks have used the Chimani app on their smartphones for some time. The software brings a host of information about each park, including where to camp, interesting points of interest, maps, guides, and more. Now, that same information is being directly embedded into all Subaru vehicles that run the company’s Starlink infotainment system. Chimani has made an app for that service and it begins rolling out to more than a million Subaru customers starting this week.
  • J.D. Power Reports 2019 North American Airport Satisfaction Ratings: As part of its annual review of traveler satisfaction with airports, J.D. Powers has released some interesting results. Notably, passengers are finding themselves less satisfied with airports, particularly as crowds grow and construction lags on. The airports that did score well on the report include the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Minneapolis-Saint Pul International, MCCarran International, and Orlando International. Find out where your favorite (or least favorite) airport landed on the list here.

That’s all for this week! See you next Friday with more Adventure Quickies!

Kraig Becker
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