You can read the original version of this article on Matador Network here.

IT’S 11:58 PM on a Friday in London, and I’m standing a stone’s throw from the bright lights of Tower Bridge. But I’m not heading home after Friday-night drinks. My night’s just getting started. Along with 50 or so other runners, I’m in my running gear, warming up for the start of Midnight2Midnight, a 24-hour charity relay run around the streets of London accompanied by the urban running crew Midnight Runners. Continue reading →

We heard the crash before we saw it.

My friend Sam continued steering our scooter around the U-shaped valley to where a bend in the road turned uphill to a small village. There, beneath the road, a large indistinguishable yellow object was slowly sinking into a canopy of green leaves.

It was an Indonesian truck, laden with construction materials, that had come off the road beneath the village and plummeted down the steep bank into the undergrowth. We found it upside down, ten meters below the road, obscured by a fog of cement dust. Continue reading →

You can read the original version of this article on Matador Network here.

AUSTRALIA IS GENERALLY SEEN as a “summer” paradise, and rightly so. Between beaches and barbecues, Aussie summers have everything beachgoers and travelers from the northern hemisphere in search of winter sun could possibly want.

But for outdoor lovers, it’s a different story. For any budding adventurer, winter — which lasts from June to August — is when Australia’s nearly three million square miles become a playground of snow-capped mountains, empty (or at least emptier) beaches, and awe-inspiring wildlife. Continue reading →

You can read the original version of this article on Matador Network here.

SLEEPING UNDER THE STARS, waking up to the smell of fresh air, and really getting away from it all — the appeal of wild camping is easy to see. Also called dry, free, or freedom camping, wild camping is overnighting away from organized campsites, and their noise and crowds, to set up camp among the wilds of nature instead. Continue reading →

You can read the original version of this article on Matador Network here.

FROM CALIFORNIA TO AUSTRALIA, women around the world have been surfing for decades – or, in Hawaii’s case, centuries. Yet whether you’re used to pulling on a damp wetsuit in the middle of winter, or slapping on SPF 50 year-round, there’s one thing nearly all female surfers have in common: the feeling of being in the minority in the water. Continue reading →