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Mountain Climbing

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Climbing The Highest Volcano

--- This post is adapted from a letter I wrote to a lovely man called Carl, who received my book A Rum Run Awry as a father’s day gift. When I came to write up the story for my blog, I realised that my letter to Carl was close to being the best summary I was capable of writing, so here it is. ---...

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Mental Warfare

Today, it is way too cold to climb Mount Taranaki. Tomorrow the weather will be better. So I wait... ...and eat cake...and drink tea...and stare at Mount Taranaki. I'm getting inside its head. Psyching it out for the big day. I'm playing mind games with a mountain. This is mental warfar...

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Grits and Shits. All Outta Both…

I don't know if this is a real thing...but I think I might be exhausted. It feels a bit like my body is shutting down; my legs aren't working properly, every part of my lower back aches for reasons I don't understand and the space between the roof of my mouth and my eyeballs feels like it is ...

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Peak Number Three: Ben Nevis

At 08:30 we awoke, less magnificently than the day before, but still pretty magnificently, in the car. Having spent 8 hours driving 311 miles until 04:00, but failing to find anywhere to stay, we eventually pulled into a car park, reclined our seats and alternately frozen and boiled our way into the...

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Peak Number Two: Scafell Pike

At 08:30 we awoke, magnificently, in Truck Haven. After conquering Snowdon the night before, we had set out at midnight for Scafell Pike, covering 150 miles of our 216-mile drive before practically falling asleep at the wheel. Two enormous breakfasts later, we were back on the road, wending our w...

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Peak Number One: Snowdon

Bored with the lack of adventure of everyday life, Simon and I decided to climb the three peaks.  We also decided that, given our love for food, beer and epic bleak photography, we didn't want to rush up and down in 24 hours, as is traditional.  Instead, we set out for a long weekend of conquering...

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