alan sloman's big walk

The British Museum: A nice day out.

2012-02-05T22:39:00.001Z

Furnished with free tickets from my wonderful niece, I had a day out in London the other day. The weather was glorious and so we strolled from Hyde Park Corner to the British Museum in piercing sunlight and a sharp wind. You could readily swap those two adjectives around and still get the picture.

We made it in time for our timed entrance to the Grayson Perry exhibition, The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman.

Grayson is a chap who does things in a style of is own and the exhibition was both good fun and thought provoking.

As a bit of a philistine, one of the main reasons I love the British Museum is for the wonderful roof – one of Foster’s thin shell structures. Having worked on a pre-WWII Barnes Wallis geodesic roof in a past life (jacking it up by a few metres) I am still enthralled by the way they float so effortlessly above the huge spaces beneath.

So – here are a couple more gratuitous pictures from inside the BM’s Great Court: I love the way Foster combines classical architecture with the modern roof.

Public Perceptions of Wildness in Scotland: A Survey

2012-02-03T21:53:00.001Z

(CLICKABLE PICTURE)

Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority, the Cairngorms National Park Authority and Scottish Natural Heritage are conducting a survey of the public’s perception of ‘wildness’ and ‘naturalness’ of land cover in Scotland.

‘MVA Consultancy’ and ‘Research Now’ have been commissioned to design and conduct a survey using a representative sample of the Scottish population, and among residents of and visitors to the two National Parks.

I have been asked by the John Muir Trust to make this available to all Scottish readers of the blog. If you could spare ten minutes or so of your time to fill in the survey I would be grateful.

They are keen to receive a high response from ‘more informed’ members of the public such as hill-walkers and others who enjoy the outdoors on a regular basis.

The survey is at the following link and it should take about 15 minutes to complete. If you send it on to others please use this url as the one that displays when completing the survey is unique. Please also note that the closing date is 10 February.

http://www.researchnowsurveys.com/survey/VOP24011211362256CSPP/enter.asp .

The more people who complete it, the merrier.

Thank you

Scotland’s “Wildness” Map

2012-02-02T20:17:00.001Z

In any discussion about wind power and wild land there is always the initial preamble about what constitutes ‘wild’ land. The argument goes, quite rightly, that ALL land in Scotland has, to some extent, been been influenced by the hand of man.

In order to protect land from wind power station development it is important to be able to show that the landscape has wild qualities that would be lost by the imposition of wind turbines, substations, access roads and pylons.

Until now,Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) had prepared a map of ‘Search Areas for Wild Land', which identified where the most significant and valued areas of wild land are most likely to be found. The map was a preliminary one, prepared in 2002 for debate and further refinement, and did not include small areas of wild land, or attempt to precisely define the boundary of an area.

SNH has now undertaken new mapping work to refine our understanding of wild land. Phase I of the work, which maps relative levels of wildness for the whole of Scotland, is shown below:

CLICKABLE MAP

The map shown above is the composite of four maps that compare the ‘remoteness’, ‘ruggedness’, ‘perceived naturalness’ and ‘absence of modern artefacts.’

You can go to SNH’s Website to view all the individual maps and the resultant “relative wildness” map shown above in huge detail.

SNH will consider comments on the Phase I mapping and methodology in developing Phase II. Phase II will examine options for identifying wild land areas, which are considered of particular importance from a national perspective because of their quality and extent. It is hoped to present the results of this work in Spring 2012.

This is hugely important in the planning process for wind power stations as we will then have a definitive map showing land that is considered sacrosanct.

Lost Property

2012-02-01T15:52:00.001Z

Every now and then you stumble across a gem.

These past three days I have listened avidly to The Afternoon Play on BBC Radio 4. It was a trilogy: “Lost Property” by Katie Hims. Have a listen. The Beeb at its very best.

Part 1: The Wrong Label

Part 2: The Year My Mother Went Missing

Part 3: A Telegram from the Queen

Are you “Hill Fit?”

2012-01-27T14:47:00.001Z

There have been countless articles written on outdoor blogs about ways to reduce your pack-weight. There is the popular slogan “Minimum weight, Maximum fun!” that everyone of sound mind adheres to.

I have at times beefed on about the many backpackers who scrupulously drill holes in their spoons to reduce two grams here and cut the labels out of their clothing to shed another gram or two there. They have all been avoiding the elephant in the room, or should I say, the elephant staring out at them in the mirror. What is the point of having all this super-lightweight gear if you are carrying thirty pounds of fat around with you?

Well, of course, carrying less gear does help, but it does make more sense to be a bit slimmer!

After finishing my four month LEJOG, there wasn’t an ounce of fat left on my skinny little frame and I was incredibly fit. Over the last five years though, that fitness has all but disappeared. I have managed to keep the very worst of the burgeoning belly at bay but my fitness levels are generally pretty poor.

The preparations for my annual binge walk (the two week TGO Challenge) generally involve some Sunday walks over the winter period, building up to a couple of weekend efforts prior to the big walk itself. That usually has me just about ready to face my efforts in Scotland. The rest of the required fitness is built up over the two weeks of the walk itself.

Now, this is a shame as it means that clambering up the steep heathery hills all comes as a bit of an effort to this slack-muscled southerner. To make matters worse, this year I have designed a route for the Challenge that is, shall we say, quite a physical challenge. How on earth will I cope?

Serendipity is a wonderful thing. Out of the blue came a book to review from Chris Highcock: “Hill FIt: Strength, the missing element in your training.” It was an Hallelujah moment. You may already know that Chris writes regular articles for TGO on fitness. He also writes a mean blog: ”Cairn in the Mist”

Over the last few days I have been working my way through the book. He starts off explaining, very carefully, why it is important to build up strength, as well as fitness for these outdoor pursuits. He says:

“If you enjoy time walking in the outdoors … and want to enjoy it more, tackling those days with less pain and effort, then the programme I outline in this booklet is for you.”

He goes on to explain how having stronger muscles makes you more efficient and protects you from injury. Increasing your strength also has the added advantages of fighting the aging process, and increasing your health in all manner of ways.

Having got your attention, and ready to holler out “Praise the Lord!” Chris then outlines four very simple exercises (that only need to be performed twice a week; that’s my kind of plan!) to get you up and running and raring to go.

I cannot recommend this booklet more strongly. This is probably far more important than all the weight reducing tips you will ever have read in all the blogs put together. Chris’s simple exercise programme should have you fit and ready for the hill, so that your experience will be one of pleasure rather than one of pain!

You can read more about the book and buy it for yourself HERE It will be the best tenner you will have spent in years.

I am now getting pretty good at brushing my teeth whilst balancing on one leg. Following my first attempt, the bruises are now beginning to fade…

The Harmony Game

2012-01-21T17:19:00.001Z

I have just caught up with “The Harmony Game” on BBC iPlayer. You can find it HERE for the next six days.

“Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel talk openly and eloquently about an extraordinarily creative period in their career - the making of Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

Bridge over Trouble Water was the first album I ever bought. Here are two of my favourite tracks.

Allt Duine: Highland Council webcast

2012-01-19T00:19:00.001Z

For those amongst the congregation with an interest in how Planning Committees arrive at their decisions take a peek at yesterdays Highland Council planning committee’s meeting which discussed the Allt Duine planning application from RWE nPower. It was broadcast and the recording can be found by clicking the link below:

CLICK HERE

You need to “Fast forward” to about 7 minutes in, to start at the appropriate point.

I thought it would be interesting to note each of the supporters’ comments, so that we can all see what sort of opposition we are facing in the fight to stop the Allt Duine wind power station.

The three Councillors who expressed support for the windfarm were T Prag, E Hunter and Jimmie Gray. Having re-watched the meeting this evening, what each of them had to say was enlightening. I made careful notes:

Councillor THOMAS PRAG: (Scot Lib Dem)

I haven’t climbed hills for many years. We should make decisions in the light of National Policy. On Wildlife: Effectively the whole of the Monadhliath would be disbarred from windfarms as it is a very wild area: However, It is not a protected area. If I am absolutely honest, the influence on the National Park is probably not that significant. We can’t say “No” to all of them. We have quite rightly said “No” to a few.. I would worry if we got a reputation as ‘anti-windfarm’ I happen to quite like windfarms.

Councillor EDDIE HUNTER: (Independent):

Most of the individual objectors seem to be a long distance away from the proposed site.

Councillor JIMMIE GRAY: (Scot Lab)

It’s probably difficult to recollect a situation where we had less objections to a windfarm (He said this twice) From our site visit we saw in fact that there was very little to see.

We have a government that has been voted in on a basis of supporting renewable energy. The guidance coming forward makes that very clear. As a planning committee we should take that on board and it is my view that we should support the application and allow this on a national basis.

Brilliantly, an elder member of the committee stood up to bash that straight back!

Councillor HAMISH WOOD: (Scot Lib Dem)

“I don’t know what the Provost (Jimmie Gray is the Provost of Inverness) was looking at. When I looked out I saw a vision. I saw wilderness. I don’t know what he was looking at!”

I don’t know about you, but if i lived in Highland Council’s area, I would certainly not be voting for Messrs Prag, Hunter & Gray and I would make damn sure that everyone I met knew how these men voted on Tuesday.

Allt Duine: Highland Council rejects planning application

2012-01-17T18:00:00.001Z

It’s not often that you can say this but today has been a Very Good Day in the fight against wind power stations on wild land.

In fact, It has been an excellent day. You may remember my views on this particular wind power station, which you can find HERE, when I wrote about it in April of last year.

This morning, the Highland Councillors undertook a site visit to the Ptarmigan Restaurant at the top of the Cairngorm Funicular railway, over 20km from the actual site of the proposed windfarm, to see how visible Allt Duine will actually be. Then, this afternoon, they rejected RWE’s application for 31 x 125m high wind turbines on the very boundary of the Cairngorm National Park by nine votes to three. It will now go to a public inquiry to be undertaken by the Scottish Government.

The John Muir Trust, The Mountaineering Council of Scotland and the Cairngorm National Park Authority all made written submissions lodging their objections to the Application. In addition, there has been a well organised campaign called Save the Monadhliath Mountains backed by a petition with over 1300 signatures. They had the support of Cameron McNeish and Chris Townsend, who have both been active supporters of the campaign; indeed, Chris was a spokesperson for it.

Highland Councillors Fallows, Black, Kerr, Balfour, Davidson and Wood all spoke up against the planning application. (Hooray!) On the other hand, Councillors Pragg, Hunter and Gray supported the application. (Booo!)

Councillor Pragg thought the windfarm was “well planned” and he thought “the influence on the Cairngorm National Park was not significant”.

Councillor Hunter said that “many of the individual objectors live a long way from the site”.

Councillor Gray really took the biscuit, though: He was surprised that there had been so very little opposition to the application. He said that the site visit had shown that very little of the windfarm will be visible. He said that “it is clear that the Council should follow SNP policies and accept the application”.

Whilst I am on the subject of Councillor Gray it would be prudent to mention that in his Register of Interests on the Highland Council Website, that Jimmy Gray declared:

14/01/08: Platform PR - Celebration dinner for 5th Anniversary of funding of company based in the Highlands

Platform PR do a huge amount of work for the wind industry: Amongst others, their clients include:

Dunoon Wind Farm
EON
Falck Renewables
Nan Clach Ltd (another windfarm near the Cairngorm NP)
Scottish & Southern Energy
Viking Energy

I wonder just how objective his viewpoint actually is. It certainly didn’t seem to coincide with that of the majority of his colleagues. Councillor Wood certainly seemed to disagree strongly with him. None of the other councillors have registered dinners with Platform PR.

With it now in the lap of the Scottish Government, there is still a big fight to come as they have a history of overturning local democracy: Think of Trump’s golf course and the many, many wind farms, it has approved at inquiry.

However, this fight has been very high profile and the session was screened live so that the public could see the debate. The BBC and other media businesses were all there. It would be a foolish Scottish Government to overturn this popular decision.

Anyway: Today is a day to celebrate! Tomorrow we should renew our efforts to ensure the public inquiry also dumps the application.

Valuing nature based tourism in Scotland

2012-01-13T21:53:00.001Z

With more and more Wind Power Plants getting the “go-ahead” from the Scottish Government, perhaps Alex Salmond should pause awhile and reflect on this important document:

VALUING NATURE BASED TOURISM IN SCOTLAND:

Tourism is one of Scotland’s largest business sectors, providing employment for 200,000 people and generating visitor spending of more than £4 billion a year.

The natural environment is a key tourism asset with nature-based tourism making a significant contribution to the sector. Based on information in existing studies the main findings from a study by Scottish Natural Heritage are:

The value to Scotland’s economy (the direct economic impact) of nature based tourism is £1.4 billion per year
39,000 jobs (full-time equivalent) are reliant on Scotland’s nature based tourism
Tourist spending on nature based activities is worth nearly 40% of all tourism spending in Scotland.

NATURE BASED TOURISM

Nature based tourism is defined as an overnight stay that is related wholly or partly to Scotland’s natural heritage – its wildlife, habitats, landscapes and natural beauty.

The main activities that make up the nature based tourism market are wildlife watching, enjoying the landscape, walking, adventure activities and field sports.

WILDLIFE:

Wildlife tourism in Scotland is a valuable niche sector within the tourism industry. It includes activities such as bird watching, whale watching and guided walks. The wildlife section in this study also includes activities such as practical conservation holidays and other specialist interests such as geology and botany field trips.

This study uses a wider definition of the wildlife sector than a Scottish Government study on the Economic Impacts of Wildlife Tourism in Scotland (2010). It includes all those who enjoy wildlife as only part of their holiday. This gives a more comprehensive estimate of the wildlife sector as a whole.

The value to the economy of wildlife tourism is £127 million per year.

FIELD SPORTS:

Field sports cover a range of activities including shooting, hunting and fishing. This section covers grouse (and other game) shooting, deer stalking, and all types of angling.

The value to the economy of field sports tourism is £136 million per year.

WALKING:

Walking is clearly the most popular nature based activity for UK residents holidaying in Scotland and in 2009 VisitScotland identified 47% of total UK visitor trips (5.7 million trips) involved some form of walking activity.

Walking for this study includes walks of more than one mile, rambling, hiking and mountain sports including hill walking, mountaineering and climbing.

The value to the economy of walking tourism is £533 million per year.

ADVENTURE ACTIVITIES:

Adventure tourism is an expanding market with over 350,000 holiday trips to Scotland made by visitors undertaking adventure activities, including mountain biking, every year. It combines elements of physical activity, interaction with nature and cultural exploration and discovery. The active element includes canoeing and kayaking, surfing, sub aqua, sailing, mountain biking, cycling, extreme snow sports, horse riding and adventure activities such as rafting or paragliding. All rely on a diverse, high quality natural environment.

The value to the economy of adventure activity tourism is £178 million per year.

LANDSCAPES AND SCENERY:

Landscapes and scenery play a major part in attracting visitors to Scotland. A high proportion of both UK and international visitors tour Scotland and go sightseeing to view the scenery. More visitors enjoy the landscape than take part in any individual activity using the natural environment.

The value to the economy of tourists touring and enjoying Scotland’s landscapes and scenery is £420 million per year.

FUTURE PROSPERITY:

Nature based tourism plays a vital part in Scotland’s rural economy, pulling in millions of pounds and creating many hundreds of job opportunities. As one of Europe’s leading year-round nature destinations with a world famous reputation for natural heritage, Scotland has a great deal to offer.

With spending on nature based activities worth nearly 40% of all tourism spending, nature based tourism can generate significant benefits for the economy. We need to ensure that developments and activities are sustainable so that more people can enjoy Scotland’s nature.

Methodology
Attributing value to nature based tourism is complex. In many instances, data is not available and where it does exist, distinct studies often cannot be compared because of significant differences in approaches. The approach taken in this study was to identify and examine individually the main natural heritage features and activities that contribute to Scotland’s tourism product. The research is based on existing studies and uses raw material from some of the studies to calculate economic impact assessments for each of the individual activities. The study then puts together the individual assessments, in a way that avoids double counting, to reach an overall figure.
The overall figure does not include all activity from every sector. It attributes a percentage of expenditure based on the importance of nature for each of the sectors or activities. Where data is not available, the research sometimes has to rely on assumptions and estimates so figures should be regarded as indicative. Ascribing a specific motivation for any individual trip is difficult and therefore there is less confidence in the accuracy of individual activity figures.
The research does not include values for any business trips or visits to Edinburgh and Glasgow and so may underestimate the importance of some nature-based activities.

This document summarises research carried out for Scottish Natural Heritage. The full research report Assessing the economic impacts of nature based tourism in Scotland can be found at www.snh.gov.uk

That last link is a bit of a surprise, eh? Yes: This document was written for Scottish Natural Heritage, which is funded through the Rural Affairs and Environment arm of the Scottish Government. You can find this document in all its glory by clicking HERE and then HERE.

I think SNH and Alex Salmond ought to have a bit of a chat about this, don’t you?

Regent’s Canal Walk

2012-01-03T17:20:00.001Z

I have been getting out and about a bit recently, trying to fight off the Christmas belly with another lovely walk through the Great Park and yesterday, a fine stomp along the Regent’s Canal in the afternoon, taking in two excellent pubs: The Dove in London Fields, Broadway Market and the Palm Tree in Mile End.

The Dove was bustling and the Palm Tree just wonderful. I shall be back for more. You can see a little of its interior in this Paolo Nutini video.

TGO Challenge 2012: Cheese & Wine Party

2011-12-30T01:35:00.001Z

With our route in and approved, the next step is to decide where to host the annual cheese and wine party. If we are lugging bottles of wine, rounds of cheese and hunks of speciality breads, we don’t want to be doing that for too long.

We also need to pick a spot that some Challengers will be able to make without disrupting their schedule by too much. It would be pointless to hold a party in the middle of sod-all if it didn’t coincide with anyone’s route. Great swathes of our Challenge are likely to to be quite lonely and so we have to choose carefully.

After a bit of a chat with Mad’n’Bad Andy we came up with this year’s venue and the invitation has now been posted on the Challenge Message Board.

It’s a nerve wracking time. Who will turn up? What cheeses will be available? What shall we wear? Us girls do like to be at our best at the parties….

TGO Challenge 2012: Vetted

2011-12-28T20:20:00.001Z

You know there might be trouble when your vetter emails your mates and says:

“Here's something to cheer you up a bit. John Manning sent me Al's Challenge route, I haven't stopped laughing for two days!”

Pete Goddard, aka “Mr Grumpy” did indeed receive our route for vetting. And a fine job he made of it too. A few days after sending our route in to John Manning, (the new TGO Challenge Co-ordinator), the Vetter’s comments winged their way back to me. Pete made a few comments that set me thinking about the route:

“Thanks for sending such an entertaining route – I have laughed my way through the first ten days thinking of you up to your oxters in bog!”

“I do have some concerns about your second and third days as you will have a first time Challenger with you. If you manage to average 2kph I think that you will be doing very well, especially remembering that you will have full packs and that Dave will be carrying all that extra wine & cheese. Seriously, both days could well extend to 12 hours of walking and from experience it is very easy to burn yourselves out by overdoing things early on.”

“I will admit that I have not walked the ridge but I have been along your FWA and would suggest that the FWA will take more time and possibly be more difficult than your chosen route”

“Last time I passed through Gairlochy there was no ice cream”

“I thought Beinn Dearg a horrible mountain but then I did need to erect the tent at lunch time in order to get enough shelter to light a stove, wet, windy, cold and very miserable!”

“Your FWA is not the best”

“Although I do not personally favour your FWA for 21st I am prepared to let this go forward as long as you understand the difficulties that might arise due to the extreme weather that can develop on the plateau.”

Okay, so these are the edited highlights but Mr Grumpy does have a point, here. Even knowing that our team has pretty good experience of backpacking in Scotland, he is letting us know, gently, that we have bitten of a big mouthful this time around. But, hey! That’s what this is about. It’s a Challenge that we have set ourselves. There are a couple of days where we can cut out some of the toughest bits but still leave an interesting route. He also gave some really handy advice that we have incorporated into the route, especially for our Foul Weather Alternatives.

The Vetters do a fantastic job and Pete has probably made our walk next year a far better stravaig. Cheers, fella!

The wind industry & small communities.

2011-12-27T00:39:00.001Z

All over the British Isles and Scotland in particular, big business is approaching small communities to encourage them to have wind power stations built in their community. They pick off small communities, one by one to get what they want: the industrialisation of the countryside.

The first chance the public get to air their views is usually at the community council meeting. At this meeting the developers typically send along four or five members of the development team which normally includes two people who never seem to have a job description apart from ‘Developer’ but who seem to pop up at similar meetings throughout Scotland, a Community Benefits Officer, a Community Consultation Consultant and a Planning Officer (from the developer)

The meeting is usually rammed with local folk who would never normally turn out for these meetings and they all want answers.

Of course, they don’t get any. That’s not the job of these five representatives from the developer. Their job is to smooth down any objection and gloss over any gritty details.

One such person who seems to crop up a quite a bit is Jennifer Gascoigne of nPower Renewables. She appeared recently on STV as the public face of the developer for Allt Duine Wind Power Station slap bang next to the Cairngorm National Park Boundary.

She also visited Kilninver and Kilmelford Community Council in February 2010 to represent the wind farm developer.

This is as good an example as any to show how the developer operates when attempting to pick off a small community.

At the meeting it was explained that the only planning issue they would be discussing was that of the wind turbines. Of course, the connection to the national grid (the chain of pylons required), the change of use of the local yacht harbour to industrial harbour to take delivery of the turbines and all the borrow pits required for the haul roads and foundations of the turbines were separate planning issues and so could not be discussed.

Of course this is ridiculous and that is what the developers like. They pick the communities off bit by bit and so decisions are asked to be made without all the facts being available.

The minutes from this particular meeting are enlightening; You can see how the developer works. The only fact that the developers team are clear about is the community benefit: They dangle a carrot of £2000 per year per megawatt generated. All others details are skimmed over.

I have pasted the relevant part of the minutes of the meeting below:

“6. Proposed Wind Farm at Raera:

Attending for this part of the meeting were representatives from NPower and associates as detailed:

Karen Fox- Developer.
Jennifer Gascoigne- Developer.
Katy Woodington- Community Benefits Officer.
Gary Parker- Community Consultation Consultant Gareth Mills- Planning Officer.

The application for the proposed wind farm is now in and the period for opinions to be lodged with the Council closes in 2 days time. From the telephone call survey (detailed below in Planning Applications) made a compilation of questions had been presented to NPower and they had produced a handout detailing the questions and answers.
Copies of this handout were distributed at the meeting with a copy being held with the Community Council for reference. Questions leading on from the discussion that followed the exploring of this handout and new questions were dealt with by the NPower team and also led on to lengthy discussion within the room. The main areas of concern were –

1. The application for the turbines is the application that has been lodged but this does not include the proposed jetty that will be required in Loch Melfort for the turbines to be transported to or the power lines that will be required to remove the generated electricity from the turbines. It was felt that it is difficult to consider the development when not all the information is present regarding all 3 facets because they will be proposed as 3 separate planning applications. Regarding the proposed jetty, Karen Fox pointed out that this is the subject of a Scoping Exercise happening at present so there is information within the public domain about this. Appendices to the application also detail alternative proposed routes to Taynuilt (likely point for introduction to the grid) on wooden poles carrying overhead lines.

2. Effects on Health.

3. Traffic and transportation.

4. Height of turbines and visual impact. It would appear that the proposed height is higher than those in the pictorial montages.

5. Effects on local tourist industry.

6. Felling of some ancient woodland and quantity commercial forestry removal.

7. Noise levels during construction period.

8. Community Benefits.

Karen Fox, on the issue of height of turbines suggested that if individuals care to supply her with the name or location of a wind farm they are familiar with she will ascertain the heights of those turbines for comparative purposes. She also left with the Community Council a copy of the Seil Community’s Question and Answer handout. Also issued was a leaflet re Community Benefits Packages. NPower broadly state they work along with Argyll and Bute Councils Policy of £2,000 per megawatt installation on an annual basis for the duration of the wind farm.

7. Planning Applications:
1. Proposed wind farm at Raera Forest comprising 15 turbines of height 125m.
The Community Council, as decided at the last Community Council meeting, have conducted a straw poll of the community. It was intended to obtain an up to date copy of the Electoral Register to do this, however, as a Community Council we are only entitled to a copy of the unabridged Electoral Register for election of Community Councillors. For our purpose we could only purchase the edited version that many people opt out of which would have been inaccurate for our task. It was decided to use the Kilninford Phone Directory as this was deemed to be the most accurate representation of our community. People were contacted by telephone, with messages left where possible and recalls done where no answer gained. It was acknowledged that this was not a standardised or all encompassing survey as only 55% of the community had been able to be made contact with by the 5 members of the Community Council completing the survey.

The intention was to try and gauge the general feeling of the community at large for the Community Council to see if there was a strong feeling for or against this proposed development. Of the 168 people whose opinion was gained the following results were obtained (the electorate as of 01.04.09 was 305)

For = 63
Against = 74
Don’t know = 31

Lengthy discussion ensued as to how best use this information accepting its limitations. Of those present in the hall the majority opinion was against the proposal, with 19 people stating they had not been contacted and of those 1 was for and 18 against the proposal. Again, discussion ensued as to how best to utilise this information in a valid way.

It was decided that AM would write to the Planning Department listing the areas of concern regarding the development as discussed in the previous part of the meeting.
Cllr MacDonald added it was useful to strenuously comment on the 3 elements of the development as separate planning applications causing difficulty in considering the overall proposal.
Cllr MacKay clarified that should more than 20 individual objections be received then an automatic public consultation process would begin. He added that, the exception of himself, due to Planning Committee obligations, the Local Councillors can be petitioned and asked for support and advice on planning issues.

Cllr Robertson commented she felt the Community Council had endeavoured to consult with the community and encouraged the community as individuals to write with their concerns.”

But Kilninver and Kilmelford Community Council have a pretty switched-on Planning Officer in Antoinette Mitchell. This is the letter she wrote to the Planning Office:

LETTER SENT TO THE PLANNING OFFICE BY THE COMMUNITY COUNCIL
PROPOSED WIND FARM, RAERA FOREST
Kilninver and Kilmelford Community Council
c/o 'Barochreal'
Kilninver, By Oban, Argyll PA34 4UT

February 10th. 2010
Application No. 09/01874/PP
RAERA WIND FARM

Dear Ms. Knox,
As the Planning Officer for the Kilninver and Kilmelford Community Council it is incumbent upon me to write on behalf of the community council to register the communities concerns/objections to the above application. I would like to thank you for extending that period of registration thus enabling me to present the views of the two village communities as fairly as possible.

In an attempt to alert everyone in our community and invite their comments, a flyer was put into the Kilninford Newsletter/Magazine before Christmas 09, (this is received freely by all households in the community), inviting people to contact their local councillors with their opinions as to the proposed erection of a wind farm in the Raera Forest. This met with a number of phone calls, but not a sufficient number to gain a good enough general feeling on which to base this letter. So those of the councillors who were able to took it upon themselves to contact members of the community either face to face or by phone. The result of this poll was that 166 people were contacted, over half the community, of which 31 had no opinion either way, 63 were for the wind farm and 74 were against.

On the evening of the 9th. February at the bi-monthly community council meeting, 5 representatives of 'RWE npower' attended and answered questions put to them by the community. I enclose a copy of some of those questions and their answers on which a number of our concerns/objections are based. Apart from the 5 npower representatives, 6 community councillors and 3 Argyll and Bute Councillors, there were 41 members of the community in attendance. The vast majority of those in attendance certainly over 80% were against the project and wished me to register their collective objections. It would also appear that those supporting the Wind Farm are understandably and mostly those least affected by it. However, I think it would be fair to say that some of the objectors would not necessarily object to all wind farms but are objecting to this one for the reasons I will be giving below. In a similar way there are supporters of the project that have some real concerns about this wind farm as described in it's present application.

The concerns/objections listed below are not in order of importance but just some of the many questions that the community generally feel have not been addressed satisfactorily by npower as yet.

1. The majority of land in Argyll and Bute suitable for the erection of wind farms has already been allocated. It would now appear that the renewable companies are trying to encroach upon the constrained areas. Raera Forest is a constrained area and one of Panoramic Quality. Should permission for Raera be granted it then lessens objections to other constrained areas being developed not only for WF's but other
projects, and has made a number of people question if anywhere is 'safe' from development? Guidelines for these areas were obviously put in place for good reason, it makes people nervous if they see 'major companies' being allowed to flout those guidelines.

2. Originally we were told by npower at their exhibition in August 2009, that they proposed to 'keyhole' the turbines in Raera Forest. The application now states that 720 hectares of forest is to be removed, as well as some ancient woodland. Even some of those strongly in favour of this project are alarmed by this prospect. Whereas we appreciate that this is a mature forest and possibly ready for felling, to be removing this amount of forest so quickly, in less than 18 months, with no intentions of replanting is unacceptable for countless reasons, better addressed by SEPA, The Forestry Commission and the RSPB. We acknowledge that the Forestry Commission also object to this application in it's present form. Forests have a very significant role
when it comes to tackling climate change and we believe the Scottish Government's Forest strategy is to expand the woodland cover of Scotland from 17% to 25% over the 21st century. This felling of Raera without the routine re-planting does not address the Scottish Government's 'Policy on control of Woodland Removal' and the majority of us find this unacceptable.

3. Another Government Guideline which 'npower' seem happy to ignore is the Scottish Planning Policy PAN 45 which advices that all dwellings both multi-settlements and single dwellings should be outside a 2Km radius of the WF. This was suggested for a 20meggawatt wind farm. The proposed Raera WF is 45megawatts which one would naturally suppose would increase this distance.

However, there are 8 dwellings, possible more well within the 2Km radius of 8 of the 15 turbines, one only 1.1Km away from 2 of the turbines, and a whole village and Primary School within 3Km radius. This 2Km radius has obviously been ignored. This was an issue hotly debated at the meeting on the 9th, as presumably this distance is considered necessary for health reasons. It is interesting to note that a number of European countries now are only considering erecting off shore WF's not onshore for health reasons. When n'power was asked about the studies on Wind Farm Syndrome, and there is a lot of scientific and independent research being carried out by Universities both here at home and abroad, the answer we were given is that there was 'no real proof that wind farm's caused any health problems'. Surely it is not for the public to prove that WF's can adversely affect people's and animal's health, but for Wind Farm developers to prove that they don't. I know one cannot prove a negative but we need substantially more reassurances. So for those of us so close to these turbines health issues remains a very real concern.

4. At the exhibition in August 09. We were shown a number of photos of Wind Farms, but none of these showed any turbines of the height proposed at Raera Forest. At the time I personally asked that the community be given photos of 125m turbines, as many people find it difficult to imagine this size. This has not been done. We are told that these 125m or 360ft. turbines would be the biggest in the UK and are among some of the biggest in Europe. Twice the height of those at Beinn Ghlas, which most of us are familiar with and 4 times the height of Lismore Lighthouse. This is a real issue for a number of the objectors who may find the project more acceptable if the turbines were only the height of those at Beinn Ghlas. This could then, maybe, negate some of the problems, certainly some of the visual ones.

5. Question 5 on the enclosed sheet refers to the often vague semantics of the application, which to one who has read all the statements appears to rely upon a lot of 'guesstimation'. When this was discussed at the meeting we were told that of course the representatives there had not written the document but that it was given over to 'experts' in the field of composing such 'tomes'. As none of these were naturally available for comment it again left most of the audience feeling unhappy about many issues.

6. Whereas most of those interested in the proposed WF appreciate that the problem of transmitting the electricity to Taynuilt has to be a separate application, nonetheless we find it difficult to separate the two as one is dependent upon the other. There are some people who would be more inclined to support the wind farm but object because of the thought of hundreds more poles and wires stretched across our glorious
countryside, and particularly if the chosen route happens to be the iconic and as yet unspoilt Braes of Lorn.

Likewise while appreciating again that a separate application has to be made for the possible erection of a Pier at Loch Melfort, clearly a different site, again it is difficult to consider all the implications of the WF without considering this too. This would change a Yacht Haven into a commercial port, as it would be permanent, and a lot of other
people would find this unacceptable, even if they support the WF. Again I appreciate it is a separate application and should not be commented upon here, but you can understand the community's frustration and their even greater confusion on learning that separate applications will have to be made for the borrow pits?? Some people are inclined to feel that this is neither necessary and perhaps an 'unconventional' way of
n'power trying to manipulate the outcome of the project in their favour, as well as presumably involving the community in the study of yet more applications with requests to register opinions. It makes one lose the will to live!

7. Another very heated debate has been the noise implications for which there is very little evidence that the general public can understand to assure them that they will not be affected. A number of people including myself have stood under turbines and had a conversation, but this has been a brief interlude during the day. At night, when most of our world in this area is silent the constant thrum of these enormous turbines has
been likened to a Jumbo jet taking off at source, this based upon the decibels and tables produced by n'power themselves. Whereas this may be alarmist it remains evident that for this size turbine the nontechnical/scientific amongst us have no real assurances that for those living within a few kilometres of them noise and subsonic noise won't be a real issue.

8. The sheer size of these turbines poses a very real concern for all the objectors and some of the supporters when they consider the visual implications upon this glorious county of Argyll. The A816 is a scenic route and a much used tourist route down to Kilmartin Glen, especially Glen Gallian and the Oude dam area where in the applicants own statement 8.88 of the Technical Report the turbines 'would cause a prominent
change in the character and quality of the view.' For many of those living and visiting Argyll for the scenery this is unacceptable.

9. However, altruistic renewable companies would like to appear to be, they are businesses and into renewables to make money and to gain their government certificate which allows them to operate. Their prime concern is not the planet or CO2 emissions and the answer to Q8, in the light of other independent studies is vastly different.

The fact that none of the electricity produced would benefit the communities of K and K, that the WF affects, but is being sold on to England, does little to add to it's support. If the local community was to receive 'green' or 'free electricity from this project then doubtless it would have many more supporters. The so called 'monetary' enhancement that the communities could be offered will always fall far short of the
enormous profits the developers and the landowners would receive from such a project, and a number of locals object to the scarring of their landscape to provide England with electricity and to the lining of the pockets of non local investors.

As the Turbines are produced outside the UK and the Towers in England the local economy will receive very little boost from local employment and that only over the construction period. Many feel this will not compensate for the loss of income that could be felt from the possible decline in tourists. Little was said to re-assure us that the tourist industry won't be affected even if only marginally by the WF. Many supporters of WF's don't choose to holiday near or in site of them and this area is very dependent on Tourism. It is interesting to note that none of the Council's promotional videos that show the wonderful views of Argyll shows a wind farm!

10. As yet n'power cannot tell us whether they are extracting north or south. So which village will have the 44-52 HGV movements a day for the 18 month construction period and the noise and C02 pollution accompanying those movements. Whatever they decide I think all the community both for and against this project have very, very real concerns as to how the A816 is ever going to cope with this additional traffic movement, clearly it won't. Although at the meeting they have said that they would make the Kilmelford Village Bridge suitable to take the width, weight and length of the enormous turbine lorries they are not prepared to do anything to the bridge at Oude dam. At the moment we fail to see how this can possibly be negotiated and apparently n'power are waiting for the council to re-locate this bridge, a project I believe has now been put off until 2013 for financial reasons? The whole torturous route of the A816 from Loch Feochan through to Kilmelford is a dangerous road at the best of times with all these additional HGV movements, the community is gravely concerned about the number of serious/ fatal accidents that could happen.

From the last 3 pages you can see that there are a number of 'real' concerns that the community of Kilninver and Kilmelford have about this proposed Wind Farm in Raera Forest. In general the feeling seems to be that there are still so many unanswered questions and uncertainties that as it stands at the moment the application should be rejected. However, if there is a public meeting at sometime a number of other questions may be raised and hopefully answered, as the above are just a few of the questions that I have been asked most often and that I feel are of predominant importance to our communities. Again I reiterate that there are a number of people who support the general idea of Wind Farms but not this one mainly because of the site, the size of the towers and their proximity to the community of Kilninver.

I thank you again for extending the period of time to allow us to register these concerns and objections with you and thank you for your patience in considering them.

I remain,
Yours sincerely

Antoinette N.M. Mitchell, BA, ACP, TEFL.
(Planning Officer for Kilninver and Kilmelford Community Council)

BUT: However good the local planning officer is, if it is a large windfarm and the locals say “NO,” it is then referred up to The Scottish Government and invariably, they say “Yes”

So, the planning system is totally discredited. And the local communities’ lives are trashed. Jenny Gascoigne continues onto her next target and the developers will make millions in profit.

All this is paid for by the chap paying his electricity bill. That’s you and me, that is.

Members of our congregation: Part 3

2011-12-22T18:31:00.001Z

Imagine yourself in a warm summer’s evening, sitting in the vestry, behind the heavy purple curtain, halfway down a good bottle of ‘communion red.’ It’s a good place to start.

You have found the Evangelists in rude health. Often vulgar, discordant and indeed tuneless, they are going forward full of vim & vigour in their tatty community centre. So why is it that friends in your own choir, who have perfect pitch, whose voices melt the most frozen of hearts are struggling to pull in the congregation on a Sunday evening?

Pour yourself another glass and have a nibble of that Cashel blue. Wafers? We have box loads. Help yourself.

GRATUITOUS CALMING PICTURE

The answer is that it’s all our own fault.

Yes. Quite simply, we found the Evangelists difficult to get on with and so took a couple of steps to the right of the melee and carried on without them. After all, why sing beautifully if everyone else is screaming and shouting and no-one is listening?

So, we spruced up our own places, so that they are fresh and beautiful. Now the calls and responses are once more a wonder of cadence and style. Gone are the strident hoodlums who wrecked our happiness; they have all joined the others in the shabby hut.

However, as wonderful as it is to sing with like-minded folk, we are generally singing the same material every Sunday with the same accompaniment. It’s a beautiful experience but every now and then it’s good to try a little modern music. The lyrics may not always be to our taste but just occasionally there is a blinding flash of brilliance: a new voice soaring above the hubbub with such clarity and strength that everyone is drawn to it.

But why did the new chorister gravitate to the brash community? This is easily answered: Why would he go anywhere else?

The Evangelists advertise themselves constantly. They are magnificent at ‘networking’. When new choristers appear, straight away they are welcomed into the bosom of that family. The new boy may be inexperienced, raw perhaps, but all can see his qualities. Over time, more and more new boys arrive and so the other place becomes more vibrant with every recruit. The lights are brighter than ever whilst over at our place we are singing to our friendly but dwindling, ageing congregation.

What we should never forget is, as well as being members of the choir, we are part of the same congregation. Broadly, we hold the same beliefs. We should take an active part in all the community’s affairs. Not all the other services are ‘shouty’ and brash. I suppose we can ignore the worst of those places, as that is good for our blood pressure. I am aware of a few high profile choristers who rarely make an appearance at others’ services and are bemused when there is the occasional remark made about their apparent aloofness.

So, this is a call to re-populate the other places. Putting your fingers in your ears and ignoring it is not a healthy option. There are choristers out there who need to get down and dirty and mix it with the new crowd. When you meet them in the flesh, they are not a bad lot. Try it. You’ll love it.

I’ll have another glass of that ‘communion red’ now, thank you.

Members of our congregation: Part 2

2011-12-21T13:58:00.001Z

The choir sings its heart out and the invisible congregation comes along each Sunday. So that’s fine then?

That all depends, really. Some problems are becoming apparent: One or two members of the choir aren’t turning up anymore and the occasional glance down the nave into the congregation in the winter months, when the magical curtain of light isn’t filtering your view, shows a thinning out of the audience.

So what can be wrong? The choir still sings its heart out, with the trusted selection of beautiful anthems, hymns and psalms. The calls and responses are still there and the architecture still impresses; in fact it has improved since the new lighting scheme was installed.

Oddly, the Evangelists down the road seem to be pulling them in so you pop over to see what they are doing. They worship in the old community centre. It’s a bit knocked about and the paint is peeling here and there. You step inside and within minutes you realise that it’s ghastly. You hate it. They have guitars, the music is happy-clappy pureed pap. The priest wants to be known as Wayne. They advertise their services on big lurid boards and they all proclaim their faith at the top of their lung and embrace each other for no apparent reason. They are all “brothers and sisters in Christ.”

But worse than that, the choir is just appalling. They try hard, but it is quite obvious that some are completely tone-deaf! How can they lead the congregation in song when they don’t have the simple skills of musicality themselves? But there it is. Every Sunday, their place is packed to the rafters.

You wander back to your place, shaking your head in wonderment. Is this what people really want? You slip comfortably into your surplice and ruff and have another go at the communion wine and start to think things through.

Members of our congregation: Part 1

2011-12-20T18:25:00.001Z

In my tender years I had a delightful time as a church choirboy. Evensong was my favourite service, especially in the summer months when the dust would sparkle, slowly spiralling in the warm shafts of sunlight flooding the nave. Sitting in the choir, the congregation were all but invisible, hidden behind that magical curtain of light.

Evensong’s audience appeared more friendly than the those of the morning services; they seemed at ease. The choirboys were drawn from the town, a pretty rough and ready lot but we had a fine choirmaster who teased out some glorious performances.

The service had a liquid structure that flowed effortlessly; the calls and responses a wonderful rhythm that felt utterly timeless, embedded in the gothic architecture of the church stonework.

Looking back on it forty five years later, we never considered for one moment whether or not those turning up every Sunday evening enjoyed the choir’s efforts. It was just what we did.

TGO Challenge 2012: Route Sheet: Done!

2011-12-17T21:40:00.001Z

I have returned after spending a few days in the bowels of the Midlands. Amongst a list of stuff completed was a mini-run through of our TGO Challenge route for 2012 with Dave “Wee Willy” Wilkinson. This was necessary as Andy Walker & I had already been through it at some length and so it was important to get Dave’s “buy-in” as well. You can’t have a chap grumbling all the way across Scotland about the bloody route, can you? No. He will anyway though….

OLD SCHOOL PALS: BIGGLES LAMBERT & DAVE “WEE WILLY” WILKY, IN TRAINING

We discussed the route over half a dozen games of pool, quite a few beers, a few bottles of wine and then some rather fine single malts. We discussed it over dinner, over a fry-up breakfast and then another pint at lunchtime too. We can consider the route properly discussed.

I have spent the larger part of today actually getting it down onto electronic paper including the various Foul Weather Alternatives. This year I have also included some “Storm Force Weather Alternatives” as well, such is the nature of the beast: a true beast of a walk!

I just need some details from Mr Walker now so that i can complete the Admin Form and Robert is your Uncle! It can then be squeezed down the telephone wires to John Manning to pass on to one of his hand-picked Vetters to give me some pointers in case I have mucked anything up. It’s always good to know what beers are available in the various villages that we pass through.

Renewable Energy: Vision or Mirage?

2011-12-12T18:11:00.001Z

Over the last year I have written quite a few posts about wind power stations.The posts have discussed their situation on wild land, the economics of wind power, the distribution of the electricity and how National Grid is trying to cope with its unbalancing effects. I have shown how the wind energy businesses dramatically exaggerate the benefits of wind power in the reduction of greenhouse gases. I have included posts that show how the lives of people forced to live next to wind power stations have been wrecked.

The politicians and the wind industry would have you believe that wind power creates jobs and i have linked and posted papers on here that show exactly the opposite is true: Wind power actually has a net effect of costing jobs .

You will have gathered that I am not a fan.

Well today the Adam Smith Institute published a document that neatly summarizes everything I have been banging on about in a very polished way. The front cover looks like this:

The report covers the whole gamut of renewable energy so that, for the first time that I can recall, this is a report that deals with renewables in the round. It comes up with pretty damning conclusions. I have posted just the executive summary and the main conclusions. For an in-depth read you can go HERE. It’s an incredibly interesting read.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

1. EU and UK national government policy is driving a move towards progressive replacement of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) by renewable energy sources and nuclear power. However, with a few notable exceptions (hydro power in Norway, geothermal energy in Iceland, for example) available renewable power technologies are neither economically competitive nor easily capable of providing the degree of energy security demanded by a developed society.

2. This report reviews the options from a technical and economic standpoint and assesses the real contribution they can make to a future secure, affordable energy supply. At the same time, we consider the efficiency with which they can achieve one of their primary objectives: to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.

3. We conclude that the renewable energy technologies which are commercially available or in development cannot form more than a minor part of the overall mix without putting the security of supply at jeopardy. The need for increasing amounts of conventional backup capacity as renewables form a larger part of the overall mix severely limits their contribution to emissions reduction.

4. On-shore wind is the lowest-cost option, but still requires financial incentives to encourage investment and has limited scope for expansion because of public opposition and lack of appropriate sites. Its viability would be reduced even further if developments had to carry the cost of the additional gas-fired generating capacity needed as backup. 28% of Ireland’s installed electricity generating capacity is in the form of wind farms, but only 13% of power consumed was generated by wind in 2010/11. UK capacity factors are lower.

5. Experience from other countries with larger percentages of wind generation shows that only limited savings can be made in fossil fuel consumption and that security of supply can only be guaranteed by having a large-scale backup capability or a high degree of interconnectivity with neighbouring countries having surplus capacity. Wind farms supply only about 10% of Danish electricity consumed, despite generating more than double this.

6. Burning of biomass to generate electricity has some merit and may be economically competitive as fossil fuel prices rise. However, its relatively low energy density increases transport costs, and in practical terms it can never make more than a minor contribution to the overall energy supply. To meet DECC’s targets for the UK, by far the greater part of the biomass would have to be imported. For example, UK-grown straw could generate less than 2% of the country’s electricity needs.

7. Solar power – the most expensive of currently available technologies – has little contribution to make in northern Europe. Germany has become the world’s leader in solar cell installations, paying billions of euros annually to provide just 2% of the country’s electricity from photovoltaic panels with a capacity of 17GW but which operate at a capacity factor of only about 10%.

8. A high contribution from intrinsically intermittent renewable power generation without matching conventional capacity as backup – even if demand and supply were to be better balanced via a Europe-wide grid – would require affordable and reliable large-scale energy storage capacity capable of providing backup over a period of days or weeks. No technologies capable of providing this exist or are in development.

9. The economically extractable supply of fossil fuels is not infinite and our dependence on them must inevitably decrease as their real price increases and viable alternatives are developed. Some public support will be needed to bring these new technologies to market. However, governments are currently indulging in the dubious practice of providing guaranteed, long-term subsidies to technologies which have little hope of becoming truly competitive for the foreseeable future.

10. In the meantime, taxpayers’ money would be far better spent on measures to increase energy efficiency, plus investment in proven nuclear and gas generating capacity to provide energy security as many of the UK’s coal-fired stations – and nearly all existing nuclear reactors – are decommissioned over the coming decade.

11. Neither can we ignore the possibility of building new coal-fired stations, or commercialising underground gasification, to make use of the large reserves of coal in the UK and other European countries, which could contribute to energy security for many years to come.

MAIN CONCLUSIONS:
This review has shown that the renewable energy technologies which are commercially available or in development cannot form more than a minor part of the overall power supply without putting the security of supply at jeopardy. On-shore wind is the lowest-cost option, but still requires significant financial incentives to encourage investment and has limited scope for expansion because of public opposition and lack of appropriate sites. Its viability would be reduced even further if wind farms had to carry the cost of the additional gas-fired generating capacity as backup. Experience from other countries with larger percentages of wind generation shows that only limited savings can be made in fossil fuel consumption and that security of supply can only be guaranteed by having a large-scale backup capability or a high degree of interconnectivity with neighbouring countries having surplus capacity.

Our more detailed conclusions are:

• Given that there is very little scope for development of new hydroelectric schemes, the only technologies which are sufficiently developed for large scale deployment in the UK are wind and solar power (both photovoltaics and concentrated solar thermal), together with burning available biomass.

• Use of biomass is relatively attractive, having none of the drawbacks of wind or solar power, but the contribution it can make is constrained by the need to grow food and provide raw materials for transport biofuels and industrial processing. It can only be a minor part of the overall energy mix.

• On-shore wind is the least expensive of the other options, but is still uncompetitive without continuing subsidies. It is also both intermittent and unpredictable, requiring conventional capacity to be on standby to balance the supply, and is subject to increasing public opposition. Service life, at 20 years, is short compared with conventional generating technologies.

• Off-shore wind is considerably more expensive, although more acceptable to the public.

• Despite the cost of cells having come down recently, photovoltaic systems are far more expensive than wind and require large subsidies. Their use in such high latitudes is not to be recommended, and the willingness of the government to provide large subsidies, particularly for small-scale installations, is difficult to understand.

• Solar thermal systems are also only suitable for much sunnier environments than northern Europe.

• Heat pumps are suitable as a source of heating in some circumstances, but only on a local basis. They are efficient at producing low-cost heat, but are costly to install.

• Tidal barrage schemes, such as the proposed Severn estuary project, have limited potential. There are relatively few appropriate sites, they have a large environmental impact, and they are intermittent (although predictably so). Nevertheless, they cannot be ignored.

• Neither wave nor tidal stream technology is close to commercialisation. The need to harvest energy during normal conditions while withstanding storms presents enormous engineering difficulties. However, tidal power currently seems to offer greater practical possibilities and neither can be completely ruled out as long-term options. That said, there is no foreseeable prospect of them becoming competitive with gas or nuclear power generation.

• Wind and solar power generation schemes operate at a fraction of their installed capacity.

• Because – with the exception of biomass – renewable energy supply is intermittent, conventional generating capacity, particularly gas, has to be kept running on standby to balance the grid. This means that actual reductions in carbon dioxide emissions are lower than theoretically possible and that the cost per tonne is relatively high.

• Intermittency also causes significant problems with balancing the grid to maintain energy security. While not insurmountable for modest levels of renewable energy, these problems limit the effective contribution which renewables can make to the energy supply.

• With the exception of pumped storage, there are no means of storing energy on a large scale and for a significant period to smooth the contribution of wind and solar generation, which often peaks at times of low demand. Even pumped storage can only provide backup over a timescale of hours rather than the days or weeks necessary to guarantee continuity of supply in a renewables-based system. With the current state of knowledge, there is no foreseeable possibility of developing practical and affordable options.

• There is no prospect of most renewable technologies – particularly solar and off-shore wind – being competitive with conventional power sources in the foreseeable future.

• In light of this assessment, we conclude that taxpayers’ money would be far better spent on measures to increase energy efficiency, plus investment in proven nuclear and gas generating capacity to provide energy security as many of the UK’s coal-fired stations – and nearly all existing nuclear reactors – are decommissioned over the coming decade.

© Adam Smith Research Trust 2011
Published in the UK by ASI (Research) Limited Some rights reserved. Copyright remains with the copyright holder, but users may download, save and distribute this work in any format provided that: (1) the Adam Smith Institute is cited; (2) the URLs www.adamsmith.org and www.scientific-alliance.org are published together with a prominent copy of this notice; (3) the text is used in full without amendments (extracts may be used for criticism or review); (4) the work is not resold; and (5) a link to any online use is sent to info@adamsmith.org.
The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher. They have been selected for their independence and intellectual vigour, and are presented as a contribution to public debate.
ISBN 1 902737 81 4
Printed in England by Grosvenor Group (Print Services) Limited, London

An example of how the wind industry misleads the planners

2011-12-11T15:35:00.001Z

I found the video posted below on James’ blog and it has been reposted by Geoff Edwards’ blog, “My Wild Camping” as well.

It features a chap who was actually pro-wind – until the day dawned when the wind power station was built and he realised that he had been fed a pack of lies by the developers. He now has to live with a lot of noise and flicker. Flicker is not usually mentioned a lot on posts about wind power stations but it is worth noting.

The developers have helped frame the guidelines used to determine how far turbines should be built from habitation. The current guideline is 10 times the rotor diameter. You will see from the video that this chap is experiencing flicker at twice these distances.

So: Why is he experiencing this dreadful flicker when he lives almost twice the prescribed distance away? It’s down to simple maths that the overly simplistic guidelines simply ignore. There’s a slot of “simples” in there aren’t there? Yes – the wind industry likes that because, as we shall see, it serves their purpose well.

In real life, rather than the abstract world that wind power station developers live in, the world isn’t flat. In fact it suits the power stations’ efficacy not to be so; To be situated on top of a hill increases the mean wind speeds so the turbines have a better chance of spinning at the required rate. So – Let’s put the turbine on a modest hill of 150m above the nearest house:

(CLICKABLE DIAGRAM)

I have chosen, for illustrative purposes only, to select a fairly common turbine; 125m to tip height with a rotor diameter of 80m and a hub height of 85m. Fairly standard,

Just by looking at the very simple maths, above you can see that the house will experience flicker at over twice the wind industry's current planning guidelines.

So – If you have a “windfarm” coming near you, Be Aware of these horribly simplistic guidelines that the Wind industry loves using and which seem to satisfy the planners.

TGO Challenge 2012: Firming things up

2011-12-10T21:47:00.001Z

This afternoon, Mad’n’Bad Andy Walker booked our B&B for our start point. This is a Good Thing. This means that all my dithering over routes has at last had to cease. We now know where we are starting. We had been flitting between a few start points and were going no-where very quickly until the chap decided enough was enough.

He has also booked our accommodation at Braemar for Saturday night, nine days later, This is also a Good Thing: Mind you, not being at Braemar for Saturday night would be a pretty Piss-Poor Thing! (There are the Fife Arms and ‘Bingo Wings’ parties to attend. To miss them would surely be a crime.)

Perhaps you can see a thread developing here? This chap is a Man of Action. He has forced my hand so to speak. He has made me pull the metaphorical digit out of the slightly less than metaphorical derriere and so forcibly encouraged my planning of the route.

Now, you would have thought that planning the the first day’s route would have been a straightforward operation. But it wasn’t to be so.

Its length has been determined, to a degree, by the fifth, sixth and seventh days’ route plans. They were each panning out to be monsters, and so our first day is now a little longer than I would customarily prepare, to ease the burden later on; Not that strolling through sun-drenched mountain-scapes could ever remotely be described as burdensome. Incorporated into this Fine Weather Route, is an ice-cream stop mid afternoon on the fourth day to soothe our sweat-furrowed brows and to allow my fellow stravaigers to ease their bones, relaxing for that blissful, all too brief, moment.

The first section of the second day looks like this, so perhaps they will need the ice-creams.

(CLICKABLE IMAGE)

The plan is for 194 miles with 32,000 feet or so of “Up”. That’s quite enough, thank you very much, as we have a First-Timer aboard this time around: Dave “Wee Willy” Wilkinson. Dave had applied with me for the 1995 Challenge but had to withdraw before starting as he contracted ~~dreadful wimpishness~~ a sudden attack of ill health. Time has moved on and so this will be Andy’s seventh and my seventeenth Challenge.

So, now it’s just a question of working out the Foul Weather Alternatives and putting it all onto paper. And then of course sending it all off to the Vetters.

Something beautiful…

2011-12-09T15:05:00.001Z

You are going to have to turn your speakers up for this one, as the sound is very quiet, but it really is quite beautiful.

For Aunty Babs

Breaking News…..

2011-12-06T22:00:00.001Z

Tonight's front page, just in from our ~~Raving~~ Roving Correspondent, Lord Elpus:

It has been reported that Mr Sloman’s phone had been hacked to gather this information and ‘Snapper of the Yard’ has been informed. And that Leveson chap too.

On Being Warm and Dry

2011-12-04T17:03:00.001Z

I learned quite early on how important it was to be warm and dry in the hills. I walked the northern chunk of the Pennine Way as a lad of fourteen with my ‘brother with the hair’, who was twelve at the time. We were wearing Blacks of Greenock cotton anoraks: Mine was a natty orange, and my brother’s a tasteful blue. We were wearing ‘TUF’ work boots. I remember quite vividly the cold water seeping down my back and into my pants as we clambered down into the Hen Hole looking for a spot to put up the Good Companions single skin cotton ‘A’ tent… We were wet. miserable and knackered. We continued our walk as far as the Roman Wall before baling out to a warm & dry youth hostel.

I suppose, ever since then I have searched for outdoor clothes that would keep the nastier of the elements outside my skin.

When I was seventeen I invested in a bright red cagoule, which was great for the first half hour or so, until the humid air of the interior fug condensed onto the cold shell and then slowly soaked first my anorak, then my jumper and finally my shirt and of course, me.

After university, there was a gap in my outdoor pursuits of ten years or so as I had a young family. When I started to look again at waterproof coats (for Wainwright’s Coast to Coast some twenty years or so ago) Gore-Tex had been out for quite a while and I bought a bargain 2-layer job in bright red. It was a bargain, of course, because no-one else wanted it. It had a lousy floppy hood, was a size too big (I realise now) and because of its size, it flapped furiously in the wind

However! I did stay moderately dry and warm. The only water that got in really was through the gaping hood and the cuffs that wouldn’t do up tightly enough around my girly wrists.

My first Great Outdoors Challenge in 1995 demanded that I sorted out this deficiency. There were better funds available now and so i went straight out and without thinking too much about it splashed the cash on a Berghaus “Mera Peak” jacket. This was the business! But it weighed a ton. I had combined it with a 300 wind-stopper fleece (deep purple, very fetching) that could be zipped into the jacket. This assured a very clammy crossing, again being very damp, in the humid conditions of the crossing that year.

There then came a blinding flash of light! I was told i could ditch all this fleece and Gore-Tex and undershirts and just wear this stuff called Buffalo. (Richard Bannister, it was, I shall never, ever forgive him…) Unfortunately my walking mate at the time also believed this buffoonery and we spent a miserable two weeks walking across Scotland in the wild & wet Challenge of 1998. I damn near died of hypothermia and mould grew in great patches all over my skin for weeks afterwards that had to be treated with creams and pills from the doctor.

So – it was back to Gore-Tex, but this time with a lighter weight fleece and a lighter weight jacket, from Mountain Hardwear. It was a bad buy. I had gone for light weight but it was of a voluminous cut that billowed like a sail in the wind. Again, I had chosen a jacket with a crappy hood – unwired and flappy. The result was a sodden backpacker once again.

And then, along came my first Paramo Velez jacket.

What a revelation! It had a sturdy feel to it, a detachable hood that fitted reasonably well and it was really breathable. It did come out at a hefty 950 grams though. It kept me reasonably dry, though you couldn’t lean on wet ground on your elbow as water would force it’s way though the fabric. But, all in all I was pretty happy and it lasted three years, with only minor niggles – holes were beginning to appear under the hip-belt and the Velcro tabs were wearing out so that the sleeves would gape. It was replaced in 2005; the new black jacket was 200 grams lighter.

This jacket did sterling service: five years of TGO Challenges and a four month LEJOG in 2007. It was fantastic. It weighed 775 grams. In the end though it had to be pensioned off, as the side zips kept splitting in the wind, the Velcro cuffs gave up the ghost and I got fed up with the wind whistling through the gaps between the hood and the collar.

I replaced it with this Paramo Velez Adventure jacket in a natty ‘stealth’ green combination:

This jacket had the hood permanently attached and weighed in at 765 grams. not too heavy. I avoided the lighter weight alternative as I felt that the nylon covering was just too flimsy, having had two previous jackets develop holes through wear around the hip-belt area.

I have now been the proud and happy owner of Paramo jackets for ten years or so, but I was beginning to detect an unpleasant pattern.

On my LEJOG, back in 2007, I was very, very aware that you really had to keep the jacket constantly clean and re-waterproofed. I kept to a regime of washing and proofing it every four weeks or so, which I felt was surely enough. Well, it wasn’t. On a few occasions later on in the walk I was soaked literally to the skin. HERE is a fine example – and that was only four weeks or so after it had been totally re-proofed.

This year, on the TGO Challenge, there was Stormy Monday. I was soaked to the skin in the morning and after drying out in front of the fire in the Fife Arms, again in the afternoon. I had re-proofed the jacket prior to the PreWalkDaunder, so the jacket had been dealt with properly just four weeks prior to my soaking. I might just as well have been wearing my old Blacks of Greenock cotton anorak from forty two years ago, the amount of protection it offered.

Now I know that those conditions were pretty dreadful, but Phil Lambert had stayed dry in his Paramo because he had re-proofed his immediately prior to setting out for the Challenge.

On the recent trip to the Yorkshire Dales, Martin Rye was soaked to the skin in his two-piece Velez jacket whilst I was fortunate in staying dry, because I had spent the preceding days washing and proofing my Paramo.

The thing is, I am just getting fed up with the constant worry of washing and proofing the thing with the constant nagging doubt that if i don’t do it prior to every trip I am going to get a miserable soaking. I have enough hassle in my life and I don’t want to have to nanny my jacket on top of everything else. When it works, Paramo is an absolute dream. When it fails, it is a complete and utter nightmare.

The new Gore-Tex jacket weighs some 300 grams less than the Paramo Velez Adventure. I know i am sacrificing some warmth, but that just means taking a slightly heavier fleece, say adding half the weight saving back onto the weight of the replacement fleece. I also realise that I will have to keep the Gore-Tex jacket clean and proofed, but I am sure it won’t need the continual fussing that the Paramo jacket requires.

I am not doing this to shave a few grams here and there. I am going back to try Gore-Tex again to see if it is a more trustworthy system that I don’t need to nanny on a continual basis.

What do you think? Will this end in tears? (whichever way that is pronounced).

Have your say and leave a comment.

Berghaus Temperance II Pro Shell Jacket: 1st Look

2011-12-02T01:13:00.001Z

Having been a Paramo enthusiast for a dozen years or so, lately I have been considering changing my backpacking clothing set-up. I’ll write about my reasons for this in another post. So, when a couple of weeks ago a chap representing Berghaus was in touch asking if I would like to test some kit for them I was interested. Another good bit of news was that I could have whatever I chose for free.

I spent a few days trawling through the Berghaus website to find something that i thought would fit the bill. I was looking for a waterproof jacket that was both tough and light enough for backpacking. Recently, there has been a huge amount of PR on the new Gore-Tex Active Shell jackets, but I was concerned about it’s robustness. You have to remember that I am used to Paramo’s legendary toughness. Rucksack straps and hip-belts soon destroy flimsy waterproofs on a long backpacking trip and I have no wish to have a jacket fail mid-walk. I wanted a jacket with few bells & whistles, as bells & whistles add weight. When it’s sunny and warm I’ll be carrying the jacket in my pack. I was looking for a good wired hood and a couple of pockets that don’t foul the hip-belt.

That’s why I chose the Temperance II Pro Shell Jacket from the waterproof jackets section of the site.

It looks like this: You can click on each of the pictures to zoom in.

Gore-Tex 3 layer Pro Shell is supposed to be a hard wearing material so it should fit the bill. It is advertised as weighing 470 grams in the large size and mine came out at 469 grams. The main zip is a water-resistant design from YKK with two pulls for good venting, backed up with a decent rain gutter. The wired hood is adjustable at each side and also at the back to ensure a snug fit. There are drawstrings at each side of the bottom of the jacket to make it snug in breezy conditions.

You’ll see that it has two external chest pockets with water resistant zips that are big enough for Ordnance Survey maps.

The picture above shows that different material is used on the shoulders that’s going to take the wear from the rucksack straps.

The picture below shows the pit-zips, again with double zip pulls for ease of use. I like this a lot as in the past I have had jackets with pit-zips that were swines to open and close!

I like the cuffs: Velcro with that natty rubber stud design rather than the old hook design that used to destroy your merino baselayers:

Lastly there is also an internal chest pocket on the left hand side of the jacket:

Prior to Berghaus getting in touch I had been doing quite a bit of browsing around the internet for outdoor clothing in Pro Shell suitable for backpacking and it seems that this jacket is less expensive than other brands using Pro Shell.

So: first impressions? I was worried that going back to Gore-Tex would be a noisy experience (Paramo is very quiet) but in fact this is not so, which is good. It’s a slim fit, which I like as it means that stormy winds won’t whip it about. The fabric isn’t flimsy, which I like.

I haven’t been out in the rain yet as it arrived after I had set out for the Yorkshire Dales (that would have been an excellent test for it) but with the weather forecast looking stormy I am sure it won’t be long before it will get a decent work-out.

FOUR (ONE) IDIOTS IN THE YORKSHIRE DALES: Part 2

2011-11-30T16:14:00.001Z

Still with me? Good! As usual you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

The attentive amongst the congregation will be aware that three of the four idiots retreated to softer climes down south, leaving just the one idiot in the Yorkshire Dales to continue the adventure.

Me.

After hauling Rick’s wine lake from his car boot to his cellar and delivering a fridge to a chap in the village (it’s what friends are for) I set off once more for the hills. Today was a totally different kettle of fish. If you wanted a dixie full of silver-shiny mackerel with glass-bright eyes, today was the day to be outside. I set off in virtual shirt-sleeves. Visibility was pin sharp and the wind keen. Very keen, in fact so I put my jacket back on.

I had enjoyed Crummack Dale so much on Friday that I was once more strolling up into its secret charms.

You notice the little things that would otherwise pass you by as you walk on your own up Crummack Dale. Today, it was the little splashes busily cascading through the emerald enclosures; their springs bubbling from beneath glistening limestone steps at the backs of the fields. This spring water bubbles and flashes brilliantly in the sharp sunlight, tugging at the grasses on either side.

I scampered past two chaps in bobble hats, britches & boots, intent on having the views at the head of the dale for myself. I had a rucksack full of food and was looking for a grand spot for lunch, which I found as I clambered my way through Moughton Scar and into the limestone pavement.

I was working my way back over to Clapham Bottoms, as it sounded like a place that really should be investigated, over wonderful limestone moorland. It’s barely 1300 feet up but the enormous views over to Ingleborough, Pen-y-Ghent and Fountains Fell make it a fabulous spot to be, in the wild, sharp wind.

This poor quality video does give a flavour of the place and the wind:

Then it was a delightful push into the wind down into the Bottoms and the track below Thwaite, into the tunnels and down into sleepy Clapham.

The pub in Clapham serves much better beer than the one we visited in Horton and so some Black Sheep were dealt with in a confident style in front of the fire. I had then to drag my carcase out of there to climb back through the tunnels to regain the Pennine Bridleway above Austwick as the sun was slipping sideways into the secrets of the Forest of Bowland.

It was just an amble down the sleepy lanes into the village as the dampness seeped into the stone roofs and the sunset silvered the window panes.

Back at base, Rick & Lindsey again looked after me handsomely, knocking the top off a lovely Vacqueyras and polishing off one of Lindsey’s stash of single malts. A perfect end to a great weekend.

FOUR IDIOTS IN THE YORKSHIRE DALES: Part 1

2011-11-29T01:05:00.001Z

(You can make all the pictures bigger by clicking on them)

Surprisingly, the four of us managed to meet at Rick & Lindsey’s in the Yorkshire Dales at the pre-arranged hour. Time was of the essence and so we all slumped into the settees in front of the woodburner in the cosy lounge, cups of tea in hand and chatted.

Mr & Mrs Grumpy, TGO legends, had come along to have lunch with Rick & Lindsey. Our departure for the great outdoors was delayed a little further as each of us are TGO Challengers and with something like seventy challenges between us, there was a lot of ground to cover.

The hand-picked team for this particular expedition comprised four bloggers with differing styles:

Martin Rye: Has a huge blog following and can invariably be found bounding along adventurous routes in Scotland and the the Lakes. There are only ever shots of the back of his head on his blog, so look away now if you are of a nervous disposition…

James Boulter: Newer to blogging but with an incredibly loyal and growing congregation who follow his exploits throughout the wilder parts of Wales, Scotland and its archipelagos. Sadly he was without Reuben, his faithful companion so I don’t know how he will manage to post to his blog as Reuben usually does all that.

Mad’n’Bad Andy Walker: The newest of the bloggers in the group, who mainly concerns himself with the TGO Challenge, having walked his first before history began.

And me.

Somehow I had been volunteered to come up with a plan for a weekend in North Yorkshire at the fag end of November, when daylight is a brief ‘hello’ before everything is plunged into stygian darkness for twenty hours or so. The weather forecast, unsurprisingly, was for wall to wall torrential downpours with a healthy dose of stormy buffeting. Ground conditions were a promising mix of knee deep gloop and greasy mud on a limestone pavement.

For four chaps who don’t bang on too much about gear it was interesting to note that we had all chosen to wear Paramo jackets and we had all brought American shelters to sleep under in what was promising to be horrendous weather…

Within minutes of setting off, the promised monsoon arrived, on cue.

And then, quite miraculously, the weather broke into cheerfulness, party hats and fluffy kittens! Yes – the next picture shows that the horrid nasty stuff was chased away by some brightness! The ground steamed a bit under the blazing sunshine.

We made our way up Crummack Dale, a little gem of a dale between the honeypots of Clapham and Horton, wonderfully infrequently visited by the hordes cramming into the National Park at the weekends.

As we climbed out of the dale we came across huge areas of limestone pavement. Fortunately the path meanders delightfully along grassy trods with occasional natural staircases to gain height.

Lunch was taken after the little climb out of the dale, on sheep nibbled turf, sheltered by a high wall. Views over to Pen-y-Ghent delighted, but the show stoppers were the views back down into Crummack Dale: quite beautiful.

With the clock ticking we re-girded our loins (I will add that we only girded our own loins) and plugged on up the hill via Sulber Nick; the main drag up the side of Ingleborough from Horton. This was possibly a mistake: Thousands and thousands and even more thousands of walkers plug up this self-same section of path every month on the Three Peaks Walk and we are destroying the wonderful environment that we are coming to visit by making a huge erosion scar right up the side of this fantastic hillside. I shan’t come this way again.

With the weather forecast for 80mph gusts in the back of our minds we sloped off northwards to Borrins Moor to flip the shelters up on some mossy ground whilst there was still a bit of light to see by.

As I snoozed in my Wanda I was aware that the breeze was freshening, with the occasional blast of snow in the thrashing against her flanks…

I woke in the morning to a tale of woe: At around six in the morning, when it was still pitch black, one of our number had had a tent pole snap and it had torn through the sil-nylon of his tent. This was indeed Very Bad News. I stumbled over sleepily to Martin’s Trailstar, where to my surprise the team were assembled beneath its capacious canopy. In fact, the team was all packed and ready to go!

What was very noticeable was how incredibly stable the Trailstar was under very blustery conditions. James’ tent (A Scarp I) had also been very stable as he had used the cross-over poles which tensioned the fly like a drum. Of course he has the advantage of a sealed environment against the dreaded midge and two doors, should the wind change direction after he had pitched.

Wanda, a Stephenson’s Warmlite 2C, by comparison, was nowhere near as stable in the cross winds, although she did okay. Poor Wendy (a Stephenson’s Warmlite 2R) is going to need surgery – a new pole section and a repair to her skin. I think Andy is going to have a set of rear guys attached as well to stabilise the top of the rear arch, which is a standard feature on Wanda.

We decided to plod down to Horton to the cafe for cheering mugs of hot coffee and bacon sandwiches. The weather had taken a serious turn for the worse and so it was a disappointed band of bloggers who arrived at the cafe to find it closed until Boxing Day. There was nothing for it: We adjourned to the pub to have beers and bacon baguettes.

By this time the weather had taken an even more serious turn for the very worserer! It looked like firemen were training their hoses on the windows of the pub. It was Very Horrid Indeed. The forecast for tonight was even worse than the night we had just had. We were a tent down and James wasn’t feeling too chipper either. So, we did the sensible thing and called it a day. Well, not quite, as we still had to get back to Austwick five or six miles away back over the hill.

Unsurprisingly, there were not many pictures taken during this leg of the trip as it was hosing it down!

We made it back to Rick & Lindsey’s who very kindly fed us all tea & Lyndsey’s scrumptious sponge cake with raspberry filling. Martin had been soaked right down to his shreddies as he hadn’t re-proofed his jacket for a while. So, we all dried out and then Andy, Martin & James headed back home, leaving me in front of the woodburner, being royally entertained by Rick, planning tomorrow’s adventure.

OFF ON A JOLLY!

2011-11-23T23:48:00.001Z

I always seem to leave packing until the very last minute.I started this evening’s panic around half past nine. As I start to write this it’s a quarter past eleven and I should be going to bed but the physical effort of finding all the gear for a wintery jaunt and stuffing it all into the pack now means I am wide-eyed awake.

Writing a blog post should calm things down: After all, it sends the congregation to sleep.

The barometer is plunging like a stone and the weather forecast for the Yorkshire Dales (for that is where I am heading) is, as they say, “interesting.” The plan was for four bloggers to meet up and camp on top of Ingleborough and Pen-y-Ghent. There was to be a hound involved as well, but he’s not so keen on winds gusting to 80mph on the tops so may do the sensible thing and stay at home, guarding the front of the fire.

So, we may well bottle-out of the very tops and camp on the sides of the things.

Like all good adventures, there will be a pub or two involved, but sadly, only at lunchtimes. It’s a long way from the top of the hills down to the pubs at the bottom and then have to stagger back up again to bed only to find that your Wendy-house has been blown away to Newcastle, or heaven forbid, Crook, would be disheartening to say the least.

As usual, my food bag weighs as much as the rest of the stuff put together. There is a lesson to be learned here; never go to Tesco's when you are hungry. But it is what it is.

The picture is of Crummack Dale. We’ll be heading up there on Friday afternoon. There will be more about this adventure when I return next week. So, for the moment, you’ll just have to be patient, and wait.

REVIEW: The North Face Apex Bionic Softshell: 1st look

2011-11-19T22:20:00.001Z

“Another softshell review?” Yes. After my slight disappointment with the RAB Men’s Exodus Softshell, those awfully nice people at Go Outdoors, well, namely Adam Smith, got back in touch and asked me if i would like to try a North Face softshell without a hood as this had seemed to be the sticking point with the Rab jacket.

I ask myself, “Do bears shit in the woods?”

So with lightning efficiency I said “yes” and received an email confirming the purchase of the garment for £0.00. I can live with a price like that. After all, times are hard! I had ordered a North Face Men’s Apex Bionic Softshell, Size Large, in black. That’s quite a mouthful, isn’t it?

It arrived, as promised, within the 24 hour delivery frame in sturdy plastic packaging in good shape. You should be able to click on the picture to fill your screen.

I liked this jacket immediately. First off: No big saggy hood. The second thing I liked: The backing material behind the zip is made from a sturdy material that doesn’t snag the zip, unlike that of the Rab softshell. The third thing: The jacket is made of material that is very stretchy but it also has a smooth, slightly fleecy lining, which means that putting it on and taking it off is much easier than the Rab jacket which seemed to grip your fleece. It also has a DWR (Durable Water Repellent) finish.

In the words of TNF “the jacket “features the acclaimed TNF™ Apex ClimateBlock fabric, wind permeability rated at 0 CFM for total defence against howling headwinds” So I shall find out about that later.

There is a hem draw-cord that is quite natty: See picture below:

It’s a captive chord so that when you pull it nice and tight (presumably in “defence of the howling headwinds?”) you don’t have flailing strings banging about on your thighs, like you do with my Paramo Velez Adventure jacket – incredibly annoying after a while!.

You will see from the top picture that there is a sizable zipped chest pocket, big enough for a walking guide book. One of the two lower pockets is really really good: cavernous, in fact. It extends all the way up to almost your collar bone. I have no idea why you would want to stuff tall animals in your pocket but I am sure they would fit. Both of these lower pockets suffer slightly, from a backpacker’s perspective, of being slightly low, so that a rucksack hip belt will cut across the lower part of the pockets. All the pockets are air-permeable, which means that you can use them for venting – probably not a great idea though if you have stuff inside them?

The collar is nice and snug and is fleece lined.

The cuffs are interesting: It’s a Velcro–type closer that I have not seen before (maybe I have not been looking too closely?) Velcro is a hook and loop fastening, yet the cuffs on this jacket aren’t “hooky” in any way, so they won’t snag your fleece. They are sort of rubbery stumps very closely packed together. I don’t know how it works, but it seems to work very well. A rather neat touch, I think.

The blurb on the TNF website says the jacket weighs an “average” 837 grams. Interestingly, mine came in at 689 grams. That’s a surprising difference but a very welcome one. Though, in the cooler months when I will be wearing this, the weight is not so much of an issue.

You can find this jacket on the GO Outdoors Website where, if you have one of their discount cards, they will ensure you get the best deal (which sounds a bit ‘John Lewis?’)

You can find all Go Outdoors softshell jackets by going to THIS PAGE and having a good browse. What I particularly like about their site is the fact that there is often more information about the products on their site than on the manufacturers’ own websites! A good example of this is with their selection of waterproof jackets where the information on the Berghaus jackets is far more comprehensive than on Berghaus’s own site.

Anyway! I’m going to take this jacket away with me for a long weekend in the Dales, where, knowing my luck, it will be very cold, wet and windy. When I get back from there, I’ll let you know how I got on with it.

TGO CHALLENGE 2012: PUNISHING THE GUILTY

2011-11-18T22:44:00.001Z

M’Lords, Ladles and Gentlespoons

We are gathered here today to witness that these two persons here present are to be lawfully bound, gagged & drugged up to the eyeballs in whisky. They will be taken from this place to a place where their bodies will be hanged from deer fences and feasted upon by clouds of the midges. Should they survive, they will run the gauntlet of circling buzzards, waiting to peck out their eyes, livers & lights. They will trudge through wild soggy moorland with no hope of respite for a minimum of fourteen days carrying heavy burdens.

And just what have these miscreants done to deserve this dreadful end?

They have been lucky. They have had their names drawn out of a hat by Lady Sierra Manning and their fate is now sealed. They are now participants in the TGO Challenge 2012.

I shall accompany them to make sure their punishment is complete.

BLOGGERS FORM NEW GOVERNMENT!

2011-11-16T22:30:00.001Z

Italy had led the way. She is now being governed by a completely unelected government to sort out the mess the elected parliamentarians have left behind. It was a logical progression for the United Kingdom to follow suit. England’s new Government has the full support of the German & French Premiers and the Bank of England.

After a bloodless coup, the New Order has taken control of the levers of power and will not be letting them go until the “Great” has been put back into Great Britain. The Cabinet Posts have been filled by the following Technocrats::

Prime Minister: That’s me. This is not a democracy. It’s my coup.

Home Secretary: Owdbum This guy talks sense.

Foreign Office: Postcard from Timperley. He spends most of his life abroad anyway.

Chancellor of the Exchequer: Blogpackinglight.. Monetary Genius.

Education: Whitespider1066 (He actually enjoys teaching!)

Health: Terrybnd. (Gets my vote – encourages a bottle of red with each meal)

Transport: TownsendOutdoors. He has been to the far corners of the planet.

DEFRA: Where the Fatdog Walks (a bit of a foodie)

Communities & Local Government: Andy Howell This’ll keep him out of mischief

Culture: The Solitary Walker. Obvious choice, really.

Leader of the Upper House: Lord Elpus, Obviously.

Energy & Climate Change: DISBANDED. No more money for turbines.

Wales, : DISBANDED (Quarrelsome troublemakers, thrown out of the UK)

Northern Ireland: DISBANDED (It’s abroad, for goodness sake! Thrown out of the UK)

Scotland: DISBANDED (Thrown out of the UK. We keep the oil and the hills)

Women & Equality: Are you dreaming?

We start work tomorrow, first thing, after a plate & bacon sandwiches and a few beers. You can’t rush these things. Other countries will shorlty be following our example. Mark My Words…

FOUR BLOKES & A DOG TO GET LOST IN YORKSHIRE

2011-11-14T22:59:00.001Z

To avoid catastrophic failure it’s advisable that expeditions should at least have a basic framework that participants sign up to. I don’t know how I ended up with the role of “Binder” again but somehow I have been tasked with coming up with a plan & route for a madcap weekend “up north”. I think everyone else took two paces backwards.

“Up north” can be jolly cold at the back end of November and the plan is to camp two nights on top of tall places, where, funnily enough, it can be even colder.

So far, the most helpful advice I have had from the expedition’s “Burley” is as follows:

“I'll have a bottle of Ouzo my wife brought back from Cyprus for me. Saving it for this trip to share ;-) Unless of course, I end up drinking it before then but I'll endeavour to keep it safe ;-)”

So we should be nice and warm, then.

PICKING UP THE THREADS

2011-11-13T23:22:00.001Z

For the last thirty years I have been living dangerously; my last seven homes all had their foundations barely above Ordnance Datum. With Global Warming threatening to raise sea levels, I was very lucky not to have drowned in my sleep.

Living at such low elevations made for difficulties when readying myself for any walk involving the physical effort of clambering up mountains. East Anglia is not renowned for its summits.

Over the years I have been fortunate in having Lord Elpus & Miss Whiplash close by: They whipped me into action every Autumn to drag me round the Suffolk Munros: all the hills 100m above Her Madge’s Imperial Sea Level. Happily, this usually involved meeting at a public house where we could slump into armchairs in front of roaring fires with a few pints of Greene King IPA, until Miss W finally kicked us out into the chilled afternoon dampness and the sludge of the Suffolk clay. This weekly fix was enough to keep the walking frame ticking over during the winter months so that when we needed to raise our game, to lug rucksacks about, it wasn’t too much of a shock.

I now live down in Berkshire. The shock statistic of my new location is that I live 250 feet above sea level on the side of a hill. This feels a little bit like cheating really as I am now Training At Altitude. With the new regime over at Challenge Control, there may well be dope tests at every start point on the TGO Challenge. I had better prepare a blood sample before I set off, just in case.

It was a sunny day today and so there were no excuses for not getting out there and going for a walk. I chose North, by North West as my direction and struck out fully provisioned with two apples and a granola bar. You can’t be too careful. And I was sporting clean pants. Just in case I was to be run over.

I left it a little too late to walk far but made a mental note to turn round at 3:00pm and see how far I would get. I was heading towards the Chiltern Hills.

I made it to the M4 motorway. What a great destination, eh? I know how to pick them! Stuff was whizzing past me at incredible speed. Everybody seemed to be in a desperate hurry to be somewhere else.

Miss Whiplash would have been pleased with the mileage and my efforts to increase her financial well-being. 10 miles in 3 hours including a stop for a pint of Greene King IPA. She’s a good girl; she has shares in Greene King. I even managed a few hills as well.

The burgeoning comedy belly will soon be a thing of the past.

REVIEW: RAB Men’s Exodus Soft-shell Jacket: UPDATE

2011-11-08T16:40:00.001Z

Back in June I took delivery of a free Rab Soft-shell jacket from Go Outdoors. Rab is a brand I have bought and trusted for years – I have an excellent sleeping bag bought from them over fifteen years ago which is still doing sterling service. You can find more of Rab’s products by clicking on this link: Rab.

You can read my initial impressions of the Rab softshell HERE. I have now lived with the jacket for four months or so and so it’s time to have a closer look.

The jacket is quite robust; the material is strong, yet stretchy and so is comfortable to wear. It’s not totally windproof but it does gives reasonable protection from the wind. I suppose this is why I find the jacket very breathable when plugging away up hills. I wear the jacket a lot and it still repels water very well. It’s certainly good for short sharp showers but not for prolonged rain, when the weather seeps through. No surprises there though; that’s what you would expect. I wouldn't take a soft-shell jacket on a long backpacking trip in case it got soaked. It would be a devil to dry and it’s too heavy to carry in your pack. I think that these jackets excel for day walks.

It certainly looks quite smart and I have used it occasionally walking around town. It does look a bit ‘mountain man’ though for this use. But hey, maybe that’s okay with some.

As yet I have not found a use for the little pocket on the arm. I had thought that the front pockets were great, but after a bit more use I find that they do actually clash with my rucksack hip-belt a little but not enough to be annoying as they are quite large and so only a small amount of pocket volume is affected. I wonder if the pit-zips are strictly necessary. I have not yet had to use them as if it is a bit warm then i unzip the front zip and loosen the cuffs. They do work well and all the zips are of excellent quality. A minor niggle is that when zipping up the front zip it always seems to get caught on the thin backing fabric behind the zip that acts a weather proofing. This needs to be beefed up so it doesn’t get caught in the zip.

I still like the cuff detail: a thin rubberised Velcro tab. The only thing I would say is that there does seem to be a lot of spare loop on the sleeve that you don’t need. I have thin girly wrists and even I can’t use the last inch and a half of Velcro. You need to either have the cuffs fully open or tightly shut. Leaving them loosely done up means that there is a thick fold of material (remember it is quite a thick material used) that digs in slightly to your wrists. by fastening them up tight it flattens the fold out to be more comfortable.

My major gripe with this jacket is with the hood. When I first looked at it I thought it was splendid, but over time i have found a major niggle:

Why oh why do gear manufacturers believe that all wearers of their jackets will be going about their business wearing climbing helmets? Because they obviously do think this is the case, the hood is very large. Remember that the jacket is made of substantial material. This means that the hood is very bulky and very heavy. This is fine when it is windy and raining and you are wearing the jacket with the hood up. It offers excellent protection from the elements. So that the hood doesn’t flap in the wind, you can reduce the volume of the hood with a pull-cord at the back of the hood. But when the sun comes out again and you unzip the jacket you are left with a big heavy hood hanging on your back that tries to pull the jacket off your shoulders. It is really, really irritating.

Rolling the hood away does not really work either as you are left with a big bulky heavy collar that sags and feels very awkward.

In hindsight, I would prefer a jacket with either a smaller hood or no hood at all. If you are expecting to walk in the rain all day you would be wearing a waterproof shell rather than a soft-shell. A waterproof shell jacket will come with a hood. I would choose to wear a soft-shell when I am not expecting really crappy weather, so in these conditions I would wear a mountain cap and a soft-shell with no hood.

The million dollar question is “would I buy this jacket for myself, having lived with it all this time?”

The answer, is probably not. I would choose a soft-shell without a hood.

LONDON: BONFIRE DAY CULTURE

2011-11-05T23:02:00.001Z

A lovely day out today up in London to visit the niece and ‘do’ the museums and a pub.

First on the hit list, with a very big hit, was to see Doug Aitken’s ‘Black Mirror’ at Victoria Miro, starring the gorgeous Chloë Sevigny. Here’s my rather shaky attempt, hand-held in the dark with the thundering base vibrating the room.

Then a rather tasty lunch followed by a stroll to the British Museum to try (in vain) to get to see the Grayson Perry exhibition. But it was completely full up and so a return visit will be required. That’s a hardship, then!

I did manage to get a few hand-held snaps of the wonderful British Museum’s Great Court roof (Foster & Partners) in the evening light after strolling through the corridors of ancient Egypt and Greece. I think we ought to hang on to the Elgin pieces for a while, don’t you? Otherwise the French & Germans will be having them as loan guarantees…

SCATTERED BLACK & WHITES: Elbow

2011-11-04T21:47:00.001Z

Dad died five years ago now. This song sums up how life is with Mum. If your parents still have all their marbles rolling along nicely, give them a call.

Thanks to Dave Wood for reminding me of this.

Been climbing trees I've skinned my knees
My hands are black the sun is going down
She scruffs my hair in the kitchen steam
She's listening to the dream I weaved today
Crosswords through the bathroom door
While someone sings the theme tune to the news
And my sister buzzes through the room leaving perfume in the air
And that's what triggered this
I come back here from time to time
I shelter here some days

A high-back chair, he sits and stares
A thousand yards and whistles marching-band
Kneeling by and speaking up
He reaches out and I take a massive hand
Disjointed tales that flit between
Short trousers and a full dress uniform
And he talks of people ten years gone
Like I've known them all my life
Like scattered black & whites
I come back here from time to time
I shelter here some days
I come back here from time to time
I shelter here some days

“SYMPHONY” ON BBC 4, THURSDAY EVENINGS

2011-11-02T23:03:00.001Z

I spent most of today in Addenbrookes Hospital in various uncomfortable positions being poked, jabbed and having various bits taken away for examination. They didn’t even give them back to me, so I am now a little lighter than before.

It did give me time in the recovery ward to listen (in headphones, full pelt) to six wonderful hours of BBC Radio 3. One of the delights was listening to Bruckner’s 7th Symphony all the way through. It was glorious.

Here’s a small snippet. It’s emotional. (No video for this first clip)

Then, I heard that tomorrow @ 9:00pm (Thursday) there will be a spankingly wonderful programme on BBC4 – “Symphony” Here’s a taster of what’s to come:

Worth staying in for!

DARREN’S AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE: THE PEDDARS WAY

2011-10-29T19:24:00.001+01:00

DAY ZERO: GETTING THERE: 9.5km

I hadn’t realised that Cambridge was an international rail hub with SIX platforms and so almost missed my train to Thetford. I munched on an incredibly tasteless ‘Delice de France’ Pizza Bread, only because it was marginally better than sawing my arm off with my Swiss Army Penknife, listening to an incredibly precocious child bang on about model steam trains for forty minutes.

Thetford is a surprisingly attractive little town; I don’t know why I was surprised at this realisation as I strolled through the shopping centre. I was walking out to the start of the Peddars Way as I thought it might be a good idea to limber up a little as I have done virtually no walking at all since the TGO Challenge back in May. It felt good to have a rucksack on again; an old friend of many adventures. Having said how pleasant Thetford is, the main ‘A’ road out towards the start of the Peddars Way is not so pleasant to stroll along.

All nastiness comes to an end eventually and I turned off down to Rushford. The village is set amongst rolling breckland and luxuriant woodland: All quite delightful. I had a look around the wonderful thatched church, which I have found out subsequently was the church used in the film “The Witchfinder General.” The interior is wonderfully calm; it appears I was quite lucky to find it open as it is usually locked. I had time to soak up the atmosphere of the place and admire the ancient wall stencilling. The stillness of the place felt utterly timeless. I took a sneaky peek at the medieval hall behind, built before the Black Death; it looked a gorgeous hideaway hall. You can find out more by clicking on the link I provided, above.

Culturally enriched, I strolled onwards in the afternoon sunshine to meet up with Darren. We soon found an entirely illegal spot to wildcamp: Darren had set his Trailstar to “Storm Height” just to be safe. You never know, do you?

We were serenaded by pheasants, Muntjac and whole battle groups of crows. I had what approximated to ‘proper food’ whilst Darren chomped his way through a whole pile of E Numbers and assorted chemicals. That lad should eat better!

DAY ONE: KNETTISHALL HEATH TO BRICK KILN CAMPSITE, ASHILL: 28.0km

Robin turned up bang on time in the morning and so we took the obligatory “Start Point” photographs before setting off down the leafy National Trail.

For the dog-end of October, we were having beautiful weather and we had a few very relaxing breaks in the sunshine admiring the beautiful Norfolk countryside and skyscapes.

Just after the ‘Dog & Partridge’ it appeared that our Darren was struggling a bit. Enquiries established he had an injured thigh muscle; I had no idea the chap owned such things as ‘muscles’ so I was quite perturbed to then find out that he had bought a dodgy damaged one; probably off the internet. He struggled along, manfully. No gurly wimps on this trip!

The sun was setting before we arrived at the campsite.

DAY 2: ASHILL TO THE DABBLING DUCK, GREAT MASSINGHAM: 24.6km

For the gear nerdy types amongst the congregation (we have a few, bear with us…) you can see Darren’s MLD Trailstar and Robin’s Duomid. There: That’s dealt with the dreaded kit side of things. No more needs to be said about the stuff. One sentence is quite enough on this blog, thank you very much.

By now, Darren’s leg was proper poorly. He had brought the entire internet with him on his iPhone and iPad but there wasn’t time to deliver a new leg. So he hobbled along to have a break at McDonalds; the reasoning being that the lad seems to run on junk food so this might fix the leg.

However, not even the crunchy coated nuggets could lift the ailing leg’s spirits and so at this point we waved goodbye to the limb, to meet again later that evening. Darren preferred to keep his leg company, so he stopped as well.

The Adventure was now without its headline adventurer and was down to two men and so we strode off, full of purpose, our E Numbers having been topped up by a Big Macs and Fillet of Fish.

We abided by the Norfolk Constabulary’s warnings and coursed no hares, even though it wasn’t Sunday.

Castle Acre is a pretty little village: quintessentially English. So we took tea in the local pub. Well, Robin took tea and I supported the local brewer.

But we couldn’t sit around enjoying ourselves: we had work to do! So we set off once more to head straight as an arrow along the Roman road.

There were poppies. Is this usual at this time of year?

Eventually we clambered our way to a Trig point at a good THREE HUNDRED feet above Her Madge’s Imperial Sea Level. Unaided. No Oxygen was used.

It was a bit drizzly at this point and so Our Robin deployed his latest piece of cool kit: his umbrella. We cut a dash, we do, on these adventures!

We made our day’s objective, the ‘Dabbling Duck’, a fine bistro pub in Great Massingham and pitched camp in their back garden. Wonderfully, we were re-joined by Big Darren and the Norfolk Notable, Martin Rye at our dining table, where great plans of derring-do were plotted.

I seemed to be the only chap on the fine local ales, so I did my level best to make up for my colleagues’ abstemiousness.

DAY THREE: GREAT MASSINGHAM TO HOLME NEXT THE SEA: 25.2km

What a beautiful morning! There was a good looking young lady at breakfast with us, all lap-topped up on her breakfast table. I can never understand someone who wants to read emails over breakfast… We strode off after an excellent sausages and perfectly fried eggs into the sunshine. This is how backpacking should be done! No worries with the washing up…

Not a cloud in the sky:

There were animals to talk to. It has to be done.

This part of the Peddars Way is quite rolling countryside and it felt good to be bobbing up and down into the little valleys.

It really was a gorgeous day. It’s refreshing to have such a simple life on days like this; your only worries are to find food and drink.

I came upon a bargain in Ringstead that Lord Elpus would have been proud to have discovered: It simply said “Hand Raised, Medium Pie” and it was £1.00 instead of £2:35 I fought my way through a good pound in weight of pork pie and washed it down with Fentiman’s Ginger Beer. It’s important to nourish the body as well as the soul on these hikes.

Towards the end of the day, we were met by Darren and his very famous side-kick, Strider, who walked with us to the coast.

The view seawards was spoiled somewhat by a massive wind farm but if you angled your camera away slightly to the east they could be removed from your view.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: DARREN’S AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE

2011-10-24T23:25:00.001+01:00

There will be a brief interlude whilst I disappear for a little jaunt with Big Darren and Robin. The phone’s battery is a little bit like its owner; old and knackered, so there’ll be no mobile blogging stuff. You’ll just have to wait and see, see?

Nail biting stuff, eh?

A WALK IN THE PARK

2011-10-21T19:39:00.001+01:00

Today is a special day: My little sister reaches her half century and my old friend Lord Elpus enters his seventh decade. Yes, I know he looks young enough to be my son: I have had a hard life and he has one of those pictures up in his attic.

To celebrate the fact that I remembered to send cards to them both and the weather forecasters promising a lovely day, I went for an easy stroll in the park: Windsor Great Park, to be precise. It’s an eleven mile stroll back home through the park.

Here are the pictures: Click the link to see the bigger pictures in a slide-show.

A stroll in Windsor Great Park

VIEW SLIDE SHOW

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR BLOG

2011-10-16T21:49:00.001+01:00

October 17th: This is not a big blog: There are some really big blogs out there with colossal followings. It’s more of a toddler really. It’s had the occasional gap in service but that’s just life really. There will be more gaps to come, shortly, as life gets in the way once more but I’ll try to keep them as short as possible.

Coming soon: Darren’s Awfully Big Adventure. Ooooh!

IT’S GRIM UP NORTH

2011-10-14T00:12:00.001+01:00

I am spending a few days ‘up north’ in Yorkshire.

Now, I quite like Yorkshire; when the sun is shining the Dales are a majestic place to be. However, as I journeyed north on Tuesday the weather steadily worsened until my arrival in the afternoon: I was met with a heavy, overcast sky and a penetrating drizzle.

However, all was not lost as we found an excellent pub in Otley with eight (EIGHT!) real ales on the bar. This was followed by a wonderful jamming session with an ace guitarist and drummer in what could only be described as a garden shed.

Wednesday worsened. It poured down with rain all day. And I came down with the cold that had been threatening all the way up on Tuesday; the symptoms can best be described as Manflu. Everything ached. My head, arms *and* legs! However, I was a brave soldier and made it to Saltaire to have a good look at Salt’s Mill. I had read so much about this place and the magnificent effort to put life back into the heart of this wonderful village. I wasn’t disappointed; the mill is an amazing place now occupied by a huge collection centred on David Hockney (who I can cheerfully say leaves me stone cold) but the mill is vibrant and full of life once again – offering employment and entertainment. The collection of sixties furniture is well worth the visit on its own.

Wednesday evening saw me in Otley again, this time in The Fleece – what a cracking pub! They have their own micro-brewery; their IPA was a sensation and the food was tasty too.

Thursday has mostly been spent feeling sorry for myself: Drizzle in the morning but at least the afternoon brightened to some watery sunshine. Catching up with the blogs is fun; it seems everyone has been busy out there in cyberspace.

I am amazed that anyone ‘up north’ can ever dry their washing at this time of year. It’s damp, damp, damp with rain and mist chucked in for good measure. I am told the sun might finally come out tomorrow. With a bit of luck I might drag my sorry carcase out for a walk, if it stops aching.

It definitely is ‘grim up north’ but seeing my little brother with the hair makes up for it all, as he is a ray of sunshine.

MORE HILL PORNOGRAPHY: TGO CHALLENGE 2004

2011-10-09T01:56:00.001+01:00

These are from my TGO Challenge in 2004. Click to enlarge them.

Again: Guesses invited for the locations!

GRATUITOUS HILL PORNOGRAPHY

2011-10-08T01:56:00.001+01:00

Some of my favourite pictures from the last few years of TGO Challenges.

Can you spot where they are? [The pictures become a lot larger when you click on them] Go on: Have a go!

THE PASSAGE OF TIME

2011-10-06T00:28:00.001+01:00

Lyra Victoria Sloman: @ 6 weeks

Lyra’s Grandad (2nd from left) with Great Uncle David and Great Aunts Christine & Hilary

BUSINESS LEADERS CONDEMN SALMOND’S ENERGY POLICY

2011-09-30T12:52:00.001+01:00

In a week where Druim Ba Sustainable Energy has decided to go to appeal after having their planning application for a massive wind farm rejected by Highland Council, Scotland’s business leaders are getting their act together and attacking Alex Salmond’s ruinous energy policy.

Thanks to Lyndsey for providing the link to this article from the Daily Telegraph:

The costs of Alex Salmond’s green energy revolution are “going through the roof” and threaten to bankrupt companies by doubling energy bills, business leaders have warned the First Minister.

The Scottish Chambers of Commerce have warned relying on renewable energy could see consumer bills double Photo: PA

By Simon Johnson, Scottish Political Editor

6:00AM BST 29 Sep 2011

The Scottish Chambers of Commerce (SCC) said electricity is currently about nine times more expensive to generate from wind farms than gas-powered plants.

Mike Salter, the SCC chairman, told the organisation’s annual dinner that Government energy experts predict greater reliance on “very expensive” renewables will lead to consumers’ electricity bills doubling. He warned this would hold back the Scottish economy and lead to businesses going under. If this is the consequence, he questioned whether Mr Salmond’s “total commitment” to green energy is “misguided”.

In a double whammy for hard-pressed companies, he said the SNP’s decision to increase business taxes by £849 million threatens to “suck the life” from the economy.

The damning intervention came shortly after Mr Salmond was among the audience for a speech by Al Gore, the former US Vice President, at a “green finance” conference in Edinburgh.

View from Donald Trump's golf resort 'will be spoilt by windfarm'

10 Aug 2011
It's Chris Huhne’s windfarms that are inflating energy bills

20 Sep 2011
Foreign firms reap £500m a year in subsidies from UK wind farms

18 Sep 2011
Wind farm paid to produce no electricity

17 Sep 2011
Alex Salmond's green energy policy 'will double power bills'

15 Jun 2011

Mr Gore said Scotland is a world leader in renewable energy, but admitted that wave and tide energy is at “an earlier stage of investigation or development”.

The First Minister has set a target that Scotland generate the equivalent of all the country’s electricity from green sources by the end of the decade, but industry experts have questioned whether this timetable is possible.

Rupert Soames, the chief executive of Aggreko, one of the country's largest energy generators, has described the strategy as “bonkers” because it failed to recognise the “cold realities” of financing expensive new forms of green technology.

Mr Salter did not use such outspoken language but made clear to the audience, which included Mike Russell, the SNP Education Minister, and Michael Moore, the Scottish Secretary, that he shared similar concerns. Referring to offshore wind farms, he told the dinner in Glasgow: “The costs of these projects is going through the roof. “The Scottish government have committed to have the majority of generation coming from this very expensive source by 2020. All I say at this time is- have a care!

“If as a consequence the rest of the economy is disadvantaged then perhaps such a total commitment is misguided. Other lower cost technologies are available.”

These include nuclear energy, which Mr Salmond has discarded. Mr Salter said a recently-announced wind farm in the Irish Sea will cost £1.6 billion, 25 per cent more than projections in spring last year.

Citing Mott MacDonald, a Government energy consultancy, he said the cost of generating electricity from wind farms is approaching 19p per kilowatt hour (kWh), the unit of electrical energy. This compares with the wholesale “spot price” of gas, which costs between 1.75p and 2p. Mr Salter said electricity currently costs consumers about 12.4p per kWh.

But Mott MacDonald estimates this will double to 25p thanks to the additional expense of wind farms and public subsidies for the renewable energy industry.

The SCC also attacked the SNP’s spending plans, announced last week, which rely on generating an extra £849 million in business rates over the next three years. The money is needed to fund populist policies, such as free bus passes for the elderly.

Mr Salter warned the tax hike would harm job creation, adding: “The balance seems to have been lost somewhere. It is fine to have a social agenda funded directly by government, but the biggest and best social agenda must be to have people gainfully employed and paying their way.

“Please! Think again before this misguided regime sucks the life out of SME (small and medium enterprises) in Scotland.”

STIRRING STUFF FOR AN INDIAN SUMMER

2011-09-28T13:49:00.001+01:00

No; nothing to do with preparing your dehydrated backpacking meals but equally as nutritious. Feed your soul, turn up the speakers and fill your mind with a little bit of heaven in England.

(I quite like it, you see)

And this one is for all you bassoonists out there: (from Italy)

And back to England again.

THE WRONG TROUSERS! (ii)

2011-09-22T13:04:00.001+01:00

Almost five years ago now, I bought an excellent pair of trousers.

I chose them for my LEJOG, principally for walking in the more populated areas and for wearing in hotels. I needed the trousers on sartorial grounds because back then my legwear of choice for the hills were Polartec Tights; not a good look when combined with my big leather Scarpa Nepal boots – very Max Wall.

My Patagonia Simple Guide Pants were superb trousers and I reviewed them after my LEJOG’s four months of hard use, here. I continued to use them for another 3 years of TGO Challenges and now they are quite knocked about yet still appear to show remarkably little wear to the casual observer. (Are there people who go about casually observing men’s trousers?) However, they have a problem:

When the Good Lord Above, or whoever it was who gives out body parts to newly born babes, dispensed the various bits of my anatomy, it has to be said he was a bit mean in one or two departments deemed crucial for young chaps. Nevertheless, the Old Boy was generous when he dished out my nice long legs. However, rather like the young Milligan, they do resemble two pieces of knotted string hanging from my underpants.

My old Patagonia trousers looked fine with great big Scarpa Nepal boots – the regular leg length finished just over the top of the boot collar which meant that they never got too muddy. However, for the last two years, I have been wearing these technical plimsolls and the trousers now looked very odd, finishing above the ankle. Not a good look.

I have floundered about trying to get a pair of trousers the right leg length for these shoes that don’t have the look of hundreds of pockets strapped to the legs & arse which seem to be suited to some sort of Action Man Backwoods figure. I thought I was almost there in April when I bought a pair of Montane trousers but having seen a photo of myself wearing them I think they look ghastly; a terrible shapeless cut. And more crucially, the wrong colour. They are….. The Wrong Trousers!

I found myself in London yesterday morning on a mission to nip in to Snow & Rock in Covent Garden to pick up some nice new fluffy merino socks in between dashing between Waterloo & Kings Cross. Oddly, I just could not remember where on earth it was. I knew I was in the right area and I knew it was down a side street off a main drag. I nipped up and down a few and then, quite by accident came upon this place:

After strolling through the portal it struck me how empty the place was. It turned out that the shop was not yet officially open, whatever that means. They did have a really nice pair of socks and then I found myself in the trousery section…

And came away having spent far too much money on another pair of Patagonia Simple Guide Pants, in black. Strangely, this pair has a longer leg, which is jolly wonderful. They have pockets (2 hip, 1 on the bottom and 1 on the leg) but they are discreet, and zipped. At first glance, they look like a very nice casual trouser. Patagonia’s website states that in medium they have a 32” inside leg. The ones I have bought measure 33” and so are perfect. Comparing them to my old trousers they are an extra 2.5 inches longer. The leg is also slightly roomier, which is fine. They are still a slim style. They have also done away with the draw-cord waist and now resemble any normal trouser. They don’t have the natty little cord zip pulls that the old models had, so I just swapped them from the old to the new trousers.

Even now, I am not sure I could tell you exactly where the shop is but it must be fairly close to Snow & Rock (wherever that is!). There are no signs protruding from the wall to catch your eye; blink and you would miss it. I can’t even find its address on the till receipt. Maybe it was all a dream.

But at last, I have the Right Trousers!

HIGHLAND COUNCIL REJECTS DRUIM BA

2011-09-20T21:52:00.001+01:00

A rather nice surprise today: From the BBC website:

“Plans for 23 turbines at Druim Ba between Kiltarlity and Abriachan have been rejected by Highland councillors. The turbines would reach to 149.5m (490ft) from the ground to the tip of a blade at its highest point.

Developer Druim Ba Sustainable Energy is proposing creating the wind farm in a forestry plantation. ‘Druim Ba Say No’ Action Group has opposed the planning application. The Scottish government has still to consider the project.

A local Highland Council planning committee voted against the plans. Councillors said the visual impact and the effect on an important tourist area would be unacceptable.”

THE MONADHLIATH RING OF STEEL

So – It’s up to Alex and his merry band now. I just wonder: If this one can be stopped there’s every chance that Allt Duine can be too.

VICIOUS PENGUIN ATTACK…

2011-09-19T22:59:00.001+01:00

I was appalled…

THE UPLANDS OF MAR

2011-09-17T22:59:00.001+01:00

(NO: THIS MAP IS NOT OF THE UPLANDS OF MAR: READ ON! CLICK ON IT LATER WHEN IT MAKES SENSE…)

The first time I filled in a route sheet for the TGO Challenge, back in 1994, I struggled with the Gaelic place names enormously. I transcribed names of streams, hills and villages religiously but their names meant nothing to me. Over the years I have come to absorb these name and to understand what they mean which can be a great help when planning a route.

With the good ol’ internet, there are loads of places to get grips with the Gaelic place names; HERE is one of my favourites.

I had come across one term over the years that I had taken to understand simply as a little stream; “caochan”. This year on the TGO Challenge I had a “two caochans” day.

I came across the first little gem, Caochan Crom nan Eag, before it spilled into Allt Spioradail, which tumbled down towards the bothy on the Dulnain in the Monadhliath Mountains. Like a lot of high moorland streams, at its start it comes and goes, disappearing occasionally underground – you can hear the hollow gurgling noises as it rushes through the peat tunnels beneath your feet.

As I climbed up through what is to become the Allt Duine Power Station, a few miles further on I crossed the Caochan Easg an Lochain, gurgling away from its source in Loch a Choin Duibh. It was another gushy little little gem that I could see coming and going as I looked up at it.

I had thought no more about those little streams since then, apart from looking back over my trip when failing to sleep at night (very relaxing, re-walking wonderful strolls lying in bed at night).

And then I found a wonderful website. It’s name is “The uplands of Mar”. I think Chris Townsend had pasted either a link to it either on Facebook or Twitter (thankfully, usually both with Chris). ‘The Uplands of Mar’ is a labour of love compiled by Joe Dorward, who describes himself thus:

“Joe Dorward is a (ruined) writer with a professional interest in technology, and an un-professional interest in the place names, history, and geography of the upland of Mar. He's the happy author of several (out of print) books, and, as the webitor-in-chief, is responsible of most of the content so-far”

What an absolute treasure trove! The site concentrates exactly as the title of the site suggests; on the uplands of Mar, near Braemar. But a great deal of what Joe describes in this one corner of the Scottish Highlands can be readily transposed to all other areas. The site is broken down into Photographs, Place Names, Buildings, Crossings, Biographies, ‘Navig—Aids’ and Transcriptions.

He describes glacial outwash channels, river terraces, terminal moraines and how they are all formed. He even tells you about caochans.

I won’t tell you any more of what you can find on his wonderful site. Go and take a look for yourself. Give yourself some time though as there is tons of good writing and pictures to rummage through.

Ravel Bolero: Copenhagen Central Station Flash Mob

2011-09-14T17:36:00.001+01:00

ALLT DUINE WIND POWER STATION: THE VISUAL IMPACT

2011-09-14T15:56:00.001+01:00

The attentive amongst our congregation may remember me making mention of the proposed Wind Power Station to be sited slap bang on the boundary of the Cairngorm National Park Boundary.

Today I found a wonderful website, Scotland-Landscapes.com that shows just how visible this wind power station will be in the Highlands of Scotland. It’s actually quite shocking:

CLICK ON THE MAPS TO SEE THEM IN GREATER DETAIL

For the wider area of the Highlands they have come up with this map:

Visit their website to find interactive maps of the visual impact.

TGO CHALLENGE 2012: The cheques are in the post

2011-09-12T21:13:00.001+01:00

With the shock withdrawal of Lord Elpus from next year’s TGO Challenge, Mad’n’Bad Andy & me had a committee meeting over the telephone. We had to get ‘Wee Willy Wilky’ on board for the Challenge in 2012.

Churchillian (see picture above) David Harry Wilkinson, or ‘Wilky’ to his mates or ‘Wee Willy Wilky’ to all the girls (just to make the distinction between him and the David Wilkinson who already does the Challenge, you understand) came with Andy Walker & me last year from Braemar to St Cyrus to do a small section of the Challenge as a ‘taster’. He suffered the privations and traumas of Bingo Wings, the Fife Arms, Lochcallater Lodge, almost being burned alive in Gelder Shiel, smashed by the Hurricane, slaughtered at the Masons and finally making it in one (slightly tattered) piece at St Cyrus as a dry run for 2012’s Challenge.

So, we told Wilky that he had promised us faithfully at the party at Stan & Bill’s (it will always be Stan & Bill’s) at somewhere about 2:30 in the morning that he would come back in 2012 to do the whole thing . And Wilky is a man of his word and so with his arm bent so far up his back that every joint was squeaking, he finally agreed to keep his word. (We had to loosen a few finger nails as well.)

Now; this next bit is a secret, so don’t let on if you see him. But! By 2:00am both Andy & I were fast asleep in our cots and only the die-hard drinkers were still left partying downstairs at that hour, Wilky amongst them. He didn’t look too clever in the morning but was still man enough and ‘up-for-it’ to brave the hurricane that was to come that day!

Such was the combination of his socks and plimmies that Wilky finished the walk to St Cyrus with feet that resembled chopped liver. So we need to get him properly shod in time for next year.

Other than that, he is obviously the perfect man for the job. Our entry form and cheques are currently winging their way to Deppity Dawg, the New Coordinator of the Challenge

Be gentle with us in the draw, please, John!

Jersey: The Channel Island Way: 11: FINAL THOUGHTS

2011-09-10T21:49:00.001+01:00

From the preceding ten posts, those of the congregation that stayed with me and didn’t run screaming after I mentioned the words “Geography lesson” – Jolly Well Done! You are the true heroes of the last ten posts. You have stuck with my daily diary entries about the hell that is Jersey.

Mark & I suffered. Yes; it was hell out there, enjoying the hospitality provided by Jersey Tourism on your behalf. Those lunches and dinners just don’t eat themselves, you know. And in between the fine dining we hiked and toiled our way along sections of the Channel Island Way that were sensationally scenic.

Wherever we were, we bumped into happy smiley people who genuinely believed that they inhabited a little piece of paradise on earth. And who can blame them? At every turn on our walks we encountered either beauty at the intimate level of the flowers and insects or the sheer physical pleasure of the wonderful coastal scenery:

If you enjoy coastal walking, think of Jersey a little like you would think of Cornwall. But think of it as Cornwall done properly:

No litter
No peeling paint
Happy, smiling service
Good quality, good value accommodation
More sunshine
Empty, clean beaches
Great restaurants, cafes & pubs.
A friendly welcome
And – for walkers – no barbed wire! (a point close to my heart)

Hopefully, I have furnished you with the required tools to enjoy the walk and the desire to go and have a look for yourself. I shall definitely be going back next year to have an even more languorous lope about the island.

I was told before I set out for Jersey that the island gets under your skin. It certainly has for me: I can’t wait to have another look.

JERSEY: THE CHANNEL ISLAND WAY: 10: The North Coast

2011-09-07T23:37:00.001+01:00

OR WHAT WE DID INSTEAD OF AN AFTERNOON SNOOZE

Whilst waiting for our post prandial limo to arrive, I took a peek at the bus stop. Frankly I was really surprised at how many buses there were. This is apparently the norm for Jersey, so expensive limos are not a requirement for a walking trip round the island based at, say, one location in St Helier, or wherever. If you click on this picture I have made it available in a jolly large size so you can see how frequent the buses are.

This next shot wasn’t actually taken on the north coast – our next destination but it shows, for records sake, the guide posts that are dotted along the Channel Island Way. It would be pretty difficult to get lost!

Our post-lunch limo now whisked us off to the north of the island, to experience the majesty of the scenery to be found there. Dropped off near Les Colombiers, we strolled down the hill passing the clay pigeon shooting range, which seemed to be doing good business and had me ducking at the sound of every 12-bore gunshot. It must have been at one of my deeper ducks that I came face to face with this little beauty, which Mark recognised instantly as Sheep’s-bit.

The view from the elevated cliff path was extensive and islands could be spotted far out to sea. At this point my camera froze on me! No amount of beating, pleading or cajoling would get the lens back out from it’s ‘sleep’ position and so I am afraid the next two shots I have had to lift from the web, but they show exactly where we were and what we saw. Honest! I wasn’t still in the Crab Shack eying up the second pudding menu. Only at the cafe at the end of the walk, dropping the camera on the cafe table did the lens re-appear so I could toddle down to the sea to take a few more snaps.

That’s the second time it’s done that recently. I think it needs Stern Words.

We rounded the headland at La Tete de Plemont, beneath the sad remnants of the old Pontins holiday camp, now a target for graffiti ‘artists’ and surrounded by the only barbed wire I saw on the entire trip (if you don’t count the tall fences around the prison at La Moye on the south coast – which we thought was pretty fair!)

The paths in Jersey are wonderfully clear of any obstruction; be it from overgrown vegetation (the local volunteer police force enforces the Branchage – the twice yearly cutting back of all overhanging vegetation) so that all paths are delightfully clear of anything to snag you. I honestly do not remember encountering a single strand of barbed wire near any of the paths we walked. Jersey really is walker-friendly.

This next picture is the shot just before we dropped down to the cafe at Plemont for a welcome coffee, about halfway down.

Having un-jammed my mis-behaving party camera, I nipped down the walkway past the splendid cafe (who sold beers and ice cream and all manner of wonderful sticky cakes amongst other hot snacks) and over a bridge over swirling seas onto the rocks to watch the high tide with some families there enjoying the afternoon.

Then, back to the limo to be dragged, screaming, to a pub in St Helier to sample Liberation Ale (a Jersey pint). This was just to steady ourselves for the onslaught of yet another magnificent meal at the The Inn and another night trawling the St Helier pubs afterwards.

You know, Mark & I suffered this hospitality in a stoical fashion; not once letting the other know the pain he was suffering to get these reports out to the world. If you look closely, you can make out the pain-wracked expression on Mark’s face. (He’s the chap on the right of the picture. The other is Arthur, our tormentor.)

We deserve medals.

JERSEY: THE CHANNEL ISLAND WAY: 9: Lunch, St Brelade’s

2011-09-07T18:35:00.001+01:00

OR I WONDER WHAT’S FOR PUDDING!

Look. Everyone deserves a break now & then. This was my lunchtime tucker at the Crab Shack at St Brelade. Someone needed to test out the menu. You can’t have hungry walkers turning up not knowing about what’s available, can you? No. Of course not. It was my duty. I was helping out.

It was delicious. Highly recommended.

Let’s not go too overboard with the salad, now.

JERSEY: THE CHANNEL ISLAND WAY: 8: The South West

2011-09-06T21:34:00.001+01:00

OR WHAT WE DID BEFORE A LOVELY LUNCH

Another day, another limo trip; this time to the south western tip of Jersey, La Corbiere. Blessed with more glorious weather (and a slightly muzzy head from the Cultural Shenanigans of the previous night) we were on the headland staring out southwest into the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean and la Belle France, just out of sight to the left – Brittany.

This is another fascinating stretch of coastline with oodles of history crammed into every hundred yards or so. As an engineer, I have to tell you that the lighthouse in the picture was the first constructed in the British Isles from reinforced concrete, back in 1873. You learn things if you stick around, see? All the others who ran out of the class room missed this fascinating fact…

Moving on! For the geologists amongst us – there is no need to be ashamed; be proud of your dirty little habit, it’s not everyone who feels the urge to grovel around on their hands & knees with a magnifying glass, getting all muddy and ruining their fingernails – we have caves and quarries to visit!

For the boys in the congregation, here is a gratuitous photograph of the fast ferry – a catamaran, I believe – whizzing its way to St Helier from Weymouth. It’s quite a sight and you feel it coming before you see it – the throb of its engines being quite physical.

The path, not on the C.I.Way, clambers over the lower granite beneath the cliffs – but be careful as this is tidal and you could get into a bit of bother here if the tide was to come in as it does it at quite a rate as it has a massive range of about 40 feet. But we were brave and carried on, completely oblivious to this fact until we realised that the cave was a dead end and we had to get back to where we started from…

It was worth all that peril though.

The clamber back up the staired cliff path is never too strenuous as I would guess that the top is never more than 150ft or so from the bottom. Even my Mum could do it. The stairs are all pretty good – with timber treads with protruding steel staples for extra grip. Handrails occasionally, too!

We then came across this strange construction; it’s the way the engineers get heavy parts down to the pump house at the bottom. It’s the inlet for the desalination plant higher up the cliff. Again, if you are of that mind-set; fascinating stuff.

I will never forget this view. (below) The construction on top of the cliff is a German Sighting Tower, now a place to stay on your holidays. Click on the picture for a better view.

Off again, this time to seek out one of nature’s wonders; a blow hole. When the Atlantic comes crashing in this is supposed to be a dramatic sight. It looked pretty impressive from where we were standing too. In the foreground you’ll notice that the gorse has been nibbled at – what on earth nibbles gorse like this? Whatever it is must have steel jaws as the gorse scratches like crazy through your trousers.

Geologists – feast your eyes on this quarry. The rock is just beautifully fine-grained and a splendid honey colour. Jersey granite is sought-after the world over. I’m quite surprised that there is so much of the island left as there are little quarries all over the place. Some make lovely suntraps and artists have sculptures dotted around to be enjoyed along the cliff paths and quarries. All delightfully civilized.

This next shot is just to show that where there are the occasional up and down bits, the walker is well served by nice staircases, handrails and delightful little paths.

This next picture really sums up for me Jersey's potential as a great walking destination. It’s Le Beauport. Just before lunch-time in August on a week day, there were just EIGHT people on this glorious beach, which is just a two minute walk from the car park at the top of the hill, and just a five minute walk from a busy little town with fantastic cafes and restaurants; St Brelade. Dead easy, even for families with young children too.

Before lunch, we just had time to visit the Fisherman’s Chapel at St Brelade Church with its fifteenth century wall paintings. I came over all ‘choirboy’ here. Very cool, serene and timeless: That’s the chapel, not me. I am the hot, flustered and aged looking wreck.

JERSEY: THE CHANNEL ISLAND WAY: 7: St Helier

2011-09-04T19:09:00.001+01:00

OR: HER MADGE’S CULTURAL AMBASSADORS…

Quite amazingly, after such a torrid day of strenuous activity, Mark felt that we had not earned our suppers and so after a bit of prodding I agreed that our Limo should drop us off at Liberation Square so that we could explore St Helier and perhaps make a little room for the inevitable wonderful dinner back at The Inn. At way passed his ‘going home time bell’ Arthur gamely bounced out as well and guided us round a bit of St Helier. Above & Beyond, Arthur – thank you.

There is quite a bit to find of interest and we duly poked about in some unlikely corners, turning up a hidden “V for Victory” cleverly designed into the wartime cobbles as an act of resistance, which I singularly failed to record as I am afraid I had just been told of a pub right next to it called the “Cock & Bottle” which served real ale and that seemed to hold my interest a little better. Having looked at the reviews of this place for food though, I wouldn’t eat there. The drinks were fine though and the pub is full of character.

I am sure Arthur would never forgive me if I didn’t make mention of Lillie Langtry. If you put aside for one moment Jersey Royal potatoes, Jersey cream and Jim Bergerac, she’s one of Jersey’s finest exports. Those amongst the congregation desperate to find out all about her exploits, conquests and gloriously debauched life, can click HERE to see Mark’s research on the wonderful woman.

I am afraid I had to lift the pictures of the two Victorian covered markets from the internet as they were just closing when we strolled around town. The two markets looked like a great place to go shopping to cook up a treat for yourself. I shall definitely be going back as I adore these places.

Then it was a swift hike back uphill (we had to walk off the calories somehow) to the hotel to ready ourselves for ‘Wings of Fire’, a ‘Beef Sizzler’ and one of the most perfect crème caramels ever! The restaurant has great food and very friendly staff.

But the night was still young… So we strolled downhill back into town to try out one of Arthur’s recommendations; ‘The Lamplighter’ which had a selection of real ales. So we tried all of them, just in the interest of research. One of them was really really good, so we had a few more of them, just to make sure. The pub is also renowned for its whisky collection. That was a close shave; I only spotted them when I couldn’t possibly squeeze any more in.

We fell in with a really fun bunch – Siobhan and her friend had just come back from a Headway meeting; a charity to help those with brain injuries, and were letting their hair down. So, we joined in. You have to, really: It’s good for Anglo-Jersey relations. Think of this trip as a peace keeping mission and Mark & me as Ambassadors for Her Madge. Andy, a regular at the Lamplighter, kindly emailed the photograph, below right, of Mark & I performing our ceremonial duties.

JERSEY: THE CHANNEL ISLAND WAY: 6: The East Coast (iii)

2011-09-03T21:57:00.001+01:00

OR: DON’T MENTION THE WAR…

In previous posts I may have mentioned that in the past the French had cast their eye over Jersey and thought it might be worth a go – a bit like the Argentinians and The Falkland Islands, I suppose. Well, the Brits were having none of this and fortified the island to the teeth. You can’t have ‘Johnny Foreigner’ taking bites out of your Empire, can you now? Where would it all end? Defensive forts were built from the finest Jersey Granite along the entire coastline with heavy cannon installed to deter the French fleet.

When the construction of huge harbour walls started in earnest, to house the British fleet, that seemed to do the trick. The French finally gave up trying and went back about the business of global domination by stealth; developing the finest cuisine in the world and taking over that way.

So having dined rather well, on our ‘Gastro-Tour’ as Robin so succinctly dubbed our exploration of the wild coastline in the previous blogpost’s comments section, we continued on our stroll down the east coast of Jersey. We started with a gentle amble down through the castle grounds and met with this rather striking fellow: My herpetology isn’t all it should be and I am guessing that it is a lizard? Helpful comments identifying the chap (or chap-ess, perhaps?) would be appreciated. I was grateful that the little fellow stayed still long enough to be recorded on my incredibly slow party camera.

Arthur, our Blue Badge Guide, let us know that you could spend a very happy afternoon exploring the castle, which has quite a history. There really is absolutely piles of stuff to do around here; the walk could be easily be broken down, as suggested in the guide book, into little fragments as eating, drinking and generally enjoying being a tourist will fill the remaining part of your day quite comfortably.

Gorey is a rather splendid little place; nestling beautifully beneath the castle and cuddling it’s sandy harbour with boats bobbing about. Cafes and some quite smart shops line the ‘main drag’. I did like their newsagent:

I shall now touch on some observations that really are quite shocking to a chap from the mainland:

The phone boxes are all intact and are a resplendent bright yellow
The civic amenities’ (bus shelters, public loos, public buildings etc - but you know what civic amenities are, don’t you, so there’s no need for this absurd explanation) paintwork is all immaculate.
Benches to relax upon and enjoy the wonderful views are intact, comfortable and numerous.
I did not spot a single piece of litter ANYWHERE on the entire trip.

Quite a culture, shock, really…

Right! Enough of the smug ramblings of a contented Englishman abroad! Onwards. We are heading south once more along the sweeping strand of La Baie du Vieux Chateau and soon we leave the cultured environs of Gorey and find ourselves on the golf course. To the sides of the immaculate fairways, the rough hosts wonderful little plants like the sea holly, above right. I would have been quite happy to try out my collapsible hiker’s lob wedge and chase my divots around the course but I was persuaded to stow it back in my rucksack. Members only, I am afraid… It did look quite lovely and hardly a soul was out to play on it. It looked ideal for a little one man tent on those billiard table smooth baize greens…

We’ll move on, before Jersey Tourism take me away in one of their chauffer driven white vans. There are lots of dungeons in Jersey where I could be incarcerated and never ever be seen again.

Then we came to the really heavy business of the more recent fortifications put in place by the last lot of invaders.

The Channel Islands were occupied by the Germans for the five years between 1940 and 1945. The British gave them up as impossible to defend and so, apart from a couple of bombing raids, the Germans took over the running of the islands without having to storm the place. They were there in great force; there was approximately one German soldier for every two Channel Islanders. Hitler ordered that the Channel Islands were to be part of his ‘Atlantic Wall’ of defence and huge concrete defences were constructed using both slave and volunteer labour forces. Examples of these absolutely massive constructions can be seen all around the island; huge gun emplacements, machine gun nests and the huge anti-tank walls to the rear of the open beaches. A few of the larger examples are open to the public.

Jersey was liberated a long time after the Allies had invaded Europe, so cutting off the supply lines to the German garrisons. It also meant that the Germans and Islanders almost starved to death as the food supplies were cut off! Peace came to Jersey the day after it was declared in Europe.

We continued southwards towards Jersey’s south easterly tip at La Rocque, where the last failed French invasion took place; most of their ships having been caught on the dangerous reefs off-shore. If you look closely at the picture, below right, (click on it to enlarge it) you will see the the reefs that the French fleet foundered on, seen from the end of the breakwater.

Then it was off to St Helier in our air-conditioned black limousine for more fun and frolics – but more of that in the next post!

JERSEY: THE CHANNEL ISLAND WAY: 5: The East Coast (ii)

2011-09-02T21:47:00.001+01:00

OR: “LET’S DO LUNCH…”

We had lunch on the terrace in Gorey at a splendid Gastro-pub; Castle Green. The conversation was lively but a snippet remains with me. Both Mark & I had noticed that the locals have quite a distinctive accent. Now, when I say distinctive, you have to bear in mind my origins: I speak “Estuary English.” I get horribly mixed up with accents that are not from where I come from. A good example of this is continually confusing an Irish accent with that of the Scots.

Indeed, almost twenty years ago now I walked for two days with a delightful chap from Morpeth and didn’t understand a blind word he said to me for the entire time. I tried my best and nodded in what I thought were the appropriate places and sighed heavily when I thought the time had come to empathise with what was evidently a massive problem as he seemed to be so worked up about everything as his intonation soared and plummeted so wildly.

In my head, the folk from Jersey do a pretty good South African accent. Or, of course, it might be Australian; whatever, it isn’t from around the Thames by any stretch of the imagination. It’s really quite interesting that amongst friends from the area their accents become ‘heavier’. Speaking as an outsider it is quite charming. They also have little idiosyncrasies that could land the unwary in hot water. Arthur told us that it is quite common to answer a question and add an ‘eh?’ at the end of the sentence (I suppose in a similar vein to the Aussies; I’ve seen ’Neighbours’ so I’m now an expert in these matters). This can have dire consequences if you were to find yourself at the Liberation Bus Station at St Helier:

When asking for the correct bus to Portelet Bay from St Helier the answer will be “You’ll need to catch the Number 12, eh?”

You’re there already, aren’t you? Indeed, the 12A bus goes somewhere completely different, but just as charming; St Ouen’s Bay.

We lingered a little over lunch. It would have been a shame to dash off, with so much to learn… Here’s a tip: The Pan fried local bass served with green beans, broad beans, Jersey Royals, chorizo and salsa verde is absolutely wonderful… As you have seen, the puddings were pretty fine too!

It’s a tough life, being a Walking Holiday Inspector, but, as they say, somebody has to do it… (Just pinch me… How did I get this gig?)

JERSEY: THE CHANNEL ISLAND WAY: 4: The East Coast (i)

2011-09-02T00:14:00.001+01:00

OR: I COULD GET USED TO THIS…

Our day started with a massive ‘Full English’ (well, we did have strenuous walking ahead of us… and The Inn is well known for it’s excellent food) and the sun streaming into the hotel lobby.

A chap arrived dressed in a suit with a very smart vehicle with dark tinted windows. We bundled into it to be taken on our first assignment. All very ‘The Apprentice!’ But today no-one was going to be fired.

As we trundled along the country roads Arthur explained in very broad terms how the island was laid out: Imagine a breakfast tray in bed sitting on your legs: If you were to lift your knees slightly the long edge of the tray nearest your knees would be higher than the edge closest to your belly. Just like Jersey. It’s highest at the north coast and slopes down southwards to the south coast. The valleys then run north to south. All very sensibly arranged, is Jersey. It means that there are not too many whopping great valleys dissecting the cliffs along the north coast, which means that the cliff path along the north coast is a delightful airy traverse along the tops. Apart, that is, from the few really big down & ups – but there are not too many of them – which is ‘perfick’ for an idle middle aged, greying, thinning haired chap with a burgeoning belly like me!

However, today we were to set off down the east coast from the north. So that meant that in theory we should be waltzing down hill all day. Does it get better than this?

The day was already sunny and hot when we were dropped off at the north eastern corner of the island near Rozel. We strolled down a quiet track overhung with broad-leafed trees to come quietly onto a bright blue, flat calm sea. It was a wonderfully peaceful spot. The scent of wild flowers and the sea air just added to the bliss.

We trundled about the remains of a five thousand year old burial chamber; Le Couperon Dolmen and poked around in the adjacent battery and gunpowder magazine; an interesting juxtaposition of a monument to the dead and the tools to make it possible.

Then we were off, up a small road to head over to Fliquet Bay. We bumped into one of Arthur’s family members, once removed, and slipped into an easy conversation about this and that. It seemed as though Arthur and she knew the entire island.

I think it’s pretty difficult to get lost in Jersey as there are little signs all over the shop to help you find your way:

Back down to Fliquet Bay and the coastal scenery was sublime.

We strolled along the low sea wall in the sunshine.

And came across beautiful wild flowers – I am absolutely positive that Mark will have great shots of these Jersey Lilies!

We passed another old coastal fortification; St Catherine’s Tower, designed to ward off the French. There are quite a few of these towers dotted all around the island as the French were particularly troublesome in days gone by…

We carried on around St Catherine’s Bay, passing Kyron Bracken’s new pad, still under construction. (We had a little nose about, well… you have to, don’t you? It was all very stylish but very exposed) We passed bay after bay of complete tranquillity; frankly after a while I just took it for granted that the next bay would either be just as gorgeous as the last or even more beautiful.

It was on the beach shown above that we bumped into Sarah, who I noticed whilst Mark was busily acquiring fragrant handfuls of Jersey cherry tomatoes from a roadside stall with an honesty box for the princely sum of 50p.

Sarah was sporting a daysack and my eagle eye spotted that she was carrying Arthur’s guidebook in her hand. With a very waggy tail, I introduced her to Arthur who very sportingly signed her copy of the Channel Island Way.

Munching Mark’s tasty tomatoes, we set off once more up and over the headland to another defensive fort; the Victoria Tower, which set us up perfectly for the view down to Gorey, and lunch:

JERSEY: THE CHANNEL ISLAND WAY: 3: Where is it?

2011-09-01T01:06:00.001+01:00

OR: PAY ATTENTION: YOU ARE GOING TO NEED THIS BIT LATER!

Right then! Let’s start off with a Geography lesson…. No! Wait! Don’t go. Come back!

Okay – It’s just us now. Well – we can still have fun together. So then. Sit up straight and no slouching.

Jersey: It isn’t very big, and I would imagine if you were to row there in a little rowing boat, you would have to be jolly careful with your map and compass, because it’s small and you could easily miss it and head off into the middle of the Atlantic, or even worse, end up in France. And we wouldn’t want that, would we? No. Certainly not.

This map might help. Remember to take plenty of sandwiches and pop if you are going by rowing boat. For the softies amongst the congregation you can get there by air and sea quite conveniently from a multitude of embarkation points in the UK and with no need of sextants or emergency flares. Drainpipes will do fine.

You can see that the island is dangerously close to La Belle France; in fact just fourteen miles separate you from the land of berets, bicycles and brandy. So if you were desperate for a little French snifter, you could nip over quite easily. But you don’t want to do that right now as we are going to explore the States of Jersey. And I have to say, that Jersey is in a very good state indeed!

I know it looks a little unnervingly like Australia but trust me, this is the right map (~~this time~~). I didn’t meet any Aussies in my time over there but we’ll get on to the local accent later.

I would guess that this little island paradise is about 9 miles wide and 5 miles deep, but its coastline is just to die for, which is what the Channel Island Way is all about.

The whole of the Channel Island Way takes in the coastlines of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm and is 110 miles long. We are going to explore the largest island’s coast; that of Jersey, which, quite surprisingly for a little island, is an impressive 48 miles long.

Now I am sure that there are rufty-tufty types amongst us who could quite possibly knock this off in a few days but we don’t want to do that! (There are about a thousand hardy souls who do in fact set off one day in September every year to walk the entire coastline in a day! Deliriously wonderful, mad fools!) No: This is an island to be savoured, to stroll through at a pace more in keeping with having a jolly good time. You need time to wind-down on your holiday and this is just the place for a gentle post luncheon snooze on a sun-soaked cliff top with the Sheeps-bit tickling your ear. Yes – you have read that correctly. More on that later.

To enjoy this walk it’s handy if you have a few bits and pieces to help you on your way and to give you maximum pleasure. So – you will need the Guide Book:

GUIDEBOOK: COVER AND INTERNAL LAYOUT (CLICKABLE IMAGES)

And as we are all keen walkery types who would be bereft without one, it’s also a good idea to have the 1:25k map of the island as well:

JERSEY MAP: COVER & MAP (SHOWING CORRESPONDING AREA OF GUIDEBOOK MAP)

So, suitably equipped, you are now hopefully on the correct hemisphere, on the right island and have everything you need for a fantastic walk.

If you really wanted to push the boat out, after all that rowing, it really is rather splendid to hire a local guide who will maximise your enjoyment and fill your head with dizzying facts of which if you could only remember a fraction, you would be going home an authority on the island, it’s history, geology, culture, flora and fauna.

I can heartily recommend our guide, Arthur Lamy, who was fun, witty and incredibly knowledgeable, whose details are set out here:

But enough of the preparations: Walk this way to find out all about Jersey’s section of the Channel Island Way!

JERSEY: THE CHANNEL ISLAND WAY: 2: Bergerac’s Stuntman

2011-08-31T16:35:00.001+01:00

OR: WHAT DO I KNOW ABOUT JERSEY?

On my way to the airport with my suitcase on the seat next to me, staring out of the train windows as the rain sodden London suburbs trundled past, I thought back to a wilder time.

I had been a plant engineer in a Ford factory down on the south coast, working silly hours with a team of blokes who all worked incredibly hard and played with the same vigour. One of my colleagues was a young, quite good looking chap. His way of letting off steam was to dance until the small hours in one of the city’s nightclubs with as many of the most beautiful girls as humanly possible. To spice the night up a little, he used to take on the persona of more and more unlikely characters at each visit. He had been a deep-sea diver, a fireman (all women love firemen) an Arab Sheik’s illegitimate son; you get the picture. But his best-loved character, which he assured us all, had never failed to succeed, was Bergerac’s Stuntman.

At the time Bergerac was a massively popular TV programme, filmed on location in Jersey, which, being just to the south of Southampton, gave his credibility with the girls an added authenticity. However, do you ever remember John Nettles ever doing any stunts? It didn’t seem to bother the hordes of beauties that my friend had to fight off…

But I digress!

The flight over to Jersey went smoothly and I was met at the airport by a taxi driver who whisked me to the hotel, The Inn in St Helier, in time to meet my fellow blogger, Mark from ‘Beating the Bounds’ and Arthur Lamy, our guide for the next couple of days, at the bar. Arthur had actually written the guide to The Channel Island Way, so he was the obvious choice to take us around it.

ARTHUR & MARK

It was great to meet them both and over dinner we got to know a little about each other. If you haven’t seen Mark’s blog, you really have been missing a treat as his photography is stunning and I am sure he won’t mind me saying that he’s an incredibly lovely bloke. I am really looking forward to his take on the trip. I left all the nature photography to him as he really knows what he is doing and I am sure there will be a riot of plants and creatures over at his place, all beautifully portrayed.

I mentioned to Arthur that rather shamefully my only knowledge of his island had been gleaned from the zillions of episodes of Bergerac; the last episode of which had been screened some twenty years ago. This was possibly not the best source, seeing at it concentrated on the misdeeds of the tourists and the ne’er do wells of the island… But this was alright, as Arthur is a top-bloke and assured us that we would discover the island’s charms, beauty and history with him as our guide.

As Arthur was heading back home after a really lovely meal, he casually let us know that in a previous job he had sold John Nettles three mountain bikes.

JERSEY: THE CHANNEL ISLAND WAY: 1: An invitation

2011-08-31T14:27:00.001+01:00

OR: WHY ME?…

DISCLAIMER: THIS TRIP WAS FUNDED ENTIRELY BY JERSEY TOURISM; ALL I HAD TO DO WAS FIND MY OWN WAY TO GATWICK AIRPORT AND THEN I WAS IN THEIR HANDS. HOWEVER, MY TAKE ON THE TRIP IS ENTIRELY INDEPENDENT, AS FAR AS THAT IS POSSIBLE AFTER HAVING HAD A PRETTY FINE TIME!

(ALL PICTURES & MAPS ARE CLICKABLE IN THE CHANNEL ISLAND WAY SERIES)

So, with the disclaimer out of the way, off we go!

Out of the blue, a few months back I received an email inviting me to Jersey to walk a little of the Channel Island Way. How I deserved this amazing stroke of good fortune is anybody’s guess but having assumed that they had already made a dreadful mistake and had picked the wrong Alan Sloman, I was loathe to disappoint them further and make them renew their search for the right man. And so with the speed of a rifling bullet I accepted their kind invitation before they would realise their drastic error.

I was intrigued about the venture. Who in their right mind would want a chap to stay in flashy hotels, dining out at great restaurants, who was to be flown about over great oceans and generally shown a jolly good time? Not only that, but they would be picking up the bill? Was Jersey that terrible a place that they had to persuade me to say nice things about it? And who on earth was going to take *MY* word for it, anyway?

I suppose, like a lot of the congregation, up until this point I had never heard of the Channel Island Way. Indeed, to my shame, I had only the merest flimsy idea of where Jersey was to be found; perhaps somewhere down below Cornwall alongside France?

But, by asking around, people I knew and by doing a bit of ‘Googling,’ I learned that the Channel Islands were thought of very fondly by those who’s views I trust; they had that winsome stare and the soft note in their voices as they recounted tales of happy summer breaks seemingly a long time ago…

Well then… it sounded like the dream job and so I was pretty damn smug that I had been the ‘chosen one’ and had accepted with such alacrity. As it happened though, they had picked another blogger to come along as well – a proper blogger with a good-looking blog, who wrote intelligently about stuff and had a young family and who took great pictures and, well, if we are being honest about all this, someone who was going to put my feeble efforts to shame. Oh Lord! No pressure then…

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Before diving into my time on the island, in true ‘softening up’ style, I am going to show you the little film clip below to give you a taster of what is to come.

Lifted from Jersey.com’s website. (I’m sure they won’t mind)

I promise I won’t be trying to sell you a time-share at the end of all this! Trust me. I’m a blogger. Now, if you could all move on to the next post, I would be grateful as someone else will be along in a minute to take your place here. I thank you…

I’M JUST GOING OUTSIDE…

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…and may be some time.

What with moving home, marital changes and the Grandad thing, there hasn’t been a whole lot of ‘outside’ going on here at the blog for a while. That’s not very good for a blog supposedly about the Great Outdoors. (I think that’s where it started, at least… but you don’t come here for all that nonsense, surely?) But if you do, every now and then have unhealthy desires for lung-fulls of fresh air, boot-fulls of peaty water and nostrils full of midges, then this blog might be just the place to visit in the upcoming posts! I do so hope I have fibbed about the midges, though…

*drumroll*…..

I am off to foreign parts tomorrow to try out a hitherto little-known walk. Well, when I say ‘foreign’ the parts are not exactly “Johnny Foreigner” foreign: In fact the natives speak the King’s English. Very well, I believe. Indeed, there should be no need to stand at full height at the bar and demand “GIN AND TONIC, PLEASE!” very slowly and loudly to order one’s snifters.

No, Gentle Sir and Kind Lady: I am off to somewhere Jolly Civilised – And the capitals are rather important here.

Next stop, Gatwick Airport, tomorrow!

I’ll be back soon with thrilling tales of men shirts and the like.

BIRTHDAY ANNOUNCEMENT

2011-08-14T09:31:00.001+01:00

I am delighted to announce the arrival of LYRA VICTORIA SLOMAN.

Congratulations to Oli & Nicole. Lyra came into the world this morning at the West Suffolk Hospital at 6:47am after an eleven hour delivery. She is a healthy young girl, weighing in at 8 lbs 4 ozs . Nicole & Oli must both be exhausted.

Both Nicole and Lyra are doing well. Time keeping is obviously not Lyra’s strong suit as she arrived ten days later than expected! It’s a girl thing…

I am a Grandfather. Can that be right?

GEAR REVIEW

2011-08-09T15:12:00.001+01:00

DISCLAIMER: I shall make it clear at the very outset that this item has been supplied free of charge to me to test and I am not expected to return it after my exhaustive testing regime. In fact, it’s mine now. All mine. I am at liberty to say what I like about it, when I like and how I like. Did I miss ‘who I like’ about it? Perhaps. But I’ll get to her later…

I should say that I was particularly pleased to accept this product as I had been on the look out for something of it’s ilk for a little while now. That fact may well may be reflected in my review of the product, so you will just have to take it on trust that I will be as honest as I can possibly be about its features and benefits. /END OF DISCLAIMER

Some may say that this particular item is indispensible on the hill: Perhaps no trip can really be counted a success without its regular application. I have known entire expeditions to the furthest flung corners of this earth’s most remote wildernesses to founder, through lack of foresight in acknowledging simple human frailties; the wants and needs of its members.

So: Help is at hand. I hope you find this review of assistance in attaining Nirvana on your next outing to the Great Outdoors.

The test sample arrived in good order – the packaging was not damaged in any way and the delivery service – Parcel Force WorldWide – delivered it in the stated 24 hour delivery time frame that was required by the sender. I opened the carton with care so as not to damage the contents:

So far so good. I then carefully extracted the parcel from within the carton:

I was pleased to note that the sender had protected the review sample with great care – a lightweight inflated cylindrical jacket that may well itself take an automatic spot in my gear selection for future expeditions.

With even greater care, I removed this second layer of packaging to reveal the item as it would be found on the gear shop top shelf:

CLICKABLE IMAGE

Deep joy and wonder of wonders! I had been sent the special celebration edition. Sound out the trumpets. Set all the sails! Give the crew a celebratory flogging. Drag out the deepest full immersion bathtubs; Indeed - extra pinching of house-maids’ bottoms!

For the technically minded, this vital piece of equipment’s features are listed as follows:

Highland Park Distillery
Single Cask
Cask type: Refill Bourbon
Cask Size: Hogshead
Cask Strength: 57% vol
Filtration: Non chill filtered
Distilled: 1997
Bottled: 2010 (Aged 13 years)

I will get to the benefits a little later, in a subsequent review.

Grateful thanks to Rachael & Rod for supplying this for review.

A NOTE TO FUTURE GEAR SUPPLIERS: More like this, please….

TRIPPING UP TRUMP?

2011-08-06T16:53:00.007+01:00

We should all pause for a moment to reflect on Poor Donald’s dilemma.

You see, Donald is investing a lot of time, money and reputation in building a beautiful new golf course. He chose a wonderful spot by the sea-side near Aberdeen for his project. He enlisted help from his good buddy, Alex to get some dirty little protesters pushed to one side. After all, it was a wonderful investment opportunity that would bring fantastic wealth to the local people. Alex thought it was a grand plan and so he backed Donald.

Donald didn’t like the look of his neighbours and so he planted trees all around them so he couldn’t see their tatty little hovels and they couldn’t see the sea anymore either.

But then, along comes another plan, one of Alex’s actually, to create yet more investment opportunities and wealth. In August 2010 the Queen awarded exclusive rights to Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm Ltd to develop The European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre, out to sea, right in front of Donald’s golf course. This innovative project has a grant award of up to forty million Euros from the European Union. It’s a deployment centre to test and demonstrate up to 11 next generation offshore wind turbines plus other related technology.

More information can be found HERE

Now, Donald isn’t happy. Donald thinks that this will spoil his view of the sea-side.

What does the congregation think Poor Donald should do?