Because I've traveled so much and to so many places people are always asking me which was my favorite. For many years I would always say that it was a three-way tie between Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal. These were all places I went between 1969 and 1971, places that blew my young mind. I went back to Sri Lanka in 1996-97 and I've been back to Nepal twice as well. Nepal holds up pretty well-- and I'll be writing about my trips there-- but Sri Lanka... well, long civil wars usually screw places up pretty badly. Afghanistan is still exquisite and pristine in my mind. But since those days I've been to many places and eventually Thailand supplanted my Big 3.

Last year, however, I discovered a place I had never been to but instantly fell in love with: Bali. I'm not a beach kind of guy; I always prefer a shark-free/non-sewage dumping swimming pool to the ocean-- and Bali is a small island famous for beach life. And drunken Australians, another thing of no interest to me. I'm more interested in native culture than sunburn and tourists; always have been. In researching Bali, I soon figured out that as long as you stay away from one little tiny area on the Southeast coast, specifically developed as a tourist ghetto so as not to pollute the island's incredible indigenous culture, you can still be in paradise. (Al Qaeda apparently figured this out too and the bombs you've heard about were all in the tourist ghetto area.)

So I decided to rent a villa in the interior, away from the crowded beach area-- but where? And how? Short answer: a Google search of "Bali + villa" soon brought me to Bali Villas, a great local company that rents out villas to visitors, most of which are owned by wealthy foreigners who only use them a month or two per year. (About 20% of tourists who came to Bali in the last couple of years rented a villa!) The one I rented has 4 bedrooms, lots of common space, a really beautiful swimming pool, 4 incredible people who live in an attached house and do all the work around the place-- including a mind-blowing chef. (She was able to adapt all the traditional Balinese and Indonesian recipes to my dietary restrictions of no sugar and no flour-- and, aside from fish, I'm a vegan; every single meal was MAGNIFICENT.) Also included was a van with a driver, Anwar, who was always there for whatever crazy requests the 4 of us made. I mean, some people love the beach and some love Hindu temples in remote mountains (me) and Anwar worked it all out, always.

Most of the great villas are on or near the beach. Most tourists go to Bali for the beaches. But there are places in the mountains and up near Ubud, the kind of cultural center of the island. Ours overlooked the mighty Ayung River (the photo above was taken from my bedroom terrace) and we never saw another foreigner anywhere nearby for the 3 weeks we were there. We never did find the "village" on a map and it had an impossible, unpronounceable name. It's between Denpasar and Ubud. That link gives all the details, amenities, prices, etc. I'll get into the reasons why I think Bali is the best overall place I ever visited in the next couple of blogs.

The Adventure Racing World Championship is still ongoing in Costa Rica, but as I write this, two teams have crossed the finish line, claiming first and second place respectively. The winners of the race, and this year's world champions are Thule Adventure Team, who finished in 168 hours,  27 minutes. That translates to a little more than seven days or non-stop racing. Second place went to Columbia Vidaraid, which came across the line at 171 hours, 34 minutes. Right now, it appears that Adidas TERREX Prunesco is in position to claim third place, although they aren't home yet.

The race got underway last weekend with the four-person, coed teams facing a 700+ km (435 mile) course designed to test their endurance, skills and determination. At the time, it was thought that the top teams could potentially complete the route in about 4 to 5 days. But, it turns out that was a very optimistic estimate. Thule is perhaps the best team in the sport today, and it took them 2-3 days longer than projected.

As is typical in adventure racing, this course mixed trail running, mountain biking and paddling. It started on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica and finishes on the Atlantic Coast. In between there were miles of rainforest to cross, rivers to kayak and mountains to climb.

Congratulations to Jackie Boisset, Mimi Guillot, Stuart Lynch and Albert Roca, the athletes who make up Team Thule. This win continues a great run for the team, who have been very tough to beat on an international level over the past few years.

Yes, I caved and got an Voigtlander 40mm optical viewfinder for my Panasonic GF1. It's well suited to the Panasonic 20mm 1.7 lens.

But this is not about the viewfinder or how much better the GF1 feels with it...it's about the above 'minimalist' gear which is an option when I'm planning an assignment or a photo trip. I can have all this in a small Domke bag, and have spare room for a book, an audio recorder, an itouch and lots more.

Imagine the bliss of having all one's gear in a small and light bag!!!

Here's a statistic: The combined weight of the GF1, the Acer netbook and a WD Passport hard drive (from their individual listed specifications) is 3.8lbs. The combined weight of a Canon 5D Mark II and a 24-70mm 2.8 lens is 3.9lbs.

Am I contemplating chucking out the DSLRs and lenses? Not at all. What I now have available to me is equipment which, depending on the nature and duration of the trip and/or assignment, is a viable alternative.

The easy one first: the WD Passport 750gb is small and worked well so far. It may not be as tough as a Lacie Rugged, but it's functional, provides ample storage and is inexpensive.

The not-so-easy: I've used the Acer netbook on 3 or more photo expeditions, and it also did okay. However, its Windows XP software is a major irritant, and its Atom processor is really sluggish. I seldom have it process any image files, and just use it to save my RAW files on its 160gb hard drive and on the WD Passport. An eventual alternative to the Acer could be an iPad, if and when it allows connectivity to an external HD.

Another not-so-easy: The GF1 is a delight to use, and the quality of its images is almost as good as from an entry-level DSLR....but almost is the key word. Having said that, it's still a lovely tool to use on walk-abouts, for environmental portraits and as a back-up. It'll be very useful in situations where photography may be frowned upon (like religious rituals) or where one doesn't want to be labeled as a professional photographer.

I'll be taking the GF1 (along with my Canon gear) to Istanbul in a couple of weeks, and will further test its walk-"aboutability".

There aren't many expeditions that you can go on that allow you to ski, snowboard, climb and surf, but that is exactly what the Wegge brothers got when they visited remote Bear Island off the Svalbard coast. The video below is a teaser for an upcoming film of their adventure, which judging from these two minutes of footage looks like it was filled will all kinds of interesting activities.

Thanks to my friends at the Adventure Journal for sharing this one.

BEAR ISLAND TEASER from weggebros on Vimeo.

I rented an apartment in Recoleta, an upscale Buenos Aires neighborhood. The apartment is great-- kitchen, bedroom, combo living room/dining room. I´ll do all the details for anyone interested in renting when I get back. I just wanted to share some thoughts today.

I spent most of my day trying to get a Brazilian visa for my 2 day stay on the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls. Originally I had no intention of staying in Brazil but the only hotel on the Argentine side (IN the park) was solidly booked and there was a room available in the one Brazilian hotel in the park. If you don't stay in one of those two hotels you stay about 15 miles from the park. After I became aware how much Brazil discourages American tourists I would have put up with the 15 miles, but by that time I realized that there is NO WAY to travel from Iguazu into Paraguay without crossing into Brazil (visa).

I found all this out in L.A. when I got my easy, friendly Paraguayan visa. The consul told me I also need a Brazilian visa and that that takes between 8 days and 2 weeks. I was leaving in 5 days. I rushed to the Brazilian consulate immediately. They only answer questions between 9 and 1 and it was 1:15 so I´d have to come back the next day just to ask a question.

Eventually I tricked their Kafkaesque phone system into letting me speak to a person who pretty much admitted what I was coming to understand: Brazilians are friendly and like everyone-- except Bush. They hate him, like most people in the world. Unlike most people in the world, however, their government takes it out on Americans.

At least I'll know not to take anything personally! Long story shorter, I decided to get the visa here in Buenos Aires. Easier said than done. So many lines; I hate lines. But I waited in front of the building and then in front on a computer terminal where I had to fill out documents, all intructions being in Portuguese and Spanish naturally. Then I had to wait on a really long line for an hour or so where a lady told me I had to show a ticket in and a ticket out and needed the address and phone number of the hotel, etc. When I told her I was entering Brazil by taxi from the Argentine airport and leaving for Asuncion by bus, she said if I didn´t show a ticket I couldn't have a visa. No exceptions.

The concierge at the 4 Seasons-- the hotel is across the street from my apartment and I've adopted the concierge station there-- had a great idea. She called the hotel's travel agent who issued me a refundable ticket from Iguazo to Sao Paulo to Asuncion. Meanwhile I got Aerolinas Argentinas to send me an e-ticket. Back to the Brazilian lines. It takes 3 days to get the visa once they say OK. I had to make it by 1PM. I made it with nearly 5 minutes to spare. Of course then I had to go to a bank half a mile away to pay the $100 fee. Thursday at 4PM I can pick up my passport with the visa (unless they think of another reason to deny me access).

Europeans and Latin Americans don't need visas, by the way, just the people who allowed Bush to grab the White House (twice); it's hard to fault them.

I set up The Travel Photographer's Motion as a parallel portal (using the F8 Graph Paper Press theme) for my audio slideshows, which are originally produced in the SoundSlides format, and subsequently converted to mp4s, then uploaded to Vimeo. I have no real preference between Vimeo or YouTube, and I'll eventually have these mp4s uploaded on both.

The current line-up consists of Baneshwar: Pind Daan (the annual rite of remembrance for Rajasthan tribals), White Shadows (my favorite! The sad life of the widows of Vrindavan), Debates at the Sangha (Buddhist debates in a Bhutanese monastery...much more animated than those in our Senate), Gnawa (the rhythmic Sufis of Morocco), The Street Chinese Opera (intense musical cacophony in NYC's Chinatown) and Cham! (the tsechus of Bhutan).

More of my audio-slideshows converted to mp4s are in the works.

Both Vimeo and YouTube’s have adopted the HTML5 video element (although the former is restricted and the latter is in beta), which permits most browsers (not Firefox, I think) to bypass the Flash plug-in and use video native to the browser’s player. That will prove useful for such movies to be seen on the iPad.

This is the second installment's of Adam's first person account of his recent trip to Ghana. Be sure to read the first installment. Here we pick up the tale in mid-June.

I have done a huge amount in the last week and a half. After I emailed last I had one of the craziest/wierdest days I ever had. First I was almost arrested for jay walking and hit by at least 3 tro tros. About an hour later my friend Hugh used a public toilet. Afterwards we are walking along and this guy comes out of no where and grabs Hughs arm yelling "give me money, give me 500 cedis". We thought he was trying to rob us so we started yelling back but he wouldn't let go of Hugh's arm. I pushed the guy off Hugh and told him we weren't going to give him any money (although it may sound a little heroic & I should probably let it stay that way it really was not, we were in a crowded area). The guy kept yelling and I finally thought to ask him why he wanted 500 cedis (5 cents) which sounded like a ridiculous amount of money to ask for, let alone rob someone in the middle of a busy street. It turned out that it cost 500 cedis to use the toilet. We were both a little embarrassed and paid the man.

Thirty minutes had not even passed when we both bumped into a woman carrying her baby on her back with our back packs. The street was packed with people and there was no way to walk without collisions. The lady went absolutely insane screaming at the top of her lungs in an unrecognizable language. Her baby started crying and people started shouting. Needless to say we did not wait and see what would happen, we ran as fast as 2 obrunis with 50 pound packs on could possibly run.

A couple hours later on our way to Ada Foa we got off at the wrong tro stop (we needed to switch tro tros). We started asking around but no one understood us. One woman finally told us where we needed to be and we jumped into a taxi. I thanked her but before I knew it she jumped in the cab and was practically sitting on my lap. If this wasn't bizarre enough she started rubbing my thigh and wouldn't stop smiling at me. When we reached the tro station we thanked her again and told her we were fine by ourselves. She followed us to the tro tro and was expecting us to pay for her ticket to Ada Foa. We refused as it was 150,000 cedis and we had already paid for her cab fare. She started a huge scene in the middle of the station and started yelling and screaming and saying how we were abandoning her. Just to point out she was not homeless and looked better off then most people I have met (cell phone, name brand clothes, etc.). A crowd formed and they were all speaking in local languages so we had no idea what they were saying. It looked like she was lying to everyone and telling them that we ripped her off because we were getting dirty looks from everyone. She then told us that if we didn't pay for her the tro driver wouldn't take us. She finally stopped screaming and asked us if we were married. The tro pulled out and she slapped my arm as we drove off. WTF!

Ada Foa is a remote area on a small peninsula. We had to take an hour canoe ride to get to where we were staying. On one side was the Volta river and the other was the ocean. It was amazing to watch the local villagers fishing and their daily routines. We stayed in little huts made of bamboo. There was no floor to the hut (just sand) and the only thing in it was a bed. The place was absolutely beautiful. The bathroom consisted of a hole in the sand with a wood box on top of the hole and a small bamboo fence around it. At night we built bon fires on the beach. On Sunday I left with 3 girls and we began our trip up North.

I'm not sure if I had mentioned this before but I have really bad mosquito bites on my legs and they became badly infected. They are open wounds and a couple were really deep. On Tuesday night they were so bad that I was limping and could barely move my right foot. My right ankle was so swollen you could not see my bone. I really did not want to go to the hospital here unless it is an emergency after hearing many horror stories. I bought medicine at a pharmacy and by the next day the swelling started going down.

Anyway we reached our destination, MOLE National Park, on Tuesday after about 16 hours of being packed into tro tros. The last 3 hours were the worst. I was sharing a middle seat with no back with another person. There were 6 of us in one row and it was probably the most uncomfortable I have ever been. Half of me was on the seat and the other half was dug into a crack. Anyway we reached Larabanga and from there the only way to MOLE is to hike or bike. We rented the most rikety bicycles I have ever seen. The brakes didn't work, the tires were thin and not meant for tough riding, and the bikes felt like they would fall apart any minute. The ride was only 7 km but much of it was up hill and the sun was intense. The girls had to stop every 10 minutes to drink water and break so it took us forever.

MOLE was absolutely incredible and one of the coolest things I have ever done. The hotel was on top of a hill and at the bottom was a watering hole. From the pool you could watch elephants in the water. While we were eating breakfast a huge Baboon jumped onto the table and knocked over my coffee. Another time a Baboon grabbed this girls bag and pulled out her wallet and a granola bar and started running away. Luckily it dropped the wallet but kept the granola bar. On Wednesday we went on a safari hike with an armed guide. Guests had been injured in the past by stampeding elephants and water buffalo. Also a guide had been killed not to long ago by one of the many venemous snakes. They have Black spitting cobras and vipers. I never thought I would be so close to an elephant, literally 4 or 5 feet.

In the afternoon I followed a bunch of baboons around into the woods and got really close until an aggressive one leaped at me. There were also antelope and those huge pig looking things with the horns (i forgot what they are called). It was amazing to be so close to the animals especially the elephants. Some animals that live in the park that I would have liked to see but didn't were the lion, hyena, and leopards. It was an amazing trip and well worth the long uncomfortable tro ride.

On the way back to my village the tro driver ran over 5 goats crossing the road. It was absolutely crazy; he didn't have any expression or even slow down it was as if it was a daily occurance.

Yesterday I went to Shai Hills and hiked to a bat cave. We actually climbed into the cave and were only a few feet away from hundreds of bats which all started swarming, luckily not in our direction. At one point our guide said he didn't want to scare us but sometimes pythons crawl through where we were standing in the mud.

I am now in Accra for a couple of days. Tomorrow the political correspondant of a local paper will bring me to meet members of Parliament and said I can sit in on the Parliament session. Im having an incredible time and have mixed feelings about coming home.

Adam returned to his family's home the last week in June, after 6 weeks in Ghana. He wrote one more e-mail about the trip from suburban New Jersey (where toilets are toilets and there are no pythons.

It is really wierd being back and I miss Ghana. During my last week in Ghana I stayed in the capital, Accra for a couple of days in hopes of interviewing MP's. I had been assured that the interviews were set up for Monday morning. When I met the Political Correspondent that morning she informed me that we would go the next morning at 8:30 AM. I stayed in Accra that night and watched the Ghana vs. Italy World Cup Match. Although Ghana lost I felt that they played a good game considering it was their first World Cup match and was against Italy who is one of the best in the World.

The next morning I waited an hour and a half for the Political Correspondent to arrive. The plans were to interview members before the session started at 10:00 AM. Due to her extreme tardiness that idea was killed. I sat in on the Parliament session which was really interesting. Unfortunately afterwards all of the MP's had a full schedule and did not have time to meet. I did however have the opportunity to meet a Parliament Attorney who drafts legislation.

The next few days I spent painting a health clinic, playing frisbee and soccer with the kids, and hanging out with the volunteers. Friday night my friends flight was delayed 5 hours and this girl Tes and I agreed to go to the airport with him to wait. At the airport there was confusion regarding what time the plane would take off, so at around 1 AM he went through security and left us outside. We had planned to spend the night sleeping in front of the airport because it was too dangerous to walk or take a taxi anywhere that late. Luckily Tes starts a conversation with an Obruni in a business truck and swears that he is harmless. We ask him to take us to any cheap hotel in the area and he looks at us like we have 5 heads.

It turns out that he has lived in GHana for the last 5 years but in a luxury western lifestyle. He had no clue about cheap hotels and admitted he had never even taken a tro tro. He allowed us to stay at his loft for the night. As we drive up to his house I could have sworn we had crossed into another country. We entered a gated community, guarded by security, filled with mansions. I had no idea there were houses like this in Ghana. His company develops these communities for the
richest of the rich and he told us that many Ministers and MP's bought homes in the community. His house had electricity, a microwave, stove, oven, fridge, shower, televisions-- it was out of this world, - completely unheard of. Anyway it was kind of cool to see the rich side of Ghana. Poverty to riches and not much in between. His satelite television service is double the amount that most workers make a month.

I left on Sunday and it was upsetting to say goodbye. The kids begged me to take them with me but promised to write. I bought them notebooks, pens, and crayons and they were really excited. I also left many of my things I didn't need and would have thrown them out had the kids not wanted them. They even took my tooth brush and toothpaste. In the village most people use these sticks to clean their teeth. I gave my cell phone to Kwasi who was the forman for the building. The phone cost more money then he makes in a month and he can either keep it or sell it. Sunday before I left I sat in on the Church service and the Reverend dedicated almost the entire service to me. It was a really nice thing for him to do and I will never forget him, the kids, and all of the friends I have made. This was an AMAZING experience and I could not have asked for anything more. I would like to continue to help sponsor school scholarships to children in Kwamoso and any donations you are able to contribute would be greatly appreciated. The amount of money that it takes to fund a child's education is so minute to our standards that even $5 would be an extremely helpful gesture. (If you have a PayPal account and want to send $5 or $20 or... well, any amount, the e-mail address for Adam is ad501445@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/) He has loaded his pictures online and if you would like please have a look.

The smaller Lustymore Man (left) and the larger two-sided Janus (right)

Two of the most enigmatic pieces of Irish sculpture can be found in a small cemetery on Boa Island in County Fermanagh. The larger sculpture is a two-sided ‘Janus’ figure, with depictions of a bearded figure on both sides. Both of the depictions show an oval-faced man with large almond shaped bulging eyes, and a straight nose. 

One side of the two-sided Janus

One side has the tongue partially sticking out, the other seems just to be an open mouth. The head just merges into the body without a clear neck, and the arms are crossed over what appears to be a belt. The base of the larger sculpture was found at a later time, and is now propped up against the figure. At the top of the heads there is a groove where people today leave coins as an offering. The smaller figure is called the ‘Lustymore Man’, and was found on the neighbouring Lustymore Island. It appears to be more weathered and more plainly carved. This figure is only one sided, but has a lot of similarities with the larger figure. It seems to also depict a man with a straight nose and open mouth and its arms are crossed.

So who made these sculptures? Who do they depict and when where they carved? Unfortunately there really isn’t very much information at all about the Boa Island figures. They are both generally thought to date to some time in the Iron Age, as they have some similarities with other Iron Age sculpture from Ulster like the Tandragee Man (see here for a picture), though this is uncertain. 

The second side of Janus

The small cemetery they reside in is a very atmospheric place, apart from a few old gravestones that largely date to the eighteenth and nineteenth century, there is nothing else here, no church or visible monument. You walk along a small grassy path and enter this leafy glade to be confronted by these two idols. It almost feels like something from a Mayan site from the jungles of Central America, rather than a small, narrow island in County Fermanagh. Definitely worth a trip if you’re in the area!

Boa Island is on Lough Erne in County Fermanagh, roughly around 25km north-west of Enniskillen on the A47. The island is long and narrow with bridges that lead on and off it, so it is fully accessible by car, no ferries are required. The figures are in Caldragh Graveyard in the south-west of the island, the graveyard is well signposted and there is a small area to park.

The path to Caldragh Graveyard

The Lustymore Man

I hope you enjoy our blog posts. If you would like to see daily updates with pictures and information on Irish heritage sites, archaeology and history please consider following Abarta Audioguides on Facebook, Google+ or Twitter.
If you would like to support us please download an audioguide from www.abartaaudioguides.com. There are currently fourteen guides available with four free of charge and the rest costing just €1.99. They are full of original music and sound effects and are a fun and immersive way of hearing the story of some of Ireland’s most iconic heritage sites and places. They are as enjoyable at the site as they are from the comfort of your favourite armchair at home, why not try our guide to Viking and Medieval Dublin to hear the story of the birth of a city? Or try our FREE guide to the wonderful heritage town of Kells in County Meath.

This place (138 Casuarina Road, 6455-9093) is supposed to be one of the best roti prata shops in Singapore, but I'm not sure if I understood what all of the fuss was about. The paper prata wasn't that crisp, and the curry that came with these things was a bit of a bore.

Well, at least it was interesting to try this so-called plaster prata with the fried egg on top. And the fish curry that came with my mushroom and cheese prata was at least a little more interesting. Maybe next time I should ask for some of that vindaloo that I saw on the menu.

This imposing fortress probably dates to the thirteenth century judging from architectural features like the trefoil-pointed windows, but Clonmore doesn’t appear in any documentary sources until the fourteenth century when it was repaired by Sir Anthony de Lucy in 1332.

In the fifteenth century Clonmore was granted to the powerful Earl of Ormonde. The castle has been attacked on a number of occasions. It was seized by the Earl of Kildare in 1516, then captured again by the Earl of Ormonde in 1598. During the Confederate Wars in Ireland during the middle part of the seventeenth century, Clonmore was captured and recaptured numerous times before finally being taken by Cromwell's army in 1650.

Clonmore was once a large square enclosure with defensive towers at each corner and a range of buildings along its eastern side. The solar block is four stories high, and the halls have two stories.

The remains of the buildings on the eastern side are a little tricky to work out when you are  at the castle, as the site is in such ruinous condition, but archaeologist David Sweetman in his book ‘The Medieval Castles of Ireland’ (2005) suggests that the buildings relate to three phases in the castles history, with two rectangular halls and the southern end used as the main living quarters.

The castle is a great (if a little mucky) place to explore, with many early features like the windows, staircases and passageways. However the building is in a very ruinous state, and overgrown in places so do wear appropriate footwear and exercise caution if you visit. The castle is on a farm, please make every effort to ask permission from the landowner if you wish to enter the site (particularly if livestock are in the field).

 
 You can’t miss the castle that is just outside of the village of Clonmore, see our map page for the exact location. In the village you will also find one of Carlow’s most important early medieval monastic sites. I’ll feature that in a forthcoming blog post.

 









Like exploring off the beaten track? We now have an audioguide to The Rock of Dunamase available completely free from our website www.abartaaudioguides.com. Simply download to your computer before transferring to a smartphone or mp3 to enjoy the story of this incredible and iconic site, enjoyable whether you are at Dunamase or sitting in your favourite armchair at home.
All photographs © Neil Jackman / abartaaudioguides.com

I've bemoaned the recent state of affairs in Adventure Racing a number of times on this blog, and even mentioned how things have been changing in the sport, especially with the big races at the top like The Raid and Primal Quest. The most recent news on PQ was that it was being put on hold indefinitely, with a glimmer of hope that it might return at some point in the future. The outlook was not optimistic.

Today we get this short and cryptic post in the Yak Blog over at Check Point Zero that says that there may be a big announcement from the Primal Quest team soon with word on the next edition of the expedition length race. This is encouraging news to all the fans of the sport. I'm hoping PQ returns in a similar format and length, with perhaps a more international location, but we'll have to wait and see. Here's hoping we get good news soon!

If you'd like to see daily posts and images about Ireland's fantastic historical sites please consider following Abarta Audioguides on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Google+.

Aghadoe Church and Round Tower just outside Killarney in County Kerry, is certainly in a picturesque setting. Little remains of the early medieval monastery that was founded here by Saint Finian the Leper in the 7th Century. As with most early medieval monastic sites, the majority of the original buildings were probably constructed from timber. However no visible traces of those remain, and we are left with a stone church and the base of a round tower.

The stone church looks to have at least three phases of construction and parts have been extensively reconstructed by the Office of Public Works. The western end may be the oldest. This might be traces of the great church of Achadh Dá Eo, that was completed in 1158 by Amhlaoibh O’Donoghue and dedicated to the Holy Trinity and to Saint Mary. It has a wonderful Romanesque doorway, with an incredibly detailed sculpted arch made from sandstone blocks, this is likely to have been reconstructed some time in the nineteenth century. 

The eastern wall has windows that were probably inserted in the thirteenth century, if you look closely at the windows on the inside of the church you can see a small sculpted decoration (perhaps a flower or a butterfly) and a rather worried looking head. Nearby embedded on top of the southern wall, you can also see a large slab with ogham script that reads BRRUANANN. This could have been a simple grave marker bearing a single name.

You can also see this unusual crucifixion scene that dates from the late 1600s or early 1700s. The interior of the church and the exterior are full of graves, some dating to the eighteenth century but many modern graves can be seen too. 

The unusual crucifixion scene that possibly dates to the late 1600s.

The bullaun stone

There is little remaining of the round tower other than a short stump. It is made of similar sandstone to the church, and also seems to have been partially reconstructed. Presumably in the nineteenth century when the romanesque doorway was reconstructed. You can also find a bullaun stone on the northern side of the church. These small hollowed stones are often associated with early medieval ecclesiastical sites, they may have been rudimentary holy water fonts or perhaps even used as large mortar and pestle type features to grind herbs, cereals or minerals.

Nearby to Aghadoe you can also find the remains of Parkavonear Castle. There isn't much left standing today but this circular tower that is thought to date to the thirteenth century. 

It is another echo of a time shortly after the Norman invasions, when they began to try to protect their conquests. Initially they constructed fortifications of earth and timber, but as they became more established they replaced these with castles of stone.

Aghadoe Church is certainly worth a visit for the incredible views of the surrounding landscape. You can find it on Aghadoe Heights, just two miles NNW of Killarney adjacent to the Aghadoe Heights Hotel.

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 abartaheritage.ie: 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 Heritage

A view of Ross Castle from Aghadoe Church

I saw that my list of Google Followers have now grown to 500! This list is distinct from my Twitter and Facebook followers and friends, or from my subscribers to my newsletters.

To commemorate this milestone, here's an introduction to the work of Karina Joseph, who is my 500th Google Follower.

Karina Joseph is a freelance photographer working in Mumbai, and from what I've seen of her excellent photographs on Flickr, specializes in commercial photography. She also does street photography, as can be seen in this following photograph.

Photo © Karina Joseph-All Rights Reserved
I will keep an eye on my Google Followers, and whenever possible I will post the work of every 100th follower.

"I lit three candles and stood awhile, to let my eyes accustom themselves to the dim light. There was everything, just as the last Bronze Age man (sic) had left it, three to four thousand years before. A light brownish dust covered all... There beads of stone, bone implements made from Red Deer antlers, and many fragments of much decayed pottery. On little raised recesses in the wall were flat stones, on which reposed the calcinated bones of young children."

These are the words of R.S. Macalister who in 1911 was the first person in thousands of years to enter the Neolithic tombs of Carrowkeel. Unfortunately Macalister and his team did great damage to these wonderful monuments, using dynamite and sledgehammers to enter the tombs rather than a careful excavation.

Each of the peaks of this northern end of the Bricklieve Mountains features passage tombs

Despite this violation, Carrowkeel still remains one of the most spectacular and breathtaking archaeological landscapes in Ireland, and is simply a must-see for anyone with any interest in our prehistoric past. They are situated at the northern end of the Bricklieve Mountains in County Sligo, and cover a number of the peaks that tower over the surrounding landscape. As well as a large number of tombs, at Mullagh Farna, archaeologist Dr Stefan Bergh with Anthony Corns and Robert Shaw of the Irish archaeological research unit The Discovery Programme carried out a high resolution survey of the area using digital photogrammetry and identified 153 hut sites and enclosures that probably indicate the homes of the people who constructed the tombs, a Neolithic village in the shadow of the mountains. If you'd like more information on this site visit the NUI Galway website here.

View from Cairn G with H & K in the background

We visited three of the passage tombs on the 2nd September 2013 and it was a fantastic experience! The tombs first appear as stone cairns, and are constructed from the abundant local carboniferous limestone. They are passage tombs, and were built around 5,000 years ago in the Neolithic period. This was the time of the first farmers in Ireland, the people who began to cut back the dense forests that covered the country to create fields for tillage and pasture. The most famous passage tomb cemetery in Ireland is the Brú na Bóinne (Bend of the Boyne) including the iconic sites of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, but Carrowkeel is equally as important, with its fourteen tombs.

When the tombs were ‘investigated’ by Macalister and his team, each of the tombs were assigned a letter. We visited the easiest to access tombs, Cairns G, H and K. Each of the tombs was accessible, though please do take every precaution not to disturb or damage the tombs if you wish to enter.

View out through the lightbox above the entrance of Cairn G

 Cairn G in particular was notable as it has a lightbox above the entrance, similar to that of Newgrange, only Cairn G is aligned with the sunset of the summer solstice. Cairn G is believed to predate Newgrange by more than 700 years, and is more simple with a much smaller passageway leading to the burial chamber. Inside Cairn G, Macalister reported finding deposits of cremated human bone, beads from a necklace and sherds of pottery. I didn’t access the next tomb, Cairn H, as it looked far too tight a squeeze. It appeared to be a narrow undifferentiated passage (meaning it did not open into a burial chamber at the end). The third tomb we visited, Cairn K, was a little easier to enter. A narrow cruciform shaped passageway led to a burial chamber. Inside this Macalister found deposits of cremated human remains under the flagged floor of the recesses in the chamber, and stone beads and pottery. They also discovered a Bronze Age urn, showing that these sites still held power and significance thousands of years after their first construction. 

View along the passageway of Cairn K looking towards the entrance

Carrowkeel has much in common with Seefin in County Wicklow. Both are large stone cairn-type passage tombs that are positioned high above the surrounding landscape with incredible views. Perhaps those who constructed the graves so high above the landscape, wanted to claim ownership of all they could see. That by placing their ancestors far above the low lying lands of the living, the shades of their forebears could watch over them from their tombs.  

Cairn K with its entrance facing out towards the North

You’ll find Carrowkeel around 30km or so from Sligo Town. Aim for Castlebaldwin on the N4 road between Sligo and Boyle, and the tombs are well signposted from there. The road winds considerably upwards, take the well formed tarmac road down to the site. At the end of this road you’ll find a closed gate, simply open the gate (being sure to close and tie it again behind you) and drive up the hill. 

You’ll come to a small area you can leave your car where you will see there is a sign indicating you shouldn’t drive any further. Follow the advice of the sign and park up, walking along the track for around 1 – 2km. You’ll see Cairn G above you to the right, so leave the stony path and follow the rough track upwards through the bog towards it. Do mind your footing as the ground can be treacherous on a bad day. The weather day we visited was mixed but largely dry, even so the wind was really strong when we reached the top, so do take care and wear appropriate footwear.

The burial chamber of Cairn K

If you would like to support us please download an audioguide from www.abartaaudioguides.com. There are currently fourteen guides available with four free of charge and the rest costing just €1.99. They are full of original music and sound effects and are a fun and immersive way of hearing the story of some of Ireland’s most iconic heritage sites and places. They are as enjoyable at the site as they are from the comfort of your favourite armchair at home, so why not try our guide to Viking and Medieval Dublin to hear the story of the birth of a city? Or try our FREE guide to the wonderful heritage town of Kells in County Meath or the Rock of Dunamase in County Laois. Follow the links for a free preview or to access your guide.

The views over the landscape of County Sligo are just spectacular!

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At Carrowkeel you can really see how the glacier carved out the landscape over 10,000 years ago

December doesn't just mean that the holidays are right around the corner. It also is a time to reflect on the year that has just passed and take stock of events that have transpired. Over the course of the next few weeks, I'm sure we'll see plenty of articles detailing the "best of 2013" or the "top ten" something or other from the past 12 months. Take for example this article from Outside magazine which shares their picks for the ten best adventure films that were released this year, each of which look like they'll be of interest to outdoor enthusiasts.

A number of the films on the list were ones that I've written about here on the Adventure Blog while others are completely new to me. For instance, I covered The Sufferfest, a film about Alex Honnold and Cedar Wright's "worst trip ever" few weeks back, and I've covered The Last Great Climb as it happened and when the trailer hit back in the summer. Most have us have probably at least seen the trailer for Blackfish as well. It was the film that was released this past summer that take a hard look at how captivity impacts the lives of killer whales.

A few of the films are ones that I haven't seen yet. Those include The Crash Reel, which follows snowboarders Shaun White and Kevin Pearce as they prepare for the 2010 Olympics. Just days before the games Pearce suffered an accident in the half pipe, suffering brain damage in the process. I'm also excited to see Maidentrip, which follows Laura Dekker on her attempt to sail solo around the globe a few years back. But perhaps the most intriguing film to me is Keeper of the Mountains, which is a movie about Miss Elizabeth Hawley, the Grand Dame of the Himalaya, and the keeper of all the records pertaining to climbs that take place in the big mountains. Catch the trailer for that film below.

If you're looking for some great adventure films to watch in the days ahead, Outside's list is a perfect place to get some ideas on where to start.

I've just announced my first photo~expedition™ of 2011, and it'll be once again in Gujarat, but much different in context and objectives than the one I led earlier this year. As I always do, its details are shared to those who subscribe to my newsletter, and after a week or so, I make them public.

It will involve photographing tribal life in western Gujarat, the hijras at the famed Bahucharji temple, document the syncretism between Sufi Islam and Hinduism in various shrines and sacred sites in Gujarat's southern peninsula, and the African Indian Mystics of Gujarat, with their distinctive music and rituals.

This photo~expedition™ is limited to a maximum of 5 photographers, and its details have now been sent to my newsletter recipients.

It promises to be another exciting experience especially as it involves so many off-the-beaten-path documentary opportunities...Sufi and Hindu syncretism, eunuchs, the Indian Sufi mystics, and Gujarat's tribals! Not the faint of heart or for first-timers to India, it's a visual and intellectual itinerary which will offer immense opportunities to self-starters interested in documenting the complexities of conflicting traditions and ways of life in one of the most interesting countries of the world.

Counterintuitively, Bangkok hasn't always been the best place in the world to go for a high quality massage. Well, Bangkok, of course, is infamous for one type of "massage"-- the kind you get at joints like Lolita's and the Kangaroo Club in Pat Pong, the Johnson-waxing or pole-smoking (with or without icecubes), which inebriated German and Australian tourists seem to prefer. Me... I go for the old fashioned, legitimate, therapeutic massage where "happy ending" means limber muscles and a relaxed frame. In Bangkok that kind of massage hasn't been all that easy to find, at least not really great ones. Well, I have always liked the omnipresent foot massages. The bending and twisting stressed out ones you get at the wats... eh... not so much. And up at the traditional Thai massage school in Chiang Mai... you can definately get a first class legit massage there. And one year we even spent a week at a posh resort in Hua Hin called Chiva-Som and they had decent enough massages (in an uptight, creepy, over-priced spa atmosphere). But here in Bangkok, I always found the massage scene kind of seedy and... well, not serious or professional.

This year I came across a sparkling clean and new massage house on Silom Road just a few blocks down from Charoen Krung, Silom Bodyworks. I've had half a dozen massages there (so far) and I found the masseuses uniformly serious, knowledgeable and effective. The place features "modern Thai massage," especially the full body massage and the back, head and shoulders massage. No twisting you into a pretzel either. There are more exotic treatments as well, from ayurvedic massages, jurlique facials, crystal treatments, and Swedish aroma therapy to a "tropical fruit body treatment." I stuck with the more conventional hour and a half long full body and back, head and shoulders when ever I got the opportunity.

While I was traipsing around the Irawaddy Delta southwest of Yangon in Myanmar last week, the shock absorberless cars and the severely pot-holed roads conspired against my lower back. By the time I got back to Bangkok I was a (barely) walking disaster. A well-trained and intuitive masseuse at Silom Bodyworks had me all fixed up in just 2 sessions.

Have you ever wondered what a flight across the Antarctic would be like? If you answered yes, you'll want to check out the video below, which was shot by the Scott Expedition which is currently skiing to the South Pole and back. The video is a bit over four minutes in length and  manages to mix in some good information about the logistics of Antarctic travel with some excellent video footage of the frozen continent as well. This will give you a good idea of what it is like for the teams who are heading out for the start of the expeditions soon.

Guinea, not Jackson Heights

I'm in NYC this week and judging by the taxis, I really am in one of the most cosmopolitan, international city in the world. The guy who drove me from JFK to my hotel on the Upper West Side came here from Kandahar, Afghanistan. He came as an illegal immigrant, spent 3 months in jail and eventually was granted political asylum. Each of his two younger brothers came and remained here the same way. His wife and elderly parents are in Qetta in Pakistan and he's hoping to bring them here too. He works 7 days a week and sends a lot of his earnings to Qetta. The two younger brothers work in a fried chicken restaurant. They live in Queens. His American odyssey seems very much the same as the story of immigrants I've heard all my life.

We drove through Queens to the 59th Street Bridge through whole neighborhoods of Muslim immigrants, from Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, India... some from Afghanistan, Egypt and other countries.

Last night my friends Charlie and Sharon got married and I dressed up in a Zegna suit and a Fray shirt, reminiscent of my old corporate days-- not something I thought would be the right dress for the subway. I waited for one of those van-looking yellow cabs. The driver, Mohammed, was also a refugee who sought and was granted political asylum. He was the first taxi driver-- or anyone else-- I had ever met from the small West African country of Guinea. When I was a child Guinea was granted independence from France and I remember the fiery president, Sekou Touré coming to the UN and pushing a socialist agenda. He was demonized by the American media. When he died in 1984, General Lansana Conté staged a coup and became president and still is. He's more pro-American and a pretty brutal, if ineffective, dictator. In 1998, Mohammed, my driver, was elected to the city council in Fria, just north of the capital, Conakry. Unfortunately for him, his party, the UPR, won the national elections and Conté decided to kill lots of them and... change the results. Mohammed was one of the lucky ones and he escaped to the U.S.

Guinea is a desperately poor country and would like to encourage a tourist industry. Their propaganda refers to the country as the Switzerland of Africa, which is clearly absurd, although it does have mountains. The tourism industry has potential and promise but they only get about 100,000 tourists a year (few Americans). You can fly there from Paris. There aren't many hotels, though the best one in the country is a Meridien with 96 rooms and there is also a Novotel.

There isn't any major climbing news to report from the Himalaya today as most of the teams have either already left for home or are in a holding pattern while inclement weather continues to make things difficult. The cyclone that made landfall last weekend is still dumping snow and rain on the region and that is causing all kind of problem. But the biggest news comes from Everest, where there are four fatalities reported by a team that was camping and trekking in a restricted area and were struck by an avalanche yesterday.

Outside Online is sharing what few details of the situation are actually known about the accident. It seems that a group of ten trekkers ignored warning and defied regulations by moving into an off-limits area of Everest on the North Side of the mountain. They were there on Sunday when a large avalanche struck their campsite, killing three Tibetan guides and injuring a 60-year old from Australia. The Australian was rescued but later passed away from a combination of those injuries and altitude sickness.  Outside also reports that the same avalanche has left another 154 people stranded in the area.

Meanwhile, I'm also hearing reports that a number of trekkers and guides are out of contact on the South Side of the mountain as well. Reports from Nepal indicate that as many as 20 people are missing at the moment as the bad weather continues to dominate the region. Most of those are probably safe and sound in a tea house somewhere, but lets keep our fingers crossed for them none the less.

If the bad weather continues for much longer, I'm sure we'll see the final mountaineering teams pack it in for the year. Conditions have already been reportedly poor on a number of the big mountains, such as Lhotse where climbers haven't even been able to establish Camp 2 yet this fall. Heavy snows are only going to make things more unstable and time is starting to run short. I'll continue to keep an eye on the situation there and post updates as the news warrants it.