Victoria & Matt's Enchanting Southern Soirée at Magnolia Plantation by Engaging Events

The depths of a Highland Winter may seem an ill-advised time to embark on exploring the submerged passages of Uamh nan-Claigg ionn, The Cave of Skulls, Scotland’s deepest cave.  But I had a lull in my diary and, besides, after dragging my kit down five vertical drops and numerous constricted crawls, I’d be convincingly ‘out of the wind’. Cave diving in the Scotland is like most of the UK, specialising in tight, serpentine crawls, long abseils and muddy water (or watery mud)… and the sites are

“We’ll have to cycle through at least one swamp” announced Tim, suddenly self-satisfied. The three of us frowned whilst we mulled over the prospect of the impending challenge. We had only scraps of information about the remote Patagonian border crossing between Chile and Argentina, most was rumour and hearsay gleaned from other cyclists who had braved the passage before us and whom we all suspected had toyed with the truth by weaving exaggerated tales of hardship. But in amongst the hyperbole

Before us was the appropriately named Lava Falls and it was everything I had expected and so much more. Akin to staring into a fire, we looked into the river in front of us and were mesmerised. Our eyes taken on a journey our bodies weren’t sure they wanted to embrace. I was scared and there’s no other way of selling it. We were two weeks into our trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon and everything that had gone before seemed to pale into insigni