Outdoor Activities

Remember that opening scene in Goldeneye when James Bond bungee jumped off the dam? Well, we’ve just found out that anyone, not just secret agents, can now do this famous bungee jump – all you need is a serious amount of guts.

The dam is actually the Verzasca Dam in the Ticino area of Switzerland, very near Locarno on Lake Maggiore. It’s a beautiful setting with panoramas over the mountains and lakes, but we doubt you’ve got much time to take all that in when preparing to bungee jump from the top of the dam!

Surprisingly, at 220m high, it’s not the highest bungee jump in the world. That title is held by the Macau Tower in China at 233m, but that jump does use a guide cable system to stop you swinging into the tower, whereas at Verzasca, it’s just you and one rope.

It’s ridiculously extreme and we found this rather nice video on Youtube, which shows James Bond jumping in Goldeneye, followed by our local hero.

Clearly the Verzasca jump is a long way to go to throw yourself off a dam, so have a look at the bungee jump options in the UK – there’s jumping off bridges and cranes anywhere from 150ft to 300ft above the ground. Plenty to get that adrenaline flowing!

What do Bon Jovi, The Rolling Stones, Pink, Kylie Minogue, Coldplay, Elton John and I al have in common? We’ve all put on a spectacular show at the 02 arena!

OK, so we’ve not got one musical bone in our body, so we weren’t actually on stage in the 23,000 seat 02 Arena in London, but we did have an impressive backdrop of the famous domed venue as we plummeted towards the ground on a bungee jump experience in London!

Total madness is what, in hindsight, we’d call our idea to book ourselves and best mate onto a bungee jumping session in London. Standing at the top of the 160ft crane with the 02 Arena behind us and the views over the Thames and Greenwich in front of us, we really felt nervous.

But as my mate managed it and was already back down on terra firma grinning up at me, there really was no going back, so before I can change my mind, those immoral words 1,2,3…bungee had be shouted and I was on my way.

And of course, once at the bottom and out the harness I loved it and wanted to go again.

This Christmas my wife bought me a gift voucher to go on a falconry experience – and in advance of booking myself onto the day, I’ve been doing a bit of research on the internet, only to discover falconry’s a whole new world with its own vocabulary, there hundreds of falconry forums out there giving advice and lots of blog sites too.

 It’s not just a case of getting yourself a bird of prey (or ‘bop’ as they are referred to by those in the know!), a leather glove and some bait to try and get your new friend to fly to and from you. Falconry training (or ‘manning’) is a painstaking process that needs time for the falconer and bird to build up a relationship but what a sight it is when you actually see for yourself how these birds work so closely with their owners.

 From what we can gather, the aim is to increase the distance the bird flies on the creance (the light cord used) to 50ft, before you can move on to letting the bird fly free. Of course, the lure is always a bit of food, so amazingly the weight of the bird is really, really important. If your eagle weighs too much, they won’t be interested in food, so probably won’t care less when you raise your gloved hand showing a tasty bit of chicken leg – he just won’t be hungry enough to fly to you.

 Interesting stuff indeed and we can’t wait to get ourselves booked up and confirmed for our falconry day experience – we’re hoping to be able to have a go at flying the birds as well as watching the display to see if it’s as easy as it looks!

I stopped playing rugby about 8 or 9 years ago after playing on and off for nigh on 30 years.  It wasn’t really through choice that I stopped, more really to do with the fact I had a kneck injury which meant I was stiff for at least 3 or 4 days after each game. Towards the end, it was so bad that I was still stiff on the Morning of a game from the week before.

After stopping I never really carried on going to the club, as I wasn’t really a good spectator, and new that if I did start watching I would only be tempted to have another go.

I did used to go down the club house for the odd big match or to watch the internationals when they were on, but over recent years this has become less and less.

For the past 4 or 5 years I’ve tended to just watch at home on the telly, but in that time the entertainment factor and enjoyment of watching a rugby union game has as good as evaporated. I can’t remember a time in the 40 years I have been watching rugby that it has been as dull and boring as it is now and I wonder has rugby union had its day?

I would say the main causes of this is the professionalism, the size of players, the lack of prolonged contact and basically the fact defences seem to stifle attacking play so well, no matter which team.

With even more rules aout contact coming in and the fact the game needs to be made safer I can only see it getting less and less entertaining, unless they reduce it to a 12 man game and have more open play.

In honestly though, I don’t think this will work, the impacts are so great now I can’t see how the game can ever be as good as it was, unless they do one thing, which I doubt will ever happen, i.e. go down the American Football route and provide adequate protective equipment.

It’s my birthday soon and short of actually just telling my family what I’d like for my birthday, I thought I’d write a little blog piece in the hope that one of my clan will read it and get the hint about what birthday gift I’m really hoping for.

Whilst researching new cars on the internet the other day, I came across this website which offers loads of different driving experiences. Now, I’m not fussy so any of these activity gift experiences based around driving would have me grinning from ear to ear whether it’s Lamborghini driving, taking an Audi R8 for a spin, learning how to control a skid or rallying in a Subaru Impreza. That’s getting behind the wheel of a top-notch rally prepped Scooby and driving it like the clappers. That’s the Subaru Impreza activity gift experience….is that a heavy enough hint?!

Joking aside, these experiences do make great gifts for men (and women) who like a bit of adrenaline action. I’ve also just read that each gift experience voucher is valid for 12 months, so I can wait until the summer months come around again before booking in, which is excellent news.

All I need to do now is make sure I leave the laptop ever-so-subtley on with this blog piece on show, so my nearest and dearest can get the hint about what gift I’m hoping for this birthday!

There are a number of famous clay shooting personalities in Britain today.  Three of the talented clay shooting participants are skeet shooter Elena Little, double trap shooter Steve Scott and trap shooter Charlotte Kerwood.

Elena Little is a Wales based shooter who has achieved a number of notable successes in her shooting career. The daughter of Russian skeet champion Tatiana Bogdanova, Elena began shooting at the age of 14 with encouragement from her mother, before making a debut at the European Championships in 1998. This first of our famous clay shooting personalities went on to set the world record for her sport in 2005 in Belgrade.

A competitor in the double trap competitions and one of Britain’s youngest famous clay shooting personalities is Steve Scott. Coached by Ian Coley, this talented young shooter trains 4-5 times a week and secured a place on the Olympic squad at Beijing. His greatest success in his eyes is achieving his lifetime goal of competing at the Olympics.

Another talented young shooter is Charlotte Kerwood.  This is one of the famous clay shooting personalities that is inspiring other young women to participate in the sport. Following a debut at the European Championships, her first taste of success in the sport came when she participated in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002. Only 15 years of age at the time, she won Gold in the double trap shoot. Charlotte was also part of the Olympic squad at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

The many famous clay shooting personalities in the UK are an inspiration to other shooting enthusiasts and play a part in the continued popularity of the sport. Intotheblue.co.uk have been supplying a select number of clay pigeon shooting days across the UK for over 10 years that have become more popular year on year.