With a price tag of $10k I’m not the target audience for this adventure, but I’ve very tempted to make my own Global Scavenger Hunt. In their game, you are given a travel itinerary and a set of tasks to complete in each location. I imagine that for a couple in their 40s-50s who are looking for a brief taste of backpacker style adventure it is just about right.

The basic idea of a scavenger hunt is great, I think it’s just the way they play that isn’t right. How about this for a set of rules:

1. There are 100 different tasks with a variable number of points for perceived difficulty (ie: visit the highest and lowest points on a continent within 72 hours – 50 points, sail across an ocean – 75 points, visit as many countries as possible in 24 hours – 1 point per country)
2. No flights longer than 1 hour.
3. You have 365 days to gather as many points as possible at meet back at the starting point.
4. Each team has $10,000 per member starting money, but you can spend any other money that you earn during the year.
5. Teams can have any number of members, but all members must be present for every activity for points to count.

If you ask me, that would make for a hell of a year of adventure. I bet you could even make a pretty wicked show out of it, which might help pay for prizes for the winning team. And it would certainly be a better way to spend $10k traveling if you ask me.

I got a taste of my first ever film festival this week in Toronto in the Form of TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival with the film Life During Wartime. It started off feeling a bit like an inconvenient and over-priced film. We had to wait in line outside, paid $21, and had to sit in the second row. But once the film started there was a sense of community in the theatre that I’ve only felt at big midnight releases like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. People cheered, laughed, gasped together. It was great. Then, at the very end of the credits, three of the main actors and the two producers came out for a 20 minute question and answer session. A brilliant end to a good movie.

The great thing about the festival is that it last a solid week, which would make for a a great short holiday. You could book tickets ahead, see a couple of films each day, and explore and enjoy the city with the rest of your time. Sounds like a pretty perfect and relaxing getaway after the little taste that I had.

I’ve been watching South Pacific on BBC, and all the gorgeous images of tiny islands and endless ocean have got me wondering just what it would take to go explore the South Pacific. I’ve come up with a couple of options:

• Find an expedition – There are variety of organisations that run scientific or cultural expeditions. Attaching yourself to one of these is a sure ticket to a unique experience, and learn a good deal as well.
• Get a job – With some fairly basic searching, I found that there are reasonably well paying jobs, like this one, scattered around the South Pacific. Rather than taking a gap year, why not take a job in an exotic destination and use your new home as a base of exploration.

  It’s worth noting that I’m not the first person to think of this. In The Sex Lives of Cannibals The author moves with his wife as she takes a job for an NGO in Kiribati. Suffice to say that it wasn’t the paradise that he’d hoped for. But in the end the adventure won them both over. After the returned to the States, they promptly decided to head back to the South Pacific.

• On a boat – It isn’t as expensive as you might think to charter a boat to cruise around the South Pacific. Of course you need a team of at least four, and a couple of you are going to need to know how to sail.

Photo: Flickr user apdurruti under Creative Commons.

Burger King and STA have teamed up for a hilarious and expensive round the world trip: tracing the history of the hamburger. It’ll set you back over £3,000 for just over a month on the road. So it’s not the most practical way to go around the world. Also, probably because it is a promo for a BK, it doesn’t include visits to great burger joints around the world – which seems like a massive waste of opportunity.

Piggy-backing on the idea you could end up with a pretty sweet trip though. If you took a couple of months and traveled a bit more frugally you could follow the burger production chain and eat the best burgers in the world. Places that I know my tour would include that aren’t listed in the Bk tour are:

• A Texas cattle ranch – have to see the source
• Le Parker Meridien – the best burger in NYC
• Heart Attack Grill – go to the page and watch the video it’s worth it. They only serve massive greasy burgers, lard fried fries, cola, and unfiltered cigarettes
• A kobe beef burger in Japan – for the most delicious burger ever.

Of course, the best burger places are those treasured by locals and hidden from the taste buds of most tourists. The trick to a world burger tour would be to ask around and find those secret burger places. I think I could handle the challenge, of course my blood pressure might disagree.

A couple weekends back, before sitting down for lunch at Sally Lunn’s Buns in Bath, I looked into a funny pot hanging on the wall just above eye level. Inside I found a dusty note, pictured above. It reads:

Scavenger Hunt for out-of-London Area :)

1. Go to Salisbury Cathedral
   • look for E.T. & porno Noah
   • if you need help, find the old lady guide (which hair, green sash, carries a fire stick)
2. Send us a postcard
3. Go to Stonehenge and race the sheep
4. watch the performers outside the Roman Baths – and volunteer

Have Fun! Love Jesus!
– Megs & Kates

On the reverse, the note has the name “Pammy” and a heart.

Now I feel like I should have left the note in the pot for whoever was meant to find it, but seeing as it was covered in dust, I reckon they may have forgotten about it. In the meantime, it’s a potential adventure for me! There are parts of the instructions I’m going to find difficult, like sending a postcard to two people only identified by nicknames and loving Jesus. But I think I can complete the other activities in a fast and furious day trip. Especially the first item intrigues me. I feel like I’m going to find something in Salisbury that will lead me on to another adventure. Now all I’ve got to do is hire a car and go.