What is an adventure race?
Adventure racing is a team sport that combines trekking, mountain biking and paddling. You find your way between checkpoints with a map and compass. The fastest team isn’t always the fittest one — it’s the one that navigates smartest and works best together.
Races run from a couple of hours to more than a week. Some are short and sharp; others go day and night. The terrain varies as much as the formats: coastal cliffs and beaches, eucalypt forest, alpine high country and subtropical hinterland. You’ll find all of it in Victoria, New South Wales, the ACT and Queensland.
Types of adventure races
Sprint races
2–6 hoursThe best way to start. Sprints are built for beginners and weekend warriors, but they still pack in every discipline plus navigation.
24-hour races
Day & nightOne full day and night of non-stop racing. Teams deal with fatigue, tough terrain and navigating in the dark. It’s demanding, and hugely rewarding.
Expedition races
3–10 daysThe ultimate test. Teams race for several days and cover hundreds of kilometres through remote, demanding country, with very little sleep.
Stage races
Multi-dayA multi-day race split into daily stages. You race hard each day, then rest, eat and swap stories with the other teams each evening. It’s serious competition on a social weekend.
Why stage racing is different
An expedition race runs non-stop. A stage race gives you one complete adventure race each day, with a proper break in between. You get the intensity of racing and the time to recover — and to enjoy where you are.
The evenings make the format. After a big day on the trails, teams unwind together, compare routes and make friends they’ll race against for years. Then everyone lines up again the next morning.
Coastal Quest is a stage race. Race hard by day, relax with your team by night, and wake up ready for the next stage on the Surf Coast.
Adventure racing with Adventure Junkie
Adventure Junkie has been designing adventure races since 2011. We’ve held more than 80 events across Victoria, New South Wales, the ACT and Queensland. We spent more than 10 years based in Victoria, and those trails — Lysterfield Park, the High Country and the Surf Coast — still sit at the heart of what we do.
Today our courses run from the Surf Coast and Lysterfield in Victoria to Manly Dam in Sydney and Nerang in the Gold Coast hinterland. Every course is built for real people: two-hour sprints for first-timers, social multi-day stage races, and the X-Marathon — 24 hours of non-stop racing, day and night. And every two years, Alpine Quest offers a once-in-a-lifetime multi-day expedition race through the Snowy Mountains around Kosciuszko.
Teams travel from Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane and beyond. They come for the racing, and they come back for the people.
One season, one national ranking: the Adventure Cup
Every Adventure Junkie race counts towards the Adventure Cup, our national adventure racing ranking. Your points add up across the season from events all around Australia: Sprint Series rounds in Victoria, NSW and Queensland, the Women Only Adventure Race, our Quest stage races and the X-Marathon.
Race
Enter any Adventure Junkie event, in any state.
Score
Every finish earns you ranking points.
Climb
Points build through the season. The more you race, the higher you climb.
All you need is a basic level of fitness
Start with the Novice course and see where it takes you.
