While we were celebrating the long weekend here in the States, teams of adventure athletes were battling it out in the Mark Webber Tasmania Challenge in Australia. The five-day, stage race featured plenty of running, mountain biking and paddling as competitors challenged each other across a course that was more than 340 km (210 miles) in length. The video below, which includes highlights from the final day of the competition, is a good indicator of what this race is all about.

After five days of racing, the race was won by the team of Richard Ussher and Braden Currie. They completed the entire course in 18 hours, 54 minutes, which was more than two hours faster than the second place team that consisted of Alex Hunt and Mark Hinder. Third place went to Jarad Kohler and James Pretto, who finished in 26 hours, 52 minutes and 2 seconds.

This was the 10th annual Tasmania Challenge and over the year the race has become a staple on the adventure racing calendar each season. With another strong turnout this year, it appears that the race is poised to continue well into the future.

So here's a little something for the mountain biking crowd. Especially the couples who may have met and fell in love while zipping around on fat tires, off the beaten path, and hopefully covered in mud. Has your relationship grown to the point where you're ready to take the next step? Well then, check out these Mountain Bike Tire Rings that are a sure fire way to proclaim your love. Of your bike. Oh, and your significant other.

If anyone knows a single woman in the Austin area who would find these charming, give her my address. ;)

Thanks Go Clipless!

The local team went out to the Taipei Fish Market tonight, where they got such an excessive amount of sushi and seafood that we could barely finish it all. By the time we got back to the hotel though, I just wasn't satisfied with just cold fish and rice in my belly. So I hopped back out of the hotel to see if there were anything interesting around beyond the usual convenience stores.

I found an outlet of Yonghe Doujiang, and thus got this bowl of salty soybean milk. It wasn't anything special, but at least it was a hot soupy broth to warm me back up. And it sure was better than the alternative of getting one of those tea eggs at 7-Eleven.

When you first encounter Kells Priory, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this is a castle given its strong defensive walls and towers, but Kells Priory was a monastery. It is superbly well preserved, and is one of the most striking and unforgettable monastic sites in Ireland. 

The Priory was founded in 1193 by Geoffrey FitzRobert, brother in law  to the famous Strongbow - Richard de Clare, leader of the Norman forces in Ireland. It was given to the Augustinian Canons, the biggest religious order in Ireland at the time.

The site itself was attacked and burned on three separate occasions, by William de Bermingham in 1252, then by Edward Bruce on Palm Sunday 1326, and then by a different William de Bermingham in 1327. The large walls and towers that enclose an area of approximately three acres possibly date to immediately after this turbulent period in the middle to late fourteenth century.

The Priory is situated on low lying ground near the King's River, which probably had a number of mills that provided flour and economic muscle to the Augustinian priors at Kells. The large walls that surround the site are nearly 6m in height, and over 1m thick with regular loops for arrows. It is clear that the Priory would have been well defended. Each of the towers along the walls served both a residential and defensive purpose. The first large enclosure that you enter is known as 'The Burgess Court' and it is thought that it provided a secure place for the lay population to take shelter during attack. The walls surrounding the inner part of the Priory are thought to have been constructed earlier.

The Church at Kells Priory dates to the earlier part of the activity, probably around the early part of the thirteenth century. It appears to have been altered and extended a number of times over its history.

The Priory is truly one of Ireland's hidden gems, a great place to visit and you'll often find you have the place to yourself. You'll find it about 15km south of Kilkenny City, near the village of Kells, signposted off the R697.

There are a number of other great sites in the locality, including the deserted medieval town of Newtown Jerpoint, the Neolithic Passage Tomb of Knockroe  as well as Jerpoint Abbey and Thomastown itself. 

I hope you enjoy this blog, we're trying to cover as many sites as we can across Ireland. If anyone has any suggestions about sites you'd like us to cover please do leave us a comment. If you enjoy information and images of Irish heritage sites then do follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ If you'd like to support us then please consider downloading an audioguide to one of Ireland's wonderful heritage sites. They are packed with original music and sound effects and are a great way of experiencing the story of Ireland. They only cost €1.99 and are fun whether you are at the site, or listening from the comfort of your own home. If you enjoy stories of the turbulent medieval period in Ireland try our guide to Viking and Medieval Dublin, visit us at www.abartaaudioguides.com for free previews and to download your free audioguide to the Rock of Dunamase  or the free audioguide to the wonderful heritage town of Kells in County Meath

86 miles. When I checked my United account in passing the other day, I was surprised to find that I was just 86 miles short of them giving me another two upgrades for next year. I didn't plan it that way. Indeed, I thought that I was going to fall so short of it that I didn't even bother trying to clear the next milestone. But had I realized it earlier, I probably would have just taken a roundtrip on US Airways back to Phoenix earlier this month rather than leaving Mexico via Delta.

Anyway, it would have been a shame to let those upgrades slip through my fingers, especially since they might come in handy next year. So I scrambled to the SQ ticketing office the other day and asked them for the cheapest Star Alliance-accruable ticket to anywhere before the end of the calendar year. It turned out that that was going to be KL, so this morning, on the last day of 2013, I went ahead and bought a ticket for a flight later in the evening. Just in the nick of time!

Now, I've done mileage runs in the past, but normally when I do those, I at least take advantage of the opportunity to explore the local destination a bit. But this time, it was just KL, and I really wanted to be back in Singapore instead. So after walking off the jetbridge in KL tonight, I literally walked right back to the gate to board the next flight back to Singapore. No immigration, no toilet break...I probably didn't walk any more than 50 yards within KLIA. The staff must have thought that I was crazy.

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Granny (also known as Grannagh) Castle is located on the banks of the River Suir in south County Kilkenny, just 5km outside Waterford City. The castle was originally constructed by the de la Poer family in the mid thirteenth century, however the de la Poer's (who later became Anglicized to Power) fell out of favour with King Edward III, and forfeited much of their land.

The castle and its lands were given to the powerful Butler family in 1375 and they are responsible for most of the visible remains. The square enclosing wall with its projecting towers at the south-west and south-east angles has a look of the late thirteenth – early fourteenth centuries. The main tower of the castle appears to date to the fifteenth century and is in keeping with the fashion for tall fortified tower houses, that both served as a means for defence and an illustration of the wealth, power and status of the lord.

The tower-house was a popular style of defensive structure among all of late medieval Ireland with both the Anglo-Norman population and the Gaelic Irish gentry adopting it. It is most numerous in the southern half of Ireland, particularly in Counties Kilkenny, Wexford, Cork, Tipperary, Limerick, Clare and Galway. Tower houses are particularly common in the region under Anglo-Norman control known as The Pale, as in 1429 the English government paid £10 subsidy (a substantial fee at the time) to encourage people to build these defensive structures at a time when many of the Gaelic tribes were becoming resurgent again. The fine oriel (projecting bay) window probably dates to the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. 

Granny Castle is very handily located just off the N24 Limerick - Waterford Road about 5 minutes outside Waterford City. It is visible to the right as you approach Waterford on the N24, just before the M9 Motorway. Take the right hand turn before the M9 motorway roundabout. When you turn onto this road there will be a small lane to the right which leads down to the castle. There is limited parking along this lane.   

If you’d like to keep up with daily images and information about Ireland’s fantastic heritage sites please consider following Neil’s company Abarta Audioguides on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Google+.

If you’d like to support us please consider downloading an audioguide from abartaaudioguides.com: they are packed with great facts, information, stories and legends from Ireland’s iconic sites. They are designed to be fun and informative whether you are visiting the sites or from the comfort of your own home, so if you are looking to escape to the Court of Brian Boru the next time you are doing household chores, download one of our guides and let Abarta whisk you off to ancient Ireland!
 
All images © Neil Jackman/Abarta Audio Guides

It was another very trying day in the Antarctic as teams continue their push towards the South Pole. In addition to facing the typical challenges of dealing with the cold temperatures and the hollowing winds, they're finding that these expeditions are tough in other ways too. They've also discovered that if they don't keep their wits about them at all times, it can prove costly in other ways as well.

Aussie Geoff Wilson learned that lesson the hard way today. It was an incredibly tough day for Geoff, who is attempting to kite ski to the South Pole. While packing his tent this morning he broke a pole, which required him to repair it before he set out for the day. He was relieved to discover however that there were good winds for kiting, and soon he set off on his way. But those winds proved to be a bit too strong for the larger kite he was using. At one point they actually lifted him up six feet in the air before slamming him back down onto the frozen surface. At that point he decided it was best to change to a smaller kite that was easier to control, but upon examining his sleds, he found that one of is food bags had opened and he had lost a considerable amount of food. Enough to put the expedition in jeopardy.

Donning his skis, he retraced his footsteps for about 8 km (5 miles) collecting as much food as he could along the way. That slog was directly into a head wind however, and the cold temperatures started to bite into his skin. Fearing a case of frostbite, Geoff eventually turned back, and took inventory of his food situation. He has enough to go on, but there is now little room for error. It's South Pole or bust.

Elsewhere, Daniel Burton continues to struggle with high winds. He is attempting to ride his fat tire bike all the way to the South Pole but progress has been incredibly difficult and slow right now. Yesterday it was so challenging that he only managed to cover 3 nautical miles (5.5 km), which simply isn't enough ground to cover to make to the South Pole in a reasonable amount of time. If he can't find a way to pick up the pace soon, his entire expedition will be in jeopardy.


Parker Liautaud and Doug Stoup are now three days into their attempt to ski to the South Pole and have now achieved a major milestone. The duo managed to ski up the Leverett Glacier and have now reached the Antarctic Plateau. That means that they'll have relatively flat skiing all the way to the Pole, which is still some 240 nautical miles (450 km) away. But reaching this point is always a good achievement on any expedition to the 90ºS. It doesn't make things easy, but it certainly helps both physically and mentally.

Lewis Clarke has now completed his first full week out on the ice, which is also a milestone of sorts. He still has approximately 640 miles (1029 km) to go before reaching 90ºS, but so far things are going well. The 16-year old is attempting to become the youngest to make the full journey from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole, and while high winds are currently making for slow going, he is taking solid chunks of mileage off the total distance as he goes.

Finally, Chris and Marty Fagan are also dealing with the winds on their ski journey to the Pole. They describe todays gusts as being the kind that make you want to stay huddled in your sleeping bag, safe from its bite. But if they want to reach their goal, they have to keep moving, so each day they crawl out of their tent and proceed to ski for 8 to 10 hours. It isn't easy. It is always cold and conditions are tough. But this is what traveling through the Antarctic is all about, and none of the men and women who are there would have it any other way.

As two endurance athletes, Chris and Marty also recommend just such a journey for anyone looking to get into fine shape. They say pulling a heavy sled into heavy winds for 8 hours a day will certainly burn calories and give you a full body exercise program. In fact, these polar explorers are probably burning in excess of 8000 calories per day, which makes it difficult for them to keep up with all the food they need to eat just to keep going.

That's all for today. I'll post more updates as they are warranted in the next few days, including the possible arrival of one team to the South Pole before the end of the week.

The Atikamekw are an indigenous people who have lived in a remote part of Quebec, Canada for more than 400 years. During that time they have developed a way of life that allows them to survive in that hostile, frigid environment. They have adapted to the harsh conditions there, learning to live off the land, hunt for food and developing tools such as snowshoes and dogsleds that have helped their culture thrive even into the 21st century.

From 1999-2001, explorers Bert Poffé and Kiki Nárdiz traveled to the Atikamekw region where they learned much about their way of life and their methods of survival, both during the winter and the summer. Visiting that region built a deep connection with the First Nations families that live there, while also instilling a love of nature and the planet in them at the same time. It has been nearly 13 years since they last visited their friends amongst the Atikamekw, but early next year that will change.

On their website, Bert and Kiki have announced plans for their Atikamekw Snowshoe expedition, which will send them back into the wilderness where they honed their survival skills more than a decade ago. The journey will take place in February, 2014 and will take approximately three weeks to complete. During that time, they'll be traveling unsupported deep into Atikamekw territory using nothing but the ancient survival methods that the indigenous people have used to survive there for centuries. That includes using traditional mukluks, snowshoes and handcrafted wooden toboggans.

Their journey will take the two explorers into one of the coldest inhabited places on the planet. They'll pass over frozen lakes, trek deep into gorges and pass into regions that few outsiders ever see. Along the way, they'll face sub-zero temperatures, high winds, potential blizzards and all kinds of other climactic challenges as they pass between the Atikamekw communities of Obedjiwan and Manawan.

For more information about Bert, Kiki and their plans be sure to check out Inuksu.be.

Mweka Camp (3,100m) to Mweka Gate (1,500m)

Day Six is the last day on Kilimanjaro, and is generally the easiest of all. The trail leads out of Mweka Camp and descends fairly rapidly through the Cloud Forest on the slower slopes of Kili. It's basically a simple hike out of camp and off the mountain, but since this route is used by everyone on their descent, no matter which route the took to the top, it can be busy and crowded at times.

In total, it will only take about three to four hours to hike down to Mweka Gate. The first half of that time will be on well groomed, but narrower trails that have a few steep points that you'll have to navigate with caution. It can be quite wet in the Cloud Forest, especially in the rainy season when I was there, so the rocks and trail can be slick in points. The further you descend though, the more the trail levels out and eventually you'll find yourself hiking on what can best be described as a road. It's wide, easy to navigate, and you'll make good time. Before you know it, you'll reack Mweka Gate, and your Kilimanjaro adventure will be over.

From Mweka Gate you'll sign the guest book one more time, then take a break while the guides and porters organzie the vehicles for your return to Moshi or Arusha. There will be a number of locals trying to sell you everything from T-shirts and soft drinks, to cheap jewelry and "tinga tinga", which is local art work. At this point, the climb is over, and the one thing on your mind is a hot shower.

For me personally, the last day was a fairly easy hike out. Your legs are tired from several days on the mountain, so in the steep portions of the descent you'll feel some exertion, but other than that, this is just a few hours walk down and off the mountain. After the days spent going up, it'll feel pretty easy. It also helped that for the first time in eight days I had finally gotten a good night sleep, so I was rested and ready to go.

I did learn a few lessons while on Kilimanjaro that I'd recommend to anyone who was going for the climb. First, schedule yourself a rest day between the travel and the start of the climb. It'll help you to get adjusted to the new time zone and you'll feel more refreshed and relaxed before heading out. This is something I wished I had done looking back on it. The next thing I would tell someone who was headed off to Kili is to be prepared for a challenging climb from the first day. I had been expecting it to be a bit easier on the lower portions of the mountain than it turned out to be, at least on the Machame Route. There are no switchbacks and few gradual climbs. The trail goes up. Straight up. It's only the degree of the incline that varies.

I will say that the gear that I took with me was, for the most part great. I was happy with the performance of everything. However, I could have used a larger daypack. Mine was stuffed to the brim most of the time, and in fact, I would say that you really don't want to take a "daypack" at all. You're better off taking a larger 2-3 day pack. Something that falls between a daypack and an expedition pack. A Kili climb is fairly gear intensive since you need cooler clothes on the lower slopes, and yet plenty of warm stuff for higher on the mountain. In your pack, at various times, you'll have an extra layer or two of clothes, rain gear, including jacket and pants, your supply of water for the day, snacks and lunch, and camera equipment. As you move higher, your layers will get thicker, you'll add a warmer jacket, hats, gloves and so on. The extra space of a weekend pack will be well worth it. Also, when it comes to rain gear, many climbers preferred a poncho to a rain jacket so they could keep their pack dry as well. Personally, I prefer the close fit of the jacket myself, and my pack was good enough that it never got wet inside, even in the rain, but the poncho was easier for others to pull on quickly without having to take their packs off.

So that's it. A basic six day climb on Kilimanjaro. I'll probably make a link off to the side so that all the articles of the climb can be easily accessed and read in order. But if anyone out there has any specific questions about Kilimanjaro, feel free to drop me a note. I'm happy to answer them and pass on my thoughts and advice. A Kili climb is a grand adventure, and anyone who has the desire to see the mountain really should go for it. It's certainly worth the effort and is a unique experience.

Next up, I'll post some thoughts on the five day camping safari.

My friend Rick McCharles, who writes the Best Hike Blog, has been busy adding to his already impressive resume of trails that he has walked. Recently he's been in the Indian Himalaya, spending the better part of a week trekking the Kuari Pass and writing about his experience there. The trek takes travelers deep into the mountains of northern India where 7000 meter peaks abound, it also affords those who make the walk views of the famous Nanda Devi, a mountain that many believe is the most beautiful on the planet.

Rick starts his travelogue of the trek with a Day 0 post that outlines what to expect on the hike, including the price. The 8 day trek costs $600 apiece for two hikers and includes a guided walk covering 82 km (50 miles) with the highest point reaching 5135 meters (16,847 ft) at Larkya La.

The trek offers some fantastic cultural encounters and amazing views, but of course one of the highlights is Nanda Devi, a 7816 meter (25,643 ft) peak that is the second tallest in India. It features a steep, sharp summit that cuts across the horizon in dramatic fashion. It also happens to fall inside the Nanda Devi preserve, that is off limits to all but a few lucky visitors. On occasion, permits are issued to climb the peak and some of the best climbers in history have attempted to reach its summit. The mountain is so striking that American climbing legend Willi Unsoeld named his daughter after the mountain. Sadly, she would later die trying to climb it.

Rick wrote six posts on the Kuari Pass trek, each of which can be accessed from the Day 0 post linked to above. Each of those posts shares his experience from each day and plenty of photos from the trail, giving us readers a sense of what it is like to make this hike.

After finishing up the Kuari hike in India, Rick has now jumped over to Nepal where he is busy walking the Manaslu Circuit. I'm sure we'll get some great info on that trek soon as well.

liveBooks recently got an update about the impressive lineup of instructors for this year’s Foundry Photojournalism Workshop happening from June 20-26 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Some of them spoke to Miki Johnson of livebooks' RESOLVE blog.

Ron Haviv's favorite aspect of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop is "Watching the growth of the students in such a short period of time".

Ami Vitale's is "Watching students grow in the short span of the workshop is incredible".

And mine is "the mutual camaraderie and unfettered sharing of knowledge, information, and support between instructors and students/attendees".

Read the rest on RESOLVE.

Photo © Ashok Sinha-All Rights Reserved
Here's another photo gallery of Kashgar and the Uyghurs by photographer Ashok Sinha, who traveled in China and was touched by their plight, which prompted him to document their disappearing ways of life. The photo essay is part of a larger project that is titled Life in Balance: The Human Condition in Xinjiang.

Kashgar is a city of 3.4 million surrounded by mountains and desert, and is located at Xinjiang's westernmost tip. It is closer to Baghdad than to Beijing. As a minority, the Uyghurs see their 2000 year-old culture and heritage being erased by the Chinese authorities, with much of Kashgar's old town being demolished. This was justified by the Chinese for safeguarding the population from the collapse of the old buildings in the event of an earthquake, and that the demolition is necessary to the “modernization” of the Uyghur people.

The old city is considered to be one of Central Asia's best preserved sites of Islamic architecture.

The New York Times has featured an audio slideshow on Kahsgar just under a year ago titled A City, and People, at Crossroads that explains the situation.

At one time I worked as the president of a division of TimeWarner. I was always very proud that I never-- not once-- used one of the corporate jets to fly someplace, something my peers all did. I was happy to fly with them on their trip but I always had the feeling that using a corporate jet was a tremendous waste of shareholders money and that it could be used for more productive endeavors. And I was perfectly satisfied with first class on British Air, my favorite airline. The flight from L.A. to London left at night, so you could change into your pjs, settle into your relatively private cubicle, have a fantastic dinner, read for a while, get a perfect night's sleep on a comfortable flat bed and wake up in the morning in time to get to your first meeting rested and without a trace of jetlag. All for $10,300 (roundtrip).

Now that I'm retired. I've discovered the allure of business class. Apparently I'm one step ahead of my former flying companions-- or at least the ones without corporate jets at their disposal. According to yesterday's Guardian, the British Air first class cabin is going the way of the way of the dodo bird.

Business class passengers famously draw envious glances from the herd in economy by turning left when they enter a plane, but it is the first class ticket holders who are the most pampered. On British Airways' 747s they ascend to their Kelly Hoppen-designed cabin and don their free pyjamas and slippers before supping on the likes of lobster thermidor, pan-seared wild Scottish salmon or roasted Cornish game hen, then slip between the sheets of their roomy-- and extremely flat-- bed.

Now, however, this most opulent form of travel is under threat.

The global downturn has devastated demand for expensive seats, and even Hollywood stars and bankers are shying away from BA's extravagant first class prices. The airline, stung by a slump in premium bookings that helped push the company into its worst-ever loss of £401m, has removed first class accommodation from four of its new long-haul planes, and is to review seating plans for other new aircraft.

"The long-haul aircraft that we take delivery of this year will not have any first class cabins in them," said Willie Walsh, BA's chief executive. He insisted there was no direct link to the recession, but he added: "Longer term we will review the configuration of [all] new aircraft." BA is also launching a service this year from Heathrow to Las Vegas, a prime destination for high-rollers, with no first class option.

First class is the last remnant of the more romantic days of air travel when BA's predecessor, British Overseas Airways Corporation, offered first class tickets alongside the more down-at-heel tourist or economy cabins. Its upmarket reputation has become even more rarefied over the years following the introduction of slightly less luxurious business class seats in the late 1970s, and cut-throat competition on the transatlantic market.

Walsh admitted that the cost of ripping out seats in the existing fleet is too great to get rid of first class in existing planes, leading industry watchers to speculate that upgrades for economy class travellers might become a more common occurrence... The cost of refitting an aircraft, at millions of pounds per plane, means that airlines will have to turn to riskier strategies such as overbooking flights until their new aircraft orders arrive. Airlines can guarantee strong revenues from economy class passengers if they overbook the back of the plane. Under that scenario, any passenger who is the victim of an overbooking could be upgraded to one of the many empty seats in business class, or bumped to another flight.

Of course, there's always Air Emirates. I'm not sure if this price includes tax or not, but the L.A.-London run is $24,916.97. In any case, the food looks like it's probably not that different from B.A. Business class on B.A., by the way, costs $4,274 and you'd be surprised how comfy it feels when you think of the $6,000 you save by forgoing First Class (or the $20,000 you save by avoiding Air Emirates).

Filmmaker Richard Sidey is putting together an interesting documentary about the impact of climate change on the polar regions of our planet. The film is called Speechless: The Polar Realm, and he is busy editing it now. The video below serves as a trailer for that project and offers some stunning images to remind us just how beautiful, and full of life, the polar regions actually are. I'm not sure about the film as a whole yet, but these great shots definitely have me intrigued.

Speechless : The Polar Realm (film trailer) from Richard Sidey on Vimeo.

Shot over the course of the past two years, the video below is a compilation of some amazing skydiving shots that almost makes it seem like jumping out of a perfectly good plane might be something I'd want to do. Almost. But seriously, this is is a beautiful five-minute clip that that is a good mix of style and substance.

BackToAwake - Skydiving Compilation from BackToAwake on Vimeo.

I didn't even realize it until I got here, but it looks like the Tung Lok people partnered up with some place from Beijing called Xihe Yayuan to serve Peking duck in Singapore (200 Turf Club road #01-23, 6466-3363).

Sure, it was good, although not without some elements of tackiness, like the Pop Rocks and blueberry sauce that one was supposed to eat the skin with, as well as the bang of a gong every time a duck was ready to be carved.

But yes, it was tasty...and it had better be at a whopping S$88 (US$69) a duck. Still, I like Paradise Pavilion's duck better. It's even more expensive there, but the smell of apple wood in that place is just lovely...and the ambiance and presentation is certainly much more elegant too. Too bad that it's so expensive.