If you鈥檙e going to run a marathon, you might as well do it someplace beautiful. These international marathons still involve running 26.2 miles, but the scenery is stunning enough that you may not even notice the distance聽fading by. Plus, these overseas destinations have other draws, like a chance to see the midnight sun over a Norwegian fjord, camping in the Andes, or soaking in a Japanese onsen after the race.

Best for Sightseeing:聽Kyoto Marathon

Kyoto, Japan; February 16

Need proof that the聽 (from $155) is a stunning run? The hilly course cuts through not one but seven Unesco聽World Cultural Heritage sites. You鈥檒l pass聽historic shrines and temples,聽the Katsura River, and the Kyoto Botanical Gardens. Stay in a ryokan, or traditional inn, where you鈥檒l wear a kimono and sleep on futon a mattress; check out聽聽(from $70), which has its own onsen. The , outside the city and often snow-covered this season, is worth a visit to experience its surrounding hot springs, and the reopened in聽2018聽after being closed for 67 years.

Best for Making a Difference:聽Uganda Marathon

Masaka, Uganda; May 24 to 31

罢丑别听聽happens over the course of seven days. This isn鈥檛 just a run. It鈥檚 a full-fledged social-impact project. You鈥檒l explore rural villages, spend days volunteering for community projects, like building schools and聽helping local entrepreneurs draft business plans, and organize聽a fun run for school children and orphanages. On day six of the trip, you鈥檒l check off those 6.2 miles (or opt for the 10K or half-marathon distances) through a scenic course in 鲍驳补苍诲补鈥檚聽largest marathon. The entrace fee of $1,195 will go directly toward聽funding causes聽allocated by the local communities, like health education and support for the elderly. While you鈥檙e there, add on a visit to聽, to stand on the equator and spot buffalo, elephants, leopards, and lions in the park鈥檚 grasslands.

Best for History Buffs:聽Inca Trail Marathon

Cuzco, Peru; June 6 to 14 and聽August 1 to 9聽

After 25 years in existence, 2020 marks the final year of the聽, a small-scale, unofficial event dubbed the world鈥檚 most difficult marathon. In one day, you鈥檒l run the Inca Trail from Cuzco to Machu Picchu, climbing over 10,000 feet in elevation and topping out above 13,000 feet. You鈥檒l pass through archaeological sites and follow in the footsteps of the original pilgrimage to this sacred valley. offers nine-day marathon packages (from $3,400) for both the June and August dates, which聽includes lodging in Cuzco and elsewhere, one night of camping, and porters to haul your gear. Stay an聽 to explore Cuzco鈥檚 Baroque churches and hike to the top of the Andes鈥� striped Rainbow Mountain.

Best for Night Owls:聽Midnight Sun Marathon

Tromso, Norway; June 20

Some 6,000 runners take to the polar gateway town of Tromso聽each June for the 聽(entrance fee from $96), which also has 10K and half-marathon options. The race starts at 8:30 P.M., but since it doesn鈥檛 get dark this close to the Arctic Circle in summer, you鈥檒l run into the night in total sunshine, with views of the surrounding peaks and wandering reindeer. Stay outside聽town in a Norwegian cottage along a fjord at the聽聽(from $199). Extend your stay for a few days in Oslo, a hip city with a booming craft-cocktail scene. 罢丑别听聽(from $138) opened in March聽in a聽building that once was the headquarters of the 19th-century cruise-ship line of the same name.

Best for 国产吃瓜黑料rs:聽Australian Outback Marathon

Yulara, Australia; July 25

Experience the Northern Territory in a truly unique way: by running across it. This聽marathon聽also offers three shorter-distance options, all of which聽cross bush roads with stellar views of Uluru, the famous Aboriginal sandstone formation, and Kata Tjuta, the area鈥檚 landmark red-rock domes. The marathon鈥檚 coordinators can arrange for聽 (from $855) that include up to five nights of lodging and guided outings, or book a trip with聽, and it鈥檒l do all the planning for you. Add extra days to explore the cultural highlights of聽Uluru鈥揔ata Tjuta National Park,聽and book tickets (from $43) to , an outdoor art installation across the desert that spans a distance equal to seven football fields.

Best for Photographers:聽Iceland Volcano Marathon

Myvatn, Iceland; July 25

A new marathon for 2020, the聽 is takes place聽across an active volcanic area. You鈥檒l run聽over聽the black sand of the Hverfjall crater and pass by hot springs, lava fields, and spouting geysers at the place where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. Entry in the marathon is part of a聽 (from $2,217), with one night in the capital city of 搁别测办箩补惫铆办聽and four nights in the smaller north-coast towns of Myvatn or Husav铆k.聽You can聽, like whale spotting, touring an ice cave, or visiting Europe鈥檚 tallest waterfall. Or stay on your own to spend a few nights聽 on the shores of Lake Myvatn or recovering from the run at the upscale聽聽(from $135).

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Juma Via Kalikwani is the director of operations for Nile River Explorers, a rafting company in Jinja, Uganda. Kalikwani became friends with the first rafters on the Victoria Nile as a young boy and worked his way up through the ranks of NRS to his current role. The river now faces a threat:聽the , which is being built on the Nile.聽Of the three proposed dam heights, only one would spare the rapids and consequent rafting and tourism industry that Kalikwani and other local Ugandans depend on. In Juma of Itanda, this video from , Kalikwani talks about what losing the rapids will mean to him. You can follow Penick on Facebook and on Instagram .

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Don’t put your tent in storage just yet. During our colder months, some great southern hemisphere trails shine and a few too-hot-for-summer circuits open up in our southerly states and in the Caribbean. From a couple of weeks to a few days, here are some worthy long walks to take this winter that don’t involve snow.

W Trek, Patagonia

35 miles;聽4 days;聽November to March

On the W Trek in Chile鈥檚 Torres Del Paine National Park, you鈥檙e never far from view of the iconic, glaciated granite spires that sore eight thousand feet into the air above Patagonia. The trek boasts stunning mountain scenery: turquoise alpine lakes, enormous glaciers, and beech forests. Weather on this track is notoriously temperamental but is most stable during our winter. 聽runs tours for the uninitiated (from $3,545), but if you鈥檝e been on an overnight and feel comfortable navigating in a Spanish-speaking country, you can do it yourself. Tack on a few more days to do the Circuit鈥攁 10-day, 52-mile journey around the entire , including the W.

Ozark Highlands Trail, Arkansas

165 contiguous miles (218 total);聽10 to 14 days;聽October to early February

The 聽is one of the few American trails etched into the wilderness mostly by hikers, who completed a large portion of system after federal funding stopped flowing in the early 1980s. Switchbacks and connectors sling you east and west over ridgelines and flat topped mountains (maxing out at 2,380 feet), littered with creeks, ponds, and a forest of red cedars, white oak, and pawpaw groves. In summer, the water sources tend to dry up but the humidity soars. It鈥檚 doable in fall and spring鈥攋ust be wary of the cold and wet March and April weather鈥攂ut if you go in winter, when the days are in the mid-50s and night鈥檚 at around freezing, you鈥檒l have the place all to yourself. Stock up in 聽about 45 minutes away. Only have a few days? The 37 mile stretch between Fairview and Ozone is especially beautiful.

Tongariro Northern Circuit, New Zealand

27 miles; 3 to 4 days;聽December to April

Tongariro Crossing is a 12-mile path that shows off New Zealand鈥檚 most otherworldly capabilities鈥攊f you鈥檝e seen The Lord of the Rings, you’ll know it as Mordor. Plenty do it on an eight-hour day hike, but there are another two or three days of less crowded emerald lakes, volcanic peaks, and golden tussock-filled valleys in the wilderness beyond. If you plan to hike the entire out, you鈥檒l need聽a聽permit, which will start to sell out towards the end of the year. You can use the backcountry hut system, which have heat and water during the southern hemisphere summer.

Black Canyon Trail, Arizona

82 miles;聽7 days;聽November to April

What began as an early Native American trading route became a stagecoach path on the frontier, a livestock road in the 20th century, and, as of 2008, a , run by the Bureau of Land Management. The bike-friendly trail winds along the floor of saguaro-clad dessert at the feet of the Bradshaw mountains and through classic frontier scenery. Stock up in Prescott or Phoenix, which are both about 40 miles away from the trailhead. And even though it鈥檒l be nice and warm, with temperatures ranging from 40 to 70 degrees,聽wear good long pants and boots鈥攖his is rattlesnake country.

South Coast Track, Tasmania, Australia

40 miles;聽6 to 8 days;聽December to April

What was once a journey of survival for shipwrecked sailors is now an undulating playground of empty gold-sand beaches, primitive jungles, and the high alpine passes of the Ironbound Mountains. The trailhead to one of the roughest hikes on the island of Tasmania鈥攖he 鈥攊s reached only via air: fly into Melaleuca, a remote finger of land in southwest Tasmania, from Cambridge airport, located in the greater area of Hobart.聽You’ll need a permit and supplies, which you can get through , the airline that operates the route. If you’d like a guide, 聽(from $2,695) has been running small group expeditions since the 1980s.

Mountains of the Moon, Uganda

43 miles;聽8 to 9 days;聽December to March

Think of the Mountains of the Moon trail as the longer, more remote聽alternative African alpine summit to Kilimanjaro. The trek, which originates in聽Rwenzori national park, nine hours鈥� drive west of the capital of Kampala,聽includes the summit of Margherita Peak, Africa’s third highest at 16,762 feet, with views over southwestern Uganda’s snow-capped Rwenzori Mountains. Our winter is the only season where you won鈥檛 need crampons to summit Margherita; it鈥檚 also the best chance to see the rare Rwenzori leopard. Pick up a guide in the capital of聽, or book ahead of time with , which leads guided 13-day聽tours that include gorilla tracking.

Waitukubuli Trail, Dominica

115 miles; 14 days;聽January to May

The Caribbean’s longest walking trail is driest and coolest in winter. It snakes through , known for its boiling lake and waterfalls, and crosses the 聽and northern jungle, before skirting the northern coast to , where you can jump into the Caribbean and check out Dominica’s oldest fort. Along the way you’ll stay in local communities, either camping, at bed and breakfasts, or in home stays. It’s fairly simple to do this one alone鈥攖he Park will help you prepare , but you can also find a guide in , the town closest to the trailhead.

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Viewed from a hilltop, southwest Uganda聽spreads out in an emerald patchwork of terraced agriculture and primeval forest. To the north and south, in the Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga National Parks, about half the global population of mountain gorillas (792聽at last count)聽call those forests home.聽

In the wet season, elephantine clouds roll in from the Congolese interior聽and the land glows with startling fecundity. In the rarer dry months, the Virungas, central Africa鈥檚 volcanic chain, make great shadows in the haze. At its heart, Lake Bunyonyi, 6,500 feet up, with its 29 hilly islands, is a jewel.聽

Populated with聽a diverse tapestry of hospitable tribal groups, it鈥檚 the sort of special place you might expect to entice hikers and wildlife聽watchers from around the world. But that鈥檚 just the problem: The few people who come to this paradise聽stay for a day or two to see the gorillas and then move on.

Miha Logar, a 41-year-old Slovenian transplant, is trying to change that. In 2011, he founded the聽, a private-sector initiative that is working to rebrand Lake Bunyonyi and the surrounding region as a destination to rival the golden savannahs of Kenya and Tanzania,聽鲍驳补苍诲补鈥檚 eastern neighbors. In time, Logar hopes the name 鈥淕orilla Highlands鈥澛爓ill become southwest 鲍驳补苍诲补鈥檚 de facto label. He鈥檚 taken on the responsibility of marketing the region鈥攁 job usually shouldered by a government agency鈥攆rom his straw-roofed hut headquarters on the shore of Lake Bunyonyi. 聽

A self-confessed IT聽nut with an infectious smile bracketed by a cropped goatee, Logar first came to Uganda in 1999 as a student researching the potential of computer technology to transform lives in the developing world. A year later, he moved permanently聽to the country to start the nonprofit , an organization that fosters business in the local community through tourism.聽

From the outset, Edirisa鈥檚 goal has been to nurture cultural self-respect by encouraging alternative ways of earning money in a region that鈥檚聽overreliant on farming. To Logar, tourism seemed like an obvious industry to grow. In 2003, Edirisa opened up a hostel, employing indigenous workers and offering locally led hikes and lake tours鈥攂oth incredible add-ons to the typical gorilla safaris offered in the region.

鈥淚t鈥檚 always the same: two nights, off they go. People come for the gorillas, then leave,鈥� Logar explains. 鈥淲e are trying to position this place as a destination by itself.鈥�

In more visible parts of the world, that job would be easy. But here, eight hours by road from the capital of Kampala, farther still from 鲍驳补苍诲补鈥檚 adventure travel hub of Jinja, remote geography keeps visitor numbers low.

Proximity to the ever-volatile DRC and tragic聽but聽rebounding Rwanda doesn鈥檛 help. Negative perceptions have a tendency to leak over frontiers. The 聽issues warnings only聽for the DRC side of the border, noting聽that Americans traveling in Uganda聽should be aware that tensions have the potential to leak into the area聽in the form of refugees. But locals are proud to say that Lake Bunyonyi, free of bilharzia, crocodiles, and hippos, is one of the safest lakes on the continent.

There鈥檚 evidence that Logar鈥檚 efforts are paying off. Over the past decade, Edirisa鈥檚 hiking and dugout canoeing tours, run not-for-profit and providing employment opportunities for dozens of local people, have become a byword for culturally sensitive travel that goes beyond the guidebooks. Around 300 independent travelers a year, including this writer, have joined the group鈥檚 local guides to explore Lake Bunyonyi鈥檚 islands and the surrounding backcountry.聽

鈥淲e鈥檙e not allowed to hunt in our forest, but by guiding tourists we still get benefits from it,鈥� says John Kanusu, whose community of 120 Batwa Pygmies have scratched out a meager聽agricultural livelihood since being displaced, like many of 鲍驳补苍诲补鈥檚 marginalized Batwa, from their ancestral lands by the government. 鈥淲e never expected that we would earn money from selling decorated walking sticks!鈥� For Kanusu鈥檚 tribe, and countless others living on the margins in southwest Uganda, the Gorilla Highlands Project holds the promise of dignity聽and an essential source of income.聽

Logar鈥檚 other sphere of expertise, multimedia, is also playing its part. To date, disseminating the new brand has owed much to the steady trickle of volunteers鈥攆ilmmakers, photographers, designers鈥攚ho Logar, himself an ex-journalist, has tempted to Bunyonyi. An award-winning Gorilla Highlands聽ebook, currently running to almost 400 pages, becomes more comprehensive every year. A video聽map, featuring what Logar promises will be 鈥渁mazing footage鈥� of the region鈥檚 places and people, is nearing completion.

These tools aside, the project鈥檚 success will rest on word聽of聽mouth: the everyday work of cajoling tour operators, hotels, and government agencies to adopt the Gorilla Highlands聽rubric when discussing southwest Uganda.聽

It鈥檚 an ambitious plan, but with such a bewitching part of the world on his doorstep, the Slovenian has every right to be optimistic. It鈥檚 just a case of spreading the word.

Lake Bunyonyi is located near the town of Kabale, 250 miles southwest of Kampala. To find out more about the region, you can download the for free.

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Brolin Mawejje hopes to become the first Olympic snowboarder from Uganda, a country that has no snow. The 20-year-old pre-med student is the star of , a documentary debuting at the on February 2. The film is a chronicle of impressive perseverance and a tribute to the generosity of those who helped Brolin toward his goal.

Mawejje, who grew up in Uganda with his father and seven siblings, faced rough circumstances on the streets and in boarding school where beatings were the norm. At age 12, he left Uganda for Lincoln, Massachusetts, to meet his birth mother, whom he鈥檇 not seen for ten years. But his situation didn鈥檛 improve much in the United States. The victim of frequent bullying, he developed anger issues and depression. It stained his relationship with his mother, who threatened to send him back to Uganda. But then some local families invited him into their homes.

One of those families was the Hesslers. They adopted Mawejje, and when they moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the Ugandan teen came with them. He finished high school in Jackson and now attends Westminster College (which produced 23 winter Olympians in 2014) in Salt Lake City, Utah. His winters are spent training for the 2018 Olympics, where he hopes to compete as the first and only member of the Ugandan snowboard team. We caught up with Mawejje to see how events are unfolding.

OUTSIDE: Describe your upbringing in Uganda.
MAWEJJE: Growing up in Uganda I learned very quickly how to take care of myself. I was the youngest of seven and my mom left for the states when I was two. My father saw education as the only chance for a better life, so he placed a huge emphasis on studies.

Times were tough and there were occasions when we didn鈥檛 have the money to send my siblings and I to school. No matter what our situation, though, my father always made sure that we were dressed well and had food on the table. He placed a huge emphasis on discipline. We had to wake up earlier than him every morning. Those lessons helped me get to where I am today.

Why snowboarding?
I started snowboarding to fit in. The first friend I made in Boston was a snowboarder. He and his family gave me the opportunity to go to Vermont on the weekends and ride. Eventually, I was able to move out to Jackson Hole with my best friend from Boston and finish my last two years of high school out West.

We then both went to college in Salt Lake City to keep shredding as much as possible. When Far From Home first began, and we released the first teaser more than two years ago, we were amazed by the response. I鈥檝e been lucky with the opportunities that have come through snowboarding.

Why the Olympics?
The opportunity manifested itself through the exposure we鈥檝e been getting from Far From Home. When I went back to Uganda, all the press was asking me about the Olympics. That was when I realized that this could actually happen. I don鈥檛 want to look back on my life and regret not going for it. I think it would be stupid to not go for that opportunity and show people all over that it doesn鈥檛 matter where you come from, if you put your mind to it you can succeed.

How has the reaction from Ugandans been?
Ugandans have been extremely supportive! Even though a lot of them have never seen snow. They don鈥檛 really understand snowboarding, but they鈥檙e excited that there is a Ugandan out there who鈥檚 going for it. It鈥檚 overwhelming at times. When we went back to Uganda, random people on the streets recognized me. I couldn鈥檛 believe it.

What support are you getting from the Ugandan Olympic federation? And what are the next steps toward getting to the Olympics?
The Ugandan National Olympic Committee has been very supportive of my ambitions. What needs to happen next is they need to become my official federation and register through FIS so that I can officially ride under the Ugandan flag. We鈥檝e already talked to FIS and all my points will transfer over to Uganda. We鈥檝e created a four-year competition and training program with the Park City Snowboard Team that outlines my path to 2018.

How are you training?
I鈥檓 riding at Park City nearly every day and I linked up with a coach whom I believe will help me get to the Olympics. I have an awesome crew of riders who really push me on the hill. Shout out to my brothers the Hesslers, Hunter Butler, Zeppelin Zeerip, Dan Rosen, and the rest of the boys. I also ride at Jackson Hole quite a bit.

Why do you want to go into medicine?
It was my childhood dream to become a doctor and now that I have the opportunity to study in the U.S., I鈥檓 working hard to make it come true. But it鈥檚 a long-term goal. I want to focus on snowboarding for the next four years and then go to medical school after the Olympics.

How do you balance school and snowboarding?
I take a heavy class load in the fall and then take a lighter load in the winter so I can shred nearly every day. I鈥檒l be graduating with a pre-med degree next fall. And I work at a hospital in Boston during the summer. After I鈥檓 done with school, I鈥檓 going to solely focus on riding until 2018.

What do you hope the film will accomplish?
I hope the film will do two things: Inspire people in similar circumstances to never give up and find a community that can help develop your passion; and I also hope it inspires people to help those in need. We started the film as a group of friends with an idea to tell a story because we thought it could help people.

I also hope it helps provide a platform and a launching point for my Olympic road. I want to ride in the Olympics because it鈥檚 the biggest stage there is. Maybe a kid down on his luck might see me in the Olympics and be inspired to take up snowboarding. That is my ultimate hope.

Do you have a favorite place to ride?
Number one: Jackson Hole! For the park, definitely Park City, Utah.

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国产吃瓜黑料r Robert Young Pelton thinks he can do what no one else has so far been able to do: Find Joseph Kony, the Ugandan warlord hiding somewhere in Central Africa along with his Lord’s Resistance Army, a ragtag company of abductee child soldiers.聽

Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, 2006.

The U.S. State Department has offered $5 million for information leading to Kony鈥檚 arrest, and he鈥檚 been wanted since 2005 by the International Criminal Court on 33 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Most of the world learned of Kony鈥檚 atrocities last year via Invisible Children’s viral video聽. (More than 100 million people saw the video and about as many saw of Jason Russell, founder of the controversial group.)

Pelton, who claims to have located Osama bin Laden in 2003 (鈥淚 kept saying he was in Chitral then, which he was.鈥�), is calling his manhunt and has teamed up with two filmmakers, Ross Fenter and Rob Swain, to document the experience. To pay for the media part, the trio has set up an .

Pelton says his use of crowdfunding offers an alternative to traditional charities whereby the donor is part of the mission鈥攄onors supposedly have front row seats to the action. According to Pelton, those who contribute to his campaign will have a say 鈥渋n making real-time decisions鈥� via direct participation or web feeds.

As of December 4, Expedition Kony had raised $9,231 of the requested $450,000. This doesn鈥檛 leave much time to fill the coffers if, as Pelton says, the expedition gets underway in January 2014. Pelton, however, is also funded by himself and private donors.

No matter how much money comes in, Pelton says he鈥檚 going to Africa to find Kony. We caught up with him in Washington, D.C. to ask him about his impending adventure.

Whose idea was this in the first place?
Ross, Rob, and I were sitting around and Ross said, 鈥淲hy don鈥檛 you go find Kony?鈥� And I said, 鈥淲hy not?鈥� In the late 鈥�90s until 2003, I did this TV series The World鈥檚 Most Dangerous Places, and that was basically me showing people how to find people. I went into dangerous shitholes and found bad guys and terrorist groups. This is a more finely tuned version of that. I鈥檝e been tracking Kony since 1993, and I know the area and how rebels bushwalk and the placement of their camps. So this is a pretty natural idea for me.

Who is Joseph Kony?
Kony is the leader of an ethnic group that鈥檚 mutated into a quasi-religious cult鈥攕imilar to聽al Qaeda. He is not the leader of a functioning military group. His group is broken into small pieces scattered around Garamba National Park in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). We鈥檙e talking about 200 people, half of whom are abductees tagging along because they鈥檝e been forced to live in the bush. He鈥檚 not representative of a political movement. It鈥檚 called the Lord鈥檚 Resistance Army, but he鈥檚 not really resisting anyone. He鈥檚 not even in the country where he started his fight, which is Uganda.

So I guess the question is, where is he?
My guess is that Kony is traveling with two bodyguards, and he鈥檚 moving quickly toward Sudan. Keep in mind that for years, Kony was supplied and coordinated by the government of Sudan. For many years he had safe harbor there. The funny thing about fugitives is that they can only stay away from their center of gravity for so long because it costs them so much. But there鈥檚 nothing stopping him from getting in a car or a plane and moving hundreds or thousands of miles away. He has a large group of supporters in major cities all the way from Nairobi to Kampala. God knows how many criminals are hiding in the slums of Nairobi right now.

Do you have a method for searching for him?
I use standard search and rescue concepts. I鈥檝e spent a lot of time humping over mountains and know how rebel groups move and think. I know how much they have to eat and how much they have to carry. I鈥檒l use that logic and my investigative journalism skills to contact friends and enemies and people who know Kony. I鈥檒l reconstruct a probable path and thought process. You have to start out where you know he isn鈥檛, then zoom in on where he could be and where he wants to be. This guy鈥檚 not dumb, he鈥檚 been in the bush for 20 years.

So will you be hacking through the jungle or in a hotel room working the phone?
Let鈥檚 talk about the Darwinian theory most people have about criminals. They always think they鈥檙e hiding in the bush. We thought bin Laden was hiding in a cave because we chose to think that way. We think Kony is hiding in the jungle. In reality commanders typically have a roof over their heads. They have communications, booze, minions, money, supplies, whatever. It鈥檚 silly to assume this is going to take on a cartoon-like structure where Kony鈥檚 running through the bushes and I鈥檓 chasing him.

Looks like the area he鈥檚 hiding in is pretty remote.
When I say Central Africa, you pull up your most stereotypical image and that鈥檚 it. Large areas of elephant grass, which you can get lost in three feet off the road. There鈥檚 areas of triple-canopy forest, there鈥檚 plantations where people have burned the bush and planted corps. There鈥檚 vast areas officially called national parks, which are actually poaching parks. There are crocodiles that want to eat you, there are mosquitoes that want to kill you, there are angry men with guns who want to shoot you. It’s not going to be easy.

Sounds like a nice place. You hiring security?
Of course. Depending on what we鈥檙e doing. Bushwalking you don鈥檛 want to have a huge group. The larger your footprint, the larger a target you are. Work with locals, move quickly, think small. But when we鈥檙e in the rebel areas, we鈥檒l need a truckload of slack-jawed, stoned soldiers to guard us. But not two. If you have two, they鈥檒l fight each other and start a civil war.聽

Is there anything about the expedition that鈥檚 worrying you?
There are a lot of other people looking for Kony, and not all of them want us to look for him. But there are also people looking for Kony who want us to find him. There are some competing agendas that I hope I can iron out when we hit the ground and get 100 percent of the people rowing in the same direction.

I鈥檝e been in Washington meeting with people who want to get Kony, and now that they know I鈥檓 not a lunatic with a samurai sword and a ponytail, I think they get it. Hopefully, we can have unified effort.

So why crowdfunding for this project?
Usually I would just do this, but this is an experiment to see if I can catch people鈥檚 imagination. People say they don鈥檛 like global warming or child slavery but all they do is throw money at organizations that they don鈥檛 have any interaction with. People feel let down. We鈥檙e talking about giving people a front-row seat, making sure your dollars go to the thing you want them to. Those who have a moral stake in this can be a part of it for five or ten bucks. We鈥檒l be in constant communication with updates on our progress.

Do you think people feel let down by Invisible Children?
You can鈥檛 fault Invisible Children for what they did. They鈥檙e the biggest reason there鈥檚 so much focus on Joseph Kony, even if their methods are a bit bizarre. They鈥檙e responsible for drawing the political support of young voters who wouldn鈥檛 know where Africa was or what Kony was doing. They took that energy and translated it to political will, which then translated to tax money, which is why U.S. Special Forces are there now. Whoever gets Kony will have my support and admiration. It’s not a contest. But I do like a challenge.

As one State Department person said, 鈥淲ell you鈥檙e both zero for zero, so we鈥檒l see how it goes.鈥� What that means is that there鈥檚 no shortcuts. The proof is in the delivery.聽

Well I鈥檇 say you have your work cut out for you.
If it was easy it would already have been done. There鈥檇 be Catch Kony bus tours.

It鈥檒l be a true adventure. I have to say, of all the things I鈥檝e done, this ranks up there as a five-star.

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Fishing Mongolia’s Eg-Uur River Basin
国产吃瓜黑料 Editors’ Choice
I fantasize about sight-fishing to brown trout in New Zealand, hooking salmon in Iceland, moving to Patagonia. But when I picture the fish I most want to catch, I think of a wolf. A Mongolian taimen—nicknamed “the river wolf—can reach six feet and eats, among other things, ducks. To catch one, you need to go to a place that’s wilder than any bonefishing lodge; northern Mongolia is still populated by nomadic herding communities, meaning you’ll be fishing alone. A friend of mine once rode in a jeep 18 hours alongside a freshly removed goatskin to catch a taimen. Luckily, there’s a better way. Livingston, Montana–based Sweetwater Travel runs the best operation in the country, based out of two ger camps in the Eg-Uur river basin, where guests can expect to hook at least one taimen a day, plus netloads of lenok, a feisty Mongolian trout. $5,900, one week;

Fishing Montana’s South Fork of the Flathead

Think of the South Fork of the Flathead as a little slice of Alaska tucked into Montana’s northwestern corner: a spectacularly remote river that happens to offer some of the best, easiest dry-fly fishing in the world. Guests horsepack in for two days through the grizzly-rich Bob Marshall Wilderness to the put-in, then float 30 miles of Class II and III water in four days. On the way, you’ll camp on the riverside and catch as many wild, native west–slope cutthroats as you wish, as well as a few bull trout. (The South Fork is one of the few places where targeting the threatened, 30-inch beasts is legal.) Go with the guides at Spotted Bear Ranch, near the takeout at Meadow Creek Gorge—they offer a post-float hot shower and cookout at the lodge. $4,600;

Paddling Chilean Patagonia

国产吃瓜黑料 Editors’ Choice

In the fingertips of Patagonia’s Southern Ice Cap, you might as well be in another century. There are no people, no cruise ships, no nothing. Just pick a narrow fjord that’s guarded by a reef or shallow pass, then it’s just you and all that ice piled up on top of the southern Andes. You can see the entire life cycle of a glacier, from peak to calving, all within the span of a mile. Those famous trans-ice-cap crossings by Børge Ousland and the other crazy Norwegians? They happened right above you. Fly to Punta Arenas and meet up with Indomita Patagonia. They’ll provide kayaks, food, and a fishing vessel to base out of on a weeklong tour of the area’s fjords. From $2,220;

Paddling Southeast Alaska

Not because of the grizzlies. Or the humpbacks. Or the bald eagles. Or the otters (though they really are very chatty and fun). But because it’s quite likely you’ll see all of the above within the span of an hour. Whiplash could be one of your biggest dangers in Alaska’s panhandle. That and pruney hands, especially in the southeastern region, which receives about four times the annual rainfall of Seattle. But that’s why you’re snugged into a kayak. Fly into Ketchikan and get boats and a water shuttle into Misty Fjords National Monument from Southeast Sea Kayaks. You’ll be protected from open-ocean swells while paddling along 3,000-foot granite cliffs, then sleeping in Forest Service cabins. Rentals from $45 per day;

Rafting Uganda’s White Nile

国产吃瓜黑料 Editors’ Choice

Bujagali Falls, near where the Nile drains Lake Victoria, is the most accessible extreme whitewater in Africa—which is to say it’s the best whitewater in the world. The White Nile beats the Zambezi’s six-month season (it’s open year-round) and the Colorado’s dam-controlled volume (the average flow is seven times bigger). Float it on a two-day trip, during which you’ll take on freight-car-size holes and nine Class V rapids. Nile River Explorers, the area’s veteran rafting company, offers a two-day, 34-mile trip from the put-in below Lake Victoria to the take-out at Hairy Lemon Island. It’s split up with a night in safari-style tents at a riverside camp. Book now: Next year, Uganda hopes to finish building a 90-foot dam below Bujagali, which would swamp some of the biggest rapids. $250, including a night for two in a safari tent;

Rafting Idaho’s Middle Fork of the Salmon

The Grand Canyon is a worthy river trip, though the water is a little cold and turbid. Plus you can’t catch any fish. And you’d better like the color of mud. Which is why our pick for the American river you’ve got to run before you die is Idaho’s Middle Fork of the Salmon. The water’s so clear you can eyeball straggling steelhead at a hundred yards. Native cutthroat trout will hit just about any dry fly in your box. The rapids ain’t bad, either. There are some 100 of them on the 100-mile float, with more than a dozen that rate Class IV. And at night, there are the hot springs. Half a dozen camps have them—the clear, fresh-smelling kind. Six-day trips with Idaho-based Row 国产吃瓜黑料s, $1,765;

Surfing Tavarua, Fiji

国产吃瓜黑料 Editors’ Choice

Why is Tavarua Island, in Fiji, the ultimate surf getaway? Because it’s an isolated spot containing world-class waves that you can rent for yourself. Sure, the Mentawai Islands had a good run, but new boat outfitters and land camps have made the place a circus. Tavarua’s a short boat shuttle from Nadi airport, on Fiji’s Viti Levu island. Once you set down, you’ve got seven days of perfect waves and zero crowds; Tavarua is limited to 36 guests per week. World-class lefts are found on the island’s south side at Cloudbreak—accessible four times per day by boat—and just outside your bedroom at Restaurants. If you bring the family, you can slide gentle peelers at the mellower Kiddieland. Plus, when the surfing’s done, you can run a tab at the bar. $3,995 per person for seven days, including flights from L.A.;

Surfing Baja, Mexico

Oahu’s North Shore is incredible, if a spectacle, and SoCal’s beaches are convenient. But if you’re looking for the best surf in the Western Hemisphere, head for the border. Since the sixties, Mexico’s Baja Peninsula has embodied the classic surf experience—pulling your 4×4 up on the sand and pitching camp for a week of empty barrels and cheap cervezas. And here’s the thing: With many SoCal weekend warriors scared off by reports of drug-related violence near the border, the region’s lineups are now relatively vacant. So if you’re smart about it, you can surf Baja as it was in the sixties. Go with a buddy who knows the region, drive only during the day, and travel a few hours south of the border—once you pass Ensenada, you’re set. Then make for the mile-long, crescent-shaped Punta Cabras beach and surf away. The nearest town is Erendira, six miles south, where you’ll find cold beer and Coyote Cal’s hostel ($15–$60 per night; ) if you don’t feel like camping.

Diving Raja Ampat, Indonesia

国产吃瓜黑料 Editors’ Choice

There’s an archipelago in the Coral Triangle so dense with sea life it’s often called “the epicenter of marine biodiversity,” a place where a scientist once discovered 283 new species during a single dive. Welcome to Raja Ampat, a cluster of 600 islands off the northwestern tip of New Guinea and one of the least fished, least populated, least bleached scuba destinations on the planet. You’ll find pygmy sea horses, elusive walking sharks, technicolor nudibranchs, and some 1,200 species of fish. Raja Ampat is blessed with more than 600 species of coral; the Caribbean has fewer than 70. If diving is your sole prerogative, go with the Seven Seas liveaboard (from $374 per person per night; ). For a more relaxed experience, book a week at Misool Eco Resort’s private island and take day trips to their 164-square-mile reef. Seven nights, from $2,035;

Diving Saba, Dutch Antilles

A hawksbill off Saba

A hawksbill off Saba

Too many Caribbean dive destinations are marred by ailing reef systems, corny resorts, and crowded boats. And to reach big-fish spots like Costa Rica’s Cocos Island, expect hundreds of miles on a liveaboard (i.e., lots of strangers). So if you want a serene tropical getaway that happens to offer superlative diving, head to quirky little Saba, a five-square-mile, 2,900-foot dormant volcano in the Dutch Antilles. Landing in a Twin Otter on Saba’s tiny, cliff-perched runway is an adventure in its own right, and you’ll find deals on lodges like the Hummingbird Villa ($375 per day for two; ), with its private pool. Then there’s the diving. Saba’s fish-rich marine park was established in 1987 as a preventive measure, not a Band-Aid, so encounters with turtles, sharks, eels, rays, and macro life are common. Be sure to hit Diamond Rock and Eye of the Needle for lava-sculpted formations, then arrange a night dive at Ladder Bay, a sharky spot near shore. Day trips with Sea Saba, $150;

Explore Russia’s Lake Baikal

国产吃瓜黑料 Editors’ Choice

With its desert-plateau-meets-big-mountains scenery, Lake Titicaca is probably as interesting as its name is memorable. And ever since I learned the hypersaline Dead Sea (which, of course, is a lake) was the lowest point on the surface of the earth, I’ve always wanted to float in it. But neither one has cast a spell on me quite like Russia’s Lake Baikal. Whenever I scan a map of Siberia (more often than you might think), my eyes always end up on this blue blotch. Because it’s so far away from, well, everything, the vast majority of the plant and animal species found there are endemic. Then there’s the unexplored mountain ranges and cave dwellings and the “Siberian Riviera,” a stretch of coastline marked by trees with otherworldly exposed roots that reach five feet in height. You can see all this on KE 国产吃瓜黑料’s 14-day exploratory trip, which concludes with a three-day trek in the nearby Khamar-Daban mountains. $3,845; July 9–22, August 20–September 2;

Explore Lake Superior

Lake Superior

Lake Superior's choppy east coast

Sail Turkey’s Lycian Coast

It’s not quite as stunning to look at as the Seychelles. The marine wildlife isn’t as impressive as what you’ll find off Tonga. But you want more on a sailing adventure than pretty views and leaping dolphins. You need to get off the boat. Frequently. “Think about taking a road trip in the Southwest,” says Anthony Sandberg, founder and owner of Berkeley-based OCSC Sailing, which offers trips across the planet. “You don’t just sit in the car.” Go ashore in southern Turkey and you’ll be walking into Byzantine churches, chatting with rug makers, and forking into plates of aubergine. And the sailing? About perfect if you hit the ideal weather windows in spring and fall: soft morning breezes, then blowing a steady 15 knots from the northwest in the afternoon. On a two-week OCSC “flotilla” trip—eight to 12 catamarans and single-hull ships following the same rough itinerary, so you have backup if you need it—you start in Orhaniye and cruise east for some 250 miles, wrapping the Datça Peninsula and hugging the crenulated, cliff-lined coast to the forest-backed port of Göcek. From $1,500 per person;

Sail the Caribbean’s Leeward Islands

The BVIs are packed with rookies, while the Caribbean’s most southern islands, the Windwards, offer minimal land infrastructure and long, trickier crossings. Want a low-maintenance tropical sail that still delivers the rush of navigating open water? Head for St. Martin and the surrounding Leeward Islands, including Statia, St. Kitts, Nevis, and nearby Anguilla and St. Barts. Expect moderate, steady easterly trade winds, gentle currents, and water so transparent that spotting hazards is easy. Map a route from St. Martin, then charter a catamaran or hire one with a skipper from St. Martin–based Moorings. The beauty of this area is its mix of on-land activities (from remote bouldering to gourmet dining) and short-to-midrange crossings—meaning you can literally go where the wind takes you. On a two-week trip, you can snorkel off tiny Ile Fourche, eat steak frites on St. Barts, hike through cloudforests on Nevis, and sip three-dollar beers on St. Kitts’ empty beaches. Charters from $650 per day;

Expedition Cruising

Heli-Fly-Fish Patagonia
On any given day on this weeklong trip with Orvis Travel, you’ll be casting a seven-weight rod in crystal trout streams where you might be the first visitor. The 28-passenger MV Atmosphere sails from Puerto Montt, Chile, shuttling in and out of remote fjords. Expect glaciers, blue whales breaching near your 30-foot Zodiac, and impromptu daily helicopter flights to wherever the fish鈥攂ig, sea-run brown trout鈥攁re biting. February 26颅March 5, 2011; from $9,850 per person;

See Antarctica’s Really Wild Side
Most Antarctica cruises sail from South America, for the shorter crossing, but trips from Down Under, landing in East Antarctica, can take in wildlife-profuse subantarctic islands on the way down. Orion Expedition Cruises‘ 19-day Commonwealth Bay voyage allows ample time to explore sanctuaries like Macquarie Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site teeming with elephant seals, albatrosses, and four species of penguins. Once on the continent, you’ll go ashore for four days exploring Commonwealth Bay, discovered by Sir Douglas Mawson on his 1911鈥�14 Aurora voyage, and set foot in his seldom visited hut. December 28鈥揓anuary 15; from US$16,460 per person;

“Un-Cruise” Alaska’s Inner Passage
Southeast Alaska sees its share of behemoth cruise ships, but you can leave them all in your wake and anchor in calm, grizzly-frequented bays on InnerSea Discoveries‘ eight-day Juneau-to-Ketchikan trips. On this multisport cruise, you’ll be off the boat daily, kayaking in the shadow of immense glaciers, watching pods of humpbacks feed, and spelunking in ice caves. The company, targeted to a younger crowd without unlimited budgets, launches in May 2011. Thirty-two departures, May鈥揝eptember; from $1,795 per person;

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Dan Austin

Age: 36

Organization:


The original idea was straightforward enough. While planning a bike ride through the Cambodian countryside in 2006, Austin, an author and documentary filmmaker, and his brother, Jared, a pedia颅trician, decided they wanted to donate their bikes to a local orphanage. Then they found out the orphanage housed 88 kids. “It was like this lightning bolt,” says Austin. In just five days, the brothers, with the help of Web-savvy friend Nick Arauz, founded a nonprofit, launched a Web site, and linked it up to PayPal. “Being able to accept donations online easily and securely was a tremendous help,” says Austin. Each bike costs $88, and by the time they got to Cambodia, they had all the money they needed to buy bikes for every orphan. “When you buy a bike, we give your picture to the child,” says Austin, “and then we take a picture of the child with the bike holding your picture and give it back to you.” It’s a winning strategy: Over the past three years, 88bikes has given away several hundred bikes to children in Uganda and Peru and has projects under way in India, Nepal, Vietnam, and Ghana. One of the main keys to 88bikes’ success is understanding the limitations of social media. “We’ve got a blog, a Facebook page, a Twitter page聴all that stuff,” says Austin. “But you’ve still got to take time to chat with people and forge one-to-one connections.”

Tim DeChristopher

Tim DeChristopher

Age: 28

Organization:


DeChristopher is facing two federal felonies, ten years in prison, and $750,000 in fines. Last December, he bid on, and won, close to $1.8 million worth of oil-and-gas rights near Utah’s Arches National Park. The crime: He couldn’t pay. He’d bid in protest of any drilling. “We didn’t get the Civil Rights Act because the last bigot in Mississippi stopped being racist,” says DeChristopher, an economics student at the University of Utah and climate-change activist. “It was because people stood up and were willing to go to jail.” In February, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar shelved about 80 percent of the land parcels DeChristopher bid on, and DeChristopher has since founded the nonprofit Peaceful Uprising to promote nonviolent protest. In the coming months, he and pro bono lawyer Pat Shea, the BLM director under President Clinton, will make the precedent-setting argument that DeChristopher’s action was designed to slow climate change and therefore falls under the lesser-of-two-evils defense. If DeChristopher wins, climate-change protestors have a legal shield. Despite the gravity of his situation, DeChristopher recommends acting for climate change in any way possible. “It’s terrifying,” he says, “but sometimes you jump off the cliff, then build your wings.”

Reza Baluchi

Age: 36


Organization:


Baluchi’s advice for those looking for a way to help? Get moving. “When you run, you have a lot of time for thinking. Think of what you can do to make the world a better place. For me, if I help people, it makes me happy.” Baluchi’s stats prove it:

43: Number of days it took the former pro cyclist and peripatetic Iranian-American this summer to run across the United States聴3,300 miles from L.A. to New York, more than 76 miles per day聴raising money for UNICEF.

14: Number of New Balance shoes he wore out during his cross-country run.

15,000: Number of calories he burned per day.

38: His resting heart rate.

11,720: Number of miles he ran around the perimeter of the U.S. in 2007, raising money for a Denver children’s hospital.

49,000: Miles clocked on a goodwill bike ride through 55 countries that ended at New York’s Ground Zero in 2003.

85,000: Miles he plans to cover, on foot and in a specialized paddleboat, on his five-year, human-powered journey to all the world’s countries. Along the way he hopes to become an ambassador for peace聴meeting with world leaders, helping schools and local organizations, and inspiring others.

Brad Ludden

Brad Ludden

Age: 28

Organization:


While Ludden may be photographed with his shirt off more than Matthew McCon颅aughey聴Ludden was on 国产吃瓜黑料‘s cover in 2000, and a few years later Cosmo named him Bachelor of the Year聴he’s not just a pretty torso. The pro kayaker’s idea: Build a cancer patient’s confidence by teaching him or her to kayak. After his aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer, Ludden founded First Descents in 2000 to provide what doctors call the other half of recovery聴the emotional cure聴to young cancer patients. Ludden has now taken 600 of them, ages 18 to 39, down rivers. “A week on the water reminds them that they’re not fragile,” he says. Past participants tell him that kayaking restored their courage, allowing them to bridge the gap between treatment and daily life. Though he’s still kayaking intense water聴Ludden recently filmed the documentary The River Ward in Madagascar聴he’s changing focus. “More and more, I find fulfillment in teaching people,” he says. So what’d he do with the $10,000 Cosmo gave him for the bachelor title? Promptly donated it to First Descents. “Share your passion with somebody in need,” he says. “It’ll make both your lives better.”

Geoff Tabin

Age: 53

Organization:


Tabin’s life was transformed when he saw a team of Dutch physicians in Nepal cut into a local blind woman’s eye. “At that time in Nepal, it was accepted that their eyes turned white from cataracts and then they waited to die,” says Tabin, who was there to climb Mount Everest. “Seeing this woman restored to sight was incredible.” In 1995, Tabin, along with Nepalese doctor Sanduk Ruit, started the Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP) in Kathmandu. In addition to facilitating the mass production of inexpensive lenses used in cataract surgery聴the same procedure that costs thousands in the U.S. can be done by HCP for $20 in Nepal聴Tabin and Ruit have trained more than 100 local surgeons. Now, after 15 years and hundreds of thousands of eye surgeries, Tabin is looking to bring the same high-quality, low-cost treatments to sub-Saharan Africa. His goal: to eliminate preventable blindness, a condition that afflicts some 45 million people worldwide. “I still receive great satisfaction from standing on top of a mountain, but it’s pretty minimal compared with watching a patient regain their sight,” he says. “I can’t think of anything I’d rather do.”

Eric Greitens

Eric Greitens

Age: 35
Organization:
Greitens’s r茅sum茅 is hard to believe. Twelve-time marathoner with a 2:58 best. Champion boxer. Aspiring mountaineer. Rhodes scholar. Oxford graduate. Author and photographer (his humanitarian work in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Gaza, among other places, was published as a book of essays and photographs). College professor. Navy SEAL. Four tours (in Iraq, Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, and Africa). A Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. A White House Fellows program. But the reason we chose him out of more than 600 nominees as Reader of the Year? His work since his tours. After a suicide truck bomb hit his platoon in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2007, Greitens visited his wounded teammates and other marines in military hospitals. They all said that when they recovered, they wanted to continue to serve, in uniform or out. The St. Louis based Greitens then partnered with a few veteran friends and used his own combat pay to start The Mission Continues, an organization that trains wounded vets for leadership roles in their communities. He’s since put 31 vets through the program. Greitens, an 国产吃瓜黑料 reader for years, still finds time for six workouts a week, and he’s writing a book about service. “I think people end up benefiting from serving as much as those they aim to serve,” he says. Here’s more, in his own words.

One of the most influential people in my life was my first boxing coach, Earl Blair. He taught me that every single person is capable of tremendous courage if they’re given the right circumstances, the right training, and the right encouragement. When you challenge someone, you let them know you believe in them.

In SEAL training, I learned it’s actually easier to be a leader. When you’re leading a team, your thoughts are always on them. No matter how much I was hurting, no matter how tortured I had been, there was someone hurting worse than me. You don’t have time for your own self-pity.

I take time every single morning to exercise. It’s really important for me to get my head and spirit right before I start the day’s work. I work very long hours, but when I go home, I’m home. When I’m on the mountain, I’m on the mountain. I do not constantly BlackBerry.

My two favorite marathons were the New Jersey Marathon, where I broke three hours, and the Shamrock Marathon, which we ran in Fallujah, Iraq. It was the first marathon where they start the race with a briefing about what to do in the event of incoming artillery fire.

I want every single wounded or disabled vet to be welcomed home and seen as an asset. This year, we want to have 100 wounded or disabled vets as Mission Continues fellows. At some point, if we’re tremendously successful, the organization will grow larger than me.

Clare Lockhart

Clare Lockhart

Age: 36
Organization:
Lockhart’s inspiration came in 2002, when the guns had fallen silent–briefly—around Kabul and she was standing amid the rubble. “There was no guidebook on how to rebuild a country,” says Lockhart, who was part of a team setting up the new Afghanistan government. So the New York-based London native wrote one. First she co-founded the nonprofit Institute for State Effectiveness, in 2005; three years later, she published Fixing Failed States, which outlines how citizens from war-torn countries can organize their societies, economics, and politics. “I wanted to enable the people to empower themselves,” she says. By the time she was 30, Lockhart had visited as many countries, earned a history degree from Oxford and a master’s from Harvard’s Kennedy School, and practiced law in London. Now she’s provided more than $800 million in grants to 23,000 villages in Afghanistan through her National Solidarity Program, and she spent the better half of the past three years traveling on foot, horse, jeep, or helicopter to many provinces in Afghan颅i颅stan. “The people are rebuilding schools, medical clinics, and government facilities in their vision of the country,” she says. Lockhart emphasizes that you don’t have to work abroad to create positive change. “Volunteer locally,” she says. “The closeness of that interaction makes the feedback immediate.”

Ben Horton

Ben Horton

Age: 26

Organization:


Horton is many things: adventurer, photographer, activist. Just don’t call him a photojournalist. “Photojournalism is about presenting a story straight, without personal input,” he says. “For me, I want to influence the story. I want to create change.” To that end, Horton has traveled to the world’s wildest and most endangered landscapes聴including the Arctic in spring 2008 as part of Will Steger’s Global Warming 101 expedition聴to document those environments with his camera. He then publishes and exhibits the images to persuade the public, politicians, and big-time philanthropists like Richard Branson to protect them. “If you present scientific data to a group of people, not many are going to get it,” he says. “But if you put a picture of a landscape in front of them, all of a sudden they have a personal experience with it, and they’ll become inspired to save it.” Says Horton: “Everybody has their own medium, whether it’s writing, music, computers, or artwork. Use it to create change.”

David Rastovich

Age: 29

Organization:


You wouldn’t peg Rastovich to star in a thriller. The man’s a freesurfer, which means he gets paid to surf exotic waves for promotional films. Not exactly a high-stress gig. And yet there he is at the climactic moment of the year’s most talked-about documentary, The Cove, paddling out to cause a ruckus in a sea of dolphin blood. In the scene, Rastovich leads a crew of five wetsuit-clad activists聴including movie stars Isabel Lucas and Hayden Panettiere聴into a clandestine Japanese dolphin slaughter, disrupting the killing with a board circle. “The fishermen flashed the propeller at us and hit the girls in the legs with the boat hook,” says Rastovich, who was born in New Zealand and lives in Australia (and now has arrest warrants out for him in Japan). “Rasta” became interested in marine conservation after giving up contest surfing at age 20. Four years later, he started the nonprofit Surfers for Cetaceans to mobilize an athletic community not exactly known for monkeywrenching. Two days after the group formed, Rastovich was surfing at a local break when a shark bore down on him and a dolphin nosedived in, butting the shark away. “That was all the confirmation I needed that I was on the right path,” he says. Next up? Kayaking down the Australian coast, from Byron Bay to Sydney, alongside the humpback whale migration. The goal: Pressure the Australian government to enforce whale-sanctuary laws in the Antarctic waters where Japanese whalers hunt. “The government made a promise to help out and hasn’t delivered,” says Rastovich. “We’re going to make them honor their word.”

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BECAUSE YOU NEED TO GET OUT聴WAY OUT

KITZB脺HEL, AUSTRIA


Hahnenkamm


[January 18鈥�20]


Arguably the most technical and dangerous downhill course on the FIS World Cup circuit鈥攁nd the biggest bash. Austrians blow their horns, the Swiss clang their cowbells, and everybody crowds the course to taunt. Where to Be The Londoner, where tradition dictates racers tend bar for the town’s vigorous post-race party (and where “half the alcohol is in the air,” according to Daron Rahlves, 2003 champion). Expect Horse-drawn sleighs trotting past speaker stacks pumping European techno. Wild Card The crack of skis slapping the snow as racers may or may not land 100 feet of arm-flailing air from the legendary Mausefalle jump. Sightings Former Austrian champions like Franz Klammer and Hermann Maier.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL


Carnival


[February 2鈥�5]


A feverish, four-day party that culminates on Fat Tuesday, with Rio’s local samba schools competing in parades, each trying to outdo the others with elaborate floats and extravagant destaques, the feathered, sequined, and often topless dancers. Where to Be The drummers’ niche, at the Sambodromo, locus for the main parade, where drummers from every samba school work the crowd. Expect Half-naked dancers that make us Puritans blush鈥攖hen join in. Wild Card Whatever you want. We won’t tell. Sightings Politicians and celebrities mingle among 500,000 visiting foreigners.

HONG KONG, CHINA


Hong Kong Rugby Sevens Tournament


[March 28鈥�30]


A tournament with teams of only seven players, instead of the traditional 15, which allows individuals to shine. Where to Be The Sevens Village鈥攐pposite the 40,000-seat Hong Kong Stadium鈥攈as a huge screen, a rollicking beer garden, and no entrance fee. Expect Hilarious mini-rugby, played between games, by children ages four to 11. Wild Card Take a high-speed ferry to nearby Macau to gamble in the enormous, lavish casinos of the Asian (and less cheesy) Las Vegas. Sightings Hong Kong’s favorite son, Jackie Chan, attended last year, as did former UK prime minister John Major.

Glastonbury, UK


Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts


[June 27鈥�29]


Europe’s largest music-and-performing-arts festival, held on 900 acres in the Vale of Avalon鈥攑ossible burial spot of King Arthur鈥攏ear the mystical town of Glastonbury, draws more than 175,000 revelers. Where to Be The hedonistic nighttime madness of the parties at Lost Vagueness eventually lure everyone. Expect Great music on six huge stages and numerous side venues. The final lineup won’t be available until May, but Amy Winehouse, the Killers, and Bj枚rk performed last year. Wild Card Stay out all night, then hike six miles to watch the sun rise at Glastonbury Tor. Sightings Kate Moss and fellow London hipsters.

PAMPLONA, SPAIN


Fiesta de San Ferm铆n


[July 6鈥�14]


An annual event that supposedly honors Christian martyr Saint Ferm铆n. In reality, it’s all about the crazies who run a barricaded course through the city with the six bulls to be fought that day in the ring. Where to Be Vuelta del Castillo at 11 p.m. for the nightly fireworks display. Expect Several thousand people running alongside 1,300-pound bulls. Wild Card Wear a red handkerchief for a week without being mistaken for an ascot fetishist. Sightings Local Spaniards dying (sometimes literally) to run with bulls.

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