Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge

As I was finishing my Friday morning bike ride this morning, I saw a bunch of people running down the corniche. It was then that I remembered that it was about the time of year for the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge.

Without getting into too much detail, this competition involves 6 days of grueling competitions which include canoeing, running, several sections of mountain biking in various terrain (about 140 kms total), mountaineering (rope climbing, abseiling, flying fox), desert orienteering (between 70 and 120km depending on support) and sea kayaking (between 110 or 128km depending on support). For more information, click here to go to see the program on their website.

The competition is done in teams of four. The teams are co-ed and are roped together in pairs. All four people must cross each station before moving on to the next section. The whole thing is from December 5th to the 10th. Because all the teams have GPS trackers, you can even see how each team is doing in real time by going to this website.

I really can't stress how cool the website detailing this event is. If you click on the "multimedia" drag down menu on the site, you can find video, photos and an interactive map. Alternately, you can watch this youtube clip to get a feel for what's involved. I think that the fact that Abu Dhabi hosts such an event with teams around the world is pretty impressive and I urge people to check it out over the next few days.