Usually throwing yourself off a building is considered a fairly anti-social act, but in Melbourne they're encouraging tourists to do it. But it has to be the sixth-floor roof of the Urban Central backpackers' building, under the guidance of someone from Macka Mackail's Rap Jumping.
Rap jumping is a bit like abseiling, except that you're staring down at the ground, which makes it a whole lot scarier. For A$65 ($55) you can jump off the hostel not once but three times. It's not that tall--but it looks kind of terrifying.
Rap Jumping in Melbourne boasts a 100 percent safety record (which sounds kind of like Aussie carrier Qantas, until recently) but if you're still not sure, check this video and decide if you're brave enough to rap jump or not.
Forget boring activities like rock climbing or white water rafting. For something radically different, head to Dig This in Steamboat Springs, Colorado and push around boulders and mounds of dirt with heavy machinery.
For excitement or stress relief, you can get in the cab of a big yellow industrial vehicle and test your skill at earth moving. The Dig This heavy machinery theme park is located on a 10-acre job site where you can operate a Caterpillar D5G dozer, two 315 excavators and a 6-ton skid-steer.
Playing with these big kid toys will cost you $400 a person for a half day and $750 for a full. Look for the next Dig This franchise to open in Las Vegas in the near future.
It's been another tragic weekend in the mountaineering world, as ten climbers have gone missing in France's Mont Blanc range following a major avalanche. A large block of ice triggered Sunday's 3:00 a.m. slide on Mont Blanc du Tacul, one of the peaks along the route to the 4,810-meter summit of Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in the Alps. Eight injured climbers were taken to a nearby hospital. Efforts to rescue the missing climbers were launched early Sunday morning, but had to be temporarily suspended in the afternoon due to warm weather, which increases the likelihood of further slides.
The Mont Blanc tragedy comes just three weeks after a similar incident on Pakistan's K-2, in which eleven climbers perished in an ice avalanche. In both cases, it looks like bad luck rather than climber error was the main factor, but either way we'd only attempt it with a world-class guide, the best equipment available, and about ten more years of climbing experience.
Feeling less threatened lately? That's probably because the Bigfoot body which was "discovered" last week in California turned out to be yet another hoax. But Japanese scientists, undeterred, are leading a trek into the Himalayas to collect definitive evidence of the existence of the yeti, Bigfoot's Eastern cousin.
Yeti Project Japan left Kathmandu Thursday seeking traces of the half-man half-ape which they believe lives on the Dhaulagiri IV peak. If they find nothing, maybe they can have a big party up there since the expedition is co-sponsored by the brand "Lost in Translation" made famous, Suntory liquor.
So it's too late to join the Gumball 3000, but you still have time to participate in the Caucasian Challenge, a come-as-you-are rally splashed across Eastern Europe from Budapest to Yerevan, Armenia.
"Remember world history in school? We bet they missed some stuff," proclaim the organizers, who are also responsible for an LGBT-themed race called the Rainbow Rampage (isn't that from MarioKart?) and an Indian rickshaw tourney. This year's 4,700-mile competition includes the thrilling potential of tooling along the outskirts of Georgia's still-simmering conflicts--and that's after you've made it through hot spots in Kosovo and Turkey.
It appears that they are still taking reservations--what, there weren't 100 teams willing to figure out a way to get across the Bosporus? Haven't any of you seen "The Great Race"?
We already reported that the Gumball 3000 rally stopped by the Arirang Mass Games in North Korea, but video of the adventure just leaked out on YouTube.
Think Beijing's Bird's Nest is big, with its seating for 91,000? Try the May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, where 150,000 spectators watch 100,000 performers during the Mass Games.
The full video is a little long, but just seeing Bam Margera's baffled face as he negotiates the closed country makes it worth watching!
A friend of Jaunted decided to go on the Rental Car Rally this past weekend, after we hyped it in a post in July. So was the "36-hour adventure" as awesome as it sounded back then? Not exactly:
Rental Car Rally started off in a great location, Water Taxi Beach in Queens. There was a great turnout, great costumes, a lot of energy, a great view and there were lots of creative vehicles. Coordinates for the checkpoints were handed out, and we were off shortly after midnight.
With 60 teams at $150 dollars each, the promise of a $1,000 grand prize seemed potentially stingy depending on all the swag that we might get at checkpoints. (Turns out there was none to be had.) Not only were the finances questionable, but we learned the scoring wasn't very transparent either. Scoring was mostly subjective (best costumes, best ride, proof of speeding tickets and shenanigans) and did not include shortest travel time.
Participants in the annual Gumball 3000 road rally are known to be a little nuts, racing their souped-up rides across continents at blistering speeds, stopping only to spray Champagne on each other at glitzy locations around the globe. But they may have just carved another notch in the crazy tree with their latest gambit, a pit stop to party in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
The 5,000-kilometer rally began on August 9 in San Francisco, and its globe-hopping route will pass through Los Angeles, San Diego, and Las Vegas before ending in China on Saturday, where drivers and crew will cheer on their countrymen and women at the Olympic games. (No, they don't drive across the ocean. There are airplanes involved.)
The Gumballers stopped in North Korea for about 16 hours on Thursday on their way to Beijing. The reclusive regime banned their technologically-advanced vehicles, but, amazingly, extended a welcome for the ragtag band of moneyed misfits to check out the colorful and creepy Arirang Mass Games. Attendees said there was plenty of merry-making, karaoke, and skateboarding, with no reports of incidents, arrests, or reeducation.
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by amandak
