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<title>Travel Blog | Darlow</title>
<link>http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Darlow/</link>
<description>Travel adventures in journals and photos from Darlow</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2013 10:44:56 +0000</pubDate>
<lastBuildDate>Sat, 18 May 2013 10:44:56 +0000</lastBuildDate><item>
                    <title>Are there sharks in the Thames</title>
                    <description>A couple of weeks ago I found myself standing in the bathtub continually putting on and then taking off a rather snugfitting wet rubber garment.Before you get the wrong idea said garment was in fact a wetsuit and I was practising transitions for my first ever triathlon that was to take place 2 days later  the Olympic distance London Triathlon a 1500m swim 40km bike and 10k run. A rather s</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-747747.html</link>
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                    <title>Triathlon Training in the Alps  Welcome to Hell</title>
                    <description>Having decided that my next big goal is to complete an Ironman it is dawning on me that swimming 2.4 miles cycling 112 miles and then running a marathon will require rather a lot of training.The running bit doesn39t particularly bother me  whilst I would struggle to run a marathon tomorrow I did 10 of them last year and so the mental hurdle has been overcome and I know that my body is capa</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/blog-731737.html</link>
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                    <title>Operation Ironman</title>
                    <description>Blimey it39s been the best part of five months since I updated this thing. Although that39s not through laziness but rather because I haven39t done any travelling since Christmas and didn39t have much of note to say.Rather I spent January  April in France at the house and since then I have been back in the UK working.In a rather radical departure from my normal schedule though my </description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Languedoc-Roussillon/blog-719774.html</link>
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                    <title>Unfinished business  failure on Lobuche</title>
                    <description>Fresh from success on Island Peak I was fit and ready for my next obstacle  Lobuche East.Unfortunately fate had decided otherwise and I succumbed to a nasty case of man flu.Leaving the tent at 3am on summit morning I knew it was going to be a struggle but I decided to have a crack at it anyway.After struggling up the mountain for a couple of hours and with the difficult bit about to start I de</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Himalayas/blog-667600.html</link>
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                    <title>Island Peak</title>
                    <description>After the previous couple of weeks Island Peak was pretty straightforward.True summit day itself was a bit of an epic we started at around 130 in the morning and didn39t finish until about 4 in the afternoon but I have no tales of frost bite 40 degree windchill or nasty toilet experiences to recount.Indeed I actually got a few hours sleep the evening before the summit bid  thanks mainl</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Himalayas/blog-667615.html</link>
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                    <title>Living in a freezer  crossing the Amphu Labste</title>
                    <description>As I mentioned in my previous blog Mera Peak is a pretty popular mountain. Many hundreds of people have a crack at it every year.Whilst it is a physical challenge and the views are fairly spectacular it is not a wilderness experience.Luckily most people who climb Mera head back from the summit exactly the same way they come in.The main alternative is to walk East into the Hinku Valley from where</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Himalayas/blog-667613.html</link>
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                    <title>The ascent of Mera  success sort of</title>
                    <description>One thing that the Nepalis are very good at is persuading tourists to spend money.And it39s a good thing too since about 90 of their economy depends on tourists with most of the rest being international aid.One way in which this makes itself evident is the Trekking peaks. These are a group of around 30 mountains which the Government has renamed  the thinking being that if you can trek t</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Himalayas/blog-667609.html</link>
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                    <title>Mountaineering training at 5000 metres</title>
                    <description>Right hi everyone. I39m back in Kathmandu with a few fun stories to tell.I also have frost nip the precursor to frost bite on 7 of my finger tips. But we39ll get to that in good timeFor me this blog entry is where the fun begins  a bit of mountaineering rather than just trekking.I have previously mentioned that I had four objectives for this trip1 Ascend Mera Peak  6476 metres 2</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/blog-667607.html</link>
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                    <title>The Throne of the Mountain Gods</title>
                    <description>The purpose of my first month in Nepal was to get fit and acclimatised before the proper mountaineering begins.To this end I chose to walk to Makalu  the fifth highest mountain in the world standing at 8463 metres.Makalu is a particularly hard mountain to climb.Edmund Hillary of Everest first ascent fame failed twice to climb it.Even Messner one of the best mountaineers ever only succeeded </description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/blog-659589.html</link>
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                    <title>This is why I travel</title>
                    <description>For the last 48 hours I have been living in the home of Nawang Temba Sherpa and his family having finished the first part of my Nepal trek. As I write this it is 1144am and I have just eaten a fabulous meal of daal bhat.To explain how I came to be living with a Nepalese family let me take you back 18 days  that was the 5th day of my trek and I had just struggled up a seemingly vertical hillside</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/blog-659351.html</link>
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                    <title>Travelling beckons</title>
                    <description>AFOOT and lighthearted I take to the open roadHealthy free the world before meThe long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.Henceforth I ask not goodfortuneI myself am good fortuneHenceforth I whimper no more postpone no more need nothingStrong and content I travel the open road.The cheerful voice of the public roadthe gay fresh sentiment of theroad.O highway I travel </description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Blackheath/blog-566837.html</link>
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                    <title>A year without travelling</title>
                    <description>Who would have predicted that I would spend 2010 working in London Even more amazingly it was a good year.I know from previous experience however that a year spent working in London can easily end up with me putting on a couple of stone becoming very unfit and verging on being an alcoholic. My year therefore focussed on getting fitter instead of fatter.The undoubted highlight was the Druid Ch</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Blackheath/blog-553613.html</link>
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                    <title>Up Loch Ness without a Paddle</title>
                    <description>AKA Two Men in a Very Small Boat on a Very Large LochHaving been in London now for what seems like a very long time some adventure was required. And so it was that I found myself in Scotland with Matt a tent sleeping bag canoe paddle and food for a 5 day bank holiday weekend trip along the Caledonian Canal wild camping along the way toasting marshmallows over open fires and drinking lots an</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/blog-527878.html</link>
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                    <title>Want your photo taken That'll be 500k sir.</title>
                    <description>So I'm crap at making the most of my own country when I'm here but I've always been a bit of a sucker for the military and pomp  and it is one of the few things where we undoubtedly lead the world.Trooping the Colour 2010  the Queen's official birthday parade.Photos only.</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Westminster/blog-506259.html</link>
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                    <title>Another trip comes to an end</title>
                    <description>Time is a funny thing.At the start of a four week holiday I think it's going to go on forever. So much happens in a single morning that the possibilities seem endless.But eventually time just seems to accelerate and all too soon the holiday is once again over.My last 24 hours in Nepal were again spent living with Binod Sita and Sangita in their home. Rakshi amazing food interesting conversat</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/blog-489400.html</link>
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                    <title>Annapurna Base Camp</title>
                    <description>Another change of plan  I went to Annapurna Base Camp rather than the Annapurna Circuit. This basically meant a 10 day trip rather than a longer one.I won't bore you with any description other than to highly recommend this trip. The walking is physically demanding and not very pleasant in their wisdom the authorities have built stone staircases on part of the route  in places over 3000 steps </description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Annapurna/blog-487704.html</link>
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                    <title>Bloody sacrifices</title>
                    <description>NOTE  photos are not for the squeamishDuring my most recent trek I was lucky enough to be invited to witness the annual Puja ceremony in the small village of Landruk. The following text is taken from various websites as a brief explanationPuja is the act of showing reverence to a god a spirit or another aspect of the divine through invocations prayers songs and rituals. An essential part of</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/blog-487699.html</link>
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                    <title>Gosainkunda  the fun bit</title>
                    <description>Photos from part 3 of the trek</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Himalayas/blog-483560.html</link>
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                    <title>Gosainkunda  the mountains</title>
                    <description>Photos from part 2 of the Gosainkunda trek</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Himalayas/blog-483559.html</link>
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                    <title>Gosainkunda  the lowlands</title>
                    <description>Ok so I know I said three weeks and it has hardly been one but I've had a change of plans.I did the trek to the sacred lakes of Gosainkunda as planned but then binned the next part  largely because it would have been a partial repeat of what I did in 2008. But also because the 6th day of the trek 2000 metres of descent on sharp rock destroyed my walking bootsSo anyway I'm back in Kathmand</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Himalayas/blog-483548.html</link>
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