yet another outdoors festival

Keswick mountain festival It seemed like absolutely ages ago when I first booked this festival, I had looked at it in previous years but the timings were never right, this time I had been looking forward to it for ages, the plan was to get away from all my climate concern activities, and my busy stressed brain (I was unfortunately wrong about that! Because for most of the weekend I still stressed) Camping is probably my favourite way to enjoy a festival of this kind, getting back to nature sleeping in the fields, as a bonus in this camp site I would wake up to the view of Skiddaw Mountain Its Located-on Springs Road, Keswick, the KMF campsite had plenty shower and toilet facilities, its near Springs Farm which has its own nice wee cafe serving hot food/drinks every day, the vegan option was ok but I was disappointed when on the Friday they moved everything to disposable plates and cups only, this put me off going back the campsite opened at 10am on Thursday 19th May and closed at 5pm on Sunday 22nd May 2022. We arrived around four PM Thursday and left around three on the Sunday, the arena wasn’t open on the Thursday night, I went out for a jog around town after helping to put the tent up, then me and Claire walked into town for dinner and beers we went for a run on the Friday morning before a campsite shower then breakfast at the café, when we eventually got to the arena we didn’t have long to walk round the various stalls, I could have and should have planned this better, we did however get a chance to grab some food from the vegan food stall called -eats shoots and leaves, this was nice we ate it at a table while I chatted to a young girl who was involved in sustainable farming, a very interesting conversation we learned a lot from each other she and her partner were huge into sustainable farming we discussed https://campus.dartington.org/schumacher-college/ a college for ecological studies, she had also lost faith in it all being too little too late, when I discussed what I had found out about the industrial agribusiness techniques of this country, but she said her partner had gave her hope and was a fan of https://www.justfarmers.org/profiles/ca4b04417cb7d80640d64029715b8cd2 they are working hard to introduce Fred price style farming into their community, again; I still feel this is too little too late, we should try and force the government to make this sort of community farming compulsory, which she agreed with but; felt helpless to do anything about our corrupt government

over the weekend there was free talks in the crag hoppers sponsored tent I wanted to see- 13.30 – 14:30 | Ian Finlay – My Endless Summer Ian left the Lake District on the 12th August 2018 with an ambition to cycle unsupported around the world. Before leaving, he’d sold his Keswick house, his two cars and had resigned from a 22-year career. He wasn’t aiming to break records or prove anything to anybody but wanted simply to take stock, see the world with his own eyes and perhaps scare himself a little. Ian rode for 587 days through 29 countries. He crossed the deserts of Central Asia, climbed the mountains of the ancient Silk Road, on the edge of the Himalayas, continued through South-East Asia, and on to Australia and New Zealand. The highlight of his adventure was seven weeks in Tajikistan, including ten days and 350 miles through the iconic Wakhan Valley, which shares the border with Afghanistan. Carrying all he needed in the bags on his bike and the preconceptions of a lifetime, he did manage to scare himself a little. He returned home a changed person, humbled by the kindness of humans of all cultures, religions and status. The hundreds of memories, stories and life-lessons from around the world have fuelled a love of writing and three books-worth of material so far. Politics and the pandemic prevented passage through the final two countries, China and America for now but Ian plans to continue the last 30% of the circumnavigation in 2023. Hear the story so far and become part of the ongoing adventure of one man, his bike and the freedom it delivers. His talk and short videos were ok, his delivery coulda been better, but hey; one day? maybe somebody will say the same about me, if I ever get a chance to promote my films books and adventures, in my opinion mines have been every bit as interesting as his After his talk we had a quick walk around some of the stalls, I got chatting to the chap who was manning the WWF tent, he approached me hoping to get me to sign up to his charity, I told him I did care for the animals of the world, but; it would be an absolute waste of time signing up to WWF to save them? as the climate change will kill most of them out forever quicker than anything we could save, he had to agree; and also thanked me for stepping up to actions and raising the alarm on climate change We then had a talk and video booked at the lakeside theatre venue called WhatWouldMaryDo? heres thd write up from the web page - The Adventure Syndicate – Lee Craigie & Phillipa Battye Friday May 20th, 17:15 – 18:30 The Adventure Syndicate, a group of female adventurers and storytellers who promote mental and physical wellbeing through their outdoor endeavours, recreate an epic 500-mile cycle and youth hostelling adventure from the 1930’s. The original two-week, two wheeled holiday was carried out by 17-year-old hosteller Mary Harvie, from Shotts in Lanarkshire, with her two older sisters, Ella and Jean, in 1936. This epic journey, that began in Glasgow and saw the women explore the North West Highlands, Skye, Highland Perthshire, and Stirlingshire, was documented in Mary’s diary. I did enjoy this film and the Q&A at the end there was soo much scenery routes and places that I had ran walked cycled and stayed at in the film, it was a real feel-good nostalgic film, the world has not entirely changed for the better as regards cars and expensive hotels over bikes tents and hostels After this show we didn’t have tickets to get back into the arena to see the bands, we had missed shooglinifty that I wanted to see anyway, we opted for a walk into town for food and beers and a hoped for earlyish night, (which didn’t happen)

We had visited the dog and gun on previous occasions, it’s a really good wee place with a great selection of ales, they pride themselves on their goulash, we got there just in time before the kitchen closed, Claire made the order as I was deep in conversation (more on that later) Claire was asking why the vegetarian goulash wasn’t vegan? it was because it had butter on the garlic bread she was told, she said if they kept the garlic bread off, then it could be made dairy free? Then yes this was ok! When It arrived it was a beef goulash; she had a chat with the person who served her, explaining; I was meat and dairy free it was supposed to be the veggie one without dairy. I could only imagine the way that conversation went in the kitchen as the chef was cleaning up for the day! My goulash came out incredibly hot!! So hot with pepper and spice it could have cooked itself, I knew the game and accepted it, I did however let the bloke that served it up know; I knew the game and to let the chef know he had won! The awkward customers mouth was on fire, there was no way I felt I could cope with the whole plate lol, he said to me; he would bring me some dry bread! And; if I managed to eat it all I would get a free pint, game on! Challenge accepted I did it ate the bloody lot; A win win all round for the ante vegan banter free pint achieved The conversation I was deep in was with a net zero energy consultant, he was a very interesting knowledgeable man called Richard, I grilled him for hours, to the extent that when the pub shut, we walked each other most of the way back to the camp site, discussing business energy use governmental and worldwide net zero targets scopes 12&3 emissions charges, also power production usage and supply for businesses of all types we exchanged numbers as I had so many other questions for him, he said he would be delighted to help and I got further interesting info from him via text the next day The government is deliberately vague on net zero targets, we discussed nationalising the energy industry again, with a return to fair price for product, he asked how much energy I use in my home and if I was aware of my energy usage and where it came from, I had to tell him; I am a bit different from most folks as I hate waste so only truly use what I actually feel I need to, which is a minimal amount compared to everyone else I know, we then discussed carbon reduction commitments on a personal and governmental scale We then discussed the energy saving scheme https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-savings-opportunity-scheme-esos along with the scopes and the sizes of businesses he generally advices to, I found it fascinating and told him my knowledge on emissions and pollution prevention and control regulations, as regards the oil and gas industry, this lead us to discuss the huge hike in energy costs, the European carbon trading scheme Brexit and refinery emissions He then shocked me by his knowledge on small businesses, he asked me how many small medium enterprises there are in the UK? My guess was way of target! The answer is there is 5.8 million of these SME`s in the UK, these businesses are a massive proportion of the UK`s emissions, and yet guess what percentage of these businesses have had an energy consultant like him do a carbon reduction energy and money saving assessment done on their businesses to achieve governmental net zero targets? What percentage?? Only 2 % !! 2% of 5.8 million! Just consider how much wasted energy and unnecessary emissions that is? Why isn’t this government training thousands of people to be energy champions like this man, helping businesses off all sizes get their carbon footprints down, while saving money and helping the environment, people working in the oil and gas industry should be retrained now as a just transition away from the fossil fuel industry, if they started now then many of these businesses will survive beyond 2030, if they do not start now most of these 5.8million UK businesses will almost certainly fail, do not think our government does not know this

Waking Saturday morning we were both rough, also we were strangely chilled to our bones with a sort of lurgy, the morning run was a forced effort, my ex-work colleagues as part of a group chat, had egged me on, into going out into the camp site field to eat a dandelion while being filmed to prove my environmental integrity! This was due to me having a go at them for calling dandelions weeds, (I love dandelions) they had threatened to poison their gardens to kill these weeds, I told them they were ecocidal murderers and should not be even contemplating these actions at any time, but; especially #nomowmay when the pollinators need the flowers, the short of this textual tit for tat is? that I ended up filming myself going out into a field in the rain in my shorts then digging up a dandelion and eating the whole thing, I will never know if I proved my point? But Hopefully: maybe one of them wont spray dandelions with biocide in future, and please not in may Letting the rain settle down before going for a run and making some lunch in the tent all ate up a lot of time, we didn’t have that long to stroll around the stalls, on the Saturday however; I did have a chance to speak to the ordinance survey stand people, where i got a contact card from a girl who said; I would make a good outdoors champion and spokesperson for Kendal, when I explained all about my Shetland trig point adventure and how I wished to use my film and photo footage of that adventure to promote - UK holidays/adventures, buying OS maps, going flight free, and awareness of climate change, I have started piecing together this footage now, but really need to prioritise it, watching back the footage is making me happy what an amazing adventure it was

I also spoke with a climate denier that day, who said he wasn’t, he said that David Bellamy had said climate change was part of nature, he genuinely wanted me to explain why David Bellamy was wrong, which I believe I did convince him?! I explained about global sea temperatures, he asked if we had records back to ocean temperatures during roman times, I said we wouldn’t have had that technology I don’t believe? Not that it mattered I said; as we had bigger glaciers and bigger north and south polar ice and ice caps then, which are now rapidly disappearing faster every year, which is changing winds and currents and destroying biodiversity, along with intensifying draughts and forest fires among other catastrophic failures. All explained logically and civilly with a beer in hand under an umbrella in a beer garden, neither of us with an agenda just a willingness to learn, his girl and mine chipping in with sensible questions with no raised emotions, it was a refreshing conversation regardless of whether I changed his or her mind or not, I know that they will view things more openly when reading of floods and fires now By the time we got to the next speaking event at the lakeside theatre we were both shattered, which wasn’t fair for my weekend agenda- as this is the one talk, I was originally looking forward to most -

Extreme Ultra Running and FKTs John Kelly, James Gibson, Debbie Martin-Consani – hosted by Matt Le Voi Saturday May 21st, 19:30 – 21:00 Join us for an evening with three incredible athletes as they discuss their remarkable ultra-feats. Hosted by Matt Le Voi, CEO of Lakeland Mountain Guides, this session features John Kelly, Debbie Martin-Consani, and James Gibson. John Kelly, A.K.A. ‘The Fell Running American’, has pursued numerous long distance running adventures, including the Wainwrights in the Lake District, a battle for the record on the Pennine Way, and his Grand Round project: completing the UK’s big 3 fell running rounds, cycling between them. Debbie Martin-Consani has represented Scotland and Great Britain in 100k and 24 hour races and competed in some of the world’s iconic races including Tor des Geants, Spartathlon, UTMB and is the 2022 winner of the The Spine. James Gibson, is a local lad and hero, recently completing a round of all the Lake District’s Wainwright fells, believed to be the first ever winter completion of the 214 peaks. I have heard about all these runners previously from other events from books I’ve read and online articles and various videos short films and talks, these people are my hero’s my hope was to ask some interesting questions and hook them into the new green runner community that Damian Hall is championing along with jasmine Paris and others, I failed at this but enjoyed the chat I was just too tired, to be bothered.

When that was over we had wrist bands to get in to the arena this time, we wanted to watch the madness tribute band, but we were tired and had a run early the next day we considered heading back to the tent for an early night, but: hey you only live once and we could take it easy on the ale, arena it was - Badness bring their multi award-winning show transporting you back to the Ska and Two Tone explosion of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Their fully ‘live’ performance encapsulates the sounds of Madness, The Specials, Bad Manners and more with classic tunes such as ‘Baggy Trousers’ ‘Our House’ ‘Ghost Town’ & ‘My Girl Lollipop’. The whole show is performed in their own unique style incorporating crowd interaction and always encouraging audiences to join in. All this along with a large comedy element throughout the performance. I had seen them before at tribfest and they are good it was fun and we ended up having two beers and staying until they finished still a reasonably sensible night and day for us, that lurgy is taking its toll and it was to be a sweaty sleep for me We had to get up early on the Sunday for food stretching and prepare rainy stuff for the march into town for our lake boat crossing. Start to the trail race

Sunday 22nd May | 9am – 12pm The 10km Trail Run with 330M of ascent is graded ‘Moderate’ and open to all levels of runner with our wave system. Cruise round or race at the front end, it is a beautiful course to be enjoyed by all! The start is located halfway down Derwentwater and is accessed by a scenic ride on one of the Keswick Launch Company’s boats, which is included in your entry fee. The finish line is in the Festival Village. The course is a mixture of wide-open trails through amazing woodland, a little single track, a few short and sharp hills, some road & fields to finish. Expect amazing running in some of the Lake Districts best trail running country along the shores of Derwentwater & under the fellside flank of the famous Catbells, I dug out my disposable ponchos on the boat as it had started to rain and there would be wave spray from the boat, we were too late to get a seat under shelter, it was all good though, a pleasant boat ride over the ponchos worked well also in keeping the windchill off, the boat captain dropped us at the wrong jetty! A boatful of confused runners walking along the shore wondering where the start was? And; who is leading us? we were supposed to be met at the jetty lol, all was well in the end and we set of in a drizzle of rain and slight cold wind, we were soon warmed up from the effort of a scenic trail run

I was well impressed by the aid stop around half way there was some very tasty cucumber slices and delicious plum tomatoes, I wish I had taken more once I had started running again. It was supposed to be ten kilometres but in the end my watch showed ten and half! The very last section was up hill into the event arena I enjoyed this, and the ginger infused drink at the end, I really could have done with the dry event T shirt being handed out at the finish line, but! I had signed up to donate my T shirt money to the national trust instead of receiving a FREE! T shirt. This is the idea of trees not tees, I do this regularly now but, on this occasion, due to the national trust stand being at the event, I was annoyed at myself? I wanted that T shirt but declined it for the greater good, meanwhile the national trust stall was partnered with a dog food business, this dog food business was there at the national trust stand, which is supposed to promote national trust parks being used by dog owners, who get fed by their products. I had a look at the plastic pouches of dog food, to see if it was vegan dog food or even organic sustainable stuff, nope; the exact opposite the first plastic pouch I picked up was salmon and herring! I gave up eating meat and dairy for the environment, I consistently tell people not to buy farmed salmon, I had gave up my free t shirt for this group to promote salmon farms for their plastic bags of dog shit, and people wonder why I get angry at society

Thankfully I had changed the timing of the run so I could hopefully get to see the next talk in the tent, the timing was perfect for this, with warm layers being put on inside the tent, while the rain and wind kicked up a pace outside for the next groups of runners, I wish I had reread and asked myself why I had wanted to see this persons talk so much, because later I was angry at myself for letting him off the hook so much- reading this back now I can see the lies shouting out at me - Sunday 2022heres the programe descrption- 10:30 – 11:30 Isaac Kenyon – Climate Explorers World-First Eco Adventure 14 Days South: Over Sea and Land Five eco-adventurers cycled across the UK, with a few twists… They used waterbikes to perform two first of a kind sea crossings! The team passed through six of the UK’s National Parks, meeting with numerous experts in the environmental space, to share and highlight climate solutions and how humans are interfering with nature, and what can be done to restore green and blue spaces. Isaac founder of the Pedal 4 Parks team will share the innovative climate solutions and story behind the eco-adventure in person. That’s their description of their jolly escapade, MY description is entirely different firstly they are nowhere near the first eco adventure over land and sea Jason Lewis 16 years human powered adventure, shows theirs for exactly what it was - a fun holiday! Its like an ined Blyton five have fun in national parks jolly, his film opened with headlines saying that children are losing hope due to scaremongering news headlines, my back was up right away! This fun adventure was funded to show the government has it under control and there’s hope, he failed in that message with me on numerous points, far too little too late is the national parks business it has been turned into a way to steal money from people to make them think they are helping the climate crisis, he actually got to show this film to the international community at COP26, he was proud of this getting the national parks into COP, my eyes were wide by this time I was looking around the tent at all the audience and I was obviously alone with my thoughts, he had some friends among the generally young folk in the tent, he opened up to the audience for questions I was wondering how much to not say! How easy should I be on him? Other people asked nice questions like funding and how much charity money did they raise. I had forgotten all I had read about it before hand so was unprepared, so I hit him with You visited the cairngorms national park, and yet you never mentioned how climate change has killed the winter season! thus meaning the ski industry and winter climbing industry is now effectively gone forever, in that national park, and; that they are now looking to plant Mediterranean type trees in preparation of rapidly rising temperature due to climate change, the Scots arctic pines may become extinct now. he just said exactly true yes! So; I pressed further by saying - your films point; I thought was supposed to be to encourage people to take some form of climate action like I do, for example - flight free UK, which means that - as much as I want to go see the barrier reef before it dies! I can’t fly there to see it? as that flights co2 emissions will accelerate its death, others should do the same - adventure either at home or cycle abroad using public transport, exactly he said again and crazily people at the BBC would fly a film crew out to it agreeing with me he then thanked me for my point, while one of his chums said; ok that’s time up, then some youngsters approached and surrounded him at his small laptop podium, It was cold and wet, I was hungry and had to get the tent packed up in the rain, I left angry at him and myself, with my head twisting and turning various political points, he had won, him and his lot could continue with business as usual, telling the kids not to worry we have this under control, we are planting some trees and can even make cups out of seaweed if we need to, He is already planning his next jolly with his chums that will likely get paid for by people subscribing to the national trust or woodlands trust or WWF whoever! One of these big business charities that say they are working towards limiting the damage of climate change, but I sometimes think are actually all about hiding vast amounts of money in trusts that don’t get taxed overseas