
Film Review: The Bikes of Wrath
The documentary, Pedal the World, available on Netflix is the amazing story of a young German, Felix Starck who undertakes the huge personal challenge of cycling around the World for a year. In that time he covers over 11,000 miles and 22 countries and along the way discovers the soul of humanity and himself.
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Book Review – Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by John Krakauer
In the 1990s John Krakauer was a contributor to Outside Magazine, a renown adventure publication when in 1996 they asked him to join a guided team to ascend Mount Everest. Krakauer was in a team led by Rob Hall. At the same time, another team was attempting the ascent led by Scott Fischer. Both men successfully guided clients to the summit but experienced severe difficulty during the descent as a massive storm hit the mountain. Sadly, several people, including the head guides lost their lives. This book tells the story from the perspective of John Krakauer.
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Book Review – Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read
This is the incredible story of a group of mostly young and inexperienced men who find themselves stranded in one of the most inhospitable places on the planet with very limited resources on which to live and how they found the spirit and desire to survive despite the odds stacked against them
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Book Review – Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
This book captures a remarkable story of bravery, grit and determination. In August 1914 the 28 man crew of the British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–16) left England under Shackleton’s leadership aboard the Endurance. Things did not turn out as planned and the tale becomes not one of achievement and success in the traditional sense but an incredible journey into the unknown and a battle for their lives.
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Book Review: Blood River by Tim Butcher – Following in the footsteps of Henry Stanley
In 1874 the journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley navigated the River Congo for the first time (as a foreign explorer). It was King Leopold of Belgium who expressed the most interest in his adventures as he was looking to build an empire. Hence the Belgium Congo was born! Tim Butcher, who also worked for the Daily Telegraph decided to follow in Stanley’s footsteps – not a simple task as the country is as dangerous as it was in Stanley’s time.
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Book Review: Touching the Void by Joe Simpson – An inspiring story of survial
I have never even been tempted to climb mountains. I am not a thrill-seeker, at least one who wants to risk their life, but I do have a strange fascination for those who take on the most challenging adventures. I am addicted to reading books on an extreme adventure.
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Book Review: Running the Amazon by Joe Kane – A crazy journey along the World’s longest river
Despite his lack of experience of water adventure, in 1995 Joe Kane joined a group of adventurers intent on being the first American to travel the full 4,200-mile length of what may be the world’s most treacherous river: the Amazon.
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Book Review: The River of Doubt – Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey
“The River of Doubt” by Candice Millard sets out to tell the story of Roosevelt and his partners in their journey on the previously unexplored river, the Rio da Dúvida, or River of Doubt in the dense Amazon rainforest of Brazil. If you like stories of adventure and exploration then this is a great read.
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Film Review: Pedal The World
The documentary, Pedal the World, available on Netflix is the amazing story of a young German, Felix Starck who undertakes the huge personal challenge of cycling around the World for a year. In that time he covers over 11,000 miles and 22 countries and along the way discovers the soul of humanity and himself.
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Film Review: Food Evolution
“Food Evolution” the movie looks at the controversial subject of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) from the perspective of the food science community. My personal bias, through the media I gravitate to, has made me anti-GMO so I watched this movie with an open mind to get a different perspective.
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Film Review: Seed – The Untold Story
SEED: The Untold Story, follows passionate seed keepers intent on protecting our 12,000-year-old food legacy. It follows the story of the dedicated few working to preserve what remains of our crop diversity against powerful corporate forces who are seeking to drive us to use their products exclusively against our best interests.
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Film Review: Unbroken Ground
As part of Patagonia’s mission to educate they commissioned a documentary, Unbroken Ground, to be made that focuses how farming practices can be changed that don’t do permanent damage to the environment, destroy biodiversity and drive climate change.
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Learning from a bad travel experience
This is the story of a flight experience we had on a holiday to India (which was a wonderful adventure), what happened when things did not go exactly as planned and the lessons we learned that we will take with us on future journeys.
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Crash bang wallop – a sobering tale but a taking a positive view
After a recent accident whist away on vacation in an exotic location I came away thankful to be alive, still hungry to travel but reflective on the experience. It will change the way I plan and prepare for future journeys.
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Dopplegangers
#itchyfeettravellers Over the years I have had quite a few people tell me I resemble this person or that person. Unfortunately, the comparison has never…
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Book Review: Travel As A Political Act – Rick Steves
I have been watching Rick Steves travel shows on Public Television for several years. He comes across as a jovial chap and his shows are informative in a light and fluffy way. So, I was somewhat shocked when I recently caught one of his programmes entitled “Travel as a Political Act”
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Signs in SE Asia washrooms: Etiquette and safety!
This is going to be a strange posting, but on our recent trip to the Far East, we were both entertained by posters we found in toilets on etiquette and safety. It did feel creepy pulling out our mobile phones to snap pictures of these but the temptation was too much!
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Checking off another bucket list item
I am never sure what gives me the most pleasure the experience of a journey or the planning of the trip. One thing for sure it is not the getting there. I write this as I wait with Karen at the airport in San Francisco for our flight to Hong Kong at 1:30 am.
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Keeping track of our journeys and experiences
I have been capturing our families travels over the last 10 years or so in blog postings and also in picture books. As technology has improved since I first set out keeping these records I decided to upgrade to a new site.
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Film Review: Ice On Fire
Documentaries about climate change are sobering and somewhat scary intending to frighten people into action. HBO’s “Ice on Fire” is no different but it does have some enlightening moments that provide us with some opportunities to reverse the direction we’re heading with respect to climate change and how to live in a more sustainable way.
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Book Review: How to travel the World on $50 a day
Matt Kepnes book “How to Travel the World on $50 a day: Travel cheaper, longer, smarter” is a useful guide for the budding world traveller with a tight budget.