Monthly Archives: February 2009

28
Feb
2009

Travellers’ Tales Festival: writing in the ‘blogosphere’

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Posted in Best Bits, 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 [...]

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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 round the [...]

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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 [...]

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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 Our World, 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 [...]

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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 [...]

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10
Feb
2009

The end of the Training

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Posted in Best Bits, 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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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04
Feb
2009

The 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time

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Posted in Expeditions, Lists, Travel, Writing
National Geographic have compiled a list of the 100 best adventure books of all time. I blogged about this ages ago, but just re-discovered it and thought it worth another airing. It seemed a perfect excuse to ask about people’s own personal favourite adventure/travel/expedition books. I am always looking for new, quality books to read [...]

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03
Feb
2009

Yes, I really am encouraging you to watch Reality TV…

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Posted in Motivation
I am a vehement hater of most Reality TV. I would hope that most people who visit this site feel the same way. But I still think you should watch this video. I stumbled across it on the interesting Are you Living it blog. I’ve no idea how far the guy made it through the [...]

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03
Feb
2009

Helping a hero

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Posted in Charity, Expeditions
A few months ago, purely by chance, I came across a website that really impressed me. Major Phil Packer was serving with the British Army in Iraq when he was injured, paralyzed below the waist, and told he would never walk again. As well as being determined to prove the doctors wrong and to walk [...]

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02
Feb
2009

Snow and smiles in London

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Posted in Our World, Ramblings
“Fear less, hope more, whine less, breathe more, talk less, say more, love more, and all good things will be yours.” - Swedish proverb I woke up this morning to the wonderful, unexpected sight of several inches of snow covering London. Sensing an opportunity for something more exciting than another torture session on the rowing [...]

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02
Feb
2009

Tough Guy

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Posted in Running
This weekend saw the annual Tough Guy race take place. I ran the race a couple of years ago and it is one of the most stupid, entertaining, cold ways to spend a Sunday yet devised. Highly recommended. Sign up here. Mankini optional. DON’T MISS A THING – FREE MONTHLY UPDATE BY EMAIL: Have you [...]

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