Page 259 - Demo

255I did another ALT at some point. This was to the Isle of Skye, I led with Nige Warmington. We camped near Loch Brittle. Apart from the midges it was idyllic. We took a PTI with us who was a climber and so all made it up the Invincible Pinnacle. Quite easy to get up but you had to abseil down. I had taken my Topper sailing dinghy and we had a number of canoes as well. We were self-catering. I remember that one day we did the Coolin Ridge in the morning and then water sports in the afternoon. I was out in the Topper at one point when a pair of dolphins came up alongside me. As they were about the same size as the topper it was a bit startling. The students had to plan a cultural visit as part of the ALT, and they had chosen to visit the Talisker Distillery. This was interesting and we were all given a tot when we finished. Talisker is a favourite whisky of mine but several of the students didn%u2019t like whisky. Theirs was not wasted. At that time the bridge from the campsite to the rest of Skye was down. We left a vehicle the other side and everyone crammed in to go to a pub in the evening. Some of the students were reluctant to join in with the activities and we had to point out that they would only get a lot out of the experience if they put the effort in. I think those ones would have preferred to go to Disney Land. For the next few courses, we did several weekend expeditions on a voluntary basis. We used to go up to Scotland and gradually increased the time away to about 4 days. I think we had several QFIs who were up for it including James Martin, Shaun Errington and Nige Warmington. Possibly others as well. My qualifications meant that we were allowed to go and I think that Nige got qualified as well. He had a geology degree and could explain about the rocks as we trekked about. One of the great things about these weekends was that everyone just mucked in. The first person to wake up got the kettle on and so it went on. I never had to tell someone to wash up for example, the guys just looked around and anything that needed doing was just done. We used commercial camp sites and made several friends each time. We were well equipped. We had a