Know Who You Are Travelling With!

It seems obvious but plan ahead and understand what demands will be placed on your tent by who is going camping. If you are travelling with a partner, alone or with a friend you will most likely be best off with a small dome tent. These tents will not have the most storage space or headroom but will pack up easily and can be easily transported… perfect for an adventure trekking holiday.

If you are going on holiday with your family then there are an additional number of factors to consider when choosing your tent. You will probably have more equipment and need more space within the tent, and it is ideal to have a tent large enough for the whole family to sleep in. For this instance you may want to buy a four man tent as there is enough room to sleep the average size family, store your equipment and have enough headroom that your kids will not keep banging there heads on the tent supports.

Where Are You Travelling To?

If you know that you are heading into the wilderness and can expect to meet some extreme weather while camping then plan ahead, don’t just buy the cheapest tent you can find but invest in a tent which will serve you well on this trip and your future trips. A dodgy tent can ruin a holiday and if you are caught up in some extreme weather then your safety could also be at risk if you have not selected an appropriate tent. While a dome tent may be perfect for a spot of summer camping by the beach if you are in higher altitudes or expecting wet and windy weather then you may want to choose a geodesic tent. These tents are similar in size to dome tents, but there pole configuration means that they have greater strength in windy conditions.

What Is Your Tent Made of?

Careful consideration of the correct tent fabric can be the difference between sleepless summer nights or a night of rain dripping on your face. A cotton tent can result in a more comfortable night as the material is more “breathable” but these tents require careful as the material is prone to rotting if not cared for properly which can ruin the next trip!

If you are planning a walking or trekking holiday then a lightweight tent will be a primary concern for you, in which case a nylon or polyester tent will be your best choice. These synthetic material tents are lightweight and can be easily packed down to a small size, perfect for fitting into a rucksack or saddle-pack. Just be aware that sunlight can affect the synthetic materials and the quality of the material can deteriorate with prolonged exposure.

Final Tips

Remember that your tent requires pegs; guide ropes and a mallet in order to be put up correctly so always check and check again before setting out on a trip. It is also important to read the manufacturers instructions which come with your tent as this will give you the specific information for the tent you are travelling with, so don’t get caught out and take ten minutes to read over what the manufacturer recommends.

Finally :  Have fun and be safe! Camping is a great way to holiday and as long as you take all the correct safety precautions you will have a great holiday.

Sir Ernest Shackleton, that’s the hero we’re talking about today.

When he was 16, he joined the merchant navy where he got opportunity to see a big piece of the globe. His first two independent expeditions always failed in the end, however Shackleton never lost faith in his explorations.

To this end he made preparations for what became the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–17.

Disaster struck this expedition when its ship, Endurance, was trapped in pack ice and slowly crushed, before the shore parties could be landed.

There followed a sequence of exploits, and an ultimate escape with no lives lost, that would eventually assure Shackleton’s heroic status, although this was not immediately evident.

I don’t want to reveal all the juice of Shackleton’s journey. Just watch the trailer:

Click here to view the embedded video.

To watch all the installments, check the first one here (shame the guy didn’t allow embedding), and follow the rest (11 parts).

Further reading:

Sir Ernest Shackleton, the biography
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

Extreemblog presents a small preview of a new articles series called: Lost in Action: The Adventurers. Every week, I will present you one famous adventure personality that changed the world we now live in.

Extraordinary lives are almost always rich in action, travel, passion, dreams, sometimes love and treasures. When you live life to the full, you don’t worry about the future, you just grab what you have and seek for more adventures.

That’s in short a personality of a true globetrotter, treasure hunter and extremity lover.

For those people living on the edge and risking own life was what they ate for breakfast every day.

Sir Ernest Shackleton. When his Endurance ship got stuck in ice of Antarctida during his third expediton, one of the world’s difficult survival challenges begun on the snow and icy desert.




Raymond Maufrais. He set out on a suicidal expedition into guyanian jungle. Friend and locals advised to turn back, because he was heading for the meeting with death. But Raymond still forced his way through. So hungry, he was shooting humming birds with bullets bigger than them!



Steve Fossett. Kidnapped by UFO, run away with a lover, hiding because of financial problems, discovered a secret US Army mission and had to die? Such are supposition, because heroes don’t just disappear without any sound.




Percy Harrison Fawcett. Just the prototype of Indiana Jones, who was looking for acient gold in tropical rainforest of Amazon.





Stay tuned.

Images credits  #1 #2 #3 #4 #5

In short, everybody could write the app for the iPhonish platform. Thousands of free and commercial apps have become available. Somewhere in between them, there are some ultimately useful for any outdoor adventurer.

Extreemblog presents the three top-lists of best outdoor adventure and travel apps for iPhone:

Review: The 25 Best Outdoor iPhone Apps

Steve Casimiro, theadventurelife.org, picked 25 best outdoor apps. From 154 knots, splices, and tangled messes of cord, through snow and surfing conditions reports, ending with star constellations (pretty useful before a romantic night under the clear sky!).

The Way We Move: Top 20 iPhone Travel Apps

Steve Casimiro again, here on behalf of NG Adventure, describes from his own experience how the iPhone is changing the way we interact with the world.
Weather you are late for the plane, preparing docs for new adventure, want to know how to wear kimono, or you are simply lost, those are must-downloads!

Outdoor iPhone Apps by TheOutPost

From predictions from thousands of US coastal stations to the reference guide on basic survival, evasion, and recovery information.



And you? Do you owe an iPhone? Do you know any other killer applications for iPhone? Share your comments!

First pic by The Hamster Factor

Navigate by the stars,
Tell time without a watch,
Start a fire without a match,
Make an igloo,
Build your own canoe,
And be prepared for any challenge.

That’s in short what the book, Born to Explore: How to Be a Backyard Adventurer, is about.  The guidebook, actually, is a great position for any adventure parent.

Make your kid adventurer

So if you want to pass the joy of outdoor adventures to your kids in this computer age, Born to Explore will help them learn the essentials.

It’s not only about the adventures and how to survive while exploring remote areas of the backyard, but also how to find pure nature everywhere at anytime. Start thinking like an explorer!

“One part adventure manual, one part travel inspiration, this book is full of delightful surprises.”

“After reading this book with my 15 year old son, there are so many projects we would like to try in our own backyard this summer. This book is like having your own personal Summer Camp Instructor. Richard Wiese has created a Must Have masterpiece. Easy to follow instructions and wonderful graphics!” – Online Mum

Buy Now($13)

Do you know what actually happened between Columbus’s discovery of America in 14920 and the Pilgrims’ immigration in 1620 on that very continent?

Neither did me or the author, Tony Horwitz, when paying a visit to famous Plymouth Rock. He realized he didn’t have any clue just as any other average American.

So he set off across the continent to rediscover the wild era of Europeans roaming the New World in search for gold, glory, youth, peace and… of course Adventures!

Horwitz tells the story of many brave, yet crazied explorers while retracing their steps on the treck.

The 464-page book will transport you from conquistadors’ sunny Florida to an Indian lodge in subarctic Canada in moments.
First chapter will help you bring back the early history of America, even if you’re from the different part of the globe… or not.  : )

“Wonderfully written, and heroically researched…Horwitz unearths whole chapters of American history that have been ignored.”–The Boston Globe

A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America now in bookstores for just $12.

Visit the book page | Buy Now ($12)