Video: The Joys of Birdwatching

In terms of people who are passionate about their outdoor pursuits, it is tough to find a group that is more dedicated than birders. They'll often go to great lengths to enjoy their favorite activity, and will often travel the world to visit amazing places with unusual bird species to spot. This video is a wonderful introduction to birding, and comes our way via mountain guide and filmmaker David Anderson. Dave is an avid birder, and his love for the activity shines through in this great little documentary. While not as "extreme" as some of the other activities I cover with regularity here on The Adventure Blog, birding is never the less a fantastic way to enjoy the outdoors, and pass on that love to a younger generation. I hope you enjoy this short film.

Birding from David E. Anderson on Vimeo.

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Best Hike Treks The Simien Mountains of Ethiopia

If you're looking for a spectacular destination for an adventure in 2015, than perhaps the Simien Mountains in Ethiopia will make a suitable location. My friend Rick McCharles, the editor of BestHike.com, just returned from that amazing setting, and as usual he has all kinds of great tips and photos to share with readers.

Rick launched his journey in Gondar, a small town that is one of the best places to find guides, supplies, and information prior to setting out into the Simien Mountains. A typical trek through the region – which is both a national park and a UNESCO World Heritage site – takes roughly four days to complete. Along the way, travelers pass through the spectacular Ethiopian highlands, visiting local villages, and encountering amazing wildlife as they go.

For those unfamiliar with the Simiens, they are a chain of mountains that stretch across northern Ethiopia. Rugged and remote, the region features rocky plateaus separated by deep gorges and valleys, and towering peaks. The highest mountains in the Simien Range climb above 4400 meters (14,435 ft), making a dramatic and breathtaking backdrop to the walk.

You can read Rick's account of all four days of his journey – starting with Day 1 – by clicking here. Each of his daily reports include very helpful information for anyone who would like to do this trek themselves, as well as an array of great photographs that he shot along the trek. He offers valuable tips that will make anyone's journey to the Simiens an easier one, and helpful advice on how to make such a journey possible. His Simien Trek information page is especially helpful in this regard, and should serve as a great resource for anyone thinking of visiting this part of the world.

One of the parts of the trek that Rick enjoyed the most was spotting wildlife along the trail. He especially enjoyed seeing and interacting with the baboons that were plentiful in the highlands. Seeing those primates in their natural environment was a real treat, and true highlight of the experience for sure.

This isn't the fist time I've had a friend recommend the Simien Mountains as a great trekking destination. I understand that it a truly spectacular part of the world, and that the people there are incredibly friendly and accommodating too. As you start looking ahead for new adventures in 2015, perhaps you'll keep this trek in mind as well. It looks like it was an amazing experience.

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Video: The Eagle Hunters of Mongolia

I came across this video while reading the Adventure Journal yesterday, and thought it was incredibly compelling. It is just two minutes in length, but manages to give us an intriguing look at the Kusbegi, a nomadic group of eagle hunters that inhabit remote areas of Mongolia. The video is filled with amazing scenery from that part of the world, while members of the Kusbegi share their thoughts on the eagles, protecting the environment, and more. It is an incredibly powerful and moving clip, with images that will certainly inspire thoughts of adventure.

THE KUSBEGI from Johnny Cullen on Vimeo.

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Video: Bear Encounters in the Tongass National Forest

Located in Alaska, the Tongass National Forest is a vast wilderness that spreads out across more than 17 million acres. It is a wild, untamed, and temperate rain forest that is home to numerous species of wild animals, including the majestic brown bear. Those creatures lured filmmaker Ben Hamilton to the forest, where he captured some amazing footage of the bears in their natural habitat. The video below, which comes our way courtesy of National Geographic, shares some of those encounters, and as you can probably imagine, they were pretty amazing.

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Video: GoPro Camera Mercilessly Killed by Grizzly Bear

It never ceases to amaze me what a well-placed video camera can capture these days. In this case, it is some amazing footage of numerous grizzly bears near Glendale Cove in British Columbia. The cameras were set up by ecologist John Kitchen, who was accompanied by bear biologist Melanie Clapham at the time. They managed to catch the massive creatures as the wandered on to a bridge that allows the bears to look into the river below, and spot the salmon as they run upstream. At one point, one of the bears gets overly interested in John's GoPro camera, and decides to play with it a bit. The footage is both humorous, and frightening at the same time. There are truly some great shots of these magnificent animals throughout the four-minute video. If you love wildlife, you'll certainly get a kick out of this.

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Polar Bears Force Halloween Celebration Indoors in Canadian Community

Halloween is suppose to be a fun, and slightly scary, holiday for kids of all ages. But one Canadian town is taking measures to ensure that it isn't too frightening this year, following an invasion of polar bears to the community. The Inuit village of Arviat has decided that it will hold its annual Halloween celebration indoors in order to avoid bumping into ursine visitors, which are said to be hanging out in record numbers this year.
Polar bears are not new to the tiny town of just 2000 inhabitants, located on the northernmost coast of Nunavut territory. The village sees numerous bears in the region in any given year. But this year, the population has increased dramatically, and they have been wandering into town with more frequency as a result.

With this in mind, the town council held a special meeting last week to discuss what they should do about Halloween. With 1200 kids in town, they didn't want to disappoint the young trick-or-treaters, so they came up with the idea of holding the holiday indoors at the local community hall. A shuttle bus will even pick up the children and safely deliver them to the festivities. This should greatly reduce the chances of a bear encounter, which could easily end in tragedy.

Animal experts say that shrinking ice caps in the arctic are reducing the size of the polar bear's natural habitat, and forcing them into a smaller area. That is the reason that Arviat, and other villages along the Arctic Ocean, are seeing more of the bears in their area. Warmer weather is causing the Hudson Bay to take longer to freeze this year as well, preventing then bears from making their annual pilgrimage back north. Once the bay has frozen over for the season, the animals will leave Arviat behind.

While some of the ghosts, ghouls, and zombies of Halloween can indeed be scary, I can think of few things that would be more terrifying than coming face-to-face with a hungry male polar bear weighing more than a thousand pounds (450 kg). This is a wise move on the part of villagers.

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Video: The Playful Foxes of the Badlands

Here's a wonderful video that comes our way courtesy of National Geographic. It centers around photographer Mike Forsberg's efforts to shoot photos of the elusive foxes that live in the Badlands of South Dakota. These creatures are shy, and difficult to get close to, and capturing them on film tests Mike's patience for sure. But when he finally get a chance to watch them in their natural habitat, the results are definitely worth the wait.

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Video: Beautiful Scenes From Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park is amongst the most spectacular natural settings on the planet, and this short, but oh-so-sweet, video is a good reminder of that. Barely a minute in length, it manages to capture some of the best scenes from Yosemite Valley, not to mention some excellent wildlife shots as well. Beautifully shot, and creatively put together, this is a fun video to end the day. I hope you enjoy.

RESERVE from Philipp Girke on Vimeo.

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