Cultural Geography Blog

Thanks to Stephen Schwab for the original lead to a Conversation piece which introduces a new blogging project. The piece is by Douwe van Hinsbergen. This connects the Tour de France with the geology of each stage. The blog can be accessed here. There is also a Twitter account. I watch the Tour de France as much as possible, and the helicopter shots always show the landscape at its most spectacular, with the Alps over the last few days and the valley of the Tarn earlier today. Here's the details of today's stage for example, showing the presence of lithium in the area. This is really nicely done, and reminds me of the blogging that Val Vannet (with a few inputs from me) did to follow Mark Beaumont's first round the world cycling expedition.

A few days ago, Mark Beaumont visited the Reform Club. He was paying homage to Phileas Fogg: the hero of Jules Verne's 'Around the World in 80 Days'. The reason was that after his earlier record breaking circumnavigation by bike, Mark headed off earlier today on an attempt to go around the world in 80 days. I will be introducing the journey to our students tomorrow, so that they can hopefully follow the journey over the summer, and there will be some rewards for those who show some evidence of this on their return in September, by which time Mark will hopefully be well on his way... what an epic journey and physical and mental effort lies ahead of him... To follow the journey, see Mark Beaumont on Facebook, or follow @MrMarkBeaumont on Twitter. The main website for the journey is at Artemis World Cycle. Here's the route: Images: Copyright Mark Beaumont on Facebook/Twitter / The Guardian For teachers wanting to introduce students to the journey, Mark ha...

Picture by Ollie Bray (I think...): Mark is the one on the right... :) Mark Beaumont speaking tour.... Starts in March 2010, so let's hope Mark is finished by then... :) Mark's CYCLING THE AMERICAS blog is here for all the latest on his current challenge, which is going incredibly well. He has summited Denali and Aconcagua, and is now cycling the final leg down to the end of his pan-American adventure. There are some spectacular images and video on the blog. Mark's website is HERE. He comes to King's Lynn on the 27th of March 2010 The other dates can be found here: MARCH Tues 16th DURHAM Gala Theatre 0191 3324041 Wed 17th CHESTERFIELD The Winding Wheel 01246 345 334 Thur 18th BOLTON Albert Halls 01204 334400 Fri 19th HALIFAX Victoria Theatre ...

...is now revealed to the world... CYCLING THE AMERICAS World record breaker Mark Beaumont is cycling from Anchorage, Alaska to Ushuaia in Southern Argentina. He'll also climb the two highest peaks on the continent, McKinley and Aconcagua. Mark climbing near Chamonix - image from BBC blog Also check the FLICKR account.

On Friday night, after setting up the GA stand, had a meal at the very nice, and very French Le Petit Paris restaurant on Queensferry Road. A windy night followed, and in the morning it rained on and off most of the day. For the second year, the conference was held at Edinburgh Academy. First thing was to grab a coffee and man the GA stand with the other publications, and to start handing out over 150 free satellite image maps of the earth from space, and also have conversations with the 290 odd delegates. The maps were donated by the GeoSphere project . At 9.40 the publishers’ awards, presented by John Vannet, were announced. In the Book category, the GA picked up both the awards that were available. A ‘Commended’ award went to ‘Caring for our World’ by Fran Martin and Paula Owens, and the WINNER in the book award went to the Teacher’s Toolkit. Margaret Roberts collected the awards. It was then across to the Hall for Malcolm McDonald’s Presidential Address, and the morning le...