After a blog-less Friday last week, I will try to make up for it today with a sneak preview of the brilliant competition that will run in our summer issue (out 10 June). We saw such huge interest in the Arran sea kayaking adventure break competition in our last issue – thank you again to Arran Adventure - that we have decided to take to the water again.

This time Wilderness Scotland has stepped up to offer two lucky readers the chance to win a five-day ‘introduction to sea kayaking’ course based in the northwest Highlands – an offer that ties in nicely with a major editorial focus on the area in our summer issue.

The winners will spend five days learning and refining the basics before heading out to explore the sea lochs and coastal waters around Torridon and Applecross. Scotland is blessed with a variety of world-class sea kayaking locations and this area is right up amongst them. What a prize. I have half a mind to adopt a pseudonym and enter myself!

In addition to being in the magazine, full competition details will also be available on the Scotland Outdoors and Wilderness Scotland websites from early June. Good luck to all those entering.

Speaking of Wilderness Scotland, one of its directors – Stevie Christie – is practicing what the company preaches and arranging a wild journey of his own this summer. Stevie and pals are attempting to become the first to climb the highest hills in each of the Small Isles (Rum, Eigg, Canna and Muck) in a single day in what is being billed as the Big Small Isles Challenge!

The day will involve a total ascent of around 1,700m and almost 40km of walking, so will be no mean feat. A RIB will zip the team between each island to speed things along. The adventure aims to raise money for Sightsavers International and donations can be made though the fundraising page.

Wilderness Scotland is also happy to help arrange the challenge – or ones like it – for others who might be interested. Again, just get in touch via their website.

Bye for now
Richard

Bit of a speedy blog this morning – more of a blogette – as just back from a soggy few days over in Ardnamurchan and need to crack on with writing up the trip notes. Our summer issue goes to press at the end of the month and time is marching on. (I can almost hear the sound of our designer’s fingers drumming on his desk as he waits for me to feed him copy.)

The Ardnamurchan visit was part of research for an article looking at Scotland’s Atlantic oakwoods – our very own temperate rainforest. To emphasise the point, it rained solidly for the whole time I was there. Well, I guess it’s green and lush for a reason.

I’m hoping this grim spell of wind and rain is not an indication of what to expect this summer. We have been promised a ‘barbeque summer’ and that’s what we are going to have, darn it (unless Ida put the kiss of death on it in last week’s blog).

Anyway, hopefully things will improve ahead of the start of two big festivals that open this week: The Original Bicycle Festival mentioned in an earlier post below and the Mull and Iona Wildlife Week which starts tomorrow. The latter has been running for several years now and offers a real showcase of the area’s rich diversity of life. You want otters, sea eagles, golden eagles and incredible marine life? You’ve got it. Have fun if you’re going. Right, back to those notes …

Well, yesterday a little ray of good news slipped past the usual bleak headlines, the never-ending talk of recession, the impending swine flu catastrophe and the increasingly comic events in the House of Commons… we are, says the Met Office, in for a dry and warm summer, a good few months of barbeque weather.

Now, whether this actually materialises not remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure – forget about that exotic beach holiday in Mexico; the way to holiday this summer is to go local and keep it cheap.

My own recipe for ultimate relaxation involves the simplest of pleasures: pitch a tent a stone’s throw from a glittering white beach on the West Coast, while away a few hours fishing and shooting the breeze, then light a barbeque and fling on whole, freshly-caught mackerel and a few limpets or mussels collected at low tide. And, as the last of summer’s late evening light fades to green on the horizon, drain a glass or two of red and snuggle up in a sleeping bag for a good night’s sleep ahead of a nice long bike ride or a day’s hill-walking.

This summer, hubby and I will become parents for the first time, and we reckon it’ll bring a new perspective to our adventures (it certainly won’t stop us!). We’re looking forward to rediscovering the magic of the outdoors through a child’s eyes, watching little one get dirty and explore nature’s beauty and bounty.

Part of this is showing them where our food comes from, and how much of it we can grow and gather for ourselves, with plenty of muddy fun to be had along the way. Instead of leaving our veggy patch fallow this summer in favour of nurturing a newborn, we’re expanding it.

I’m inspired by Seaweed and Eat It by Edinburgh-based mums Fiona Houston and Xa Milne. Subtitled ‘A family foraging and cooking adventure’, it’s a joyful celebration of Scotland’s wild bounty as well as a practical guide. Foraging, gathering and fishing as a family help our kids to connect with the landscape and how it feeds them, while keeping little hands occupied and providing plenty of laughs.

The wave of interest in sustainable living continues to grow rapidly and has become virtually mainstream. It’s not exclusively about thrift and isn’t necessarily driven by the recent economic squeeze or the threat of climate change. I reckon it’s more personal than that – after a good few decades of being consumers, folk are looking for something more real to share with, and pass on to, their children.