MARKS WEBSITE

My friend Ollie has just finished his bike trip form Cairo to Cape Town. The Expedition was a charity cycle for the Millennium Promise. 8 people cycled to raise awareness of the development work the Millennium Villages are undergoing.

www.cairotocapetown2008.co.uk

Popularity: 4% [?]

So to Easter island itself – it is hard to separate the islanders from the island, being so far from anywhere the two are vastly intertwined. And have been through out the ages.

For a island so small and so far removed from anywhere there is a lot to do. We started on our first day with a hike up to and around the rim of the volcano – Rana Kao. The landscape of Easter Island is extremely like the west of Ireland – windswept but with Palm Trees. The volcano is behind the extraordinarily long run way – which Nasa pay for as its a back up landing spot if their shuttles miss Florida – not sure how they would get the shuttle back!!!

From the top corner of the volcano you can see the two little rocks which are home to the nesting birds that were so central to the birdman cult that played a large part in the islands history. From there we marched up to the old ruins of their (the birdman cult) house – which look like and are built in the same fashion as the bee hive huts in Kerry.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Its been long over due but I am finally going to try and cronicle my travels. Starting where else but in the middle of nowhere and in the middle of my journey – why you may ask – because I have decided that it was the best place I visited in the whole world.

Its a hard call but Easter island had a magic that no where else had, and even though it rained a lot (5 of the 7 days we were there!) and even though there was little or no night life – and we started to suffer from cabin feavor – it was pure magic – a must see for all well respected travellers. Take a look for yourself.

We arrived, a bit jaded from South America, it was month 3, of my year around the world and I was starting to get into it. Our bags were packed with food stuffs (Pasta’s, rice, canned foods – there is one shop on the island and anything that can’t be grown must be flown in, as the island is some 3,600 miles from mainland Chile things are expensive). We also came barring gifts – a fellow traveller on the thorntree had said to bring scrubbers for the kitchen – high end purchases for a native. Never the less we weren’t prepared for the welcome – a lay made out of fresh flowers from the lady with whom we were staying with’s garden.

The hospitality extended for the duration of our stay – on our departure they cut off a branch of their banana tree for us in celebration and the woman of the house made a necklace of sea shells for us – which she gave us in the departure lounge of the airport (Which only opens 40 minutes before a flight arrives), even her son who worked in the airport as a baggae handler waved us goodbye to us as we mounted the steps to the aircraft – magic

Popularity: 1% [?]