BRIAN O'CONNELL'S ROUND-UP OF TRAVEL BLOGS
• Taking your 82-year-old mother hitch-hiking around Ireland may not be everyone's idea of a weekend away. But for the award-winning travel writer Bruce Northam (www. americandetour.com), going boldly where few bloggers have gone before is what makes his blog so compelling
This week's tale comes from a trip to Kenya. Northam meets Kenneth Yoga, who holds the record for juggling a football with one leg, managing 35,000 bounces in five hours. But that's not all: "Kenneth Yoga's is a miraculous triumph," our blogger tells us. "At 10 years old his foot was bitten by a puff adder snake. Every doctor he visited opted for lower leg amputation. Finally, Kenneth's leg was saved by Dr Vladimir Shuken from the Ukraine."
Not to be outdone, Kenneth's brother, Willis, holds the world record for solo headers with a football. Willis can complete "an astonishing 55,000 bounces in seven and a half hours". Next on Willis's list is breaking the record for uninterrupted head juggling while sitting. "The current record is three hours, held by a Polish man," Northam tells us, proving that head-the-balls exist the world over.
• Travel-rants.com began life in 2005 when Darren Cronian had what he calls a "nightmare booking experience with a high-street travel agency"
This week Cronian published his wish list to improve the travel industry. "I don't expect to change the world writing this blog," he writes, "but I'd like to think that some corners of the travel industry are sitting up and listening to what I have to say as a consumer."
His wish list for travel companies includes improving online customer service and "friendlier travel agencies that consumers can socialise in and chill out". The idea of your local Budget Travel filled with idle banter and beanbags may be slightly aspirational.
Cronian believes airlines should scrap debit-card charges, although "providing 21st-century seat design and reducing fuel surcharges with the price of oil" wouldn't be bad, either.
• And, finally, 20-year-old Brendan McCann, who is volunteering for the summer in India, is blogging at www. brendaninindia.wordpress.com
McCann's mother got in touch to tell us that the adventure began in June, two days after an elderly woman turned to him as she got off a bus in Co Galway. The woman had heard McCann discussing his plans with the driver. "Don't go: you'll be killed," she said, "and no one loves a dead hero."
What does our hero have to say for himself? "I've got a runny nose and a sore throat," McCann writes. "I think it's the air conditioning at night. I've got quite the farmer's tan. Just from walking around and all. My hair is starting to bleach a bit in the sun as well."
More heroic tales to come.
• Have you news you want to share via your blog? E-mail goblog@irish-times.ie