On the road again…
THE title reminds me of a Willie Nelson song and it comes to mind as I pack the the camper van for a week, literally, on the road.
Down the road to Edinburgh this evening for a night at Mortonhall and a bright start tomorrow to attend the launch of Yes Scotland, and the campaign for the independence referendum. The politics stuff is also fairly new to me, or at least the politics stuff with a large P. I’ve been involved in conservation politics for as long as I can remember but I’ve realised very quickly that the best way to influence politics is to get involved. Should be an interesting launch with the other pro-independence parties, the Greens and SSP, taking part as well. Not sure who’ll be there - the press are making a big thing of the world’s best known Scot being there (no not me). Sean Connery has been a staunch supporter of the SNP and I’m sure he’ll love to see an independent Scotland in his lifetime.
Incidentally, someone tweeted me from Englandshire earlier today and asked why there had to be winners and losses in an independence referendum. Why can’t we all be winners? I firmly believe Scotland can thrive as an independent nation and the other parts of the UK could thrive too. Indeed, I think England in particular could regain some of its national identity which in recent times only seems to surface at internation football or rugby names. The song Roots, by the south-west folk duo Show of Hands, sums it up well.
Following the campaign launch I’ll be driving down to the Borders, or may be even the Lake District, so I can get a bit of a hill walk in on Saturday morning for after that I have to drive to Oxford. The Camping and Caravanning Club have an excellent site there and I’ve booked in for the night leaving me relatively short drive next day down to Portsmouth and a lunchtime ferry to the Isle of Wight. I’ll be there for 2 or 3 days while some work is being done on my camper van.
Why Isle of Wight? Well that’s where the Romahome factory is and the guys are doing some major conversion work for me. I took the camper back to the factory last year for some work and Gina and I had a great couple of days walking on the island, with a lot of help from Wight Walks. This time I’ll be on my own so I plan to get a couple of walks written up for TGO Magazine while I’m in the deep south. Killing several birds with one stone if you like.
After that it’ll be a fairly quick drive north again for next weekend I’ll be supporting my pal and colleague Dougie Vipond as he attempts the massive Snow Roads Sportive over the Lecht and over the Glenshee hills, a real marathon of a road race. Can’t miss seeing Dougie suffering…
So apart from all the driving involved it should be a good week, especially if this superb weather keeps up. Fingers crossed…