Blog/Updates

Phew- it was a totally different type of training this weekend. We went up to Birmingham to attend the The National Outdoor Expo. We did less miles but miles more talking and networking (which is probably more exhausting!) We had the chance to chat to an amazing array of people including scouts from all over the UK, a couple of the Scout ambassadors, some celebrities who love the outdoors and some innovative and brilliant companies.

We realised that the younger two make a very enthusiastic sales team moving smoothly from describing our adventure to plugging our badges and woggles (available here– I think I’m learning from them!)

We have some fabulously exciting collaborations in the pipeline following this weekend- more to come on this!

We got the message loud and clear that we definitely need to be on Instagram (and possibly TikTok which was Nighthawk ESU advice) and so we are opening an account. We have however, been temporarily blocked for 24 hours so watch this space. We choose to believe that this is the algorithm error and not a user error…..

Another first for us- a full team training walk on a lovely Sunday morning! We managed just over 14km around the beautiful coast of Lymington in the New Forest. This was a real achievement as this is a similar distance to our planned day 12 of the JOGLE:- Kinlochleven to Kings House. We were joined by family and the irrepressible but very cute Moby (the dog, not the musician) who entertained us all as we went. It was certainly a little chilly in the wind but we all survived without developing hypothermia!

A small part of the team completed a training ride over the weekend and managed around a 23k cycle (with a lovely lunch in the middle!). It was drizzly and slippery all day but we only had one accident- a lamppost jumped out (apparently) and resulted in a grazed knee!

Learning points

Make sure you’re dressed for the weather- a cold boy is a grumpy boy. Interestingly cycling mitts make all the difference!

Watch out for lampposts- they are obviously faster and more cunning than they look

Josies in Romsey is a lovely cafe and caters for gluten-free too!

Over the last 24 hours we have started to spread the word about this fantastic mission. Having spent a few weeks trawling the internet for the contact details of as many Scout County and District teams as possible, we sent out our first email. Within a few hours we had received messages back of amazing encouragement and offers of support and places to stay. Our hearts are warmed by the enthusiasm for this project. It’s feeling rather real now.