Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
General => General Chat => Topic started by: Oisín on May 04, 2011
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Just wondering what gives yous lot the love for the outdoors?
Mine is because I sit t a computer all day, and the outdoors is such a contrast and a freedom.
Please explain yours :)
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Mine started in the scouts. I was a beaver then a cub then a scout and finally a venture scout. I have always been involved one way or anothger in the outdoors till about 4 years ago when I started work in santander and I now sit at a desk. Not my ideal job but it pays the mortgage.
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I got the bug from my Scouting days. I was in the cubs, scouts, venture scouts and had great leaders who showed us how much fun you could have in the great outdoors. Then I became a Scout leader and tried to pass on all that had been passed to me. Unfortunately I seemed to have lost my way some years back and have only recently got back on track and started getting out and about again.
Gerry
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Mine would be the same I always was taken for walks around tollymore etc when younger and just loved the forests , I got excepted into college for a forestry course in Scotland and was all for going until I got distracted and wasted a few of younger years in a blur , I'm not stuck doing shifts in a shite factory job and it kills me to be stuck inside ,
I have 2 young boys I who I want to experience the great outdoors as much as possible and not waste their chances like me
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Scouting really does seem to drill in the love for the great outdoors, it certainly drilled it into me since beavers, all the way to the end of the line. Sadly this is my last year. :'(
Will hopefully become a leader and pass it on. Something worth while.
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Scouts followed by 15 years of sofa, TV and drinking followed by a final madness at riding a desk all week made me want to get out and enjoy the fresh air (and set stuff alight!). Talk about regretting 20 years of smoking though >:(
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Hmm... well like others I was brought up regularly caravanning and camping in forest parks such as Castlewellan, Gosford and Glenariff. That definitely instilled a love of the outdoors! I also have great memories of a school trip to Ardnabannon.
I kinda lost interest during my teenage years, but got into mountain biking in my early 20's which got me outdoors again. Shortly after I started hill walking as I thought it would be great to get out in the mountains without having to load up a mountain bike on the car etc. Also Kat really encouraged me to get outdoors as she had completed her Duke of Ed Gold.
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Well I certainly can't blame my parents as they never took me camping, although we did have a static caravan in Newcastle for a few teen years so I spent a lot of summers running through the forest at Drinahilly. I did a few months in the cubs and don't remember liking it much, I always wanted to join the scouts as that looked like more fun but didn't want to go alone and none of my friends were in them. A school weekend trip to Ardnabannon was probably the catalyst for a more active outdoors life. I did a few months as a voluntary leader with the YMCA in Newcastle many years ago then got a job as a ranger with the DOE Conservation Service. I moved on to a job with a real wage after that and then my outdoorsyness was reduced to about one summit per year. I got into Land Rovers about 10 years ago and did a lot of lazy outdooring with plenty of camping. Joined the scouts 2 years ago to fulfill my childhood ambition and then it has sort of snowballed from there as I decided I had to get fit again before I was 40 and now the Mournes are like a second home to me.
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You set a fine example!
Well I certainly can't blame my parents as they never took me camping, although we did have a static caravan in Newcastle for a few teen years so I spent a lot of summers running through the forest at Drinahilly. I did a few months in the cubs and don't remember liking it much, I always wanted to join the scouts as that looked like more fun but didn't want to go alone and none of my friends were in them. A school weekend trip to Ardnabannon was probably the catalyst for a more active outdoors life. I did a few months as a voluntary leader with the YMCA in Newcastle many years ago then got a job as a ranger with the DOE Conservation Service. I moved on to a job with a real wage after that and then my outdoorsyness was reduced to about one summit per year. I got into Land Rovers about 10 years ago and did a lot of lazy outdooring with plenty of camping. Joined the scouts 2 years ago to fulfill my childhood ambition and then it has sort of snowballed from there as I decided I had to get fit again before I was 40 and now the Mournes are like a second home to me.
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From years of being a lazy B****** and married with children has a big aspect to it for me. I've always been an outdoors person and now that I have been working from the same workplace for 11 years as I used to be a tradesman always out and about the country, I now have a severe need to get out alot more.
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I started as a Cub leader about 15 years ago and moved to Explorers (14-18) 3 years ago. Getting really into doing outdoors for myself as well as for the kids since I got more involved with the more lightweight stuff with DoE. Hubby is a Scout leader and all the kids are involved in scouting so I have a silly amount of tents and rucsacs at the bottom of my stairs ...
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I feel like the odd one out. I tried Guides when I was very young, lasted 2 weeks! And never had the urge to be a leader! And I work outdoors! As for where it all sprung from, like all kids I just enjoyed being outside and my parents always encouraged that by throwing us outside as much as possible. Always knew the conventional desk job wasn't going to suit me, so the second I saw a degree listed that gave a potential career of Park Ranger I knew that was for me. So worked at that for a few years and now a habitat ecologist. So out and about in the most amazing bits of Northern Ireland on a regular basis still pretending I'm 8 years old just running about having fun! And grew up my the mountains so nothing better than throwing on the hiking boots and heading up a hill or two at the weekend. Oh, quite like the sea too!!
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Must admit it wasn't for me when I was that age, enjoy it far more as an adult when I can do my own thing and drag the kids along with me rather than the other way round. It's been a bit mad here recently 'cause I've had a Bronze DoE training hike, Silver training hike, Bronze assessed hike and a bike expedition camp all in the last 5 weeks but nothing on for the next 4 apart from one hike so nice and quiet ;) Camping again first weekend in June
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I started as a Cub leader about 15 years ago and moved to Explorers (14-18) 3 years ago. Getting really into doing outdoors for myself as well as for the kids since I got more involved with the more lightweight stuff with DoE. Hubby is a Scout leader and all the kids are involved in scouting so I have a silly amount of tents and rucsacs at the bottom of my stairs ...
And I've seen that little mountain at the bottom of your stairs and you didn't even mention your very substantial walk in camping cupboard. ;D
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and you haven't seen our 20' x 25' scout store shed where the rest of it lives! Have to give you the full guided tour next time.
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Grew up in the country. Was always outside and on family camping trips and forest/beach walks. Dad started taking me up the Mournes when I was 7 on the weekly group walks. Always remember when we camped by the ice-house then got up early to climb Donard. Ray Mears, Due South and the Commando Survival manual were all inspiration, but Messners 14 8000ers book filled me with wonder for the future :o
For family reasons and the sheer fatigue of being a teenager and all the nonsense they make you do for school I got out of touch with the outdoors, but started hiking and camping by myself once I got a car. Bivvying is very primal to me... making home where you lay your head, sleeping where no-one else may have slept before, being in touch with the danger and wonder around you, restless but refreshed with the first stretch of dawn: it's one of the most real things you can experience in our increasingly connected, but isolated world.
I want to travel on foot and bike, live in forests and scale mountains; paddle and sail the lakes and oceans; and die an old man on a forgotten grassy hillside in outer Mongolia, my last breath carried on the wind to call the vultures to pick my bones... I love the outdoors. ;D
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I have no idea, but apart two years ago I was on holiday in inland spain and from my balcony I could see a mountain (which I called Monkey, after the song from the gorillaz album)....
I would stare at it for ages and drink the local bulls blood red wine. Then one day, decided to walk up it on the baking heat.....
Since then, I've been drawn to mountains and the outdoors, and I'm grateful to Monkey for that.
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Class - I love giving mountains personal names. In the Mournes my mates have given me Ray's mountain, Helicopter, Eagle River! and Kid A.
Answers on a postcard :D
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My introduction to the outdoors was with the Boy's Brigade. We used to go on summer camps throughout the UK and slept in canvas ridge tents with wooden poles, a seperate piece of canvas for a ground sheet and extremely draughty lace-up doors. It wasn't true wild camping but was wild enough for me at that time.
This then expanded when one of the leaders started taking us to the Mournes. Looking back my equipment was fairly spartan but it worked. A school bag or haversack to carry my lunch and flask in. A waterproof(?) coat and maybe hat and gloves. Footwear was courtesy of a borrowed pair of workboots and 2-3 pairs of socks. No we didn't sleep in a cardboard box!
I really enjoyed these trips and started to get better bits of kit together. A real pair of walking boots, a previously used (Second hand to you and me) rucksack and a Peter Storm rain jacket.
I even camped with lads I ran about with. We bought a tent from Kay's catalouge at a couple of pound per week each. We would get the bus into Belfast to Oxford St Station then onto Newcastle and walk up the Glen River valley for an overnighter before heading up or around Donard towards Annalong and back to Newcastle.
There was then a lull in my outdoor activities as other things seemed to take over. Most recently over the last 8 years or so I have got out more and bought more kit. Both children doing Duke of Ed meant other stuff was bought. They have experienced walks in the Mournes since their early years.
Hopefully after D of E they will continue with this activity.
My real love of the outdoors is getting back to basics. Getting away from the pressures of modern life, phones, emails, the constant rush that everything has to be done now. In the outdoors the things that really mattter are food, water, shelter and safety. The other thing is that you only have yourself to rely on. If you didn't bring it then you've only yourself to blame.
The peace, tranquility, the beauty and enormity of it all. I just hope to be able to enjoy this marvellous pastime for years to come.
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Was scaring the internet looking for some words of wisdom to relate to being outdoors and this one caught my eye.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
- Mark Twain.
Enough said, I'm off!
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Good to hear another BB man on, it seemed everyone was a scout for a while :P
Mind you I didn't do a lot of outdoors stuff with the BB. My first outdoors experiences came through Scripture Union boy's adventure camps in Bushmills, Newcastle and Castlewellan. I really had some magic times on them and still regularly hit the outdoors with a friend I made on those camps.
Some people may say "I don't get why someone would want to go and spend a night in a tent up a hill" as if it is strange behaviour. Why should it be seen as that? The sane comfortable life that we all live day to day is great but I think there may be an inbuilt part of our soul that can appreciate more basic things like walking with your house and food on your back and waking up closer to nature. Not necessarily something that has to be learnt.
I wouldn't be being genuine if I didn't also say that for me being outside enjoying nature also forms a spiritual connection to God.
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Used to go on long country rambles with my grandfather in the woods and fields near his home, with plenty of stories and info on animals and birds along the way, I then joined the scouts and did plenty of camping, did a few courses at ardnabannon also, bivvied in annalong wood etc. I see the mournes every day from my home, and always wish that I was up there walking and camping in the peace and quiet, rather than sitting on a bus for an hour to sit in an office all day!! :'(
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Its the BB as well for me. we would have been in the Mournes about once a year but would have had alot more camps in Gosford forest park.
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Well, I'm sure you've all heard the oul 'I used to go camping when I was a kid' routine so I won't bore yous with the obvious. Since my late teens though my camping and outdoor activities have been mainly (but not titally) confined to times of austerity (wild camping round europe), pleasure (Festivals & parties) and the odd time where I woud pit myself against an experienced mountaineer just to prove I could do it (and succeeded!). Hopefully I'll gain some new skills (or bad habits) from the people I meet on here and have good craic while doing so. ;)
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Same for me as well Lynda. I've been camping since I was about seven, we didn't need no Spain or country far off. 7 days at tollymore was the highlight of my year. Since then I carried on camping but it wasn't until I met Oisin that it become such a love of mine to the extent I just want to spend every weekend sleeping in a tent. As finding people our age who love the outdoors as much as us can be a struggle this forum has great for us :D