Andrews Hike

Update No.1

2011-02-12T14:11:00.001+00:00

So its been just over a month since I started this whole thing and the training has been going pretty well. I've been trying to run at least four times a week either in the evenings or during lunch at work with a few trips to the gym in between. Overall its getting better and easier each week. I have found the distances I can go getting longer as I go and the recovery doesn't take too long. The first proper run had me crippled for a week!

On the fundraising side, its been steady enough. I had a few things in mind to raise lump sums, like pub quizzes etc, have been put on hold due to my unexpected move back to Ireland next week. Once I get back to the emerald isle I'll bang a few events out and hopefully that will break the back of the fund raising. At the minute I'm at £360, about 11% of my goal, which I'm quite happy with as a start.

I've also signed up for a number of different events and festivals as part of my training such as the North Leitrim Walking Festival, the Carlingford Walking Festival and the Limerick City Marathon. I'm only doing the half marathon though... don't want to overdo it straight away!

One last thing for this post, its been pretty chilly over here recently so I invested in a pair of these:

I was very dubious about these before until I wore a pair hillwalking over Christmas and the difference they made during the walk and the day after was amazing. So with the cold weather here I found the chill in my legs took a long time to clear and left me with sore legs during and after my run, but with these bad boys its much better. They are really warm, comfortable to run in and do make a big difference. It is amazing the amount of people who don't wear shorts over them though. A bit of common decency please!!!

The Hike!

2011-01-06T23:45:00.000+00:00

So, now for the 'fun' part!

The hike takes place over six days.

Day 1:

After an early breakfast and detailed trip briefing, we drive south through amazing scenery, dotted with the black tents of the Bedouin, to the small village of Dana where we begin trekking. The Dana nature reserve, where the village lies, is an extraordinary wilderness through which to walk, rich in plant and wild life and spectacular landscapes. Our route takes us down a twisting track that leads eventually to the desert floor and our campsite, close to the ruins of a Byzantine church, Feinan, dating back to 4000 BC.

Distance approx. 13 km
Trek approx. 7-8 hours

Day 2:

We break camp early and head off across stony desert, with jagged mountains to the east and open desert falling westwards towards the Dead Sea. We hike around several small hills before striking out across open desert towards Wadi Barwaz, at the foot of the mountains. After lunch and a brief rest we head into the desert, gently descending, until we enter the small sand-dunes of Wadi Araba. The stillness here is colossal, and gives a true sense of the desert landscape. We camp again under clear, starry night skies.

Distance approx. 18 km
Trek approx. 8-9 hours

Day 3:

Today we trek back into the mountains and a more challenging route! After a gradual ascent across the desert to Abu Sakakin, we face a climb across small boulders and rocks to the foot of a steep and winding track. This is quite a tough section, and takes us high up into a remote, beautiful mountain region with spectacular views west into the desert. After lunch we continue up to the high saddle (720m), to rest and enjoy the view into the heart of these mountains, before our steep descent on small winding tracks to the river valley. We walk through the beautiful Sakakin canyon to our camp above the river at Ras Feid.

Distance approx. 14 km
Trek approx. 8-9 hours

Day 4:

We start with a pleasant walk back through the Sakakin canyon, before we gradually climb up into the mountains for another challenging day. This trail is used by the Bedouin people as they move with their animals from the desert to the higher and cooler regions for the summer. The track is tough with some steep climbs and rocky descents, and eventually leads up to a pass with tremendous views. From here we descend to the river valley and Shkaret Msei’d, where we make camp.

Distance approx. 18 km
Trek approx. 8-9 hours

Day 5:

Today we head inland, away from the mountains and desert, towards the ancient site of Little Petra. Our route follows an undulating track through low-lying hills and a couple of small settlements before we suddenly arrive among the simple rock-hewn temples and strange sandstone formations of Little Petra. These ruins are some of the oldest in the Middle East, dating back 9000 years. After touring the site, we continue weaving our way through the valleys to our campsite set amid the rock formations.

Distance approx. 16 km
Trek approx. 8 hours

Day 6:

Today is the culmination of our trip - the trek into the ‘lost city’ of Petra. Our route takes us first to the Monastery, an extraordinary, immense structure carved into the rock at the mountain-top. From there we weave down through a narrow canyon to the heart of the city. The huge tombs and buildings of Petra, many hewn from the rock itself, are testament to the one-time wealth of the capital of the Nabataeans. Our guided tour continues around Jebel al-Khubtha and its extraordinary rock features to Wadi Mataha, and then through the As-Siq canyon to experience the famous arrival at the Treasury, the most breathtaking of Petra’s sites. We return through the Siq to our waiting transport and the comfort of a hotel and our celebration meal.

Distance approx. 18 km
Trek approx. 8 hours

So, that's what I'm in for! Any help is greatly appreciated in getting me to my goal amount!!

Who are Macmillan Cancer Support?

2011-01-06T23:36:00.000+00:00

Macmillan Cancer Support are a UK based charity that offer a range of support and care services to those affected by cancer. This not only includes patients but also, family, carers, healthcare professionals and communities.

Macmillan provide support services that guide patients and their families through the system supporting them every step of the way. They look after people in their homes by offering carers, covering the cost of heating bills etc and even a lift to the hospital. They provide support through their team of cancer support specialists.

Macmillan Cancer Support started 100 years ago in 1911 when Douglas Macmillan witnessed his father die of cancer. This moved him to found the 'Society for the Prevention and Relief of Cancer'. Douglas wanted advice and information to be provided to all people with cancer, homes for patients at low or no cost, and voluntary nurses to attend to patients in their own homes.

Over the next 100 years, Macmillan Cancer Support has evolved into one of the largest cancer support services in the UK with more than 3,500 nurses, doctors, radiographers, dietitians, occupational therapists and many other specialisms doing work for the organisation.

What's this all about...

2011-01-06T23:22:00.000+00:00

As of today I am commandeering this blog. The regular programming of general waffle (although there hasn't been much in the past few months) will be replaced with my ongoing fundraising and training for what will probably be one of the most arduous challenges of my life so far.

Watch this space for regular updates on my efforts to raise £3,200 and train for the Macmillan Cancer Support 2011 Jordan Hike. Six days of hiking and climbing through the Jordanian desert and mountains in aid of cancer support and care in the UK.

Song de Jour

2010-04-13T18:14:00.001+01:00

Snow Patrol - Ray of Light (Madonna) BBC Live Lounge

Song de Jour

2010-04-12T18:55:00.004+01:00

The Cave - Mumford & Sons (The Bookshop Sessions)

Mumford & Sons on iTunes

We begin our broadcast!!!

2009-10-27T07:35:00.004+00:00

Well i've been in Dubai now for almost two and a half weeks now and this is my first post to date! Very poor standards!

Things are going well so far. I've acclimatised and settled in to some degree. I'm still trying to get my head around the size of some of the buildings and the sheer gaudiness of some of them, seeing how the tallest building I saw on a regular basis was Liberty Hall in Dublin which is far from impressive.

Its a bit of a strange place though. Its is what I expected in some ways, but not in others. I was aware of the immigrant workers and the poor conditions they work and live in and the complete contrast to the local Emiraties who only come out at night in their Ferraris. I wasn't aware of the ridiculous infrastructure in terms of road layout or the lack of a decent postal service. To get to my office, we have to drive past it, drive for another 10 minutes till you can hardly see it in the distance, then turn around, drive past it again, and find you're way through a glorified building site. It seems buildings are built first, then they figure out how to get people to it afterward. So you have monstrosities of office and apartment buildings, but no direct road or offramp to access them. It takes another year or so to get that in place.

Having said that, it is a nice enough place to live. I'm currently staying in the Marina which has proper footpaths, grocery stores, shops, restaurants, bars etc all in walking distance, as well as the beach. And if I do need to get somewhere outside of that area, there are a steady supply of taxis to solve that problem, for a small price. From that point of view its great. Eating out is cheap (5 main courses, 3 naan breds, 2 bowls of rice and 6 soft drinks for €19 in a nearby Pakistani restaurant) and groceries aren't that bad either. Booze is available but can be pricey but unlike Ireland, they have happy hour here so you can get some good deals.

Overall, its nice. Strange in places, but nice. I was fascinated with the place before I arrived, even more so when I did, and I can see it getting stronger as the weeks go by. I promise to be better at posting now that i'm all set up, so watch this space. Also, you can see the pictures i've taken so far here. There's some good ones and i'll be updating it fairly regularly.

Pure Gold!

2009-10-07T11:07:00.002+01:00

This is one of my favourite Monty Python sketches ever!

Nice base you got ere Colonel

World Premiere!

2009-09-25T20:48:00.004+01:00

I've been waiting to blog about this band for a long time and finally I have the chance!

Ana Gog are a fantastic up and coming Irish band with an incredible sound. Their new single, Doves and Fishes is below, and there are many more exciting songs to follow. But for now, have a watch of this, visit their MySpace page and keep an eye out for their many gigs coming up in October (especially the Dingle gig on the 9th!).

Manna from Heaven

2009-09-25T09:12:00.001+01:00

Falling with style!!

2009-09-22T08:57:00.003+01:00

song de Jour

2009-09-05T17:33:00.004+01:00

Yet again with another Song de Jour. This time its from a great Irish artist who's playing at the Electric Picnic festival this weekend, Lisa Hannigan.

The fantastic little number 'I Don't Know' taken from her debut album 'Sea Sew' played live from Dick Macs Pub in Dingle Co. Kerry.

Enjoy and the link to her homepage is in the column to the right...

Song de Jour

2009-09-03T10:09:00.004+01:00

Well its not really a song this time... but there's a song in it!

This is the new ad for the new Beatles Rock Band game. Watch it in HD to get the best effect!

Road trippin

2009-08-29T20:02:00.002+01:00

I'm currently on a world tour of Ireland with Jeris from Alabama.

Instead of updating this blog i'm gonna put the link to Jeris' because she's much better at this than I am...

So here it is: LINK

Enjoy!!!

Busy busy busy

2009-08-12T10:21:00.004+01:00

So the summer is quickly moving on. Can't believe its August already!!! And mid august at that!!

The Dubai move is getting closer by the day. Still haven't got a definite date yet but it's looking like early October at this stage. I have three weeks of training and meet and greets, two of which are in London and one in Dublin and then off to Dubai some time after that. I'm like a kid at Christmas, counting down the days till it all kicks off! Very very excited!! I have an induction day coming up at the end of August where I get to meet the other graduates from the IBEC programme that got places with Tourism Ireland. I already met some during a DIT post grad course I started there a few weeks ago and it'll be a great little network when we're done with it!

I was down in Kerry there last weekend with my cousin John. Drove down to Golden in Tipperary on Thursday night so we'd get a good run of the day on Friday. We hit the road early on Friday and after a quick stop off on Inch Strand we landed in Dingle for the night. John had a friend living in Dingle so we had local knowledge on hand. Ended up in a pub called An Droichead Beag for the night with live trad music and lots of 'the black porter'. Best night i've had in a long time!

The next morning wasn't the best morning i've had in a long time however. In fact, it was probably one of the worst mornings i've had in a long time (worth it though!). We headed west out of Dingle with the intention of ending up in Tralee that evening. A phone call from John's friend offering a short hike up a mountain made us turn around though. The perfect hangover cure I might add! We met Cian and the lads from the night before in Dingle and then drove 15 minutes towards Mt Brandon (second highest mountain in Ireland). I was assured that we weren't going the whole way up and thank god we weren't because the clouds were down and we couldn't even see anywhere near the top.

We started off on a pathway that lead us through some farmland and eventually a peat bog that some farmer had been cutting by hand. We eventually made it to a cliff edge and sat down for a break. The views were amazing, as you'll see below. I only had my phone with me so excuse the quality. Cian also pointed out a tiny patch of ground near the bottom of the cliff to the right where you could make out old stone walls. Apparently there used to be a village there that was only accessible by climbing a good way up mt Brandon and it's been derelict since the 40s. There was talk of going down to it but the weather wasn't great so we decided not to.

After a quick bowl of local seafood chowder and an ice cream in Murphys we hit the road and ended up in Tralee that evening. It was very different from the hustle and bustle of Dingle and seemed pretty dead. We had an early night and left early the next morning for Tipperary. We stopped off in Ballybunion along the way. I spent many a summer in Ballybunion so it was nice to see it again. Next stop was Newcastle West in Limerick to see some relations and then Tipperary to pick up my car. All in all,a great weekend.

Heading off to Basel this Friday for the brothers stag do. Should make for an interesting post next week, if i'm still in one piece considering what we have planned (worried Barry???)

A brown trousers day...

2009-07-12T10:14:00.004+01:00

So I got some news there on Friday. The day before I had done an interview with Tourism Ireland for a job in their new Asia office based in Dubai. I thought it had gone pretty well, but as per usual when you leave you start to remember things you forgot to say that would've been perfect and I honestly had begun to prepare myself for the fact that it mightn't have gone as well as I had thought. I know this goes against what most people had said to me about optimism etc but it had turned into my dream job and I was seriously gunning for it, so I just wanted to brace myself for the possibility that it might go pear shaped. And there was also the fact that there were 6 other people up for the role and they were the best of the best so it was fairly competitive.

So back to Friday. I was in the gym for a bit (which in a basement so no phone reception) and when I got out I had a missed call from IBEC (who arranged the interview for me) asking me to call her back in regards to my interview the previous day. Let the panic begin. I fumbled with the phone trying to remember the number she read out in the message and eventually hit the call button. It was freaking me out a little that she called me because most of the communication is done by email, so this could be very good or very very bad. After she answered the phone she proceeded to ask me a few questions about the interview, 'Did I think it went well?', 'Was there anything I thought went badly?' etc. I was mess by this stage, shaking, mumbling down the phone trying to figure out what the hell was going on!!!

So eventually after my answers just became too incoherent to understand she told me she had good news for me. I got the job. I went mental... mad as a bag of badgers!!! I was shaking, hopping around, the whole works. As I proceeded to make a holy show of myself in public, a Luas pulls up beside me so there was an audience to my insanity. While I was jiving on the street she was telling me some pretty important stuff in regards to confirming my job and meeting general managers etc but I was a little preoccupied and I think I missed some crucial bits.

Seeing how it was only two days ago, it still hasn't hit me what exactly is going on and that i'll be moving to Dubai in 2 months. I can see it hitting me on the flight, some 30,000 feet in the air over Turkey. Something similar happened when I was landing in Berlin on the first day of Erasmus. That feeling of 'Oh sweet Jesus what am I at?!?!?'. But then that turned out to be a great 6 months so I can only imagine what this will be like.

This means that the blog will be back in full swing. This is where it'll all happen. Photos, stories,news etc will all be coming from here so keep an eye out. I'll post again when I get more details and all that jazz.

And so it begins....

2009-06-15T09:45:00.003+01:00

Its been a while since i've posted. Most of the posts have been music and random musings so i thought I should give a general update as to what the divil I'm up to. As of now I have finished my degree, FINALLY!! Its only been 5 years in the making. My exams were finished in March so I had two whole months to do nothing but my dissertation and lets just say it was eventful. Basically I had two months to write the guts of 20,000 words. That sounds worse than it is because I had most of it in notes and bits of pieces so it was more a task of putting it all together. So after a lot of sweating and nail biting, a few all nighters and a residence in the DIT library, I handed in my 4 copies and went to the pub. That marked the official end of my college life, which didn't really dawn on me till Saturday night actually.

So since the dissertation was handed in i've been taking it fairly handy. I've started working a bit back home in Castleblayney and i'm trying to get a few days in Dublin as well so I can have a good summer. I've a few things lined up for the coming few months. I'm off to Berlin this Saturday for a bit of a reunion with the Erasmus crowd which is gonna be epic! Its been a year since i've been there and I can't wait to get back. Seeing how I lived there for 6 months or so, i've done most of the touristy stuff so we are asking ourselves what we're gonna do. The results have been moving towards the pubs and clubs we frequented, more so than the galleries and museums we saw signs for on the way to the pubs and clubs. Either way it should be fun, and very very cheap. We got a 3 bedroom apartment in the city centre for €20 each a night!! Bargain!!

From there i'll mosey down to Basel on the train for the big brothers birthday. I won't mention what age he is... but it rhymes with dirty!?! Should be gone for just over a week and I can't wait. The next trip then will be back to Basel in August for the same big brothers wedding. There's talk of a college trip away but we'll see what comes of that one. The rest of the summer will mostly involve me chilling out and doing as little as possible, as every final year student should... and is!

So thats the guts of it for the minute. I've other stuff to put up but i'm very against big long blog posts so i'll try to keep them short and sweet.

Summer tunes

2009-05-25T16:55:00.003+01:00

Here's a little collection of songs for the summer.

First on the list is 'Breathe' by Telepopmusik (ignore the video, its the music thats the important bit).

Next up we have 'Where Do I Begin' by The Chemical Brother feat Beth Orton

This one is another classic 'All I Need' by Air

And last but not least 'In The Waiting Line' by Zero 7

Enjoy...

Cant wait!!!

2009-05-21T09:18:00.003+01:00

Look who got his own show...

Credit Ray Foley for that one.

Song de Jour

2009-05-09T12:05:00.003+01:00

What a ledge....

David Kitt - It's Yours (Live in Mullingar). The sound quality on the video is a bit pants but still a great great tune...

WHAT GRASS?!?!

2009-05-09T11:58:00.002+01:00

Have a look at this...

If you cant read the caption, let me give you the jist of it.

"A local rakes out the "green" of the Coober Pedy Golf Course on May 5, 2009, in the scorching outback opal mining town of Coober Pedy in southern Australia"

Have to hate that...

Film de Jour...

2009-05-08T17:38:00.005+01:00

Have a look at this...

"Two days before his wedding, Doug and his three friends drive to Las Vegas for a blow-out bachelor party they’ll never forget. But, in fact, when the three groomsmen wake up the next morning, they can’t remember a thing. For some reason, they find a tiger in the bathroom and a six-month-old baby in the closet of their suite at Caesars Palace. The one thing they can’t find is Doug. With no clue as to what transpired and little time to spare, the trio must retrace their hazy steps and all their bad decisions in order to figure out where things went wrong and hopefully get Doug back to L.A. in time to walk down the aisle."

Seems like some harmless mindless fun. And what about the baby!!! Funny shit...

What an ad!!!

2009-05-01T14:41:00.002+01:00

Watch this...

Song de Jour

2009-04-29T18:28:00.005+01:00

This is a bit of a strange one but I think it's a great example of Kanye West as a person. On one hand you have a great performer and musician. But on the other hand you have a person with an ego the size of a medium sized African nation! Its shocking, but don't take my word for it, watch this...

Only in Ballinrobe..

2009-04-26T09:20:00.001+01:00

It mightn't have been a china shop but still...

How long was that guy waiting to get his 'fresh beef' joke in??