This phase of running the training courses for Blacks plc has come to end having been recently up to the Dark Peak and to the Lakes. The former course was hamstrung by it being dated juxtaposed to the Grouse Shooting Season! Thus all areas for camping were off limits. A good bunch of guys and (a surprisingly high number of) girls were up on the Doctor's Gate east of Glossop, in mixed weather - very wet at times; we got just an afternoon of technical stuff done but only a tiny proportion of what I wanted to do. As always, pics in the Gallery here. The Lakes course had 12 particpants from all over the north west; fine weather on the first day and some nav in to a low'ish level but wild camp site; forecast was for torrential rain - and high winds - at altitude (where we were to camp up on Knott around 730m asl). Again a good bunch of guys with enthusiasm and some experience; interesting how many of these staff once got out on the fells but want to do more. Heavy rain into the early morning gave way to heavy driving drizzle and at one time at around 8am about 100m vis.. We were about five or so miles out from their car park in civilisation, but the area we were in : known as the Back o' Skidda' is the last great wilderness area in the Lakes. So, 2,500 miles of driving, 45 clients from five areas, four solo recce days doing risk assessments along their routes, in excessive of 80 miles walked, 1,900 metres of ascent / descent, plus camps, and hopefully something learnt/tweaked/enthused by the clients. Pics in the Gallery.

Just returned from driving to and from Scotland, and Asheldham, running training courses for Blacks Leisure Group: hillcraft, campcraft, navigation, and survival. Total driving miles : 1000. Southern Galloway Hills in Scotland....more empty than remote (although it was the latter too) was the venue for Blacks Scotland staff...low hills and private forestry - our old acquaintance Fountain Forestry again. If it wasn't for the presence of an abandoned rail track we would have had difficulty getting the novices into the hill at all. All backpacked in, and out. A good team though. Asheldham saw the BLG South and BLG South London teams undertake a slightly different type of course - due to no hills above 21 metres! but we used The Dengie almost to it's limit with camping on the meadow and a night nav exercise out at Sales Point. Stoves and Tents were analysed. A good team, again. Photos of both courses are to be found in the Gallery.

Beginning now to finish the schools' work for the academic year; the last workshop of the summer season was drawn to a close at West Horndon Primary School this morning - and I'll not be back there until November. It's been a very good year at the school; I was originally there for a term - then two, and finally spent the whole year on Tuesday mornings.

On the 9th July...we were hosts at Asheldham to The Great Tour, a round-Britain charity cycle exped run in a most professional way: see http://www.thegreattour.org/blog/ ....very impressive. The amount of organisation it takes to set up this sort of journey is well know to us - but to see their Team in action was very interesting.

Busy weekend instructing: Yesterday morning, instructing six managers of a childrens' centre in emergency first-aid - very interesting that the Premises Manager had no formal first aid experience at all - and a lot of the tech info was new to the majority. With an early start (5.30am) and talking throughout the majority of the course I was a bit knack'd by the time the instructing on that course had finished at 4pm. Then over to Asheldham to meet a Mens' Group from HTB: they were on a retreat and had called us in to undertake an icebreaker/challenge for the whole lot. Some of them seemed a bit like a fish out of water but generally the tasks highlighted some shortfalls (and good qualities) in the way they respond to each other as team-members; but the outcome seemed to be very good - better to talk to the leader to see if it worked! Shelter building, and some competitive (at speed) stretcher building/racing the length of the meadow worked wonders for uncovering character. The weather was brilliant - in all respects: bright sun, clear, distant views, and not too cold. The rest of the week comprises paperwork, following up potential clients, marketing meetings for Asheldham, and some schools work - another busy week.