Video: Introducing the RACV Great Victorian Bike Ride 2016

Looking for a good cycling challenge and a fun adventure for 2016? Why not join the RACV Great Victorian Bike Ride held in Australia each year. The nine-day event features more than 5000 riders, who roll along a 550 km (341 mile) course that not only passes through the Grampian region of Oz, but rolls along the Great Ocean Road as well. The video below gives you an idea of what to expect in this fully supported ride. Adults can join in on the fun for $995, which includes meals, luggage transport, support out on the road, and a host of other benefits. Looks like a great event. I need to head back Down Under to join the peloton at some point.

Adventure Tech: Land Cruisers Used as Wireless Network in the Outback

Staying in communication with the rest of the world while traveling through a remote landscape can be difficult and expensive. But a new project sponsored by Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia,  automaker Toyota, and a communications and advertising agency called Saatchi & Saatchi shows off a new concept that uses a fleet of Land Cruisers as mobile WiFi network that can keep travelers in contact, even when miles away from an Internet connection or cell network.

The Land Cruiser is one of the most popular expedition and adventure travel vehicles on the planet, often found in remote places where few other motorized vehicles can go. That's true in the Outback of Australia too, with travelers using them to wander far from civilization. Recently, Toyota equipped some of those SUV's with a new device that creates a network between other vehicles in the area, with data being shared between these mobile hotspots until it can be handed off to a unit that is also within range of a permanent Internet connection.

These high-tech communications devices have a range of 25 km (15.5 miles) and can handle both voice and data. That makes them useful for making emergency calls from a remote place, or sharing social media updates while in the field. It uses standard WiFi, UHF signals, and Delay Tolerant Networks (DTN) to help pass along the data. The information can hop from Land Cruiser to Land Cruiser until it finds one with an Internet connection, at which point it is send out to the rest of the world.

The video below gives you an idea of how the whole thing works. It seems like it has a lot of promise for communications in remote places. 

Video: Blessed in the (Australian) West

There is no question that Australia is a country blessed with amazing outdoor environments. From sprawling deserts to dense rainforests to wild coastlines, Australia has it all. This video takes us to the Australian west where we get a beautiful look at some of those places. If you haven't been "Down Under" yet, this will give you a little more incentive to go.

Blessed in the West from Thurston Photo on Vimeo.

The Last Great March Will Take Explorers Across Simpson Desert and to the North Pole

As the 2016 Arctic exploration season starts to wind down, we now get word of yet another attempt to ski the full distance to the North Pole. Adventurers Sebastian Copeland and Mark George are planning on making that journey in 2017 as part of what they call The Last Great March, a project that also includes a self-supported journey across Australia's Simpson Desert as well.

The two men – who has extensive exploration and adventure credits on their resume – first plan to set out from Ellesmere Island in Canada next February in an attempt to ski 775 km (481 miles) to the Geographic North Pole at 90ºN. They'll travel on skis over the ice, dragging their sleds filled with gear and equipment behind them as they go, with the hope of finishing the journey in under 49 days. Along the way, they'll face unpredictable weather, ice rubble fields, large open leads of water, and possibly even polar bears. If they can actually pull it off, they'll be the first team to complete the full journey to the North Pole since 2014, and quite possibly the last to do so.

But the expedition to the North Pole is only one phase of the Last Great March project. Sebastian and Mark are also planning of trekking for 520 km (323 miles) across the Simpson Desert, the driest place on the Australian continent. To do so, they'll need to pull specially built carts carrying 400 pounds (181 kg) of gear and equipment, much of which will consist of the water they'll need to survive in this inhospitable place. While out in the desert they'll face intense heat, dehydration, massive sand dunes, and a variety of poisonous snakes.

The goal of The Last Great March is to not only push the boundaries of human endurance in remote and difficult settings but also to record the impact of climate change on these places. It will be interesting to see how these expeditions play out, particularly in the Arctic. We had one team announce a full-distance expedition to the North Pole this year, and that didn't end so well. Will this team have more success next year? We'll have to wait to see.