Well, I made a week of keeping this site current. Phew! What a mission! Plenty more in store for next week. Have a great weekend wherever you might be lucky enough to be folks.

Now, I am no Michael Axworthy or Professor Ali Ansari, but after studying Iran in depth for the last 3 years, walking clean across the country last year and of course trying desperately to write a book about it, I reckon I might have at least a little idea about what is going on.

I am honoured to have been invited to speak at the Royal Geographical Society headquarters in London on December 5th regarding my walk across Iran and I am hella nervous. Presenting on stage in the Ondaatje Theatre in front of 750 RGS members and their guests is a formidable challenge at the best of times. When your topic is one of the hottest and polarising (not to mention most complex) in the world today things really get interesting. Since my return from Iran I have been accused of being pro-regime, anti-regime and everything in between. A sure sign that my lecture is bound to be an interesting one, for me and the audience.

My experience walking 1700km from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf across the Alborz mountains, through Tehran, Qom, the Central Plateau, Esfahan, the Zagros mountains and on to the gulf was, to me, amazing and thought provoking.

If you think that I might be able to provide you with an evening of entertainment and I hope, some thought, then please come along. I am super amped (and kaking it just a bit!) to speak for the second time at the RGS headquarters. An honour for sure! I really hope that the topic of Iran proves just as inviting as the Amazon paddling descent which garnered a full house and more.

I have some sweet gear favourites for "Dig this gear" and clips for "Friday Stoke" piling up. I spent most of October wandering around Mount Kilimanjaro leading a couple of back to back charity groups on the mountain, experiencing the worst weather I have ever encountered on the peak (albeit, I have only summited 7 times but still, it was weather of note). On my return, I have been kept busy speaking for the Royal Geographical Society across the UK. In London City presenting regarding my walk across Iran and in Keswick and Brecon, "An Adventurer's Tales", outlining a few of the adventures that have brought me to the point where I currently stand on my journey as a pro adventurer. On the 5th December I am massively stoked to be once more presenting at the RGS headquarters in London. To stand on the stage of the Ondaatje Theatre with names like Burton, Speke, Livingstone and the like inscribed on the walls surrounding is kind of surreal and a huge honour.

I am 5 months post-op from my hip bone graft and clavicular open reduction internal fixation (screwing a titanium plate into my clavicle) and last week my physio was amped with my progress. So was I, until this week when I have been in a fair bit of pain. I wonder the level of sympathy that folks will have for me if I have rushed too soon into more aggressive conditioning? Not a lot I would imagine. Probably rightfully so. Fingers crossed it will settle down again soon. In the meantime my return to paddling will have to be delayed a little.

In a couple of weeks I am also excited to be attending my first ever RGS Explore weekend, the society's expedition and fieldwork planning event. Along with my mate, Dave Cornthwaite I am chairing the Rivers workshop over the weekend. It promises to be a fab few days with a lot of the usual suspects from the UK based adventure and expedition world lurking around the halls of the RGS from the 18th to the 20th of November. If you are planning an expedition and need some advice, information and a healthy dose of inspiration then be sure to get along.

In December it has become necessary for me to don a "lounge suit" (an outfit which I have been reliably informed does not include board shorts and flip-flops) for an event that I hope will be a bit of a blast. Etiquette (real or imagined by me) prevents me from revealing exactly what it is but hopefully I will fill you in in the aftermath.

Right, since I have broken my run of "no words" I will endeavour to keep things rolling on into Christmas and the New Year with some interesting stuff to keep you amused.

Climbing Kili is a blast. I head back tomorrow, after being on top just last week with an amazing group of folks representing the Limbless Association and Limbcare. I am not sold on 25 western trekkers needing a team of 100 to get them to the top but still love being there with some very cool people. I also must remember to the trekkers on a Kili climb, it might as well be Everest or K2. For the most part it is so far out of their comfort zone as to be of that difficulty level.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I know your granny summited and Cheryl Cole and Chris Moyles, but if nothing else summit day is killer. I (to myself) bitch and moan my way to the top every time I am there. I think of ways to get out of coming back the next time. The next thing I know I am down at the last camp drinking a can of Coke and wondering what all the fuss was about. Then, I actually look forward to coming back. For me it is not about standing on top. As a leader, that is not my aim. My chief concern is number one, the safety of my clients and secondly to get them on top. If I stand there with them, sweet. If I have had to co-ordinate an evac lower down then to me it is just as rewarding. It is a challenge to spend 8 days on a big mountain with 25 people, see what makes them tick and use this to get them on the summit. Sometimes it is pretty tough going, but every time it is great fun!

It is certainly not something I do for the money (I do happily get paid for it though. I ain't no charity!) but rather use for my own training and to improve myself. Basically I get paid to have fun and improve my skills at the same time. Hard to complain about that. But, I must balance it against the fact that I am 2 weeks away from my chief endeavours, namely maintaining this website, hunting speaking gigs, writing articles and of course planning for the next expedition. For that reason I strive to make the most of my time on the mountain. To use it as a tool for improvement. I reckon it works out pretty well.

I am back home on the 11th October and I will be sure to get posting again properly. Filling you in on how things are progressing for the Mississippi descent, what I must fit in before then and generally babbling about all things adventure, exploration and expeditions.

I don't do much commercial group leading anymore, but the chance arose several months ago to do these back to back journeys. It just happened to be perfect timing and impossible to pass up. Besides a paying job and 2 summits for myself it meant I could get back into the groove of some harder living in preparation for my next expedition. Being dirty, a bit hungry, tired and cold does wonders for your attitude. I also got to see the power that so-called "ordinary" people posses.

Mount Kilimanjaro is what it is. By the normal routes (read, most popular) it is not at all technical and save for summit day the trekking on a day by day breakdown is not overly tough. But, for anyone who has a crack at the mountain it is the cumulative total of these days that makes all the difference - cold days at ever increasing altitude and then that midnight wake-up call to make the final ascent to the summit. I saw folks who don't normally do such things, dig deep inside themselves, refuse to concede defeat at the hands of the mountain and make it to the top. Seeing Kili crush young, fit men, yet allow someone who could be my gran ascend to it's highest point got me thinking. I realised that this mountain judges you not on your physical attributes or technical ability but on what's between your ears. An attribute that is not the exclusive domain of elite alpinists and extreme athletes, but is somewhere within us all. All we have to do is find it (5500m and -20 degrees certainly helps in the search).