An Evening with Alex and Oli

The talk we did for the more adult audience (anyone over the age of five) went very well indeed. There was always a real danger that nobody would turn up and we'd be giving the talk to our parents and the nice lady who opened up the school for us but thankfully we counted forty ish people on the night.
Local canoe club members, scouting connections, relatives, friends, benefactors and interested incidentals alike patiently watched and listened for nearly an hour as we recounted our adventure and reeled off tales of derring do. Several people hung around afterwards; asked questions, chatted and, the kids especially, played around with the boat and gear.
Everyone seemed to have had a good time and a few people have since remarked to Alex that they enjoyed it, which is nice to hear.

Bucket rattling at the end turned up another £60 for the lifeboats; a stonking bonus.


This is very nearly Bens by Boat 2009's last hurrah. Sponsorship money is being collected (shortly to be by bailiffs in some cases) and totted up ready to head up to Loch Ness Lifeboat Station over the next couple of weeks.

Stay tuned for the thrilling finale!

The Lecture Circuit

Seeing as the talk we did for the local primary school children went so well, we're going to do one for the more mature audience (anyone over the age of 8 really) as well!

Thursday 19th November 2009.
Acton primary School Hall (Acton, Sudbury, Suffolk. CO10 0US)
19:00 start.
20:00 ish finish.
Free entry.
Bucket rattling on behalf of the RNLI on exit.


Plenty of photos, videos and tales of canoe-bound heroism. Learn about cordon bleu pasta cookery, the profound effects of wind and rain on Alex's mood and the joy of proving people wrong.

More interesting than the average slideshow or your money back!

Back to School

We spent a while this morning at the local primary school. The children have been learning about the lifeboats over the last month and Alex's old headmistress asked us to come along and talk about our trip.





We were very happy with how it went. The kids showed every sign of loving it and were thrilled to be involved; asking and answering questions, helping us carry the canoe around the hall and telling us about the time they went on a boat and up a mountain. One boy of six proudly told us that he too had been up Ben Nevis! We were impressed but later discovered that he had also, according to him, been into space.




The school did a little piece on their web site about it too. Very nice of them.
http://www.acton.suffolk.sch.uk/news.htm

Mapped

Firstly, thanks for your patience waiting for the full account of the trip to arrive. We thought it would be cool to have the route shown on a map, with photos and videos stuck on at the appropriate places, and that's largely what we've done.
It took longer than we thought it would. Alex's internet has been on the blink and the mapping software only works well on days of the week with a letter B in them.

However. It's now here!

Click on a white marker to see where we are and what we're doing. With most of the markers, if you click on the title in the speech bubble that pops up a photo or video will appear in a new window. The map is centred on the start of the first day so just zoom in and follow the route from there (go clockwise from the first point for the first day (Cairngorms)).

Enjoy!







You can also view the map in a separate window by clicking here.


Now that the trip is documented, we'll soon be putting Bens by Boat 2009 to bed. There's still time to make a donation to the RNLI though! Visit the justgiving website by clicking here.
The lifeboat folks are hugely grateful for anything that makes their jobs safer and we appreciate the support.