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A LEGALLY BLIND man has completed a 140 kilometre walk along the Royal Canal from Longford to Dublin, in aid of the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA).
Rahim Nazarali, a tutor in the Rehabilitative Training Unit of the IWA, reached the finishing line in Ashtown, Dublin at 2.30pm yesterday afternoon. He had started the trek in Cloondara, Co Longford last Thursday with his guide Norman Capriani.
Mr Nazarali told TheJournal.ie that the journey required an average walk of 20-26 miles or 35 kilometres every day.
“We lost at least 2-3 hours every day because of the weather,” said Nazarali. “You had to get into the canal at times, because it was so warm.”
Mr Nazarali is legally blind, and describes himself as having “five per cent eyesight.” He can recognise colours, and can usually recognise people, but he said his guide was still a big help during the trek.
“[Norman] was my eyes along the way a lot,” he said. “Terrain is uneven in lots of places,” he said earlier.
The Royal Canal waterway connects the River Liffey to the River Shannon, and has only recently been restored after being closed for almost 50 years.
Despite this, Mr Nazarali said that many locals near the start of his journey were not accustomed to seeing the canal used as a walking route. “Even when we met people on the way, they were quite surprised at what we were doing,” he said.
He added that many locals were unable to give directions, with some people saying their destination that day was only five miles away, while others said it was 15 miles away.
The pair have raised around €800 so far, and Mr Nazarali said they would like to reach €1,000. The amount raised will go towards computer equipment for the IWA Rehabilitative Training Unit in Clontarf, where Mr Nazarali teaches career skills to students with disabilities.
“The unit assists people who have acquired injuries or who have long-term disabilities to learn or relearn life skills to help them overcome the challenges they face in their lives,” he said.
“Examples of this would be cookery or IT skills. Like many other areas of IWA’s work, budgetary cuts have impacted on the RTU’s resources.”
Readers can find out more information on Rahim Nazarali’s walk from his Facebook page, and can donate to the Royal Canal Walk at this link.
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They should do this with pensioners and knitting.
Given THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, the spider didn’t build a web, it built a hammock, where it lay all day and watched the caffeine spider go.
The crack cocaine spider figured building webs was for suckers, waited till the caffeine spider was exhausted, then came up behind it and popped a cap in its ass. Nice web, Mr. Crack Spider.
When winter came, the marijuana spider had no place to live, it ended up in the crack web as the crack spider’s bitch.
Ha ha!
I wonder what the Irish spider would do after a few pints of Guinness ? Probably a straight web to the pub !!
True story this;- ‘ The Roughty bar ‘ in Kenmare, – an American came in & ordered a pint of ‘ real Irish Guinness ‘, The barman was just topping the pint when a little spider fell off the tap, onto the head of the pint.
Barman puts pint up on the counter to the Yank,
Yank says “hey, I ain’t drinkin’ that, there’s a spider in it…!! ”
Barman says sorry, & flicks the spider off the head.
Yank says; ” hey, – I still ain’t drinkin’ that…!! ”
Barman says;- ” What the hell is wrong with you, – you won’t drink it with the spider, – you won’t drink it without the spider……!! “…
The spider in my house at the moment is on speed!! I knock the webs down and he’s coming along behind me building them back up! the little sh&te!
I recommend you squash him so..!
Innocent animal.
There is nothing innocent about spiders.
he’s on speed!!
Spiders kill flies, the real bad guys.
Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
That spider probably had a bad upbringing.
very true Kardia! there is a spider web that wouldn’t look out of place in spider Beverly Hills in my garden shed and he’s just waiting for those filthy blue bottles to arrive! he’s huge and I reckon he’s partial to the odd splif or two. he just sits there looking all chilled just waiting for his spider chicken bucket!
Ha ha
Was the marijuana web an actual web or an artist impression of what the spider said he would create some day?
I think, out of these, I’d rather have the Marijuana world thankyou :)
Scary, the world we have is probably the Caffeine one :(
On my second mug of coffee sa I raed Tihs :)
The house spider Tegenaria pictured doesn’t spin webs, instead it makes a funnel and attacks prey straying near the entrance. Coffee time.
Was this a World Wide experiment ?
Look it up on the web :P
I don’t know 1 Web developer who can get through the day without coffee.
My dream of setting up a web based business has just been shattered.
Jasus, and i drink about 6 cups of coffee a day in work. Its just as well im not expected to produce decent quality spiders webs. … I wonder would the quality of my output improve if i cut back on the coffee. …. Ummm … Food for thought.
Sitting on my bed looking in my mirror felt like little strands of my hair were itching my face when all of a sudden a huge fecker of a spider climbs over my mouth!!!!! Threw it across the room and nearly killed myself trying to get out of my bedroom at the same time!!! Didn’t see where it landed but I’m fully sure it’s waiting for revenge:(
And here I was thinking caffeine could improve performance, janey mac!
This is older than time
Now why would you want to interfere with them in the first place? Weird!
Sorry I have dabbled in my time but I hav never taken chloral hydrate or Benzedrine
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