Adventure Cities

I'm Jonathan Thompson, an international travel writer on a mission to discover the most dynamic, adrenaline fueled destinations on the planet.

Come with me as I explore the world's best adventure cities.

Adventure Cities is made possible by the following Alaska by rail.

Passengers can travel the coasts and wilderness of Alaska with baggage, service, meals, and wheelchair access.

Information available at AlaskaRailroad.com Discover the World.

Collette offers small group explorations tours destinations and local experiences designed especially for small groups Explorations by Collette Guided travel since 1918 upbeat music In4adventure.com Inspiring, educating and encouraging outdoor adventure Host- And by these additional sponsors upbeat music This week on Adventure Cities, we're in Alice Springs, Australia.

On first impression, Alice Springs might seem like a sleepy desert town adrift in the middle of Australia's Red Centre.

But once you've spent a little time exploring, it becomes obvious that there's much more going on here than immediately meets the eye.

Alice, all the locals are on first name terms with the town, is home to an impressive selection of museums and art galleries, particularly focused on Aboriginal history and culture.

Add some lively nightlife and a blossoming restaurant scene and you have an intriguing destination spiritually and literally more than a thousand miles from the suburbs and skyscrapers of Melbourne and Sydney.

Above all, Alice is famed for being the gateway to the outback and some of the most dramatic landscapes in Australia.

This is the town on the edge of the bush, where countless adventures begin.

One of the quirkiest and most popular outdoor experiences available in Alice is an overnight trip with the multi-award winning Art Tours of Australia, founded by adventurous British artist, Anna Daikin.

I started Art Tours of Australia because I wanted to share the kinds of experiences I've had in remote places while making art.

Anna took me out to a remote campsite not far from Alice Springs, but it felt like we were right out in the wild.

We set up camp next to the Finke River, one of the oldest waterways on the planet, and the perfect place to cool down from the sultry heat of the Simpson Desert.

As the sun began to set, Anna opened her outback kitchen, magicking up a gourmet dinner in minutes.

Food always tastes better when you're camping, and this was no exception.

Then, of course, there was the art.

Anna teaches her classes with a twist.

And that twist is that the painting takes place at night.

Painting at night is a very unusual experience because your eyes see the environment in a different kind of a way.

When you paint at night, color kind of is removed from the picture and you're purely using tone.

So your eyes have to tune into the darkness and you see the environment in a very different kind of a way.

This looks brown!

Yeah, it is brown.

Oh!

Ha!

So there's only one problem with this operation and that is that I can't see anything.

Technique number one... As we started painting, the sky kept surprising us by lighting up.

Two... Three... Now to you, that might just look like a few blobs on a page, but to someone else, this could be art.

And like Anna said, with art, there's no wrong way.

Except maybe this way.

One of the great joys of the outback is the sensational hiking all around you.

But first, Anna had another bright idea.

So before we tackle some of the technical stuff on two feet, Anna's going to give me a little taster on four wheels.

Let's do it!

Don't you want to drive around in these puddles?

Oh, no.

Uh, oh.

Here we go!

Yeah!

The Larapinta Trail is one of Australia's most famous footpaths unfolding from east to west across the Northern Territory.

The bumper bushwalk begins in Alice Springs and ends 138 miles away at the foot of mighty Mount Sonder, taking in some incredible flora and fauna en route.

We don't have time to tackle the whole trail, but Anna takes me along her favorite chunk so I can get a feel for it.

Wow, look at that view.

Isn't that amazing?

It's awesome.

There's a beach down there.

It looks like a Caribbean beach.

Well, I know what I'm doing this afternoon.

The sky was perfect.

The scenery was magnificent.

Everything was going swimmingly until it was going swimmingly.

I'm afraid there is no path around.

What?

We're going to have to go through.

Really?

Yep.

We're going to have to get wet.

How deep does this get?

It doesn't get that deep on me, but I am six foot tall.

Wow!

In the end, forging the river wasn't that bad.

Even if I am an inch and a half shorter than Anna.

Oh, wow!

We made it!

A little slice of paradise.

Let me at it!

After an action packed day of hiking, swimming, and off roading around the outback, there was no better place to be than back at camp swapping stories and popping sausages around the roaring fire before a blissful light sleep under the stars.

Alice Springs was founded in 1872, a crucial outpost in Australia's Overland Telegraph Line, which then evolved into an important supply town.

But it's not just people who sometimes need support out here in the middle of the bush.

Alice is also home to Australia's only baby kangaroo sanctuary, run by local Chris Barns or Brolga, to his friends.

The idea of this place here is we rescue the kangaroo, the orphans, from roadkill.

Its mother was killed by traffic during the night.

Little baby often survives in her pouch.

They love him.

They come up to him.

They want attention.

They want milk.

They want cuddles.

This one is Soapy, his name is.

Hello, Soapy.

Soapy!

You are now a kangaroo mum, right?

Oh, I'm very pleased with that.

I'm proud to be a kangaroo.

You're carrying a baby and you're feeding a baby.

Brolga returns 99% of the orphaned kangaroo to the bush when they're 14 months old and able to fend for themselves.

The other 1% who've become too attached to humans to survive in the wild, pursue a happy life here in this vast nature reserve.

The sanctuary has grown over the last 15 years, from one man's dream into the most popular tourist destination in Alice Springs.

With the biggest attraction being the opportunity to feed, carry and care for the baby kangaroos alongside Brolga at sunset every day.

The government of the Northern Territory has invested millions of dollars into a series of mountain biking trails all around Alice Springs.

The best way to get there is in a helicopter.

I think the helicopter brings in an element of excitement with your drop off especially.

Heli biking is one of those glorious activities that's definitely a win-win.

You get a fun ride up in a helicopter and then you get a fun ride down pristine trails without any of the hard legwork involved in getting there in the first place.

The new trail system around Alice Springs is a really big deal.

There's something for every standard here, from complete novice to gnarly expert.

Thankfully, Darren took me down one of the former trails as we raced back towards Alice Springs for a well-earned dinner.

The Red Centre is arguably the most famous place in Australia to go hot air ballooning.

And looking back at the remote desert town, you realize just how special this place is.

From up here you can see just how Alice Springs is completely isolated.

It's an oasis in the middle of this vast desert, and that makes it an adventure paradise.

Ballooning at dawn with the moon and the sun both visible over the Red Centre felt truly spectacular, almost alien in its perfect beauty.

Aboriginals have been surviving in the outback for thousands of years, and one of the secrets of their success is bush tucker.

Food they foraged from the native trees and bushes and are still foraging today.

I met up with David, a local guide from Alice Springs, to explore the hidden nutrition in this demanding environment.

This guy here is the bush coconut tree.

So a wasp will actually lay its eggs into the branch and the tree will basically produce one of these.

You can eat them?

You can eat them.

You can guarantee there aren't wasps just growing inside me.

No, you basically ate them all, so they're all dead.

Our journey into bush tucker ended at Stanley Chasm, one of the most magnificent gorges in the West MacDonnell Range.

An easy 30 minutes drive from Alice Springs.

Before westerners arrived, this was a sacred spot, a so-called woman's place, for births and rituals with a permanent source of water at the end of it, which was vital for survival.

Today, bush tucker is starting to become a promising food industry with ingredients like those I foraged with David turning up in health food stores and supermarkets across Australia.

One of the driving forces behind that trend is chef and author Rayleen Brown.

Each of these plants has a language name.

Each of these plants has a story.

To me, these foods represent our sovereignty, our connection to this country.

And the way that these stories are passed down.

It was about survival at the end of the day.

If you didn't learn about these plants and couldn't identify them or didn't know their life cycle, then you wouldn't be able to survive out here.

Camels played a huge part in pioneering the deserts of Central Australia before roads and railways.

And travelers can relive some of that Victorian exploration on the Pyndan Camel Tracks tour.

What's insane about Alice Springs is that from pretty much anywhere downtown, you can be out in the bush in 5 minutes and that opens up an incredible amount of potential for unique outdoor experiences.

If you're looking for a real, raw, rugged taste of the Australian outback, then Alice Springs, this unexpected gem sitting at the heart of the untamed Red Centre, is the place for you.

This week on Adventure Cities we're in Long Beach, California.

Wow.

I can look out and see the whole of Long Beach in all its splendor.

Stretching along the southern flank of California's L.A.

County, Long Beach feels like a secret hiding in plain sight.

A chilled out beach town living quietly next door to the hum and hustle of America's second biggest city, Los Angeles.

Perhaps it's the ocean.

Perhaps it's the perpetual sunshine.

Or perhaps it's just the generally positive vibes percolating here.

But there seems to be something genuinely magical about Long Beach.

Everything comes back to the water here, and the residents have plenty of ways to enjoy it, including hydro bikes, which you can rent by the hour and pedal out into Alamitos Bay to get your local bearings or working up a gentle sweat.

Long Beach is the perfect ying to Los Angeles's yang.

It's a laid back, mellow, fun loving place with an 11 miles of waterways just like this.

Long Beach is one of the last true beach towns of California.

Cheers.

Cheers.

Long Beach is famous for its lively nightlife, and Roxanne's is one of the most famous places to hang out.

It's absolutely kicking, but there's an additional bonus if you know where to look.

Which is right here.

The early bird catches the worm.

Oh, wow.

Welcome to the Exhibition Room.

We're going to do a nice and refreshing cocktail with tequila.

All right.

Aperol, some watermelon, basil syrup and lemon juice.

That's so fresh.

So today I'm going to be going roller skating on the beach, which is a classic Long Beach experience.

But first, I need to get dressed up.

So, I've come down to Retro Row, which is the place to find the clothes I'm going to need.

Hi, Jonathan.

I'm Kathleen.

Very nice to meet you, Kathleen.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Meow.

Meow is a legendary local store selling vintage clothing with a twist.

Most of it is completely new and has never been worn.

Store owner Kathleen Schaaf is a master of unearthing forgotten, untouched clothing hoards from the 1970s and 80s to the present day.

This is from the nineties and eighties, very Versace like.

Amazing.

It's a trick that's made her very popular with neighboring Hollywood.

Outfitting countless films and TV shows from Seinfeld to Stranger Things, which obviously stood her in good stead for dressing me up to go roller skating on the beach.

All right.

Ready to roll.

So now I'm dressed for action.

I've got my roller skates and I've come down to Long Beach, where I'm going to be meeting a local legend, called Mimi Masher, who's going to teach me how to roller skate like a star.

As if by magic, here she is!

Hi, there.

Hello, Mimi.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you, too.

You ready to roller skate, then?

I am more than ready.

Let's go.

I'm willing.

That's all you need to be.

Okay, so if you feel like you're going to fall, you want to put your, sit in a chair.

Put your butt out.

You're going to go real low, so that way if you fall, you're already close to the ground and you just pick a cheek.

All right?

You just pick a cheek?!

Yeah!

Yeah!

Good!

It must be the jacket.

It has to be.

The jacket has special powers.

I haven't actually been roller skating since the eighties, so I was dressed appropriately.

Unfortunately the last time I went roller skating, I was about seven years old and the skills have been lost.

Okay, Mimi, do you think that I might be able to learn some simple tricks?

Absolutely.

Basically, what you're going to do to start is you're going to well, after you're rolling, you're going to get down as low as you can go.

Yeah.

And then you're going to take your foot up, put it out.

I started off okay, but then maybe I got a little bit overconfident.

All right, well, that's the shoot the duck.

What should we try now?

So you're going to do a general jump and then we're gonna sink down into it.

All right, here we go.

Oh, I tried.

I tried.

Long Beach is home to one of the world's largest shipping ports, but it's not all business here.

The harbor is also a perfect playground for adrenaline junkies, with the four Astronaut Islands providing an ideal backdrop for jet ski adventures.

The biggest star of the show out here is the mighty Queen Mary, a 1930s art deco ocean liner, which was purchased by the city of Long Beach in the 1960s and turned into a luxury floating hotel.

One of the most unique places to stay in California.

Sadly, during my visit, the Queen Mary was under renovation.

But just seeing the sheer size of the ocean liner was a thrill in itself.

During the day, the locals often spend their spare time on or around the beach, but at night they hit Pine Avenue and there are some bombastic venues to check out, including my personal favorite, Secret Island.

A hidden Tiki bar tucked away beneath an Irish pub, which is a great place to end the day in style.

And Long Beach is a great place to get quirky drinks!

It's a glorious day in Long Beach, and I'm going to be playing a little bit of football.

I forgot my boots, I forgot my shin pads, but I've been told that protection won't be a problem in this particular game.

I've been playing football all my life and I've been injured plenty of times, so I'm actually glad to be playing a game where there is pretty much zero chance of injury.

Alright, this is good.

I'm very confident.

Alright, bubble up!

They said to me that it's a cross between British football and American football.

But actually, when you start playing it, it's way more American football.

Referee!

You kind of try to figure out all of the different mechanics of the game while dripping in sweat and trying to not get knocked over and find the ball at the same time.

Long Beach is an awesome destination in its own right, but it's also the main access point for Catalina Island, 22 miles off the coast.

It takes just over an hour to get there on one of the local ferries.

Or, you can take a helicopter, which takes 15 minutes.

Catalina Island here we come.

Santa Catalina Island, or Catalina for short, is the largest of California's eight Channel Islands.

It's a popular escape for everyone from visiting day trippers to Hollywood A-listers.

And they all make a beeline for the main town, Avalon.

With its crescent shaped harbor, bobbing fleet of yachts and brightly colored townhouses.

Welcome to Paradise!

Arriving on Catalina feels like being transported onto a Greek island with additional palm trees.

You can walk pretty much everywhere around pocket sized Avalon.

But if you were thinking of hiring a car to explore the rest of the island, you're out of luck.

There's a 25 year waiting list for even locals to have a car.

Instead, electric golf carts are the transportation of choice.

When it comes to accommodation here, one property stands out above all others, quite literally.

Mount Ada was the dream home that billionaire William Wrigley built in the 1920s when he owned the island.

He picked the perfect spot overlooking Avalon, which captures the first rays of sunlight in the morning and the best views of town for the rest of the day.

This feels like a deserted island.

It's just, you almost half expect a dinosaur to pop out from one of the valleys.

And it's also an island where you can get involved in all kinds of fun adventures like zip lining.

How you feeling, J.T.?

I feel good.

So for take off, I should be like this.

It doesn't matter, but if you take this hand off, it's going to spin.

Yeah.

Okay, see ya!

You wouldn't know it from just visiting Avalon, but Catalina is a decent sized island at 76 square miles, and one of the most fun ways to explore its backcountry is via its network of zip lines.

Catalina is surrounded by crystal clear waters, which makes the submersible tour of its coastline one of the most popular experiences.

From beneath the surface, you can see a wild array of sea life darting through the depths, policed by the famous tangerine colored Garibaldi fish.

From the top of the submersible we also had a great view of Avalon, which truly looks like it belongs in the Mediterranean.

And yet somehow, it's here just off the coast of California.

Long Beach as a whole, this carefree waterfront playground with its relaxed outdoor lifestyle welcoming larger than life locals feels like a world away from the free for all freeways and hectic hullabaloo of Los Angeles.

Along with Catalina Island, this is a true pocket of peace and pleasure, basking in near permanent sunshine out here on the glorious Southern California coast.

Adventure Cities is made possible by the following Alaska by rail.

Passengers can travel the coasts and wilderness of Alaska with baggage, service, meals, and wheelchair access.

Information available at AlaskaRailroad.com Discover the World.

Collette offers small group explorations tours destinations and local experiences designed especially for small groups Explorations by Collette Guided travel since 1918 upbeat music In4adventure.com Inspiring, educating and encouraging outdoor adventure Host- And by these additional sponsors upbeat music