Rock Climb at Railay, Thailand

 

Scale limestone cliffs high above some of Asia's finest and most scenic beaches, staring out over the Andaman Sea as you cling to walls of rock high above sun-seeking beachgores.

Distance:5M-125M

Location: Railay, Phra Nang Peninsula, Krabi, Thailand

Ideal Time Commitment: Three days to three weeks

Best Time of Year: November to February

• Lounging about in Ton Sai, where climbers drop in to drop out from the world.
• Hanging out- literally- on Thaiwand Wall, with Thailand's Andaman coast stretched out below.
• Walking to Sa Phra Nang, a hidden lagoon inside the cliffs between Rai Leh East and Phra Nang.
• Sipping an evening beer on the sand in front of a beach bar in Ton Sai as the sun sets over the Andaman Sea.
• Deep-water soloing on a cliff overhanging the ocean.

 Thailand is framed with great beaches, but it's not often you can enjoy a bit of postcard-perfect paradise while grunting your way, finger hold by finger hold, to the top of a rock wall. Welcome to Railay, a jagged peninsula of lush limestone cliffs west of the city of Krabi.
On the wall of One Two Three, at the southern end of Hat Rai Leh East, you're spreadeagled against the cliff, looking like a star jump half completed. Your fingers are jammed into tiny holes and your eyes flicker about in search of the next ledge for your foot. Ropes hang like from bolts like spaghetti, and local climbing guides scurry barefoot up the cliff's jagged edges, making it look simple. In comparison, you feel about as smooth as the choppy ocean below.
Next morning you wonder along Hai Rai Leh West, the most perfect strip of sand on the peninsula. Today the 200m-high tower of rock that looms above its southern end- Thaiwand Wall- is your climbing goal.

Walk Australia's Larapinta Trail

See one of the world's oldest mountain ranges using the oldest for of transport: your feet. As it traverses the Macdonnells, the Larapinta tail dips in and out of waterholes and gorges, offering views of the red center desert from on top of the range.

Distance: 223KM

Location: West Macdonnell Ranges, Northern  Territory, Australia

Ideal Time Commitment: 12-16 days

Best Time of Year: April to September

• Watching for euros bounding across the eponymous Euro Ridge, with Alice Springs still in sight.
• Swimming off the day's sweat at the waterholes such as Ellery Creek Big hole and Redbank Gorge.
• Hiking through predawn chill to Counts Point for a sunrise view over the Red Center.
• Balancing along the knife-sharp Razorback ridge near Hugh Gorge.
• Looking east over much of the trail's journey as you stand atop Mt Sonder at the trail's end.

Such as it's beauty, accessibility and infrastructure, the Larapinta has quickly become one of the most popular long-distance tails in the country.
The Trail's 223km of twists, turns, spinifex, mountains and gorges are divided into 12 sections, each somewhere between 13km and 31km in length. Every section represents a day of walking, and each is determinedly intent on showing off hidden mountain wonders.
When it's been a long haul across the desert plain, switching from on line of mountains to the other, you've finally arrived at Hugh Gorge. Inside the gorge, the rock walls are as smooth as plates, towering above you as you step around waterholes.
When the sun hits the morning, the mercury rises almost instantly by 20 degrees. It's a long hot day across the ridge, the exposed rock feeling like the very bones of the land, but you're weaving through dry Spencer Gorge to Birthday Waterhole. The end is near.

Cycle the Annapurna Circuit

 

The famed Annapurna circuit might be dying a death as one of the world's great hiking trails, but it's emerging as one of the great aspirational mountain bike tours. Would you dare the brave the 5416M pass on two wheels?

Distance: 300 KM

Location: Annapurna Region, Nepal

Ideal Time Commitment: 2 weeks

Best Time of Year: March to April, October to November

• Challenging yourself to cycle across a high suspension bridge over the Marsyangdi River.
• Sharing the thrill and the view of Thorun La with your bike.
• Mingling with pilgrims and sadhus at Muktinath, with its temple holy to both Hindus and Buddhists.
• Soaking away the cycling knots in your body in the concrete hot springs at Tatopani.
• Paying homage to the mountains and mountaineers at Pokhara's International Mountain Museum.

 The circuit is a highly technical tour, far different from anything most people will have cycled. This is partly because some of the rail cannot be cycled at all; this is a tour on which you'll be pushing almost as much as pedaling- welcome to the sport of hike and bike. By some estimates, more than 20% of the tour is unrideable, including most of the ascent to Thorung La. The term unrideable is part of the challenge and besides, that 80% that you do try and ride, is absolutely  epic.
When you do reach the pass, your front wheels making it seconds before you, the world opens up. From among the prayer flags, the scene takes in the Great Barrier ridge, the Annapurnas, rocky Thorungste and the barren Kali Gandaki valley far below.

Plunge Into The Caves Of Belize

 

Psyche yourself for a journey into the Mayan underworld- Delve into the very rock on which Belize is founded, to discover dark realm of gushing rivers, ancient artifacts and the skeletal remains of sacrificial victims dispatched a millennium ago.

Location: Central Belize

Ideal Time Commitment: The days to one week

Best Time of Year: November to May

• Trekking through steaming jungle and wading through waist-deep  rivers to reach the sacrificial Crystal Maiden in Actun Tunichil Miknal.
• Spotting tapirs, anteaters, monkeys, a dizzying array of birds and -if you're really lucky- a jaguar at Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary.
• Meeting the modern day Maya in their villages in the southern Toledo district.
• Chilling out on the Northern Cayes and snorkeling or diving the Western Hemisphere's longest barrier reef.
• Taking the rough road to remote Caracol, the vast, jungle-clad Mayan city founded at least two millenia ago.
• Abseiling 90m down into the rainforest-lined Black Hole.

To the ancient Maya, the caverns, sinkholes, lakes and underground rivers in Belize- which now offer such great opportunities for tubing, kayaking, swimming and abseiling- were not adventure playgrounds, they were gateways to Xibalba, "Place of Fear"- the Mayan underworld, ruled by the gods.
Dawns's pink kiss is still fading from the sky as you set off through the jungle, wiping sleep from your eyes. Mist lingers in woolly tufts on the forest canopy ahead: moisture condensing in cold air, telltale signs of caves and steams, your guide tells you. An hour's trek through the dense forest is punctuated by waist-deep river crossings. The real adventure begins at the hourglass entrance to the Underworld: Actun Tunichil Muknal, the "Cave of the Stone Sepulchre".
You flick on your headtorch and swim into the cave, scrambling a kilometer upstream, chest-deep in chilly water. You clamber onto the rocks and finally  ascend into the cathedral. Through the soaring ceiling justifies the name. Skulls sparkle with calcite and ahead lies the object of your mission: the Crystal Maiden, a young girl, resting where she was killed over a thousand years ago.