This is where the real journey for Mark and our virtual, geographical journey ended on Friday afternoon in the Avenue de Wagram just off the Place de L'Etoile in Paris. The tracker kept running well after Mark crossed the line and recorded all the spots where the interviewers and photographers ushered him to get the best shots! In keeping with what became the norm throughout this blog whenever Mark was in a big city, I will gloss over the geography and simply say that in Paris there is too much geography .......and history, art, literature and culture to do justice to it in a blog.On Friday the geography in any case was not about a city but about the conclusion of a journey which had taken Mark around the world. His circumnavigation of the globe makes our world seem both smaller and bigger.... smaller because one guy has cycled round it on a bike but much bigger because in doing so, he has shown us the environmental and cultural diversity which exists in 360 degrees of longitude. It was a priviledge to be in Paris to watch the return of this extraordinary young man who has engaged so many people with the world.
I was recently at an event where Michael Palin was speaking about Geography. He said "Geography is as much about what you see outside as what you learn inside". Mark's gargantuan efforts over 195 days have given us a new perspective on the world and the chance to see it 'on the outside' in a different way. 'Geo Blogging with Mark' has been a learning journey for me and if I have managed to share some of my enthusiasm for the subject I love with a wider audience, it will have been a very worthwhile project.
When I started writing about Mark's journey, I had intended simply writing the occasional posting as part of my departmental blog for school. Somewhere towards the 'end' of Europe, the potential for a bigger project suggested itself and I migrated all the postings onto 'Geo Blogging with Mark' and since then, like Topsy, it just 'growed'.
A lot of people have asked me what will happen to the blog. The first thing I plan to do is to proof read and sort the errors then I will print out a hardcopy to give to Mark. At 600+ pages it will be a long read but I hope it will remind him of some of the places he cycled through but had no time to explore. At some point I will also 'tag' the posts with some extra labels so that the geographical content is more accessible for teachers in the classroom. I would like to think that in years to come, when I need a good example of an ox bow lake, I will know exactly where to look!
And finally, for those who liked the 'big pictures', here's the biggest and best picture of all........
I'm going to miss following that blue line!
If you have enjoyed my geographical meanderings, please consider making a donation to Mark's charities http://www.justgiving.com/artemisworldcycle . They are all very worthy causes and by giving a little you will be doing a lot to help children, young people, communities and environments around our wonderful world.
Coping with the paparazzi
Cycling from south to north, Mark crossed a whole spectrum of famous wine producing areas... of which more shortly. We have encountered grape vines in many locations along Mark's route - in Europe at the start of his journey, Turkey, Iran, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Portugal, Spain and now France and according to some research I've just done, 71% of all the grapes produced in the world are used for wine.... and the area of grape vines for wine production is growing at 2% per annum!
The image above, sourced from Flickr, gives some impression of the terrain he tackled at the end of the day yesterday ! At this altitude (over 1000m) in the Pyrenees the predominant land use is woodland and pasture. It is, on average, 6 degrees cooler up here than at sea level and this dramatically shortens the growing season. In addition there is little flat land. However, it is also very wet! This area receives between 1500 and 2000mm of rain with no seasonal let -up. Rain bearing winds enter the Bay of Biscay from the Atlantic and there is nowhere for them to go except up. Believe me - this is the voice of experience talking. A camping holiday in the Western Pyrenees should not be undertaken lightly!
The image right shows the border crossing which Mark would have passed through this morning before entering the region of 
However, the imagery was evidently captured at different seasons and so provides a contrast between the greening fields of spring and the harvested fields of mid summer. 
The 'big picture' today is very reassuring as the head and tail of the blue line draw ever closer together .....
Despite its volume, the river often runs very low - particularly in summer and autumn - after the abstraction of more than half of its water for irrigation. The Canal de Tuesta, first dug almost 8 centuries ago, parallels it course and is the main artery of irrigation over the Ebro's floodplain. The river can occasionally flood badly in spring when snow melt from the Pyrenees joins run off from seasonal rain.
On his approach to the valley floor, Mark crossed this local boundary cutting through neatly tended vineyards. 
The high peaks of the Sierra which he has just crossed are now to his right and if you look at the image above, you will be able to make out the settlement of la Pinilla bottom right. La Pinilla is a ski resort! 
The map above is the expected pressure situation for Sunday and there is little change predicted for the next few days. Winds are very light and from the south and the nearest frontal system......well, wouldn't you know it! As a consequence, skies in Spain will be clear, bringing lots of sunshine and temperatures picking up during the day but cold nights as any warmth is lost to the clear skies. 
The significance of Madrid, apart from it being a major milestone through Spain, is that it is one of two antipodal points along Mark's route. According to the Guinness criteria, which you can read under the route tab on 
Legislation to designate a large part of the Sierra de Guadarrama as Spain's 15th national park is likely to be passed this year and one of the promotional videos (by an organisation with an unfortunate abbreviation) for that proposal is included below ..... 
It could be quite cool up there!
I have decided therefore that I will follow a theme rather than a route for the remainder of today's journey; the theme being the river Tagus and the management of its waters. The Tagus at just over 1000 km long is the longest river in the Iberian peninsula but it pales into insignificance compared to some of the rivers we have looked at recently in the US! As mentioned already, its course through Spain is fairly constricted - it doesn't have much of a flood plain until it enters Portugal. Just before the border is the largest dam and reservoir along the river - the Alcantara. The waters held back by the dam extend a full 50 km upstream.
The road east from Caceres leads to Trujillo and somewhere along that road Mark would have cycled past this spot and also the Guadiloba dam which looks like some sort of Chinese dragon from the air! (The Guadiloba is a tributary of the Tagus)
One of the other agricultural products for which this region of Portugal is particularly noted is 
The bridge was completed in 1998 after only 18 months of construction. At ten miles long, it is the longest bridge in Europe and carries six lanes of traffic with a 75mph speed limit. It's probably just as well that Mark went the long way round! 
Like most state and national forests in the US, it is managed to balance the demands of forestry, conservation and recreation.
This one is the 
St Augustine also has several claims to notoriety associated with rather inglorious events during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s which you can read about 
Between Thomasville and the Florida border, the landscape of southern Georgia is quite different from the intensively farmed irrigated land which we saw along Mark's route two days ago. Approaching the border, forest once again becomes the dominant land use as cultivated land gives way to a mixed land use of trees, swampy areas and some patches of grassland and cultivation. At the Florida border, the view is like this....
The first meandering mentioned in the title of today's posting is the route which Mark took yesterday. Having imagined him to be on a course due east to the Atlantic, it was a bit of a surprise seeing him suddenly change direction and head north. All was explained later in the web diary ... the wee detour is to add up some extra miles... as you do when you've already done about 16,500! The benefit of the change of direction is also that it lets us look at a different sort of environment to the one we've been looking at in the last couple of days.
and the image below from Flickr shows the seaward side of the spit looking north.
They are floating bee hives and they are linked to a very unique product of the region - Tupelo honey! The town of Wewawitchika is the global centre of Tupelo honey production as explained 
