Rafting The Amazon

My good friend Bruce Low has sent me a message about a trip he is planning to do next year for charity. He is planning to go from Source to Sea on the Amazon. It is for a great cause so get your money out and sponsor him. Check out his Blog Here.

Bruce Relaxing and fixing gear in rare sunshine in Scotland.

Bruce running Pinball on the ALLT A' CHAORAINN

He Say's
WHY AM I DOING THIS?
I have several reasons why I am doing this. The most important are:
I have known many people who have had, and survived cancers of many types, also people who have not survived. Some of these people have been my immediate family, and others friends, some have only been acquaintances, or who I met briefly and then heard later of their situation. All of them have affected me. The biggest was when both my parents had different types of the disease. My father passed on after 4 years of lung cancer. My mother has been in remission from Leukemia for 5 years, and is in great shape. A large part of this has been down to the support she received from CLAN. She now puts that back by being a volunteer for CLAN.
Its now my turn to put something back for all the support my mother got, and with that support CLAN have also supported me, and the rest of our family. CLAN also goes on to support many people directly with counseling and alternative therapies. The knock on affect of this support is also huge. As with my family, the support goes wider than the individual who is being directly helped, through counseling, massage, somewhere to stay, or just by being there to visit and have coffee with someone who has/is going through something similar, and this support is passed down to the people connected to whoever is supported by CLAN.
A very important thing is that CLAN also directly supports the carers of sufferers. They too can go and find aid directly from the charity. You don’t need to have a cancer to be supported.

Famous

I sent off a few pics to Hugh who runs wheels in the woods as he said he needed them for a magazine piece. I got a hold of Land Rover World Jan 2008 and there was my truck with another picture I had taken while marshaling at wheels in the woods.


It's not much but I was pleased to see my truck in the pages of a magazine after all the work I went to on it.

In the Mud at Glentarkie

I was out at Glentarkie with the toy yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't get any shots of it. We had a great day out with SORC. The weather was pretty cold and wet in the morning but it did dry off during the day. It has been 2 years since I was last there and the site hasn't changed much but there were some interesting new routes. There were steep climbs steps and mud to keep us entertained. Mike ventured into a couple of dead water runs with his tuned 200tdi but I stayed clear of those with the V8.

It was the last event for SORC for the year and so the next event will be Findo Gask RTV in January.

Letting the water run out from the cab.

Link to YouTube of me winching.

Motorbikes

I was into bikes at a young age but when I realised I couldn't carry a kayak on one I went off them. I have been re inspired lately with Ewan MacGregor and Charlie Boorman doing their Long Way Down trip through Africa. Currently showing on BBC 2 on a Sunday night.

I watched their first trip Long Way Round from London to New York.

This time though I am hooked.

I have set my CBT Test date for December 5th and I hope to do my direct access course before next spring to get a full bike license. Then maybe a trip somewhere. mmmmmmm?

Check out their webpage LONG WAY DOWN.

Garbh Allt

I have been feeling a bit ill today and so have been looking through some photos and filing them. I came across this set of shots from a river up in Royal Deeside. The Garbh Allt.

It runs out of the Queen's estate and has an extremely dramatic waterfall framed by an awesome victorian bridge.
The river is a short one but well worth the 3km walk in. The main fall has an amazing horizon line as you approach the lip looking out into the forest.

Ben White.com running the top of the main fall.

Ben White.com running the boulder garden after the main fall.

I really must get back there soon.

Offroad and Bushcraft Challenge.

Alot of people who read my blog are aware I have been building a toy for a while. Well this last weekend over my 30th Birthday it got it's biggest trip to date. It was a trip of over 400miles down to the Lake District for a 3 day event and back home again.


There was a team of `Just The 4 Of Us` who went down to take part in the Guide Dogs for the Blind event Offroad Bushcraft Wilderness Challenge. It all started on Thursday night with a trip to pick up David from Milnathort and onward to just outside Penicuik to meet up with our other 2 members, Bob and Steve. We hit the road just after 8.30pm and travelled all the way down to Ambleside. With both V8's needing a drink before we got there.
We found the Hostel we were to stay in for the night after going to the wrong one first.....There was a Toga party going on. The next morning dawned and we headed to Windermere to meet the rest of the participants and sign in. The day started with a short ferry trip across the lake to our start point, briefing and photos calls. From there we were put into groups of 4 teams. We were team up with some great guys who were up for a good laugh like us so it was set to be a good weekend. We followed in convoy up through the woods and after a bit of offroading we met up with our Bushcraft Instructor Ben from Wood Smoke. The first challenge of the day was to build a shelter. After a quick instruction we set off and built a tepee style wooden shelter.

Once the Shelter was set up it was time for more demos. We were shown how to light a fire and the gut and fillet a Rainbow Trout. That was Dinner. So we set about starting a fire and carving the utensils we needed to prepare dinner. The fish was complimented by sweet potato, corn on the cob and rice. It was an excellent meal and enjoyed around the fire.

Saturday Morning it was time for the driving. We set off from camp just after 8am and were lead across some great Greenlanes. the routes were not difficult but very enjoyable. The mist had come down but we were sure there were views out there somewhere.

There was always time for a quick brew as we waited for the convoy to catch up or spread out to limit the numbers of vehicles on the trails at one time.

The afternoon of the Saturday was time for a Basher Boat Race. First we had to build it and the only materials we had was a large Tarp and a ball of string.... We had to make an oval shaped using branches and tie it all together. We then had to stiffen the whole boat using other pieces of wood and cover the whole thing with the Tarp being careful not to rip it. Our team made a great job of it and won the race to get the boat over to the other side of the Tarn (small Lochan) and back twice.

Saturday nights dinner was Pheasant and Duck with potatoes and an amazing plum sauce that was made from wild berries picked that day. Of course we had to gut the Pheasant and breast the Duck.

Sunday morning dawned and it was time to light fire with friction. This is a very hard skill to master but the instructors talked us through the process and it did all make sense so now it was our turn. We worked in pairs and you will be please to know the we both managed to make fire!!!!!

After the fire starting it was off for the final photo call some manifold cooking and some more greenlanes before we headed back home. We had our own stop before we left the Lake District to try our manifold cooked pasties and of course a brew.

It was an awesome weekend with a great team and this small write up doesn't do it justice but I hope you get the idea. I learnt loads and got really inspired to go out and play in the woods a little more. We even managed to raise some money for a good cause in doing so. As a team we have not got the final figure in but we will be very close to £2000.00 Thankyou everyone who sponsored me and the whole event raised over £26,000.00 for Guidedogs for the Blind. Their are planning to run it next year and I'll be there.

4x4 and Bushcraft Challenge

I'm 30 on Friday and I'll be doing a charity event for the Guide Dogs for the Blind over the whole weekend. It is a 4x4 and Bushcraft Event.


What the Organisors say

"Here is your chance to join the 4x4 convoy as we head into the
hills of the Lake District to start a weekend of adventure,
survival and discovery. Our journey to base camp will traverse
mountain tracks, green lanes and fords before we arrive at our
secluded woodland location. As daylight fades, teams will need
to pitch camp, set up expedition-style shelters, start their fires
and prepare their own wildfood meal, before spending the first
night under the stars.
This magnificent Lake District location is surrounded by spectacular
scenery and off-road trails just waiting to be discovered by your team.
This really is a great opportunity to literally take your 4x4 to new heights.
During the Survival Challenge, teams of four participants will be
taught how to make fire by friction, build woodland shelters, construct
and race their own basha boat, prepare wild foods, cook via manifold,
purify water and navigate by the stars.
Our team of highly qualified and experienced instructors will provide
training and guidance throughout.
Teams of 4 can use their own 4x4’s or one can be provided with
professional instructor.
Fundraising Target per team £2,000."



So if you want to sponsor me get in touch.

Raft Guide Courses

I have just finished 2 six day raft guide courses run back to back with Splash White Water Rafting. They were 2 great courses with some excellent people. It was totally knackering but well worth it. We now have 14 more potential raft guides in the world and members of the SRA.

The first week was a small 5 person course and the second we had 9.
Myself and Bruce ran the courses and we used a variety of rivers. We must have clocked up around 100 river miles over the 2 weeks.
We used the Orchy, Tummel, Tay and Garry.

Dave getting it wrong on Sore Tooth on the Orchy.

Me trying to attach an anchor to realise the wrapped raft.

The Campbell Wedding

Jax and I went down to North Wales on the 29th of September to join Bob Campbell and Allison Collett for their wedding near Llangollen. It was tight but we got there in the end after getting a little lost on the way. We had left Perth at 10am for a 4pm service and yes we did have to get changed in the carpark of the church kayaker style and we ran into the church just before the bride. oops.

The ceremony took place in a cool little Welsh church just outside Ruithin for and the reception was at Trevor Villa just outside Llangollen

It was a fantastic day and evening. We stayed at the White Waters Hotel in Llangollen on the banks of the River Dee.

There were friends all round. Doing the catering, PJ. Doing the photos Jason (from Canoe Kayak Magazine). Doing the music Cheese. It was a real cool get together to celebrate Bob and Ally tying the knot.

Bob with his new Father in Law.

The Best Man's job is done.

The Bride showing off her new shoes...........

The First Dance.

Congratulations to Bob and Ally. These are some of my shots but check out Tim's Blog for more.

Wheels in the Woods

Last weekend I was helping out at Wheels in the Woods. This is a SORC event held in the Borders around Walkerburn. Anyone who is not a SORC member can come along and test themselves on a variety of stages. From easy Green routes that are suitable for brand new out the showroom truck to Red and Black routes for more prepared vehicles. The Black routes needing winch equipment on board.

As it is a promotional event for SORC we are not allowed to take part but we do get to marshal and make sure no one is doing anything they shouldn't.

I was posted out a Black Route as I had the Toy with me I would have been able to help out if someone had got too stuck.

There were only 8 Vehicles that chose to try the stage I was at. It had an extreme steep slope to start with and continued up the hill into some very boggy terrain before descending back to the Forest Road through tricky tree stumps.The start was so steep that the first vehicle to try the stage snapped a winch rope and killed the solenoids. The picture above shows them trying to fix it. Unfortunately they were unable too and so had to continue just doing the Green and Red Routes for the rest of the day.

I saw some well prepared Trucks thoughout the day. One of them being this 200tdi Lightwieght buildt on a converted to coil spring chassis. It had only had it's winch fitted on the Friday before the event.Just as well. They needed it.

Tay Forest Challenge

I was marshaling at the Tay Forest Challenge at the weekend. It was only up in Pitlochry so an easy trip up the road on Friday and I met up with Bob and Helen and camp on the banks of the River Garry. Had a BBQ and crashed out ready for the fun and games of the weekend.

You Marshall a team on this event and follow them round to the special stages and make sure they don't do themselves any damage. The vehicles are not so lucky.

Team 19 in stage 22.

The Teams have to get their 2 vehicles to punches that are in very tricky places. They have punch card attached to their vehicle and the punch is on a wire attached to a tree or rock.

This means some careful driving and winching to get there.

Plenty of running repairs were carried out over compulsory 30 min lunch break. This Series 3 with 200tdi engine had driven from Cambridge to compete in the event. The owner was planning to drive it home afterwards. He is used to being far away from home. He shipped the same vehicle to Malaysia in 2003 to compete in the Rainforest Challenge.

Driving between stages on Forest Roads.

The front tyre is not punctured. They were running them at extremely low pressures to get maximum traction.

There were some very tricked up trucks at the event some that were worth 10s of thousands of pounds and this Discovery Hybrid that had taken the owner 2 years to build and had 39 inch Tyres. and full Hydraulic Steering and Winches.