Lockdown Blues

Since the arrival of Covid 19 the outdoor industry has been completely decimated, with all walks and courses cancelled for the year. This has hit us quite hard as we had bookings for nearly every weekend of the year, but there does now appear to be some light at the end of the tunnel, as lock down restrictions ease and many of our suppliers are starting to tentatively dip their toes back into the water.

Like many other outdoor companies, we have used our time wisely to restock, train, increase our plant identification knowledge for future wildlife walks, research and plan future trips to Norway, maintain a decent fitness level, and constantly checking the forums to see what we can actually legally do with the ever changing rules and regulations surrounding Covid 19.

The Kirklees Walking For Health (WFH) walks are now just starting up again, with our next Castle Hill WFH walk planned for Thursday 10th September. There are also a number of other excellent WFH walks in the Huddersfield area with my good friend Gabby Hurt running a new WFH walk at Lascelles Hall, Huddersfield every other Saturday. I went on her last walk, and can honestly say that the group were really friendly and the route was well thought with plenty of wildlife and history on offer.

Another thing that has kept us busy during lock down has been the multitude of online training webinars, these have been a weekly session with everything from Mountain Training Association ‘Plant Identification’ to Mountain Rescue ‘Casualty Care training’. My Mountain Rescue Team have just started venturing out in smaller groups for search training and we’ve even managed to get some indoors crag rescue training. It’s certainly been good to catch up with colleagues, stretch the legs and get some hands on some ropes and rigging systems.

On 16th July I attended a Mountain Training Association workshop at Swindale in the Lake District with the excellent Graham Uney. We looked at leadership styles and the environment, and it really was a fantastic day out with the highlight of the day being a couple of adders sunbathing at the side of the path. I took loads of learning points away from the day which left me inspired and made me hungry for more environmental knowledge.

There have also been a few walks on the footpaths around Castle Hill, looking at flora and fauna for our future WFH walks.

A trip to Spurn Point last week with Heidi, also scratched an itch to get away in the new camper van. The area is stunning and with hundreds of plants, many of them new to me and I was in my element. There were also dozens of different types of butterflies, birds and a young Grey Seal laid on the beach at the end of the point. A brilliant day out and definitely looking forward to heading back there in Autumn as part of the bird migration weekend .

We have also completed a series of risk assessments and procedural changes to ensure our clients are safe from COVID 19, and we are pleased to announce that we’ve now got the green tick of the ‘We’re good to go’ industry standard.

So as we move forward and our walks and courses start up again there will more regular blogs. Watch this space, and stay safe.