Around the World In...: Outdoor Adventures

There's a whole world of adventures out there, from the laid back to the adrenaline pumping. Here's a few of my favourites from experience and a few I fancy trying out.

Starlight Kayaking, West Cork

There really is something magical about floating around in a bay with a whole sky full of stars burning overhead, not to mention the gentle sparks of bioluminscence in the water as you paddle along. Starlight kayaking in the sheltered waters around Reen Pier in West Cork was a highlight of my trip to Ireland last year and an experience I'd happily repeat.

Don't fancy kayaking in the dark? Abel Tasman National Park in New Zealand has beautiful blue waters year round, sheltered enough for beginners but still amazing.

Sandboarding, Te Paki

Weird sport, sandboarding. Grab your bodyboard, climb a sand dune and then, effectively, surf down it. Brilliant fun, even better if you manage to stay on your board. Te Paki stands at the northern end of Ninety Mile Beach on New Zealand's North Island and is well known for sandboarding. You can hire boards locally, but if you're already taking an organised trip up there, it might be included in the cost. Have a go. It's great.

Safari, Kruger National Park

Kruger is one of the largest reserves in Africa and, what with being fairly easily accessible from Johannesburg and Pretoria, is a great place for safari. There are few things quite as amazing as coming across White Rhino just sitting in the middle of the road on a morning game drive or seeing the same up close in the dark. Of course, for me the highlight was seeing giraffe running because I love how it looks like they run in slow motion...

As an alternative, and one I really hope I can take on my Grand Tour, try Namibia where you can go from desert to savannah.

Snorkelling, Great Barrier Reef

There's all sorts of adventures to have on Australia's Great Barrier Reef from scuba diving to sailing. Snorkelling can get you in close though, assuming you don't have a panic attack like I did. My sister and dad assure me that it is brilliant and they saw a small shark which I'm very jealous about.

Blue Lagoon, Iceland

Not an adventure so much, at least not in the traditional sense. But how many other places can you relax in wonderfully warm water with the stars overhead and snow falling on your head? This is coming from someone who's not into spas. It's surreal and amazing and well worth a visit. Why not round off an adventure packed tour of Iceland with a stop at the Blue Lagoon on the way to the airport? Perfect way to wind down - I'll vouch for that.

For an indoor alternative, Andorra's huge Caldea is pretty good, with a wide range of options or you could just paddle around the main pool.

Honourable Mention: Horse Riding, Killarney

Horse riding is one of those things you just have to do in Ireland and for beginners a nice walk around Killarney National Park is a great place to start. Just, you know, hang on if your horse decides to go for an unexpected trot.

So there's some of my favourite outdoor adventures so far. There's plenty more I'd like to try out on my round-the-world Grand Tour - bouldering in Canada, glacier hiking, maybe, in Chile and definitely stargazing in the Atacama. So many adventures still left!

What adventures would you recommend? Is there something fantastic on your doorstep that you think others should know about? Why not share in the comments below.

Iceland: "We're not drowning!"

Our final day in Iceland began with a trek up through some little, slightly confusing back streets to the enormous Hallgrimskirkja. Named after a poet. Apparently. It's pretty impressive from the outside, but I couldn't help thinking the inside looked a lot like papier mache. It's not. It's concrete. Very plain. I'm too used to English churches and all the nice carving.

Anyhoos, we decided to check out the view from the top of that there massive tower. Toddled up in a lift and then up into the chamber just below the bells. At about 10:55.

Here are some pretty views from the top.

And then it hit 11am. And we were deafened. Almost. Jesus Christ, it was loud. Yes, I know this is to be expected when you're standing almost directly below the bells, but damn.

Then it snowed on us when we left. Snowy snowy snowy. Pretty sure it barely stopped snowing the entire time we were there.

Slightly deaf, we headed back into the shopping area to pick up some little souvenirs. I acquired... well, not a lot. I was looking for something in the same vein as my manaia necklace from New Zealand - something quite traditionally Icelandic. I settled for geologically Icelandic instead and found myself a nice little necklace with a lump of lava. Funny looking little thing. Full of holes. It hasn't yet taken the place of my manaia which has become one of those rare things that I wear daily.

Moving on. It was still snowing on and off once we'd completed our perusal of the shops so we found somewhere to have lunch instead. Little place just along from the Laundromat Cafe called Cafe Paris, where we had lovely tagliatelle. Om nom nom. I wasn't quite so enamoured with the place when I spotted whale on the mains menu. Grr.

Lunch nommed (regardless of the fact that had I realised they were serving whale, I would have insisted on going elsewhere), we headed off again, this time in search of the National Museum of Iceland. Very interesting, if a little bit small. Some really amazing artefacts from the early period of settlement. Plenty to satisfy inner child who was in love with the Vikings.

Amusingly enough for me, one of the last exhibits in the museum was a set of wire cutters used during the Cod Wars. Being from Grimsby, this was endlessly amusing, especially since we'd spent the last few days joking that I shouldn't tell the Icelanders I'm Grimbarian in case the Cod Wars came up. Don't know what they are? Go google it. Basically our fishing fleet had an argument with the Icelanders about who could fish where and then the Navy got involved and it got a bit... fraught.

Warmed up and full of random knowledge about Iceland we headed back to the hotel to grab our things for the evening. We stopped at the bakery again on the way and acquired some more pastries/cakes for tea. Om nom.

And then we drank tea. Because we're English and this is what we do when there's nought else to do.

All nicely relaxed, we got picked up to go to the Blue Lagoon, the famous geothermal spa place. Much as I wanted to go, I'd been expecting some disappointment - it's always seemed so overhyped.

I was wrong. Such a lovely way to spend the evening. Lovely warm water (hitting 36 degrees plus in places, which was a bit burny), relatively clear skies and then it snowed. It's a bizarre experience, lounging about in such warm water with snow falling on your head. Definitely worth it.

Not so great was the lifeguard who (understandably) kept shining a massive searchlight across the pool to make sure no one was drowning. We got a bit giggly about that. We weren't drowning. Did get beached at one point attempting to see if it was snow or salt on the rocks at the side of the pool, but no drowning. (It was snow, by the way).

Note to self: the mud they put in the pots around the pool is for your skin. It does wonders for your skin, at least in the short term. It is not for eating. I repeat: NOT FOR EATING. Urgh, salty.

Several relaxing hours and a random chat with an Irish dude (who gave us tips for our planned trip to Ireland) later, we clambered back onto the bus and headed back to Reykjavik. Bags all packed, we sort of fell into bed, horribly aware that we had to be up again in about 3 hours. Urgh...