Still no contact from Eric. Everything seems to suggest that our attempts to contact him are being ignored rather than them not reaching him. As far as I am concerned Eric has abandoned the project without so much as a single word of his intention to do so. Personally I feel that some of the members deserve compensation but the way things have been handled so far I doubt that will happen very much, also apparently a number of sponsors may have handed over money, I sincerely hope that Eric has not cashed any cheques and there will be no monetary loss for them. Needless to say those of us involved are unhappy with Eric’s conduct. I think now even if he came out of the woodwork there would not be many still willing to work with him on this.

In other news this blog is now 1 year old, I’ve been terribly slack lately, tired and very busy at work but I’m hoping to up the number of posts back to at least weekly or better.

It seems the protests in Burma are over for now. It’s really frustrating to see the “Coalition of the willing” sit by and do nothing when a country’s people scream for democracy, while they invade others which are at best reluctant. It’s even harder to see China sticking with it’s “non interference” policy, although they are happy to interfere when someone else wants to. With a human rights record like China’s it’s no surprise really, that country’s government dumbfounds me. Regardless of the frustration there in reality these two powers are not really the ones best to target for action. One thing is for sure, although everyone seems to blame someone else in one way or another, but no one doing the blaming can say their hands are clean on the issue.

Tim Paterson at Brave New Traveler posted a list of stories related to Burma the best of which I think was The Ghost Road by Mark Jenkins which gives a very interesting look into what it is like in the parts of Burma that are not open to the few travellers that make their way there.

It seems nothing happens fast in Burma (unless it helps oppress the people) and the UN is being typically useless about it. ASEAN who should be on the receiving end of calls to support democracy in Burma is quiet where it could be most influentia, even more so than China. China is being called upon to pressure the Junta more than anyone but they have enough trouble quashing pro democracy movement in their own country to even think about giving them more fire by being seen to advocate democracy in a country they have such close ties with.

If you are actively doing something to help the Burmese, I suggest averting frustrations from the US and China on their inaction and turn it on ASEAN followed by the UN. What are your thoughts?

Back in June a landslide occurred in Kamchatka a mountainous region of Russia, the slide effected a valley known as Geyser Valley or Valley of Geysers. Reports indicated that this little known and sparsely visited part of the world had been destroyed by the landslide.

A month after the fact a group of scientists were sent to the valley to evaluate the damage, what they found was that two of the more than twenty geysers had been buried and the slide had created a natural dam which they believe will be naturally eroded and washed away to reveal the two buried geysers. The scientists were also surprised to find a new large geyser with a 5 meter jet.

It appears that the initial fears of a natural wonder lost were incorrect I guess that is the nature of these type of events in remote regions. Check out the report on the regions website, Scientists evaluate Geyser Valley landslide.

The results are in and since it’s been the talk of the town for the last day or so I’m not going to bore you by regurgitating them here. However how an anyone let this go by without taking out their soapbox.

I’m hearing there were 100 million votes or was it 100 thousand, either way it not really all that many considering the world population I think a lot more are needed, at least a billion. Even so nationalism would probably become more of a problem with either a small or large number of votes and I think something like that did happen.

The Pyramids of Giza should have been on the list of 7 by default not just an honorary number 8 as it seems to be, it is an original wonder so with that there should be 6 places remaining not 7.

With the pyramids included I don’t really think there is room for Chichén Itzá.

Christ the Redeemer, maybe it’s supposed to be the new Colossus of Rhodes but I think the truth is that we can make pretty much anything out of a few truck loads of cement these days. The Colossus was about the same size too and far more a feat of engineering than the Redeemer. To be honest I think it shows here that most voters came from Christian countries. St. Peter’s Basilica or the Sistine Chapel would have been a better Christian alternatives.

The Great Wall - Deserves it’s place.

Machu Picchu I’m kind of in two minds over, I think it probably should be there but I think Angkor Wat deserves it even more and really they are kind of similar, is there room for only one “lost city”?

Petra is a bit the same, I’m leaning towards it’s not grand enough but if I get there I might well change my mind.

The Taj Mahal and The Roman Colloseum - Deserve their place.
So anyway here is my 7 Wonders.

1. The Pyramids of Giza
2. The Great Wall of China
3. Angkor Wat
4. The Taj Mahal
5. The Roman Colloseum
6. The Eiffel Tower
7. Petra

Easter Island could have just as easily taken 7th. Sorry Chichén Itzá and Jesus, just don’t think your up to the job.

The journal Science has published an report on the domestication of the planet. It was reported that as of 1995 only 17% of the world land area was still “truly wild” ie; no human populations, crops, road access or night-time light detectable by satellite. The Discovery Channel’s article on the report described some disturbing details.

• Half of the world’s surface area is used for crops or grazing.
• More than half of the world’s forests have been lost to land conversion.
• The largest land animals on several continents have become or are near extinction.
• In Europe 22,000 kilometers of coastline have been paved.

The 17% number is debatable, the researchers included many national parks in their domesticated areas as they consider them to be managed in a similar way farms are, although they may be wild it is because it has been decided that they will be. Regardless of definitions the report shows that humans do truly have a massive impact on the planet. It poses more questions on the problem of over population and hopefully will mean governments will make it more of an issue.

So why does China insist on constructing a road to Mt Everest? The only good I see coming from this is that some of the mess climbers have left behind will be cleaned up. What will it take for the worlds governments to look beyond the benefits of China’s booming economy and take a look at the ecological impact? Can anyone be blamed for a lack of confidence in the Chinese government with it’s track record? Tibet, the Internet Firewall, Human rights, Pollution, etc. Of course we have our own problems but few seem to acknowledge just how big the China problem will be. Now when individual governments are tentatively taking steps the conserve the environment we really need a plan for stewardship that goes beyond political borders.

The season for summiting Everest is almost here, in fact there are already some expeditions waiting for good weather to take their shot at the worlds highest mountain. For those interested www.mounteverest.net is the best place for up to date news this climbing season. Last year was one of Everest’s worst with 11 deaths and you can surely remember the rucous about mountain ethics in the media in it’s wake and rightly so, over 480 people summited last year so you can imagine how crowded the mountain is these days, yet some are prepared to leave others to die when rescues are more realistic than ever.

This year I hope for a much safer season where hopefully the stories from the mountain will more more like the SuperSherpa expedition where Apa Sherpa the man who has stood on the top of the world a record 16 times and Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa, who has summited Mt. Everest in the record time of 10 hours, 56 minutes, and 46 seconds will attempt to summit for a combined 30 Everest Summits, the expedition’s aim is to highlight the role of the Sherpa’s and the Nepali people in the history of foreign Summits, including probably the first summit by Mallory and Tenzing Norgay.

Unfortunately there is already bad news with a Sherpa being the first victim of Everest this season.

[tags]Mountain Climbing, Everest, Sherpa, Nepal[/tags]

This is a bit of a Community Service Announcement, there have been a few reports in the news lately about the misuse of EPIRBs in Tasmania. Two notable occasions were a Swiss couple who activated their EPIRB after getting their 4WD bogged just 7Km’s from a main road and a group of South Australian’s walking the South Coast Track who became too tired to complete the rest of the walk, obviously the Rescue team was not impressed as they only lifter one person out so that he could arrange a private charter helicoptor to retrive the others, and fair enough. As I started writing this last night there was a short on TV that there would be a story in todays newspaper, so here is a link to the story on The Mercury website, SOS call for sanity. A couple of days earlier was this article, Wrong EPIRB use set to cost. Charging for misuse seeming to be getting a lot of public backing and it will probably go ahead, considering the Search and Rescue helicopter responds to most activations plus the usual services you can imagine it is quite costly, $1000’s for each call.

What is an EPIRB?

Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacons. When activated, the beacons send out a distress signal that allows it to be located by the satellite system and search and rescue aircraft to locate the people, boat or aircraft needing rescue. They may also be known as Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs) and Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs).

When to use an EPIRB 

And by use I mean activate. Simply you should only use an EPIRB when your life is in danger, obviously a bogged car or tired legs don’t count as a life threatening situation. There are a few less dire situations where an EPIRB may be activated but I won’t list them simply because I want to avoid having to write a disclaimer, etc. I’m sure you can imagine for yourselves what they might be.

How to avoid having to use an EPIRB

As they say ”prevention is better than cure” and this applies to EPIRBs. On extended trips you should always carry enough food and water for at least an extra two days, that way if you get stuck somewhere because of weather or your just not making good time you have two days to play with.

Know your limits don’t set out on a week long walk if all you’ve done before is overnight trips.

Don’t panic, think with a clear head about what you can do to help yourself and what others might be able to do for you. Exhaust all other means of escaping the situation and most of all use common sense.

[tags]EPIRB, Emergency, Hiking, Tasmania, Safety[/tags]

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Quite possibly one of the ugliest tourist developments I have ever seen the Grand Canyon Skywalk opens to the public in 2 days. At $75US it’s not a cheap way to see the canyon eigther, in fact personally I don’t even think the whole development looks like it is worth $75. Still in a couple of days the carpark will be filled with RV’s, SUV’s and Tour Buses and the skywalk will be straining under the weight of overweight middle americans with wallets bigger than their brains. The walk is conveniently shaped like a horseshoe probably designed to point visitors straight back at their vehicles after they have completed the obligitory 500 steps after first stepping out of it.

[tags]Grand Canyon, Skywalk[/tags]

[tag]National Geographic[/tag] has rated almost 100 of the [tag]UNESCO[/tag] [tag]World Heritage[/tag] Sites and it seems many of my fears are not unfounded. The Tibetan culture of Lhasa is described as being all but destroyed by the Chinese and it is obviously no accident. Kathmandu is critisized for it’s appaling air pollution and the Galapagos are reportedly under threat from intodruced plants and animals. It makes it even more apparant how urgent these places need to be properly protected and how I need to [tag]travel[/tag] as soon as I can to see those things that might not be saved. It’s not all doom and gloom though, many sites are praised for their improvements and management. We can only hope the same type of things can start to happen in the badly rated places. I’m particualarly dissapointed about [tag]Lhasa[/tag] I really want to go there but it is heartbreaking to hear what the Chinese have done to [tag]Tibet[/tag] and with the new railway it is bound to get worse. I checked out Lhasa in Google Earth some time ago, it really wasn’t what I expected, far bigger and more modernised. Definately not the Lhasa of 7 Years in Tibet, is it.

You can read the article at the National Geographic Traveller website and the news story from the NG News site.