Its all Over, I had been presenting a Expedition show at various locations all last week, and have just made it back to the other end of the country. It's been a funny journey from Southampton, up to the lakes, down to Liverpool, up to Scotland, over to Fort William and back down here again. It was allot of fun, and great to catch up with folk up there, I would like to thank everyone who came to the shows and of course all the folk who organized the show venues!

Firstly I arrived at Keswick, at Pete Knowels front door. For anyone who does not know, Pete is a walking encyclopedia of kayak adventures and stories, he still pushes his limits and pushes others beyond theirs!

Pete (AKA Slime) scheduled the first 4 shows, as part of the Cumbrian Kayak Club Lecture series. Pete has found himself as secretary of the area and is trying to get up to all sorts of mischief.

First Show - Keswick

Upstairs in a Pub, nice casual affair with a good range of guinea pig onlookers - which was probably a good thing as I only finished the show on Sunday and had no practice! They all seems absorbed by my banter and threw a bunch of questions at me at the end, proving they had actually been listening!

Day 2 - Kendal

With stories of huge crowds and high standards I arrived at Ross Purdy's house near Kendal in need of therapy, we walked round a hill, took in the views and caught up on life stories. We arrived early to the brewery venue, sank a beer, set up the laptop and found a curry house! A few hours later there I was in front of 200 and something expectant faces, telling the same stories as Monday, all good, great audience and again, lots of questions, proving people can keep up with my presentation style.
Many thanks again to Slime, Nigel Timmings, the Brewery Arts Center, Ross Purdy and of course the folk who came!

Day 3 - Liverpool

Not quite on the direct rout, but only a stones throw away, I arrived in Liverpool. I found my friend Dinny and Alice, crammed into Rachel's tiny car and zoomed into the Uni campus, set out chairs, plugged everything in and hey presto, here we go again! Dinny had been warning me not to expect too much from this lot! But they excelled, quite a turnout by all accounts and again, very tentative with lots of questions. Definitely recommend the Uni bar there!

Day 4 - Starthclyde Uni

Up the road and into Glasgow Uni Campus, somewhere in Cathedral Square, don't ask me where, I just go where I am told by GPS Jane!
Accompanied by Doc Andy Watt, legend and father of 2, I set up in a Uni lecture theater, all very fancy and hight tech!
Not too bigger crowd, but I guess there are many things you can get up to in Glasgow rather than listen to my ramblings, but again, everyone there stayed for duration and asked all sorts of questions! Good job Craig the organizer.

Day 5 - Stirling Canoes

After struggling to find the venue and a rather peculiar colour curry, Dave's shop was full of gear and people. Off we went again, by now, as you can imagine my stories were coming out like clockwork! (yeah right) Dave has been trying to get folk to come see poor speakers do their thing to build on a community spirit and spread the word. I swear, theres no hard sell, even being surrounded by heaps of shiny gear! Don't be afraid to go to the next show, its a great venue, nice and cozy - also look out for future developments with Stirling Canoes and Nevis Canoes over in Fort William.

Last day - Fort William Film Fest

I must admit, I did not fully realize the size of the Fort William film show event. As I drove from Stirling, even the road signs had the film show all over them!
I also did not totally realize I was kind of, a main event for the 'kayak' night - the first night of the two week exhibition! Bridget seemed a wee bit nervous, so we set the laptop up, it all worked and ran off to drink some wine (lube up).
The night was hosted by Dave Biggin, who did a great job at introducing my show and all the movies for the night, Kilt and all. Unfortunately we had no time for questions, but I got them later in the bar! The Movies shown were all good fun and went down well with everyone. I hope the the rest of the shows go so smoothly and I hope to be back next year in some way or form, and stay for longer in the playground up there!

I would like to thank everyone involved in organizing all the weeks shows, fantastic job, great to see you all and I look forward to coming again!

Get out there and go boating somewhere crazy!!