When we're not outdoors, we get our adventure fix by exploring social media and the web. Here are some of the best adventure links we discovered this week.
Botswana safari guides: In Africa, the job of tourist guide is often considered a man's job. But women are increasingly questioning this stereotype.
In the Okavango Delta, Botswana, there are now a handful of female “polers” or mokoro guides. They skillfully navigate canoes over the wetlands, sharing their knowledge of their home with tourists. Most of these women have been running these boats since they were children. Canoes have long been the primary means of transportation for their communities.
Paddling into a Superfund site: Brad Vogel moved to Brooklyn in his 20s. He was working at a law firm when he first heard about the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club. The group was canoeing through a canal filled with pathogens, heavy metals, chemicals and liquid tar. He still wanted to join the club.
A few years later, Vogel gave up his law career, moved to Gowanus to be closer to the water, and became captain of the Dredgers. He wrote a book of poetry about the small stretch of canal, the changes in the community and paddling on polluted water.
Armando Menocal. Photo: Escalade Magazine
Saving fixed anchors
When you cut a bolt you can thank this guy: Armando Menocal was one of the founders of the Access Fund and its de facto leader from 1986 to 1993. Through the advocacy group and afterward, he fought for climbers' rights and was one of the loudest voices when the government attempted to ban bolts in the United States.
Menocal always considered himself a traditional climber, but came to champion bolts and sport climbing. Today, as the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service have suggested banning fixed anchors, Menocal's work is more important than ever.
The long defeat: The mountain does not always bring success. For all the stories of summits, there are many more failures.
Owen Clarke was attempting to climb Tunguraha, an Ecuadorian volcano. The weather was so cloudy that he didn't even have a clear view of the summit. The downpours left him and his kit soaked. He came back down with difficulty in the rain and the wind. Frustratingly, this was his second summit attempt, and it ended the same way as the first. The first failure had irritated him for years. His second offer was equally discouraging.
He thinks one of the reasons it's so difficult is because you do what you do. When you stop, you need to physically pull out and come back down. It is an emotionally draining experience. But it also makes the victories even sweeter.
French racing driver Helle Nice in 1929. Photo: Atlas Obscura
The very first road trip
How Women Used Cars to Fuel Their Empowerment: Bertha Benz took her husband for a ride in the “Patent Motor Wagon” in 1888. She wanted to visit her mother and was fed up with her husband's obsession with inventing the automobile. Some see his trip as a first road trip.
The many lives of an old red bike: At six years old, Iain Treloar was given a little red bicycle that had been in the family for generations. SIain, aged 6, was not very happy with the bike. It wasn't shiny or new like the other kids' bikes. Decades later, the little bike was still at her grandmother's house when she visited.
He felt guilty because of how ungrateful he was and asked his grandmother about the bike. What unfolded is a story that dates back to the late 1800s. It was her grandmother's first bicycle in the 1940s, and almost everyone in her family learned to ride it.
