Shaken, Not Stirred

I’ve always been a James Bond fan – I mean who hasn’t? For a generation and then some the suave secret agent has been gracing the silver screen. He is the very epitome of cool, men want to be him and women want to be with him. Traveling the world, getting himself into and out of the most extraordinary situations imaginable – all while wearing a tailored dinner jacket.

There have been a few different incarnations of the classic Flemming penned character. From the highland brogue of Sean Connery, to the all-too smug for my liking Roger Moore and the nearly forgotten George Lazerby and the almost forgettable Timothy Dalton. Then there was Pierce Brosnan who was hampered with silly scripts and a franchise that was in dire need of a reality check.


Enter Daniel Craig and the modern Bond era. Perhaps inspired by the Jason Bourne series, the new Bond has a grit and sense of almost realism that makes it a perfect fit for the post 9/11 world of terrorism and dirty dealings – gone are the days of cold-war era super villains stroking cats and sharks-with-freakin-laser-beams-attached-to-their-heads.


So why am I going on and on about James Bond? Well the reality is, and I’m a little sheepish to admit this, but us Lonely Planet authors have a bit of a Bond complex. Ok, ok, stop the snickering… Here’s the deal – we get to travel the world to exotic locations, skulk around the underbelly and do some rather clandestine research all while incognito. And there’s even the odd cocktail party and cool modes of transport thrown in. What sparks this train of thought is a running joke my wife and I have had for the past little while, you see this past 12 months have been my year of being Bond.

In Casino Royale Bond travels from Africa to the Caribbean and finally to Western Europe. Along the way he drives a cool, cool car, has some pretty extraordinary adventures and hooks up with the girl. This past year I’ve sifted through the back alleys of Zanzibar, Tanzania. Mixed with the well to do in the Caribbean (have a read of this post about cocktail party with the Governor General of the Turks and Caicos: http://adventureskope.blogspot.com/2007/12/government-houseparty.html) and I’ve cruised around Paris living the highlife eating at the Musee d’Orsay and watching the Moulin Rouge, Champaign flute in hand.

There have been the usual Bond sort of trappings too – I’ve flown in helicopters, driven a Porsche 911 at 200km/hr - gone rock climbing, scuba diving, skiing, worn a tuxedo more then once and had my fair share of martini’s. I’ve openly lied about what I do for a living in far off lands, I’ve secretly photographed sensitive information and have a working relationship with my superiors that is alarmingly secret agent like (I’ve never met many of them in person and only talk to them via electronic mail).

A few months ago I was in Melbourne at a conference of LP authors and I was quietly amused to see my fellow “agents”. What made me giggle was to see that we were all dressed the same. Sturdy shoes, cargo kaki-trousers, and a short sleeve button-down. We all looked (myself included) exactly like Bond in the opening sequence of Casino Royale…

real Bond

Want-to-be Bond

I may not be a secret agent and I certainly don’t have to “rub bad guys out” but I do get quite a few of those fringe benefits. Oh and the best part – this past March I got to make it official by marrying my best Bond-girl…

So I sure hope that the next year gets to be just as Bond-like – it’s starting well – I’m off to Hawaii soon with Egypt, Sudan, Qatar and Hong Kong to follow. I’m sure there will be skiing, climbing and my Bond-girl there every step of the way.

Until next time – this is Kennedy, Scott Kennedy signing off…

How do you say golf in English?

Now I know faithful readers of the Adventueskope blog will know that this is the place to look for all the latest news on the Ladies Professional Golf Tour… ok we are headed into uncharted territory here. I like a round of golf as much as the next guy, it’s a great way to ruin a nice walk in the park and can be the most frustrating way to spend an afternoon of your life. Having said that when you drive one right up the middle there is that briefest of glimmers of hope that you might just be able to beat Tiger at his own game.

Right, back to ladies golf – it has come to light today that the LPGA has decided that all of the golfers on the tour MUST be fluent in English. What the hell? Aren’t we in the global village here? Isn’t golf a universal game played by people from all corners of the globe? The reasoning is that the players need to be able to interact with media and sponsors. Well I guess all the media is from the states and the sponsors they are courting are Pizza Hut, Wall Mart and Texaco. Best to steer clear of those pesky low-brow sponsors like Sony, Louis Vuitton, and Evian. And it’s no wonder they’ve decided to stick to English – those multi-lingual sports like The Olympics, Formula 1 and Champions League Soccer really are the minor players compared to the LPGA...

I guess the upside is that today was the first day in history the LPGA was the lead story on the sports news; you have to give them at least that.

I’ll leave the last word on golf to Robin Williams…

Cheap Heli-Skiing? No really!

There was once a time where heli-skiing was purely the arena of the well heeled. Dentists and retired wannabe’s getting the goods that the core ski-bums (and I use that term with great affection) could never possibly afford. It was the domain of dreams – the sort of ideal where you fall asleep at night hoping to wake up in bed with a sugar-mama or at least a suitcase full of cash stashed under the bed frame. But alas for the vast majority of those that truly would give appendages and yet-to-be conceived offspring the dream of heli-skiing remains just that – a dream.

But maybe not any more. Last weekend I went heli-skiing in the mountains of New Zealand and it cost me a hundred bucks US! That’s right US$100!! This wasn’t some sort of bro-deal or a fly-by-night op where the sense of impending doom floats like stale cigarette smoke – no this was on the up and up. There is of course a small catch – this isn’t the sort of heli-skiing where Hans your Austrian guide instructs you to make, “nicccce svlolom tunz!” as you ski to the five-star lodge. You are on your own here, left to your own devices. Oh, and the chopper isn’t quite at your beck and call – it’s coming back in 3 days to take you home.

So off I went into the Fjordland Mountains with 6 friends for 3 days of fun in the snow. The chopper dropped the team off at a secluded mountain hut where we climbed into the peaks and skied fresh tracks under the winter sun. It was hard work, and not the utopian heli-ski experience that most people lust for - but it was perhaps even better then this perceived ideal. We had miles of terrain all to ourselves, a hut to call a home and the satisfaction of climbing everything that we skied.

We skied as much as we could; hiking run after run till our legs and daylight finally gave out. We were the kings and queens of the mountains, surveying a kingdom of hills that were ours alone to discover. Was it a hundred bucks well spent? Have a look at these pics and decide for yourself – but my mind’s been made up ever since the first turn…

The Art of War

40 years ago the Vietnam war was in full swing and the world was in turmoil. This tumultuous time nearly tore the social fabric of the world to bits. The cold war was in full swing and the anti-war movement was a societal force to be reckoned with. Sounds eerily familiar doesn’t it? Fast-forward to today and the similarities are stunning. Where the cold war has been replaced with terrorism and long haired hippies have been recast as red bull swilling cyberpunks who protest via facebook petition and wrists loaded with plastic (irony) bands. While the comparative effectiveness of dope smoking hippies to bringing about the end of the Vietnam war verses social networkers and pseudo-political rent-a-crowds is endlessly debateable and not the purpose of this posting…

While my personal political ideology on the issue is somewhat beside the point, it is fair to say that I agree with all of the forthcoming opinions that I’ll bring forth in this posting. Actually the way that I get motivated to exercise now is to watch clips of Bill O’Reilly on You Tube – by the end of the interview I’m so filled with rage that I’m predisposed to working myself to near death to get the hate from my lungs…

What this post is about, isn’t about ending a war, electing a government that will actually make a difference or learning to face fear and shrink it into its place. This post is about art. The art that comes from war. Like in the 60’s we are in a golden age of protest art. While the Clinton era was a sort of utopian dreamland (except if you lived in say Bosnia, Somalia or Central America) the art that the era produced was equally fucking awful. I could pull you tube clips of MC Hammer but just the thought makes me throw up in my mouth a bit .

Art comes from pain. And it’s a pretty fucking painful time in the world at the moment. But through that pain there is some amazing artistry coming to the fore; artists are doing what humanity does best - making the best out of a bad situation.

Here are a few pieces that will make you think, maybe tap your toe, and maybe piss you off. Maybe you’ll stand up and get out on the street and yell and scream and knock on doors and maybe you’ll decide to vote – both NZ and the US get to do that this year – so don’t forget!

Eddie Vedder performing No More a song about a US soldier who was shot in the back in Iraq to come home to nothing…

Ani Difranco – telling it like it is – as always…



Here is a link to a piece that I wrote a couple years ago that still rings painfully true…. http://www.adventureskope.com/documents/fundimentalism.pdf

In my heart I know you didn't come here just for me, you came here because you believe in what this country can be. In the face of war, you believe there can be peace. In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope. In the face of a politics that's shut you out, that's told you to settle, that's divided us for too long, you believe we can be one people, reaching for what's possible, building that more perfect union.

--Barack Obama

-peace-
SK

Is it just me or is it hot in here?

So how do you train for a bike ride across the Nubian Desert in Sudan? Good question. At the moment here in Queenstown it’s anything but desert like conditions – it’s the middle of winter which means that it is either snowing, raining or cold – so any sort of African conditions are few and far between. Add to that the need to get into cycling shape and necessity becomes the mother of invention.

I could bundle up and get on the bike, fight the slush, the gravel on the shoulders and the pending southerly gale – or I could just take it all inside. I’ve come up with a plan that is either ingenious or just plain stupid – either way, it gets me riding my bike and in the heat too. I recently got a hold of a wind trainer – for those not in the know, a wind trainer is a contraption that attaches to your bike to turn it into an exercise bike. A couple snaps, clicks and presto – instant indoor training device.

To ease my way into heat training I nudged up the heater a few notches and set up the bike in the living room in front of the TV. Checking the thermometer it was a pleasant 26c as I started to ride. Now pleasant for stretching out on the couch is one thing – but pleasant for riding a bike at full stream is another. Sure I’ve ridden in 26c heat more times then I can count – but remember when you are actually moving there is wind to cool you down – but not in my living room! The heat hit me like a wave, before I could say, “for the love of god could somebody crack a window!?” sweat was pouring down my arms and pooling on the carpet. My shirt was long gone and the water bottle I’d filled was drained faster then a cold-one at a kegger.




I decided that the best thing to do would be to put something motivating on the TV to distract myself from the overall unpleasantness. I flicked on the Olympics only to see that they were showing race-walking and ping-pong – both of which looked more enjoyable than what I was doing. I just kept thinking how much fun a pleasant walk in the cool rain would be, but I’m stuck on this bike, pedeling like a madman in my living room. I had thoughts of the mechanism snapping and suddenly finding traction and being launched through the window – hey at least it would be cooler out there…

Desperate measures were required. I flicked on a DVD and stumbled upon one of the best training sessions of my life. I put on a Pearl Jam concert film titled, Immagine in Cornice – it’s a compilation of performances from their Italian tour a few years ago. It was fantastic to ride to, during the upbeat songs I’d hit it hard and during the more mellow bits, I just cruised along. It was a great session of interval training all set to some pretty rockin’ tunes!



After 90minutes I was spent – I drained enough sweat to rival a Bikram Yoga session and my backside felt like I’d been gang-raped by a rugby team - but the training has begun. As I ramp up time and resistance I will also increase the heat. It could be 40c when I’m out there and I need to be ready for it – or at least know how I’m going to react to it. So until the sun shines I’ll be locked in the house, punishing myself – and loving every minute of it!


Cheers
SK

Flightless: Incredible Journeys Without Leaving the Ground

It’s all about bike rides these days. In much the same flavour as the Tour d’Afrique and quite coincidently Flightless: Incredible Journeys Without Leaving the Ground has just been published by Lonely Planet. This anthology is all about journeys that didn’t happen to include a trip in an airplane. It’s a great collection of stories from such luminaries as Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler, adventure writing legend Jon Krakauer (Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, Under the Banner of Heaven) and Rory Stewart (The Places in between) who walked solo across Afghanistan in 2002. The title also happens to include a story written by yours truly.

It’s a real honour to be included in the same binding as these authors, and 22 others, who have written inspirational, insightful and epically readable tales of adventure. Riding across the USA on a Harley, walking around the world, Baghdad to Basra by train after the fall of Sadam, Bangkok to Brighton on a Tuk-Tuk… They are all in there.

As for my contribution, I’ll give you a taste…

Excerpt from So Close, Yet So far by Scott Kennedy

As the situation moved more into focus my mind wandered between the rational thoughts of doing what I needed to do and the overwhelming urge to cry out in panic. I was near hypothermic, 90km from home, completely under equipped for the conditions and utterly alone. Through the overwhelming cold one emotion raced through my mind like a runaway train. Fear began to fill the crevices of my conscious thought. I was absolutely scared shitless I was going to die right there.

My story is about a perhaps an ill conceived idea of riding my bike from my house to the mountains, going on a mountaineering adventure and then returning home the way I came. Oh yeah and it was all self contained, ie. Big pack, mountaineering boots, crampons, ice axe - all transported by bike and I was alone, solo from door to door. It was a great adventure to say the least – full of interesting twists and turns along the way – I won’t give away too much, but suffice to say, I live in the end…

To order copies of the book, follow this link: http://shop.lonelyplanet.com/Primary/Product/Hot_Off_the_Press/PRD_PRD_2683/Flightless+Incredible+Journeys+Without+Leaving+the+Ground.jsp;ODLPSID=LrY1Pd3qv1KpQL3kpd18nvLgnHZV5TlZZQ3hLnBG5H82NffnynkZ!989657827!-428416610?ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=1408474395181057&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302029881&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441765941&bmUID=1219188927971

It’s a great book and well worth checking out,
Cheers,
SK

The Tour d’Afrique

I’m pretty lucky, I’ve had the chance to go on some pretty cool adventures over the years. I’ve traveled all over the place to ski, to climb and to experience just being there. With my work for Lonely Planet I’ve had the opportunity to combine my passion for travel and for writing towards a common goal – I’ve had the opportunity to see the world and call it a job. Every now and again, an opportunity comes along that surpasses my lofty goals and aspirations – and when those chances come along, you have to grab it.

I’ll skip the melodramatic preamble and get right to the meat of the matter. Every year a race of sorts is contested in Africa. The Tour d'Afrique is a cycling expedition that begins in Cairo, Egypt and concludes on the beach in Cape Town, South Africa – some 11,000km away. You can race as an individual (if you are completely insane…) or as a team. Teams of 8 race in relay fashion, with team members taking a leg each before passing the baton onto the next team-mate. Lonely Planet has put in a corporate team into the 2009 race (which starts in early January and finishes in March) and asked staff and authors if they’d be keen to join the adventure. Needless to say I was already composing my, “please, please, please can I go?” email within a few seconds of hearing about the opportunity – you have to go for these things!

After much deliberation and a committee based decision, I have been named to the team! I’m taking the first leg of the race, starting team LP off from Cairo, Egypt and biking 2000km south before passing the baton to my team-mate in Karatoum, Sudan. We’ll start at the Pyramids; follow the Red Sea and the Nile before crossing into Sudan. In The Sudan we’ll bisect the desert like camel trains before rolling into Karatoum the capital some 20 days later.

It’s going to be an amazing trip – to say the least. The setting and the challenge of the expedition itself are going to be mind boggling. It’s going to challenge every sense of my being – it’s going to be amazing, inspirational, fun, interesting, hard, hot, bloody awful at times and an experience I’ll never forget! Stay tuned for more about the road to Africa, the training, the preparation and the trip itself – I’ll be blogging about my entire experience.

“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”
– John F. Kennedy 1962

http://www.tourdafrique.com/tourdafrique/index.html

live your dreams…
SK

Who is the man?

He may have been the archetypal one-hit-wonder but he did compose the best bit of wah-wah in the history of music. Isaac Hayes strutted up to the brokedown Detroit in the sky today – gone but not forgotten – keep rockin’ the wah up there big guy…



Isaac “Chef” Hayes 1942-2008

Kickin’ it old school

This past weekend Sophie and I went on a little ski trip to a place called Lake Ohau, a couple hours north of Queenstown. We were there to ski and to help celebrate our friend Fi’s birthday. As all good parties should there was a theme – the flavour of choice was 60’s skiwear. It was great fun to hit the charity shop and sort out some cool outfits. Soph sported a sort of go-go-girl on snow number and I went traditional – wool, lots of wool. As a telemarker I decided to keep it real and go for the traditional tele outfit. Wool jumper, knickers, high socks, wool hat, scarf and wool mitts. It was great fun cruising around the mountain dressed for a good time.

What really resonates though is the skiing we did. We weren’t content to lazily cruise; the snow was good so we were going for it. We hiked above the boundary, climbed along a ridge for about an hour until we found our perfect un-tracked line. We dropped into the bowl and cut fresh tracks from the summit right to the base building. It was a great mission – but what makes me smile is that we did it in costume. It proved once again that the gear you wear doesn’t really matter. We were decked out in op-shop clothes and we ripped steep powder all day.

It’s a good reminder to myself as much as anyone, that it isn’t what you're wearing or what’s hanging in the closet, but the size of the smile on your face that really matters. Too often we get caught up in the idea that you need the best of the best to get out there and have an adventure. You don’t. sometimes the best adventures come from when you have less than what you need…

Cheers
SK

You think you had a bad bus ride???

Hello blogland,

Well it’s been quite a week – I’m back in New Zealand and consequently back into winter. If you haven’t experienced that hemispheric instant change of seasons I highly recommend it. I got on a plane in Calgary Canada and it was 25c and after way too many hours walked out of the Queenstown NZ airport to snow on the mountains and temperature’s hovering around zero.

Two bits of news in the world this week have really captured my interest. The first is the story about that crazy guy in Manitoba who stabbed his fellow Greyhound Bus passenger with a “Rambo” knife and then decapitated him for good measure. It’s been said before, and will bear another repetition, “That was so fucked up.”

People in Canada are pretty spun out about the whole thing – there are the usual knee-jerk calls for increased security in bus stations and a general feeling of fear towards public transit. Apparenttly, according to one source the victim crossed the imaginary line between him and the killer who was sitting in the seat beside him. I know next time I fall asleep on a plane I’ll be sure to keep my limbs folded in tight – I’d hate my neighbour to, well you know, do the old lord of the flies thing to me…



In a strange and somewhat horrifying turn PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has released an ad on their website comparing the bus killing to how we treat animals. Holy-bad-taste-Batman! That’s not exactly how you win the hearts and minds of potential donors to the animal rights cause! I’m a vegetarian and an animal fan, but in my opinion this is taking things just a tad too far - PETA wants to run the same ad in Manitoba newspapers, It will be interesting to see how that transpires….

For more look here: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/08/06/peta-mclean.html?ref=rss
And for PETA’s response: http://www.peta.org/MC/NewsItem.asp?id=11786

In far more happy and enjoyable news Google has come up with something pretty damn cool – it’s called Street View and it’s quite the fun toy. It’s a new feature on Google Maps where you can type in any address in the States, Australia or Japan and look at an image of the structure taken from street level. Think of it like Google Earth, but rather then the overhead view, you can look straight into the curtains! Check it out, it’s good fun…




Have a look: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-ca&tab=wl


Have fun out there and remember stabbing fellow passengers isn’t nice.
SK

Art – anywhere, anytime...

In my life, my laptop is rarely more then about 3 feet from me. It’s the nature of the beast in the 21st century – we are permanently hard-wired into the matrix. Love it or hate it, we are connected. Though not all are a fan of this level of connectivity, there are some pretty cool side benefits. No, I’m not talking about Facebook (am I the only one that thinks that it’s at 14 minutes and counting?) what I’m referring to is art and the ability to create it at a moments notice.

As a photographer I’m a huge fan of digital manipulation, putting photos into Photoshop and creating something interesting. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. As you can see I’m not about adding second heads to bodies – I like taking a piece of art and creating a new piece of art, in a different direction.



Now even if you aren’t into Photoshop there are some really cool applications that are worth checking out. http://www.andreaplanet.com/andreamosaic/ is a program that will compile a series of photos into a mosaic – very cool stuff. Have a look at this pic and see what I’m talking about. If you look really close at this example you can see that this photo of me is made up of about 3000 individual images of me.

Now if you’re keen to get your Jackson Pollock on be sure to have a look at http://www.jacksonpollock.org/ you can create your own abstract art masterpieces – it’s lots of fun and a great way to get a creative buzz at a moments notice.

Have fun and remember that the potential for art is everywhere…
SK