Welcome to the BigToe Blog! Here you can “sniff” all sorts of juicy facts about South America. You can view the “toe-clippings” about what we´re doing, thinking and seeing as we run through this extraordinary continent. Join us to meet the amazing wildlife, wildplaces and people that live here. Videos, photos, activity ideas, blogs in English and Spanish are all snoozing below, waiting for you to enter into our world………..
“Have you seen an Anaconda or any other snakes?”
Question from six year old Tommy of Dulverton Somerset, UK.
Thank you for asking Tommy! You´ve asked a very popular question. Lots of people are interested in snakes and the species (types) we are seeing. So here goes……..!
The Answer: NO & YES+ VIDEO BELOW!!!
YES: Now that we are in the Tropics and running through the enormous Amazon Basin we see a snake almost everyday. Unfortunately, 90% of the time they are squished on the road by the passing traffic.
Snakes are fascinating and we both love (more…)
Meeting schools and children along the road…
One of our favourite parts of the running day:
Running with school children whom we meet along the road; giving presentations about the run and the natural world; meeting with the students, teachers and head teachers and learning more about the countries we´re running through.. (more…)
Tropical explained!
So far we have run 3,300 miles from the temperate or cold zones in the deep South of South America, full of snow and penguins, through the dry and desertified zones of the sub-tropical belt in Argentina, where water was hard to find and the cactus grew in sandy soil, and today we are officially in the Tropics! But what does it really mean?
Watch this video to explain a little more… :
We passed the Tropic of Capricorn and are now between this line and the Tropic of Cancer line. Between the two lines the Equator, that is the middle belt of the Earth . . . and that is (more…)
Question: How tiring is it? Are you getting used to it?
Thank you very much 8 year old Tom from Copplestone, Devon, UK, for your questions! (And learn more by clicking here to read this blog in Spanish !)
Q. 1: How tiring is it?
It’s more tiring than we could ever have imagined!! It’s a bit like you playing football for 4 hours a day, every day, whilst dragging your 10 year-old sister around behind you!! All we want to do is sleep – preferably a very long sleep, like a dormouse or hedgehog that hibernates in the winter!!
At the moment we are in northern Argentina and the temperatures are reaching 40 degrees Celsius in the Southern Hemisphere’s summer. We have therefore (more…)
Relief: In the Andes Rain Shadow.
Endangered Animals: Patagonian Huemul Deer
Key words: Endangered, habitat, threatened, decomposition, extinct, over-grazing
Poo Glorious Poo!!
What we find is a whole community, a city if you like of worms, beetles, bugs and all manner of insects. They are busily converting the lovely moist brown stuff into nutrient rich soil. This is called decomposition.
Q: Can you speak to birds???!
From 12 year old Leila, Montevideo, Uruguay.
“Can you speak to birds?”
Answer: Yes. When we were working in the Eastern Caribbean surveying seabirds, we would get into our kayak at night and paddle to the little islands close to us. Once we were close enough, we would drift on the waves and play the call through a loud speaker of the “Audubon’s Shearwater”, a type/ species of seabird that lays its eggs in the area we were studying. If the shearwater was at home, it would (more…)
Question From George, Longhorsley, UK
“Why didn’t you take Wellington boots with you?”
Do you know which country’s flag we have on our trailer??!