Geography and all that Jazz

...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.

Out now to pre-order on AMAZON is the book of Mark Beaumont's record breaking round-the-world solo cycle. On 15 February 2008, Mark Beaumont pedalled through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. 194 days and 17 hours previously, he had set off from Paris in an attempt to circumnavigate the world in record time. Mark smashed the Guinness World Record by an astonishing 81 days. He had travelled more than 18,000 miles on his own through some of the harshest conditions one man and his bicycle can endure, camping wild at night and suffering from constant ailments. "The Man Who Cycled the World" is the story not just of that amazing achievement, but of the events that turned Mark Beaumont into the man he is today. From the early years of his free-spirited childhood in the Scottish countryside, he had been determined to break records, cycling across Scotland and then from John O'Groats to Land's End by the age of fifteen, raising thousands of pounds for charity. After leaving ...

SAGT 2008: the REPORT 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 Ad...

Regular readers of the blog will remember my small part in blogging MARK BEAUMONT's record breaking cycle journey around the world. You can now watch the AD and an accompanying 10 MINUTE DOCUMENTARY at the ORANGE website. It features Val Vannet very briefly, who did the 'blogging journey' alongside Mark, and also lots of scenes inside her classroom...

Mark Beaumont speaking in Scotland earlier this year...

Don't forget to catch Mark Beaumont on BBC2 Scotland tonight and tomorrow, or catch if for the next week on iPlayer: THE MAN WHO CYCLED THE WORLD ....

Delivered assembly on Mark Beaumont's round the world cycle adventure to 6th form students today, and they generously donated £58 towards Mark's charities. Mark also generously donated signed photos for the winners of a prize draw. If any colleagues want to use the presentation that I used to raise money for Mark's charities, get in touch, and I'll give you the 4Shared location.

It's official ! Image from Guinness World Records website: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/archive.aspx

Fantastic news. Well done Mark ! More later...