Day Eighty - Have we made it?????

I know you are on tenterhooks.... unfortunately we haven't made it back home, awwwhhhh, but we broke a record today trying to get home - yayyyyyyyyy!

We managed a staggering 1909 miles today - put that in your pipe Phileas!

Rather incredibly, and aptly, our place of rest tonight is called Marathon (Built on Paper ... Laced with Gold, http://www.marathon.ca/)!!! The skiiers amongst us (Martin Roscoe, Ruth Wilcox and Sophie Weiss) are having a field day, and you can't keep Jo Moran and Richard away from kayaking the Great Lakes.

Together we have travelled 18436.7 miles in 80 days - what a team! Just 3465 miles to go. I wonder, if like Phileas, we have misjudged the international date line, and actually still have one day left????

Day Seventy Nine - Great British..... Columbia

Well, we are in Canada now, but still have a rather long way to go before we get home....

We covered 291 miles today through tough icy, mountainous terrain, ending up 10 miles from Lake Tuya and my feet are just so cold. Why oh why didn't I chose to take a trip to the Caribbean??? Next time eh?

Day Seventy Eight - Watch out there's a Grizzly about

Due to the massive mountains, combined with glaciers as well as te icy cold, I'm rather impressed we even covered 34 miles!

We are in bear country!!! 5 miles from the Glacier Bay National Park.

Gorgeous isn't it? Well we have only 2 days left, are we going to make it????

Days Seventy Five, Six and Seventy Seven - surfing in Alaska????

I think day 74's exertions were a bit too much, we only managed 60 miles on dat 75, on day 76 we covered a respectable 334 and on day 77 we made 30 miles.

We are ten miles past Yakutat, meaning "the place where canoes rest". It is the surfing capital of Canada, and those more insane members of the group decided to give it a go. I just hope that hypothermia doesn't settle in....

Day Seventy Four - D'oh

Well you responded to my rallying cry didn't you?

We covered an astounding 1351 miles yesterday and have got to mainland Alsaska. We have found ourselves in Homer, Alaska - the halibut capital of the world! I never imagined that I would find myself in the halibut capital of the world, and I am beside myself with glee!

We have been made very welcome at the famous "Salty Dawg Saloon", but can't stay too long, have so much further to go....

Day Seventy to Seventy Three - All at sea

View Larger Map

The good news is that we have gone 14335 miles so far - so a massive well done to everyone!!!

The bad news is that we have got 7441 miles to go!

We did think that the whole trip was going to be 18000 miles, but after some interesting detours, it has turned out to be more like 22000!

As you can see from the map, we are currently in the middle of the Bering Sea. It's looking unlikely that we'll be back within the 80 days but it would be great to be home before Christmas.

With the team now numbering over 100, that's less than 75 miles each. So one final push and we'll be back in Blighty for the Queen's speech.

Day Sixty Seven, Eight and Nine - How cold can it get????

We seem to be be in the land of the volanoes...

We are on the island of Kamchatka in the Kamchatka Peninsula. We covered 195 miles in the last few days, the cold is getting to us, so we have slowed down a bit.... Anyway we managed to settle in Vasil'yevo.

Tom is on fire duty, as rumours have it, there are bears found in these parts....

I think I am finally going to find out if you can tell the difference between minus ten and minus twenty degrees!

Day Sixty Six - Mamya I love you!

We are heading north, and it is getting really cold. Tom decided to crack the whip and used the the cold to make us work even harder, and do you know what? It worked! We travelled by land and sea and covered a staggering 816 miles!

We are on Mamya, one of the Kuril Islands off Russia. It was increadible for those wild life lovers amongs us, great to spot sea otters (which were nearly hunted to extinction by the mid 20th Century), the steller sea lion and the northern fur seal. We've also spotted a variety of whales and dolphins here off the island.

Not surprisingly there isn't much variety of food out here, fish, fish, more fish and puffin for the more adventurous amongst us!

Days Sixty Three, Four and Five - Long time no sea

I've just been so caught up in Japanese culture, ok noodles and sumo, to write the blog for a few days....

Anyway we have done pretty well, 252 miles on day 63, 209 on day 64 and 261 on day 65.

We ended up in the city of Amori, where we tried our hand at curling. Rather fortuitously, Amori is also home to even more hot spas! I think we might need it, Tom and Helen are on our case and threatening to make us do lots of miles tomorrow.....

Day Sixty Two - "Hells" on earth

We are in the prefecture of Ōita, located on the Kyushu Island, and are in the town of Beppu.

We were so fortunate as Beppu is famous for its hot springs, which are known as the 'hells', or jigoku. Some are certainly not for bathing notably the Blood Pond Hell, with its reddish water (see photo), but we made good use of those which were! Asides from the usual hot water baths, there are sand baths, where were were buried in naturally heated sand, steam baths and mud baths, which are basically muddy hot water baths. I'm so relaxed, not sure if I can face doing any miles tomorrow!

By the way we did 98 miles today...

Day Sixty and Sixty One - Sumo and Soba

We are now on the main island in Japan, after covering 416 miles on day 60, we spent all of day 61 resting from all that work!

We have stopped by the city of Hayato and have managed to catch a Sumo match (that's me on the left - only joking, I'm fatter!!!)

I'm loving the japanese food, I'm trying to stick to shōjin ryōri - which means devotion cuisine. According to my guide "East Asian "Buddhist" cuisine differ from Western vegetarian cuisine in one aspect, that is avoidance of killing plant life. Buddhist monks and nuns prohibit harming of plant. Therefore, strictly speaking, no root vegetables (such as potatoes, carrots or onion) are to be used as this will result in death of vegetables. Instead, vegetables such as beans or fruits are used. However, this stricter version of diet is often practiced only on special occasion." so lashings of noodles with tofu - yum!

Day Fifty Eight and Fifty Nine - Japanic!

Well, we've made it to another country, we have landed in one of the many Japanese islands, Okinawa Island, which is approximately half-way between Kyūshū and Taiwan.

According to my travel guide:

"Okinawa also has its own religious beliefs, generally characterized by ancestor worship and the respecting of relationships between the living, the dead, and the gods and spirits of the natural world.

Okinawan culture bears traces of its various trading partners. One can find Chinese, Thai and Austronesian influences in the island's customs. Perhaps Okinawa's most famous cultural export is karate, probably a product of the close ties with and influence of China on Okinawan culture. Karate is thought to be a synthesis of Chinese kung fu with traditional Okinawan martial arts.

Okinawa has many remains of a unique type of castle or fortress called Gusuku. These are believed to be the predecessors of Japan's castles."

We made 57 miles an day 58 and 164 on day 59!

Days Fifty Five, Six and Fifty Seven - To be Pacific..

Sorry about the lack of communication for the last few days, just have been so busy trekking and crossing oceans.

In three days we've covered 303 miles (170 on day 55, 86 on day 56 and a cracking 47 on day 57). We have got to an island east of Taipai, not sure where though as the name is in Chinese!

Heading north - Japan is in our sights.

Oh forgot to mention that we have hit that 10,000 mile mark - pretty brilliant, if I do say so myself.

We just need a rather large push if we are going to cover the rest of the distance (approx 9000 miles) in 23 days AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Days Fifty Four and Fifty Five - Bubble tea and sympathy

Too many cream buns in Manila threw our schedule out! We didn't do any travelling at all on day 54.

Hero of day 55 is Adam Grice, who singlehandedly covered 289 miles for us! We made it to Taitung County in Taiwan.

Interesting fact of the day (well interesting to me anyway!):

The shape of the main island of Taiwan is similar to a sweet potato seen in a south-to-north direction, and therefore, Taiwanese people, especially the Min-nan division, often call themselves "children of the Sweet Potato. There are also other interpretations of the island shape, one of which is a whale in the ocean (the Pacific Ocean) if viewed in a west-to-east direction.

We went to a tea house specialising in "Bubble Tea" - a Taiwanese speciality. Bubble tea comes in a variety of versions. I decided to stick to the orginal (and best) - which consists of hot black tea, tapioca pearls, condensed milk, and honey - YUM!

Day Fifty Three- Thriller in Manila?

We travelled 268 miles to stop off in Manila.


Had a quick look in the San Sebastian cathedral -(Engineering design from Gustave Eiffel. Metal parts came from Belgium and later shipped and assembled in Manila in 1891). We aslo stopped off in the rather fancy Manila Hotel (see left) for high tea.



Eventully we left the island at Bolay, but this was one journey too far and we only got a few miles. We are now 6 miles from the nearest island.

But we did make 561 miles in total - so I think that is pretty impressive.

Day Fifty Two - Catabang what a picture!

144 miles today. Only a quick note today, too tired, just too much walking. Hoping to break the 10,00 mile barrier tomorrow.... here's hoping that with the wind in the right direction, and me in the right mood, we might actually make it.

Stopping off in Catabang tonight....

Day Fifty One - Panicking in Panakan

We have moved onto another island in the Philippines, Palawan Island. Rather incredibly this small area is a melting pot of 87 different cultural groups and races.

According to my travel guide "The world's largest pearl, known as the Pearl of Lao Tze or the Pearl of Allah, was found by a diver off the Philippine island of Palawan in 1934 and is stored in a museum in that country.9.45 inches in diameter and weighing 6.4 kilograms and currently valued at $60 million. Wilburn Cobb, claimed to have witnessed a native diver who had been seized by the jaws of a giant clam, which in turn contained an enormous pearl with the image of a turbaned face thought to resemble Mohammad. The Muslim tribal chief labeled the treasure "The Pearl of Allah". At the time of discovery of the pearl, Cobb offered to buy the pearl from the tribal chief. The tribal chief rejected the offer saying that nothing paid for by the sacrifice of a human life could be bought with money. Cobb returned to the village two years later to find the chief's son dying of malaria. Cobb saved his life and as a token of gratitude the chief gave the pearl to Mr Cobb". Actually the story is rather interesting, including tales of Confucious, Chinese Emperors and Jonny Johnny Weissmuller - yes - Tarzan! For more info go to : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_of_Lao_Tzu

We covered 126 miles today - not bad eh? We decided to stop off in Panakan.

Day Fifty - Perambulating in the Philippines

Another fine day of walking. We managed to cover 248 miles over land and sea and have crossed into another country. We finally rested in Balabac Island, which forms part of the Philippines.

This island is rather special, as it is home to various endemic species - the Grey Imperial-pigeon, the Philippine Cockatoo, the Blue-Headed Racquet-tail, and the Palawan Hornbill. The Philippine Mouse Deer (or Pilandok) can only be found in this island. It also is home to the rather brilliantly named Molbog people - their name comes from "murky or turbid water".

I'm really looking forward to my stay in the Philippines, most of the food sounds amazing, with a real Spanish influence (Arroz Valenciana − a Filipino version of the Spanish paella and my favourite, Leche Flan - caramel custard made with eggs and milk) , some of the food sounds terrifying ( Balut - essentially boiled pre-hatched ducklings. These fertilized duck eggs are allowed to develop until the embryo reaches a pre-determined size to be boiled; Betamax − roasted dried chicken blood served as little cubes; and Soup Number 5 - made out of bulls testicles and penis- shame I'm a vegetarian! - then again we eat pork scratchings and deep-fried Mars Bars in the UK - so who am I to judge?).

Days Forty Eight and Forty Nine - More orangutang fun

We were so taken with the orangutans we didn't want to move too much this weekend. So we only covered 43 miles in this time (43 on day 48 - a big fat 0 on day 49!) and so we we had more time to spend with them.

Well as we were visiting the orangutans we had lots of time for eating (hurrah!).
Malasian cuisine is so great as it benefits from the mixed heritage of Malaysia: Malays; the influx of Chinese during the Ming Dynasty who married Malays and are called "Nyonya," and three centuries of Chinese and Indian migrants. We devoured the national dish of Nasi Lemak- a rice cooked with coconut milk and served with anchovies, nuts, cucumbers,a slice of egg, a chili paste known as sambal and a choice of curries. For pudding we had "Han Chi Peng" a fried sweet, salty doughout which looks like Swiss roll (as well as banana fritters for greedyguts here)!

Day Forty Seven - Hanging with the orangutans

Travelleing through the Sarawak, one of the two Malaysian districts on the island of Borneo we finally got to see the orangutans in the conservation areas.

According to my travel guide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarawak
"Sarawak has more than 40 ethnic groups, each with their own distinct language, culture and lifestyle. Cities and larger towns are populated predominantly by Malays, Melanaus, Chinese, and a smaller percentage of Ibans and Bidayuhs who have migrated from their home-villages for employment reasons. Sarawak is rather distinctive from the rest of Malaysia in that there is only a small community of Indians living in the state. "

We covered 444 miles in total - unfortunately my map doesn't tell me where we are at the moment.....

Days Forty Five and Six - where are we again?

Sorry about the delay in writing up the reports - a wee bit under the weather. I'm just not used to all of this hard graft!



We crossed the sea and are now on the island of Java. We stopped off at Pontianak, which rather excitingly is on the equator (I wonder which way the water goes down the plughole???). The people of Pontianak also seem rather happy about being on the equator, so much so that they built a monument to it (see photo on right).

We travelled a total of 226.5 miles (69 day 45, 157.5 day 46)
and finally rested in the town of Melusa.

I'm gutted as I have got my geography wrong, oranutangs are found in Borneo and not Java, so I think we aren't going to see them..... oooh hang on, I think we are on the island of Borneo (all of these islands are confusing me!)...

Day Forty Four - Where on Earth?

After much rowing, we travelled a decent 90 miles. We were determined not to spend another night in the boat (I for one, can not manage any more dry crackers). With this in mind, we managed to get to an island - unfortunately it is so small it doesn't have a name on the map. I have calculated, however, it is 161 miles off Pontianak on the Indonesian island of Java.

Day Forty Three - Shopping in Singapore

Hurrah, I am leaping for joy, surrounded by my lovely goodies - yes we had a stop in Singapore.

If you are interested, the name Singapura is derived from the Malay words singa ("lion") and pura ("city"). According to legend, this name was given by a 14th century Sumatran Malay prince, who, landing on the island after a thunderstorm, spotted an auspicious beast on the shore that his chief minister identified as a lion (however it now appears that lions have never lived in Singapore, and that it would have been in fact a tiger - they are all the same to me.....).

After some rather tasty mock duck for me, and for the more adventurous - stingray barbecued and served on banana leaf - we decided to leave and head on our way.

In total we covered 252 miles and once again find ourselves bobbing in the sea...

Day Forty Two - Strolling in Sumatra

We covered 156 miles today's star is Harry Rossiter who contibuted 118 miles. We stopped off in Pekanbaru, and carried on for another 59 miles. Unfortunately have no idea where we are now!

I've decided to change route. The lure of shopping in Singapore is just too great, ok it may take us a bit out of the way, but you can't blame a girl can you?

Day Forty One - Lazy bones

No one could really be bothered today - except Greg Hull. He managed a majestic 40 mile contribution, getting us to Rao, whilst the rest of us just lazed about eating (I know, you've missed my food descriptions ;) )

We ate padang cuisine of this region. Padang food is served in small portions of various dishes, in a way similar to tapas. So the tables were laden with with dozens of small dishes filled with highly-flavored foods such as curried fish, fried tempeh, stewed greends, chili aubergine, curried beef liver, fried chicken, rendang, a spicy meat stew and of course, sambals, the spicy sauces ubiquitous at Indonesian tables.

We dared each other to eat durian fruit - only Tom was willing. Can I say it was possibly the worst thing I have ever smelt (and I am including my sister's socks in this)! Many hotels ban guests from eating durian in their rooms as it smells so putrid. Travel and food writer Richard Sterling said “... its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away." I don't care that it is meant to taste like custard and almonds, I just wasn't risking it....

Day Forty - Half way point

Well, it seems to have gone so quickly, but we are already 40 days in, with 40 left to go! 8120 miles in total - have to step up a gear (myself more than most!) we have lots more sea travel to go... I know I hate the sea as well (boring, boring dry crackers).

We covered a brilliant 587 miles today - with a special congratulations to Martin Roscoe, who helped Leeds City AC win silvermedals in the National Cross Country Relays.

We landed on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia and had a quick stop off in Medan, and admired the majestic Great Mosque of Medan, built in 1906.

We soon cracked on and made it to just outside Panyabungan.

I hope to get to Borneo next, to see the Orangutans and then to Malaysia.

Day Thirty Nine - still moving

We made 115 miles today and find ourselves just 3 miles beyone another Nicobar Island - only 126 from Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

Day Thirty Eight - Island hopping

We managed a pretty respectable 101 miles today. I think we have made it to Kondul, another of the Nicobar Islands, the village we are staying in is called Kola-Rue.

Not far of Indonesia now...

Day Thirty Seven - All at sea - again

So once again we are at sea. Thanks to 100 miles from Lynsday Reid and partner (poor things, they made up this distance at a detour in Paris, whilst we have been bobbing about on a raft, they have all my sympathy....) we covered 271 miles. We are 27 miles off the tiny island of Car Nicobar ( Pu in the local language), which was devastated by the 2004 Tsunami.

Day Thirty Six - On dry land again...

Today is a milestone - we have travelled over 7000 miles (7045 to be exact).

Our paddling was rewarded and we made 269 miles, to the Andaman Islands. 12 miles out of the brilliantly named Wimberleyganj. There are 576 islands in the group, 26 of which are inhabited.

I've got lots if interesting facts from my trusted travel guide about the Andamans. From 1788 these islands were used as penal colonies by the British. The Andaman colony acquired notoriety following the murder of the viceroy, the Earl of Mayo, when on a visit to the settlement on 8 February 1872. This was location of the second concentration camp in the world, the first being in South Africa after the Boer War, and was founded by the British to suppress the Indian independence movement. It was here that in 1943, that the flag of Indian independence was first raised.

Those literature buffs amongst us recognised that a key scene in The Sign of Four, the second book in Conan Doyle's famous Sherlock Holmes series, takes place at the British penal colony in the Andamans. The book also introduced an Andaman islander to London, who uses his blowpipe and poisoned darts to deadly effect in the great Victorian capital. Doyle's vivid depiction - written from a late Victorian perspective - is still the most common source of information on the Andamans and their inhabitants available to the general public worldwide.

Days Thirty Four and Thirty Five - Bobbing in the Sea

Due to horrific bouts of seasickness, we haven't managed to move very far in the last two days. It must be bad when I have to make a contribution to the paddling! On Day 34, with my partner in crime Liam (dressed in a bright red afro - had to be seen to be believed), we managed a measly 6 miles.

Day 35, due to another heroic effort from Greg Hull, we pushed on for another 59 miles.

We are now 170 miles from the Andoman and Nicobar Islands and 431 miles from Tavoy, Burma. I hope we get there soon as I am getting fed up of eating dry crackers....

Day Thirty Three - Running with the tigers

Managed a magnificent 658 miles today, with a brilliant effort from Carrie Jackson and gang.

As planned we made it to Kolkata (Calcutta) and stopped by St Paul's Cathedral. It was really weird, finding this gothic cathedral in the middle of India.... an obvious legacy of the Raj.

Gorgeous "street foods" kept us sustained on this epic leg. My favourites are beguni (fried battered aubergine slices ), kati roll (flatbread roll with vegetable stuffing), and phuchka (deep fried crêpe with tamarind and lentil sauce) - luckily I'm doing so much walking, or I would be rolling around!

Before stepping off terra firma, we stopped off at the Sunderbans National Park, a Bengal tiger reserve. Very impressive to see the work which had been done to "control man-eating tigers ", the number of causalities has been reduced from 40 to 10 per year.

So we set off on our first major sea trip. We are now bobbing somewhere in the Indian Ocean -by using the compass and the stars I have calculated that we are 187 miles from Bassein, Burma.

Days Thirty One and Thirty Two- Not time for chatting

Just so busy with the travels, I haven't had time to write up the log for a few days.

We have managed to cross into another country - India.

Managed 119 miles on day 31 and 62 on day 32 (so a total of 181 miles).

Aiming, like Phileas Fogg to get to Calcutta or Kolcata as it is now called.

Day Thirty - Namaste from Nepal

Namaste - hello!

Would you believe it - we have made it to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.


Such a beautiful country with lots of customs. We learnt pretty quickly not to expose the bottoms of our feet. Even more importantly we learnt not to touch anyone with our left hands - or touch theirs! The left hand is used to wash after going to the loo. So food is only touched with the right hand. The left hand can be used to hold glasses, bowls, and probably eating utensils.


I know that you are waiting for a food report.... As a vegetarian, this has been the best place so far for food. The Nepali national meal is daal bhaat tarkaari (spiced lentils, boiled rice, vegetable curry) which is accompanied by dahi (yogurt) and a ultra-spicy fresh chutney or achar (pickle) all washed down with the lethal raksi.

Subha ratri - good night!

oops nearly forgot to say, we covered 342 miles today.

Day Twenty Nine - lost again!

We got back on track today covering a huge 564 miles (special commendationto Nick Banting).

Unfortunately my orienteering skills are rather shot after the few days of rest, so I don't actually know where we are, except that we are in China. Once I find out I will post....

Day Twenty Eight - Still on a go slow

Thanks to the efforts of Harry Rossiter and Cindy Kim we made it another 34 miles (the rest of us, were still in lazy mode).

We made it into China, not sure where though....

Day Twenty Seven - ooops

No progress made today.

We completely over indulged in the plov and non bread.

We discovered the hotsprings at nearby Shaymak and never quite got on the road. Looking at the photo (see left) you can forgive us can't you?

Well there's always tomorrow.... and another 52 days....

Day Twenty Six - Still in Tajikistan

A slower day today, still made a decent distance of 99 miles. We made it close to the village of Shaymak, less than 10 miles from the Chinese border.

Day Twenty Five - Arabian Nights

Easily made the distance to Samarkand, which was every bit as breathtaking as I imagined. Sorry for all the copying from the trusty travel guide:

"Samarkand is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, prospering from its location on the trade route between China and Europe (Silk Road). Founded circa 700 BC it was already the capital of the Sogdian satrapy under the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia when Alexander the Great conquered it in 329 BC .

Under Abbasid rule, the secret of papermaking was obtained from two Chinese prisoners from the Battle of Talas in 751, which led to the first paper mill in the Islamic world to be founded in Samarkand. The invention then spread to the rest of the Islamic world, and from there to Europe (either through Spain or through crusaders).

From the 6th to 13th centuries it grew larger and more populous than modern Samarkandand was controlled by the Western Turks, Arabs, Persian Samanids, Kara-Khanid Turks, Seljuk Turks, Kara-Khitan, and Khorezmshah before being sacked by the Mongols in 1220 . A small part of the population survived, but Samarkand suffered at least another Mongol sack by Khan Baraq to get treasure he needed to pay an army with. The town took many decades to recover from these disasters.

In 1370, Timur the Lame, or Tamerlane, decided to make Samarkand the capital of his empire, which extended from India to Turkey. During the next 35 years he built a new city and populated it with artisans and craftsmen from all of the places he had conquered. Timur gained a reputation as a patron of the arts and Samarkand grew to become the centre of the region of Transoxiana. However, while Central Asia blossomed under his reign, other places such as Baghdad, Damascus, Delhi and other Arab, Persian, Indian and Turkic cities were sacked and destroyed, and people were slaughtered.

In the 16th century, Shaybanids moved their capital to Bukhara and Samarkand went into decline. After an assault by the Persian king, Nadir Shah, the city was abandoned in the 18th century."

We covered a huge distance of 487 miles and found ourselves stopping beyond Lake Sareskoe. To recover from all this exertion, we ate more plov, some tried manty (meat dumplings). I had a real feeling of home when I consumed more than a few chiburekki (deep-fried dough cakes), which are like my favourite "jonny cakes" found in all the fine caribbean eateries in Chapeltown.

Day Twenty Four - Uzbekistan here we come

Once again a good pace was set and we travelled

153 miles to just outside Bukhara (see photo) a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

According to my travel guide (ye olde wik o pedia)

"According to the Iranian epic poem Shahnameh the city (Bukhara) was founded by King Siavush son of Shah Kavakhous, one of the mythical Iranian Shahs of the Pishdak Dynasty. As the legend goes Siavush was accused by the Vizers of seducing his mother. To test his innocence he underwent trial by fire. After emerging unscathed from the flames he crossed the Oxus into Turan. The king of Samarkand Afrosiab, gave Siavash his daughter Ferganiza and a vassal kingdom in the Bukhara Oasis. There he built the Ark, and surrounding city. Some years later Siavash was again accused of seducing his father-in-law's wife. Afrasiab killed Siavash, and buried his head under the Haysellers Gate. In retaliation Shah Kavakhous attacked Turan killed Afrasiab, and took his son and daughter-in-law back to Persia." Naughty King Siavush, well he got his comeuppance!

I know what you really want to read about.... yes the national cuisine... well it is harder and harder to keep vegetarian.... we couldn't go for long without being offered Plov or Osh (the Uzbek version of "pilaff"). It is made from fried and boiled meat, onions, carrots and rice - some of the oshpaz, or master chefs, throw in raisins, chickpeas, or fruit. Also, luckily I was warned, never drink vodka after Plov, before is ok, but never after!

Day Twenty Three - somewhere in Turkmenistan....

OK I admit it, I lost my map again. I know we're in Turkmenistan, and we are 366 miles from Samarkand (I'm very excited about this, as I've always wanted to go there).

We passed through Ichoguz (formerly Darvaza) to see its white marble train station. We were tempted but resisted jumping onto a train to travel the Trans Karakum railway.

We managed an 233 miles today not bad eh? We once again stocked up on the gorgeous food, tonight we decided to have shashlyk (skewered chunks of mutton grilled over charcoal which come with raw sliced onions) and lipioshka (rounds of unleavened bread) all washed down with shampanski (yes that is the name for sparkling wine).

Day Twenty Two - Calamity in Turkmenistan

We have had our first casualty, Lyndsay Reid fell off her bike and onto her head after a 10 mile ride, but rather heroically has carried on with our journey. Gordon Aickin managed a magnificent 123 miles on his bike but has now written it off - we will hope to carry on tomorrow without incident...

We crossed the Caspian Sea and into Turkmenistan, and followed the edge of Sarygamysh Lake to get in sight of Lake Krasnovodsk - a brilliant 500 miles in total (to make up for the lazyness of the weekend).

Days Twenty and Twenty One - Lazy Days

After the tremendous effort of day 19, we just couldn't muster up too much energy, so we decided to go at a snail's pace for days 20 and 21.

We made it 52 miles in two days to the rather romantic sounding "City of Lights", Mingachevir (not quite so romantic when you find it is so-named because of its hydroelectric power station).

Oh well, it gave me time to stock up on the rather gorgeous Azeri speciality of spinach and pumpkin kutab (see photo), trying as many soups that I can (the national cuisine) of which there are over 30 different types, and don't get me started on the divine sherbert drink....

Day Nineteen - Crossing borders

The icy-cold night in Tosya had its advantages, we all wanted to get up and going just to get warm. We decided to walk along the Black Sea, stopping off for short coffee and toilet breaks in towns of Fatsa (see photo), Ordu(where I couldn't resist trying the local speciality of burnt ice-cream), Trabzon and Rize. So pretty soon our feet thawed out.

Such a pace was made we managed to get through Armenia without any worries and into Azerbaijan.

We covered a staggering 625 miles today.

A trip across the Caspian Sea beckons...

Day Eighteen - Skiing for some

Slow progress today (still a respectable 90 miles though!) - this is due to the fact that we are in the mountains... just see the beauty of the landscape captured by Çakan Osman TANIDIK .

The more adventerous of our group got our their skis and took advantage of the natural resources. I, on the other hand, stayed true to form, and enjoyed the "apres-ski" of extremly strong coffee and sickly sweet cakes.

http://www.pbase.com/osmantanidik/image/71669019

Day Seventeen - Over-eating in Istanbul

Our trek today took us through Istanbul (was Constantinople, now it's Istanbul NOT Constantinople....or Byzantium for that matter!). We stopped off to admire the beauty of the Hagia Sofia (see photo), The Church of the Holy Wisdom, commonly known as Hagia Sophia in English, is a former Greek Orthodox church converted to a mosque, now a museum.

We had a splendid lunch at the Haci Abdullah restaurant( http://www.haciabdullah.com.tr/English/engtarih.htm) , it claims to be the oldest in Istanbul. We dared Tom to drink their "Turnip Water", he hasn't looked the same since. After gorging myself on their amazing "Almond Cake in Syrup" I knew I had to do a fair bit of exercies to walk if off, and we did - managing another impressive distance today - 222 miles in total.

We decided to camp out in the pine covered mountains, at a town called Eloren, so small that it isn't even covered in our guidebook... and can I say it was absolutely freezing, my feet haven't warmed up yet.

Day Sixteen- Turkish delight for the adventurers

We have landed on Turkish soil, our sixth country so far (including England). For some mad reason we decided to end the day's journey with a hike up what felt like a mountain to the city of Silivri. I discovered that the reason for this push came from the sports scientists in our group.

Silivri is the birthplace of the physician Herodicus. "The first use of therapeutic exercise for the treatment of disease and maintenance of health is credited to him, and he is believed to have been one of the tutors of Hippocrates. He also recommended good diet and massage using beneficial herbs and oils, and his theories are considered the foundation of sports medicine. According to Plato, Herodicus recommended that his patients walk from Athens to Megara, a distance of more than 70 miles, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodicus)

So Herodicus would have approved of our adventure! We managed to cover 168 miles today. A special mention goes out to Chris Birchill, who covered 81 miles in a week, 65 of which he ran!


See picture on left of "The fort and town of Silivria, the ancient Selymbria, on the Sea of Marmara" by F. Hervé.

Day Fifteen- On the road again

After the over indulence of the weekend, we got back on the road.

We stopped in Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city, named after the half-sister of Alexander the Great.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thessaloniki


We ended up in Sostis, totalling an impressive 323.5 miles.

Days Thirteen and Fourteen- unlucky for some

After rather too much raki, I have managed to lose our map - so my calculations may be slightly out (blame it on the loss of map rather than the hangover).

We have made it to Konitsa (see photo), Greece, this was rather fortuitous so that we could stay at the sulfur baths of Kavasila to help soothe our aching limbs. So soothed they were, we decided to stay.

We covered 105 miles over the weekend. Back to the hard work again tomorrow!

Day Twelve - another country down

We managed to travel a magnificent 497 miles today.

We travelled down Italy to Lecce. Stopping in Bari along the way to sample their food speciality: "Orecchiette with Cime di rape", little ear-shaped pasta with turnip tops.

The more cultured of the group stopped off at the The church of St. Sabinus (see photo), an important example of Apulian Romanesque architecture. I led the less high-brow members of the team to the Old Town to see the town's other claim to fame. It is "known throughout Italy for its strong, often crude, spoken dialect, particularly in the Old Town, parts of which originated from a pidgin between Italian and Greek fishermen in the past, and which fishermen in Greece can still understand today". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bari

After being shocked to the core by the crude langage, we crossed the sea to Albania, and settled in Çorovoda, according our faithful travel guide (yo olde wikpedia) "Some archaeologists believe Çorovoda might be the oldest city in Albania. They have found ruins of some churches and a buried castle in Rovica which might be more ancient than the castle of Berat".

The total distance traveled in twelve days is 1850 miles - rather impressive I think - so thanks to all involved. We have well over 20,000 to go though, so we must dig deep.

Day Eleven- roller skiing and mountain climbing...

After a quick stop on the steps of the Duomo in Florence for the best ice-cream in the world, we picked up the pace and made it to the ancient town of Spoleto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoleto

It saw such events as the inhabitants fighting off Hannibal, the murder of Emperor Aemilianus, and its destruction by Frederick Barbarossa.

This leg saw some rather unusual contributions towards reaching our goal. James Tate contributed over 44 miles, some of which was climbing vertical rock wall (rather him then me, I'm scared of heights... and looking at that picture up there, I know that I would not be pursuaded!). Also, rather intriguingly, one of our gang, Martin Roscoe, has been roller skiing towards our goal - I can only imagine what that is.

We managed to travel 174 miles to get to Spoleto.

Day Ten - Anyone for "spag bol"?

We made it to the capital city of Emilia-Romagna - Bologna.

The city has the oldest University in Europe. Dante, Erasmus, Petrach, Thomas a Becket, Copernicus and Laura Bassi (scientist, first female appointed to university chair in Europe, 1711 – 1788) are some of the illustrious alumni of Bologna University.



After all of this academic overload, we needed some food to feed the brains (and feet). So as we were in Bologna we had to have a traditional tagliatelle al ragù (they don't call it spaghetti bolognese here!). Being a vegetarian, I had a lovely non-meat version - and gorgeous it was too!

Full up on food, we made it a bit futher and decided to stay the night at San Benedetto Val di Sambro.

143 miles down, 40 miles to the heart of Tuscany - Firenze.

Day Nine - A day full of surprises...

We have had our first international travellers join us on our journey - the Pooles from Australia - welcome aboard!

Also one of our members, Vivien Hornsby Smith, was interviewed by Channel 5 News whilst on an exercise bike, unfortunately not about our epic adventure, but about the more mundane issue of the budget.... but still another few miles to add to the total.

Well we kept a good pace and made it through the Alps and through to the rather grandly named Montebello della Battaglia, approximately 103 miles travelled in total.

183 miles to Florence...

Day Eight - Ciao Italia

With some exceptional contributions we have finally got out of the Somme.

Richard Clarke set the pace with his 125 cycle-ride, so much that we only got to wave at the Eiffel Tower.

So through France we went, stopping at Lyon along the way to admire this UNESCO World Heritage Site http://www.lyon.fr/vdl/sections/en/.

On went the hiking boots and we started to climb our way up the Alps and made it to our second country. Italy. Finally travelling 527 miles, to rest at Sant'Ambrogio di Torino, which is in the shadow of the rather magnificent Sacra di San Michele (St Michael's Abbey): http://www.sacradisanmichele.com/index.asp

Day Seven - still the wrong side of Paris

Well, we perked up a bit and managed just over 26 miles. Tonight's resting point is historic Noyon - where Emperor Charlemagne was crowned, and the religious reformer, John Calvin was born.

A straight forward 100km (62 miles) left to go to Paris, and that champagne is calling....

Day Six- a night in Misery

Due to a bit of over indulgence in Amiens, we had our first off-day today. We managed to get to the ironically-named village of "Misery"!!! Ok only 15 miles down, but that's ok. We better lay off the vin rouge tonight, and get back on the right track tomorrow....

79 miles to Paris.

Day Five - A lucky coincidence

Those miles at sea, seemed to have tired us out and our pace slowed down. Still, we did rather well, and got to the heart of the Somme region.

We got as far as Morval, a tiny hamlet with 91 residents, and not suprisingly no where to stay.

A kind farmer offered us a lift to the closest city, Amiens. One of our gang got very excited at this, and told us that this was the burial place of Jules Verne, the author of Around the World in 80 Days, Jules Verne.

After paying our respects to our beloved author, we had a slap up meal and calculated that after today's 92 miles we had 94 miles (from Morval) to the bright lights of Paris .

Day Four- A boost to the weary travellers...

It seems that news of our amazing adventure has spread.... Our numbers have swollen and we easily got to London and beyond.

At Dover, we followed in the footsteps of another brave adventurer Captain Webb, covered ourselves in copious amounts of goosefat, and braved the bitterly cold channel. Unfortunately we didn't quite manage to reach Calais, only 2.17 miles off the coast - the prospect of cafe au lait and croissants is keeping up team spirits.

So a magnificent 195.6 miles gone in this leg, and 186 miles to Gay Paris, oh la la!

Day Three

Feet were now getting a bit tired, but we have managed to walk nearly 26 miles to get to Glenfields, a town just outside Leicester. Just 100 miles to the Big Smoke...

Day Two on the road

Well, we got our rucksacks on and the going was good. A few stops on the way, but we managed to make it to the lace making capital of England. Yes, Nottingham, home of Robin Hood and his merry men. 40.77 miles, not bad eh? With an impressive 10miles from Chloe Westerman.

126 to London...

Tess

The first day...

On October the 1st 2007 six members of the LOGIK Lifestyle Group set off to follow in the footsteps of Phileas Fogg by travelling around the world in 80 days. When this challenge was first attempted 135 years ago motorised transport was allowed however in the 21st century that would make it too easy! In the spirit of the Lifestyle Group the challenge has been set to follow the same route as Fogg however only human powered movement will be allowed.

As the original challenge set off from London we have decided to add Leeds to London to the begining of the journey and will finish the journey by travelling from London back to Leeds. Leaving at 12:30 on Monday the six initial members of the expedition party walked a total of 12.36 miles leaving them just west of Wakefield for their first night away from home.

With only 79 days to go it looks like they will need plenty of help in order to be back in Leeds for Christmas. Details of how to help can be found to the right hand side of this webpage, whether you walk, swim, play golf, ride your bike to work or move in any other way under your own steam then drop them a line on 80days@leeds.ac.uk and join the team.