Republishing in full not allowed without permission from Neerav Bhatt.
Keen sports fans Australia-wide who have spent many sleepless nights recently following Mark Webber in F1 Racing, Cadel Evans in the Tour de France and Australia vs England in the Ashes cricket series may be interested in getting their hands on the latest book from Lonely Planet: “A Year Of Sport Travel”
The glossy coffee table style book profiles a series of events every month with a total of 171 different sports including many niche “less travelled” sports like the Alaskan Iditarod as inspiration for your next trip.
On behalf of fellow Sydneysiders I’m dismayed that A Year Of Sport Travel doesn’t include the worlds largest timed fun run, Sydney’s City 2 Surf, instead featuring San Francisco’s annual Bay to Breakers run 
However that aside some of the interesting highlights include:
- January: Camel Wrestling Festival in Selçuk, Turkey
- February: Cane Toad Racing in Queensland Pubs
- March: Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska, USA.
- April: Amputee African Cup of Nations soccer tournament for people who have lost limbs during Africa’s countless civil wars
- May: Buzkashi goat grabbing in Afghanistan
- June: European Tree Climbing Championships
- July: Beer Can Regatta in Darwin, Australia
- August: Cowal Highland Games in Scotland
- September: Yangphel Open Archery Tournament in the Himalayan Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan
- October: World Rock-Paper-Scissors Championship in Toronto, Canada.
- November: Lucha Libre (Mexican Wrestling)
- December: Thailand’s Grand Pigeon Race
Disclaimer: Thanks to Lonely Planet Melbourne for sending me this book to review. I’ve given it away to one of my blog guest writers Lucy James who wrote a great article recently Inside the Mind of a Marathon Runner
Lonely Planet’s A Year Of Sport Travel will be published in August 2009. Even if you can’t afford to visit these places in person to see the sporting events yourself it’s well worth buying the book so you can visit them vicariously by reading the story behind each event and looking at the related photos.
Road Less Travelled Blog - A Year Of Sport Travel (Lonely Planet Book Review)