Balboa Island resident embarks on global hunt

Imagine what it would be like to leave the pressures and worries of everyday life behind you, hop on a plane or two and touch down in at least 10 countries across 4 continents in 23 days.

A little whirlwind, maybe, but exciting nonetheless, especially when you realize, as Balboa Island resident Bart Hackley and fellow team member Steve Hunt did, that you will have no idea where you’re actually traveling to in those three-plus weeks.

Hackley and Hunt, long-time friends and accomplished globe trotters, are one of the 17 2-member teams leaving from San Francisco today to compete in “GreatEscape2008: The Global Scavenger Hunt,” an around-the-world travel competition.

That’s right, scavenger hunt.

Not only does the trip, billed as a “blind date with the world,” expect participants to relinquish destination and itinerary control, they are also required on a daily basis to complete assigned tasks — for which they earn points — showing they have experienced “cultural immersion” in each location they are visiting.

This isn’t about knocking on someone’s hut in Africa and asking for a spare ivory tusk.

The tasks are much more participatory, requiring travelers to have their wits about them, to be extremely resourceful, and to practice the art of what founder and organizer Bill Chalmers describes as “trusting strangers in strange lands.”

Think more along the lines of crashing the Cannes Film Festival, as one team did on a prior trip. Or singing “Feelings” at a Ginza district karaoke bar with at least four other local patrons, capturing it on film for proof of a job well done.

Hackley and Hunt know they will be visiting China because that country required special visa instructions, but until they receive an itinerary and instructions for their scavenges each morning, they’re pretty much in the dark about their plans from one day to the next. Which is unusual for Hackley, who’s used to being in charge.

“That feeling of not worrying about where to go is enticing, but I feel a certain emptiness because I don’t have to be concerned about details,” he said.

Hackley is no stranger to challenge and endurance. As a member of The Travelers’ Century Club, he has traveled to all but 11 of the 317 countries listed by the international organization.

The big difference on this trip, Hackley said, will be traveling with other people. Typically, he travels alone, because he so often goes to difficult, exotic and hard-to-reach locations.

“I’m looking forward to meeting the other teams and interacting with them,” he said, and he’s not worried about all that up-close-and-personal time with Hunt, either.

“We’ve both been involved in sports all our life, so we know how to deal with stress,” Hackley said.

“One of the other great things about sports is learning how to deal with team members. We should be able to not get on each others nerves, and not ruin our friendship.”

In the late 1980s, Hackley completed 123 triathlons in a 365-day period, won a Bronze Medal in the breaststroke event at the 1999 Senior Olympics, and at 63, said he believes he and Hunt are more than up to the challenge of the competition.

Hunt, who celebrated his 60th birthday in March, said he’s looking forward the most to the new adventures he plans to have.

“There are a lot of places in the world I haven’t seen, and I expect to see some new ones,” Hunt said.

“I think anything that’s a challenge in life is worthwhile at any age, and I’m prepared.”

Chalmers came up with the idea for these excursions in 1999, and took his first group of competitors around the world in 2002. This is the fourth trip, following one in 2004 and another in 2005.

The most important thing Chalmers wants people to understand is that unlike similar television reality shows like “Survivor” or “The Amazing Race,” this competition offers no prize money and isn’t for inexperienced travelers or tourists.

Instead, it’s an opportunity for people to “test their travel savvy” in an endurance event that donates money to goodwill organizations around the world. Chalmers, a world-class traveler himself, said the best part for him as the organizer is getting to meet some really great travelers and living vicariously through their experiences.

Each team gets to choose from a list of scavenges every day, but it’s up to them which one they want to do. That provides a lot of opportunity for variety, Chalmers said, and each task is worth a specific number of points based on what he and his staff determine the level of difficulty to be. He’s pretty flexible too, he said, even allowing teams to come up with their own scavenge if it’s an opportunity they don’t want to pass up.

“This isn’t just sightseeing, this is an opportunity for serendipity. We want [our teams] to partake in things, and stop and smell the roses.”

As long as they can prove what they’ve done, and it’s point-worthy, Chalmers allows it.

Hackley feels his extensive travel background offers he and his teammate a slight edge when it comes to the scavenger part of the trip, and he makes no bones about the fact that he wants to win.

Stay tuned. The winning team will be crowned in Toronto on May 3, and Hackley and Hunt are both blogging daily on the Global Scavenger Hunt website at www.globalscavengerhunt.com.