London 2 London

I've just come across this very interesting sounding expedition via Twitter. Sarah Outen left London on 1st April 2011 and her plan is to travel all the way round the world and back to London using only her own power - three continents and two oceans by boat and bike!



Check out Sarah's expedition website here. You can also follow Sarah's progress via Facebook and Twitter.

Move...

Fantastic video via @al_humphreys... Probably coming to a Geography lesson near you in September!

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Where the hell is Matt?

The Year 8 geographers have enjoyed watching "Dancing Matt" and finding out more about the huge range of places that he's visited.

You can find out more about Matt and his dancing on his website - but there are one or two rude words on there... you've been warned!

This is where it all began:


The first video sponsored by Stride:


And the second:


And most recently, in the run-up to the World Cup, Matt danced the Diski around South Africa:


For their homework this week, my Yr8s were asked to think about where in the world they would most like to dance with Matt and why... Here are the first two:

Charlie: The place I would like to dance with Matt is Paro, Bhutan because the scenery is very nice and it looks very interesting because all of the different colours.

Regan: I would dance with Matt in Andorra, because the views and heights make Andorra very relaxing in the summer. It is a very warm place in the summer and a very cold place in the winter. Andorra is well known for all the snow in the winter, the heights make Andorra very good for winter sports and the snow would make the views even more special.

Interesting choices gentlemen - I'll add some more as they arrive... And if you're not in my Yr8 Geography group, leave a comment and let us know where YOU would most like to dance with Matt, and why!

I hope you'd be able to do better than this...

I have made a point of avoiding Big Brother, but a fellow geography teacher has just pointed this out... (Click on the A Wonder of the World link)... And if you can't do better, get the globe or the atlas out and spend the last week of your holidays practising, if only so that you don't show yourself up on a reality TV show!!

If the Earth were a sandwich...

Have you ever wondered where you would end up if you dug a hole all the way through the earth?? Some of you will have seen Holey Moley before, but this new Google Maps mashup is a more recent discovery (yes... via Twitter!) and is fab...

Sailing Update...

Vendee Globe

Almost 14 days into the race, more than half of the Vendee Globe boats have crossed the Equator...



It's not all been plain sailing though... A great description from Steve White about his time in the Doldrums:

"I have been released from the Doldrums. I thought initially that perhaps I'd escaped punishment, but it was not so. At one point I was trapped under a cloud that filled a 24 mile range radar screen - and boy, did it rain! It was almost Biblical! We just sat in the midst of it with the sails banging and slatting back and forth, which is a sailor's Chinese water torture, with the rain bucketing down. That was the largest of many clouds, but there were very many equally frustrating ones, sometimes with wind in them, and sometimes only with wind at the edges, and nothing but torrential rain and no wind at all in the centre. There were gusts, but never that big, up to about 20 knots usually, but that's enough when you normally have a couple of reefs in and full ballast tanks by that point, and, you've guessed it, it can blow from any direction. It changes direction so frequently that I often had to look at the wind direction from the instruments and make funny angles with my hands to work out which tack I should be on to get me best to where I wanted to go! At some points I was going backwards faster than I'd been going forwards for the preceding few hours! It changed so often it can get confusing if you're tired. It has been really frustrating, and I am not keen to come back, but it is another experience to add to the list. I often imagined what it would be like to come through here in a square rigger. You can see how they got stuck here for weeks, sooner them than me....... When it rained for the first time,which was both a blessed relief from the heat and the chance for a shower for me..."

Rich Wilson, the only American in the race, has a very good website - check out the Saturday Updates Q&A section, and his description here of the traditions of crossing the Equator.

Mike Perham

The other sailing story at the moment is that of Mike Perham, who set off last Sunday in an attempt to be the youngest person to sail around the world single-handed. He has stopped briefly in Portugal for some repairs to his boat, but is hoping to be off again soon. Follow his progress on his website here.

Sailing...

Last week I posted about the start of the Vendee Globe - 5 days into the race, the boats are passing the Canaries and heading for the Cape Verde Islands... It's not good news for everyone - some of the competitors, including Brit Alex Thomson, have had to retire from the race.

All the latest Vendee Globe news is on the official website and you can track the progress of the race here.

Also taking to the water today will be Mike Perham. Mike is 16 years old, and at 11am today, he will set sail from Portsmouth in "an historic bid to become the youngest person to sail around the world single-handed..." Click on the picture below to link to Mike's website where you can look at photos, video diaries, and track his progress...

Around the world in three months....

...by yourself... in one of these?

(Image: Aviva Ocean Racing)

That's exactly what the 30 sailors who've just left Les Sables d'Olonne in France are planning to do. They are taking part in the Vendee Globe, which runs every four years, and is described as "one of the most challenging tests of endurance there is".

You can find out more about the race here, where there are maps of the route, photos, video clips and weather reports, and information about the competitors, seven of whom are British. Find out more about them, their boats and their progress in the race on their websites: Mike Golding; Samantha Davies; Alex Thomson; Steve White; Jonny Malbon; Brian Thompson and Dee Caffari.

Rather them than me, I think!

How many countries...?

Thanks (I think) to Alan who blogged about this the other day...

Click on the link below and see how many countries you can name in 5 minutes... Your time will start straight away... Get ready!!

Come back and leave a comment to let us know how you did...

(And DON'T click on the link if you have other things to do...)

Young Geographer of the Year

It is Young Geographer of the Year time again, so if you fancy winning a trip to the Himalayas or a mountain bike, then check out the website of Geographical Magazine and find out more...




This year's theme is Explore Your World, and you need to get out there and do some investigating! The closing date is 30th April, so get thinking about some ideas!

Gapminder

A reminder to 8PBr about the excellent Gapminder site that we were looking at this morning... Click on the picture to link to the site.

And even if you're not in 8PBr, it's well worth a look!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

The BBC has an excellent set of pictures of New Year celebrations around the world, including this one from Hong Kong...

Some UK pictures here...

And this set - be warned though, they're not for the faint-hearted!!

Alphabet of Nations...

Both Yr7 and Yr12 were rather taken with this today (as was a certain Head of Humanities!) so I thought the rest of you better have a look as well!



Prize for the first person to leave a comment telling me the capital of West Xylophone!

A bit of a let-down?

These are ten of the UK's best-known landmarks...

But according to a survey out today, they are the ten most disappointing UK landmarks! The report is here, and also has lists of the ten most disappointing world landmarks, and the ten most promising UK places to visit...

Do you agree? Have you been to any of these? And did you like them? Anywhere else that you think should be included in the lists?

On the way!!

I posted the other day about Mark Beaumont setting off on his 18000 mile cycle trip around the world... Well, Mark set off this morning from the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees, and is on his way...

You can follow Mark's progess on the website here, or on the BBC site that is tracking his journey...

Good luck Mark!

18000 miles...

That is how far Mark Beaumont will be cycling on his round the world trip which starts on Sunday morning from the Champs Elysees in Paris.

Mark - who is a former pupil of a geography teacher friend Val Vannet, at the High School of Dundee - plans to cycle 18000 miles through 20 different countries, in an attempt to claim the record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle.

The current record is 276 days, 19 hours and 15 minutes; Mark hopes to complete his journey in 210 days, returning to Paris in February next year.

You can find out more about Mark's journey at http://www.artemisworldcycle.com/ and follow his progress on the BBC Online Documentary.

"That map's not right!"...

was a comment from one of my Year 10 students today... So here you are Jonathan!

Well, if you've ever tried (as my Yr7s do each September) to peel an orange in one piece and then flatten the peel, without any gaps, you will know that it is impossible! And, the world being spherical, it is also impossible to represent the world 100% accurately on a flat piece of paper. If you keep the shape of the continents accurate, you distort their size... If you keep the size of the continents accurate, you distort their shape... And so on.

Because world maps have been used by lots of different people for lots of different purposes over time, different factors are important to them, and so we have ended up with several map projections.

You can find out more, and explore some of the main projections on the excellent Mapping our World site from Oxfam.

While we're here, this is another interesting site which allows you to explore a variety of "alternative" projections...


Clouds tomorrow Josh!!

Grapheety!

Another excellent site pointed out by a "virtual colleague"...

Grapheety is a site which allows you to add tags with photos, stories, interesting info, etc. about a particular place...

And as the only place tagged in our area is Nottingham Forest Football Club, it's high time we got all signed up and started putting some interesting stuff on there!!

Click on the picture to link to the site... Sign up, and get some interesting East Midlands stuff posted!

Oh no!!

Yet another excellent distraction from working/cleaning...

Flickrvision is a world map that updates every second to show you the latest photos that have been added to Flickr, and where in the world they were taken! Hours of fun...

Visitors from six continents!

The title says it all really... Geogtastic has now had visitors from Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Australasia, and yesterday our first African visitor. We just need to get those South Pole penguins on board now!
So, keep reading, get other people reading, and LEAVE SOME COMMENTS!!