Monthly Archives: February 2009

28
Feb
2009

Travellers’ Tales Festival: writing in the ‘blogosphere’

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Posted in Writing
This Sunday I am speaking at the Travellers’ Tales Festival, held at the Royal Geographical Society in London. There’s some cool stuff happening there. Find out more here. I have been asked to participate in “a panel discussion on the impact of the online world in all its aspects – blogs, review sites, UGC, social networks, [...]

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26
Feb
2009

Racing Round the World with Sustrans

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Posted in Charity, Cycling
140 Sustrans Bike It schools are competing to virtually cycle around the world following my route! The winning school will win £1000 for their Bike It activities and there are also lots of regional prizes to be won. Bike It is an exciting and successful Sustrans project; more than 40 Bike It Officers [...]

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23
Feb
2009

Interesting places to ride

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Posted in Cycling, Travel
Looking for ideas of where to head to on your bike? Here’s a simple list of a few places I enjoyed riding through. Let me know my glaring omissions… Alaska Bolivia Chilean Patagonia France Georgia Highway 101, USA Japan Kyrgyzstan Lesotho Montenegro Northern Argentina Northern Peru Slovenia Southern Colombia Sudan The Danube Turkey Xinjiang, China Yakutia Zimbabwe
20
Feb
2009

Someone Once Told Me

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Posted in Motivation
“We are all shaped by the things that someone once told us. The words we hear impact on us, whether we want them to or not, and it’s undeniable that they have a power.” Mario Cacciottolo has been documenting the things that Someone Once Told Me on his interesting, fun, inspiring website. I have enjoyed [...]

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17
Feb
2009

How’s your training going?

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Posted in Training
All being well you are still keeping up your New Year’s Resolution to improve your fitness. Your gym membership, your recovery protein shakes, your inspiring iPod playlists are all getting you to be where you want to be. But there is another way. For several billion people being fit and strong is not a leisure option, [...]

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15
Feb
2009

Rowing to France

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Posted in Channel Rowing, Charity
Despite seasickness, boat troubles and unkind tides, we made it to France! At midnight on Friday Phil and I pulled out of Dover harbour to try to row across the English Channel in support of Help for Heroes. 15 hours, and many vomits later we made it! You can read my account here. Any donations to help [...]

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10
Feb
2009

The end of the Training

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Posted in Channel Rowing, Charity
As with most things worth doing there have been times this week when I have wondered whether it was worth doing. Phil and I had hoped to be fine-tuning our rowing technique together, in preparation for rowing to France. But we lost one day to a broken down vehicle, and another to an iced-up slipway. [...]

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09
Feb
2009

“Becoming Paralysed isn’t all Serious!”

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Posted in Expeditions, Speaking
In the last few months I have really enjoyed working alongside Phil Packer, training for our attempt to row the English Channel together. Phil is a soldier, and he was paralysed in Iraq last year. I have been so impressed with his courage, determination and good humour. Another person who is similarly inspiring is Karen Darke. [...]

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09
Feb
2009

Are you Living it?

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Posted in Motivation, Our World
I have been enjoying nosing through the archives of the Are you Living it blog recently. Here’s a marvellous video clip to remind us to snap out of the easy lure of mundane existence, a glimpse of the awesome majesty and power of our planet, and a brave/crazy/heroic feat. Enjoy! I can only hope I see nothing [...]

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05
Feb
2009

Rowing Training begins (at last!)

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Posted in Channel Rowing, Expeditions
After the usual logistical stresses and the week’s snow chaos, it was a relief for Phil and I to get out on the water together at last today. The mirror-calm of the London Regatta Centre may not be an ideal replica for the world’s busiest shipping lane, but it was an ideal place for international rowing [...]

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