OffTrack
Issue #5
What’s happening {{first_name}}!
This issue features how to avoid food poisoning, wildlife that made me look like a right muppet, and a reminder that my fearlessness and love of adrenaline doesn’t make up for my woeful lack of skills…enjoy!
The Adventure in Review
Climbodia
Climbodia - Yep climbing in Cambodia
Set in a small rocky mountain area in Kampot, the days adventure involves scrambling, abseiling, caving and rock climbing. You will climb up to decent heights and via ferrata around the edges of the rocks, abseiling backdown through holes in the rock and disappearing into the mountain you just climbed.
Inside the caves themselves things get a little weird. Massive boulders appear to be floating, held up by what looks like the absolute minimum amount of rock required to defy physics. Trees grow inside the dark areas of the caves, huge thick trunks buried within and only their tops are visible to the outside world, kind of like nature felt like trying something new.
There’s also some crawling involved through tight cave sections, but nothing overly ridiculous. This is proper caving not that potholing nonsense, that sh*t makes zero sense to me, it feels like the adrenaline to fun ratio is off (Decent adrenaline - doesn’t look fun).
After all of this you’ll finish up by taking on some rock climbing routes that get progressively harder as you go and although I made it through the majority of them, the last ones got me. It was a lack of skill issue resulting in a bit of a broken ego. So f*ck you mountain, I wasn’t bothered anyway.
A solid experience with a mix of activities and my favourite adventure in Cambodia
Quick Details:
Location: Kampot, Cambodia
Length: Half a day
Style: Climbing Adventures
Best part: Abseiling (zero effort, all the fun)
Question I asked myself: Would this make me want to try potholing one day and give it the benefit of the doubt? Ermm….Hell no!
If you want to check out the view, the adventures and my miserable failures, check out the video below👇
Explorer’s Hack
Eat where the locals eat
Food poisoning is like a part of travel folklore, its a ritual that all must go through, a right of passage some might say, but you can actually reduce your odds.
A rule I’ve found to work surprisingly well is to eat where the locals eat. Busy places usually mean higher food turnover, fresher ingredients, and honestly good tasting food.
If it’s full of locals, it’s probably safe. If it’s empty at peak times, there’s usually a reason.
It’s obviously not foolproof, nothing is, but it’s a decent way to stack the odds in your favour a little more, or at least end up with better tasting food before it comes back out suddenly.
If you see any locals drinking the water though I’d probably skip that one.
One for the List
Kayaking the Grand Canyon
Most people stand on the edge of the Grand Canyon and stare. But the few that know will kayak through it.
Multi day kayak trips can take you down the Colorado River, through towering canyon walls, past waterfalls, side canyons and some serious rapids (Not to be taken on without experience, it maybe better to tackle these sections in a guided raft). It’s not just about seeing the amazing scale of this place, but feeling small inside it.
Definitely a future adventure for me someday, and a truly different way to experience this majestic wonder.
The Weird & Wild
There’s an animal that can survive in space.
Tardigrades also known as water bears can survive extreme heat, freezing cold, radiation and the complete vacuum of space. They just shut themselves down and wait it out.
Japanese researchers actually revived some they found frozen in ice in Antarctica in 1983. Meaning they had at that point, been frozen for over 30 years and essentially came back to life.
When we do finally get round to finishing off the earth, I’m sure they’ll still be floating around somewhere judging us.
Misadventures
Chased and locked in a hut.
Continuing on from the Koh Lanta sauna hut misadventure from last weeks issue…
One afternoon I noticed that a bunch of monkeys were coming down from the surrounding jungle area and hiding just in the midst of the closest trees. Naturally I decided this was my moment to channel my inner Sir David Attenbourgh and become a wildlife documentarian.
So I put half an empty can of some fizzy drink on a tree stump to lure them closer, and because I’m obviously a genius for this idea, it worked, they guzzled that fizz down. Then, moments later, they started to turn into some sugar craving crackheads. They started moving towards me slowly, hissing. Then, for reasons I can’t explain… don’t judge me, but I decided to hiss back (there’s that genius I was talking about). This surprisingly, did not establish my dominance.
Instead they chased me and I ended up retreating and locking myself inside my hut waiting for them to disappear. Shortly after the owner came up clutching a baby in one hand and throwing dirt with the other scaring them back into the jungle.
Judging by the way the bins outside the huts were raided every morning I’m pretty sure this wasn’t his first monkey related intervention.
Lesson learned: Don’t f*ck with monkeys.
The sugar crackhead in question
Me making sure the coast is clear
Got a travel f*ck up or “why did I think that was a good idea?” moment? Reply to this email and the best ones might get featured in a future issue (anonymously if you'd prefer).
Wise words…
“A travel risk assessment is usually just vibes based .”
I’d love to hear from you.
👉 What’s the weirdest, funniest or most ridiculous thing that’s ever happened to you whilst travelling? Or maybe you have your own trick, tip or favourite piece of gear to share?
Hit reply and share, I might even feature your story or advice in a future issue.
Until next time,
Chase the Adventure.
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