Brian O'Connell'sround-up of travel blogs
[ www.darraghkelly.comOpens in new window ]
Kelly left Ireland on September 26th last, his 30th birthday, to travel for a year. He left with "a few bits and pieces, an aluminium mug, wind-up radio and a two-litre drink bladder."
From dodging scorpion stings, to swimming through raging torrents and hanging around rocket-launch sites, Darragh's philosophy is pretty straightforward: "Preparation is key, so I haven't done any."
Coming across like a mix between Bush Tucker Man and Rambo, he has managed along the way to overcome serious illness and survive car accidents.
His latest blog comes from a town called Serata, deep in
the Andes in Peru. He and a few other expats decide to have a kickaround. It's not long before they accept a challenge to play the local soccer team, Serata FC.
Despite conceding an early goal, a couple of heavy tackles and a "Diego-like" goal ensure the match ends 1-1.
"We did a lap of honour in the square, shaking hands and waving as we made our way the long way around to the bus office," Darragh tells us.
Or, as he says elsewhere on his blog, "it's amazing the people a smelly Irish backpacker can hold his own with." More from Darragh's adventures soon.
[ www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Micke-TrippersOpens in new window ]
Their latest blog comes from the demanding hilly terrain of west Cork, where they took time to post some pictures from Bantry and Glengarriff. They also posted some pictures of their bikes in order to satisfy a "Doubting Thomas who thought we were on a bus trip".
Several days they have managed 75km, noting that "biking in the rain" appears to be something of an Irish tradition.
"There are many things we are enjoying about the Irish culture," they tell us. "One of those is the ability to have a hot pot of tea and warm scones at any time of the day."
One other redeeming factor, they say, is that "everyone is very aware of people on bikes and they always make way for them, to the point of slowing to a stop."
Let's hope they manage to avoid the M50 then.