This will sound a little strange after my last posting, which seemd to be all about what I can’t do, as the last few weeks have been extremely busy!
My Board Director role with the SCA is both about overseeing the Access Officer job, and trying to watch ahead for strategic issues and problems. Luckily, recent events have all been enjoyable.
On October 1st and 2nd, we had a visit by Peter Bottomley, M.P. (as in Westminster M.P., we have MSPs in Scotland) , brought up by Tamsin Phipps , English Canoe Assn, to see in person what our access situation is in Scotland. Peter has an all-party role in keeping an eye on sport, and is in interested in both canoeing and rowing, and since the Olympics this year, we have had a lot of attention in Scotland. (Don’t forget that all three of the GB slalom team were Scots!).
On a beautiful atumn day, with blue sky, warm sunshine, and an early frost, we took Peter down the Tay in an open boat, five of us in the whole group. According to noisy troublemakers in England, opposed to any loosening of the access situation, the Tay was ‘a maelstrom of undisciplined canoeing and rafting, chaotic and disorganised, with massive disruption to fishing’. Well, on the busy Edradynate to Grandtully stretch, on a day of medium water, and according to our contacts, very good salmon angling, we saw NO canoes, kayaks or rafts, and ONE angler!!
The point was made. We also showed Peter our slalom site at Grandtully, and our campsite. (I managed to paddle grade 2-3 sitting down)
On Oct. 9th, Mike Dales and myself did a filmed piece for ‘Landward’, the Scottish equivalent of ‘Countryfile’, up at Loch Oich in the Great Glen, to publicise the new Canoe Trail in progress. Windy day, very dodgy, trying to paddle upwind with an inexperiecned bow paddler, and a cameraman sitting inthe middle! Turned out ok. A radio piece for ‘Out of Doors’, a BBC Radio Scotland early Saturday morning programme was also recorded, and I thought was better.
The next day, my paddling buddy Mary Conacher and I spent a day with the Producer for Modern TV, planning to do one of five programmes in Scotland for the next series for Griff Rhys Jones, on ‘Rivers’ (after ‘Mountains’). This was on the River Tummel, this one programme illustrating the west to east coast route on water that I have done once, and is very tough. Filming is in November, so watch this space!
October 25/26 has seen the annual Canoe Exhibition at Perth, Paddle 08, so had the pleasure of seeing my publisher! A great weekend, and I sat solidly for two days on the SCA stand - good to catch up with Franco
0 Responses to “Autumn activity”