Adventure Primer

This is me. This is me carrying my bike across a river. This is me carrying my bike across a river on the island of Viti Levu in Fiji during the 2002 Eco-Challenge adventure race! Yes, I am proud to be one of the few people on earth to have competed in the Eco-Challenge -- the adventure race that made adventure racing something of a household name.

The race was somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 miles and it took my team and I nearly 9 days to finish. They were some of the most incredible days I have had in nearly 35 years of days. We traveled through dozens of remote villages set deep in some of the most beautiful, lush, and breathtaking spots you can imagine. In each village the Fijians greeted us with incredible warmth and hospitality. Sometimes they even waded out into the warm waters of rivers such as the one in the above picture to greet us with plates of fresh fruit and garlands of flowers that they placed around our necks.

We didn't know it at the time, but The Eco-Challenge Fiji was the last Eco-Challenge... possibly ever. This monumental race has since been replaced by many others including the Primal Quest , however it will always be remembered as the race that started the craze -- at least that's the way it happened for me...

Two years before this picture, I boarded a jumbo jet for Borneo -- the true heart of darkness. Some of the oldest rainforest in the world covers this Malaysian island set between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. I was heading there as a volunteer on the Eco-Challenge Borneo, or Eco-Challenge Sabah, Malaysia as it was also referred to. A friend, and fellow adventure junkie, had found out via the internet that the Eco-Challenge was looking for volunteers to help with the various behind-the-scenes production jobs and I put in my application immediately.

I ended up as part of the camera crew and got helicoptered, motor-boated, and 4-wheeled into some incredible places.

That was my first experience with adventure racing... and what an experience it was. Dense jungles, bloodsucking leeches, extreme heat, crystal clear water, incredible scenery, and deathly viral conditions were a few of the things I encountered. You can read more in a post on the Eco-Challenge Borneo...

Onward to adventure!
~Rick Baraff
Web Site: Rick Tales of Adventure

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