My conversation with David uncovers how photography transcends the mere act of capturing a moment. It's about forming deep connections, understanding the essence of a place. We talk about how childhood experiences can influence our work.
Passion drives us, and David's unwavering passion for the outdoors is a testament to that. So, prepare to immerse yourself in the magic and wonders of Aviemore through the fascinating lens of David Russell from Highland Wildscapes
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My conversation with David uncovers how photography transcends the mere act of capturing a moment. It's about forming deep connections, understanding the essence of a place. We talk about how childhood experiences can influence our work.
Passion drives us, and David's unwavering passion for the outdoors is a testament to that. So, prepare to immerse yourself in the magic and wonders of Aviemore through the fascinating lens of David Russell from Highland Wildscapes
Sign up to the next Creative Light Festival here:
https://creative-light.co.uk/
Sign up to my newsletter to hear first about new retreats:
Follow me on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/margaretsoraya/
Join my online Creative Haven community :
https://creative-haven.newzenler.com
I'm chatting today with David Grosse-Lewis from Avimore, which is one of the areas that I used to live in, so that's really nice, and it's also the area that we've won the festival in the week, or we will be winning the festival in October, so it's quite interesting to talk to you. So, david, thank you for coming along. Would you like to just tell us a little bit, a little overview, of what you do in your photography at the moment?
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, thanks. Well, it's my pleasure, firstly, to be joining you today. It's always kind of a tricky question as to what I do. I try to keep a lot of variety in life really, so I try not to get stuck too much on one thing. But fundamentally I am an outdoor lover. I'm a photographer. I work mainly as a guide in the outdoors, so I take people and show them around Scotland on the holidays and teach photography and other outdoor skills. So I guess you could say I'm sort of very outdoor focused in life and I just really enjoy being out in the beautiful landscapes that we have here in the Highlands.
Speaker 1:Oh, fantastic, and it's Avimore that you live in, is it?
Speaker 2:I do yes, yes, avimore, for the time being.
Speaker 1:I came to Avimore when I've been 2001,. Lived in Avimore only for about a year. When my son was born I lived in Linwilg, just outside oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. It's like it's not even a place, it's just a little street that goes in. Well, it's not even a street, it's a path that goes towards the forest. It was a funny time for me, because I was pregnant with my first child and we ended up living in this random shack in near the woods.
Speaker 2:It wasn't great.
Speaker 1:But what I did love about Avimore was the walks. Oh my goodness, the walks, the volume of places that you can access and the beauty around Avimore. It's just phenomenal. I've not found anywhere like that since I don't think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you kind of hit the nail on the head there. I think the sheer variety of locations that we have is really quite remarkable because we have some of the most extensive Caledonian forest left in Scotland surrounding the town. So you know, I mean, how many different places are there in the woods, quite a few. And then, of course, just a stone's throw from that we've got the Kangorams themselves, the mountains, so you know, that's the largest area of the mountainous terrain anywhere in the country. And yeah, it's all within easy, you know, 10 minute striking distance really. So it does feel remarkably wild here, despite the fact that it also feels remarkably well connected to civilization. So yeah, it's kind of a best both worlds, I suppose.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I used to go to Loughmore Lake pretty much every day. I love Loughmore Lake because it's so accessible. Yeah you can just go along and there's a kind of a beach. I always wondered what that beach was, because it's not, can't be, a beach, do you know?
Speaker 2:I kind of know yeah, I was guiding some people up on the mountain the other day and to really look down at that view over Glenmore and Loughmore Lake and be like, is that a beach? Is that a beach? It's not a real beach, right? No, we must bring it in, we must import the sand from somewhere. You know that's a real beach. So, yeah, it's very special place.
Speaker 1:It's a random place yeah yeah, yeah. It's such a random place, but I used to go and just take the dog and the baby at the time onto that beach and it felt like being on a beach, which is really strange.
Speaker 1:And then later on we spent a lot of time well, not a lot of time, as much time as we can paddling on Loughmore Lake. So you know anything from. I think we did a little. We tried a little bit of windsurfing, failed at that. This wasn't big enough to that it's quite hard, isn't it?
Speaker 2:It is, yeah, it's quite tricky.
Speaker 1:And then paddle boarding and quite recently I went out there and I just hired a oh, it was a paddle board I hired and it was one of those beautifully like glassy days when there's no wind. I just had the best time over. So it's just. It's just. It is a great place. I do miss it for those outdoor locations and the other place was like Rottie Mercus.
Speaker 1:Rock and Eelen. That's fantastic, isn't it? So so your photography, your own photography, what's your focus Is it? Would you enjoy both? Do you enjoy up the hill and down the hill? So I don't climb. I've never climbed mountains.
Speaker 2:I do enjoy both, I enjoy everything, but it's kind of like whatever's right in front of me, I want to, I want to kind of explore that as deeply as possible. So you know, like Rottie Mercus that you just mentioned, for instance, I think probably I've shot like 90% of my portfolio, you know, in the woods around Rottie Mercus because I found Rottie Mercus very creatively appealing immediately. In fact it was. It was well years ago now, probably 15 years ago, when I was working as an outdoor instructor and I was supervising Duke of Edinburgh expedition on mountain bikes and I had this evening where I was riding through the sort of the hinterlands of Rottie Mercus, you know, away from all the busy public spots, and I just found myself absolutely captivated by these. You know ancient woodlands and you know the wave of a light was breaking through the branches and these avenues of trees that were seemingly just going on forever and ever and ever, and it was very much like where I grew up in the west of Scotland, in Helensburg, you know it was.
Speaker 2:I suppose it's not objectively that similar in terms of climate and so but you know, I spent a lot of my childhood just wandering around in the woods near home and it was, you know. It just brought all that back and I felt like that's a place I need to get into. So I spent a long, long time sort of exploring, you know, the unknown parts of a wood. I suppose is how I would think of. It's probably a bit naughty, I mean, you're probably supposed to stay on the trail and, you know, leave no trace, I mean. But I just couldn't resist just just walking directly into the forest, you know, away from where the path is going. So that's, that's a place that's very, very dear to me.
Speaker 1:So that's really interesting. It's one. When I was putting the this year's festival together, the, we were deciding on the locations for the. We're doing like a location trip every morning, so we'll take a group of people out to a location and just free to go and photograph it themselves. And I chose Lock and Eland. So we're going to be doing that because for me that sort of has everything More like it's lovely, but it's a little bit more not come out, it is a little bit more commercialized, a little bit more there it's busier.
Speaker 2:And it's certainly got busier, I think, since it's time when you were living here.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, yeah sure.
Speaker 2:There's been a lot of changes recently but, yeah, lock and Eland still still certainly has that magic about it, although, interestingly, I think if you ever come across photos of that area from like 100 years ago, it's actually really amazing how much wilder Rothy Mercus is today, At least in my opinion. I've seen photos from Lock and Eland from about 1920. And there's so few trees.
Speaker 2:It's really amazing. So it's become a lot more heavily forested and the woodlands have been thinned out and so it's starting to look a lot more natural, and with the rewilding efforts that are going on in the area as well through Kangooms Connect, it's really transformed. Even in the last 10 years or so that I've been living here, there's lots of compositions in the woods. I can no longer shoot, because little trees that were just saplings when I first knew it are now 10 feet taller than I am, so they're kind of blocking the view, but it's amazing to see it change like that. But yeah, I think it's very special living in a part of the world that does actually feel like nature's getting better and healthier, and there are species returning to the area, like the Osprey, and it was on the news the other day that the Cappacali numbers are actually increasing again for the first time in a while. So there's lots of reasons to be hopeful. I think when you, when you, live around Abymor, it's kind of a nice feeling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a difficult place for people to actually to buy and to live, if you see what I mean, because there's a lot of places now, that's been living with. Yeah, I thought that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, yeah, we were really lucky in that we found somewhere that was relatively affordable when we moved here. But yes, one does feel a certain degree of privilege and of good fortune to be able to enjoy it. But you know, even if you can't live here, it's fairly well connected.
Speaker 2:So you know, it's quite easily reached from, from in Manasseh or Edinburgh and the train and the bus and so on. So you know, I hope that it's somewhere that people do feel that like it's theirs to enjoy and explore, even if they don't actually live here as well. So I think that's yes, yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. It is actually a lot easier to get to than some of the places Like some of like. Paris, for instance. It's, you know, it's good. It takes me a lot longer to get out to me than to get to Aviamor. You can just fly to Manasseh. And actually Joe Cornish is coming up in October and he said to me, actually Rothy Merkis is one of the places I wanted to do some of my own work, so it's okay if I just stay for the four days and I was like, yeah, of course.
Speaker 1:So he's going to be accompanying people on the trips just because he wants to be in that location. So it's really nice. Obviously, I chose the right place.
Speaker 1:I'm really looking forward to it because when I was there I wasn't a photographer. Actually, you know, it wasn't something that I was actively doing in my life. So I spent a lot of time walking and exploring, but I wasn't photographing at all. So actually I don't have that many photos of the area at all. It's not something that I've ever pursued. So it'd be really nice to you know, to spend a bit of time, and we'll be there a few days before, so maybe you can pop along and yeah, if I'm here, I'd be delighted to be around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that'd be great. So how long have you lived in this area? You said you're from.
Speaker 2:I'm from Helmsborough original. Yeah, I grew up in Helmsborough and then I went to university at St Andrews and while I was there I made the happy decision of joining the mountaineering club and also the canoe club. Actually because it was great, because if it was raining then you'd go canoeing and kayaking on the river and if it was dry then you'd go up the mountain. So it worked perfectly for four years and in that time we got to explore a lot of Scotland, which is something I think that you know. Often people are not very good at exploring their own country. You know, tend to get distracted by cheap flights to Spain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, you know, you've just sort of hit the nail on their head there. For me, in fact, I was having a conversation yesterday I won this by you with somebody and we're trying to decide on some new locations for retreats, so for creative retreats and also for the festival, and so we were going through things yesterday in this meeting and I was saying, well, you know what we've got? We've got the opportunity to go to Portugal, which is a great contact out there, and I was thinking it might be really nice because the weather's nice and I'm not dismissing it, you know so, in case anybody's listening, we're not dismissing Portugal or abroad, but I was saying about my honestly.
Speaker 1:my heart is saying it's always said Scotland hasn't always said I got a little bit, as you said, distracted, and it's sometimes people, I think, get the focus goes on to well, if you're going abroad, it's fake, glamorous, isn't it, and that's that's the sort of the ultimate. I'm traveling a lot, I'm going to, unless that's your thing. I think you know some people have a thing where their photography is all about different cultures or something you know yeah.
Speaker 1:But if they're not, I think you can easily get like a kind of feeling that, yeah, going to Japan or China or I'm trying to think of some exotic sounding places to photograph, is the ultimate, but actually for me it's always been Scotland, scotland's been and also the UK coast. Some of the coastline in the UK is just phenomenal.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's great, Isn't it?
Speaker 1:So and then we're adding in the complexity of having to fly. I don't really not enjoying flying now, after after COVID, I don't know. It's just changed everything for me. I did a, I did a few years of travel photography when I in 2010 to 2015. And then I suddenly realized, actually, this isn't, this doesn't mean anything to me. There's no meaning behind these places in like Greece, what, what? What are my connections with Greece? There's none. It's lovely, it's warm, it's great, but I don't have a connection. And yeah, and I do have this very strong connection with Scotland and the islands in particular for me. So why then would I go to Greece and run a retreat?
Speaker 1:And I don't know, I'm still I'm querying that still, so it's going on in my head, so maybe you have some thoughts on that.
Speaker 2:Well, it's interesting. I think you've really hit the nail on the head as to as to how I feel about Scotland and about photography and connection to places, because, you know, sometimes when people travel to Scotland I'm guiding four of them. You know, if it's a photography trip, maybe they'll send me a link to their portfolio and I, you know, often it's Americans and you have a look through their website and you see a kind of a hit list oh, sorry, that was my dog just sneezing you see, like a hit list of, you know, the world's most famous locations and it's just about every you know iconic, but you might also say you know clichéd shot from around the world. You know it's like okay, you've done Mesa Arch, you've done Kirkufel in Iceland, you've been to this place in Norway and that place in Portugal, wherever it is, and it's very, very broad.
Speaker 2:But it's also quite shallow and I don't want to necessarily criticise it because for some people, yeah, it's about travel and it's about like, oh, I just want to go as many places as possible and fill up my life with adventure and I absolutely respect that. But it's just not how I respond. You know, I think I'm much more like you in that I want like deep knowledge of a place that I know, rather than a kind of superficial understanding of lots of, lots of different places that I'm never going to go back to. So that's sort of a driving emotion, I think behind behind why I take photos. And you know, early you were saying that when you, when you lived in the area, you weren't really a photographer at that point and I've been musing recently on what actually is that makes someone a photographer.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean, the camera itself is almost kind of irrelevant, I think, you know it's. It's, it's a mindset and well, I don't know, I don't know that heart set is a word, but it's really a. It's kind of a sense of an interconnection to a place. I think that maybe the sort of a deep curiosity and passion for, for knowing it better, that really drives it. So I think whether you have a camera or not is is really besides the point. It's it's about seeking, you know, seeking something special and in the landscape around you that matters.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I suppose if you don't have a camera and maybe the years I spent just absorbing on just being in the landscape was actually probably like a foundation kind of like a way of connecting more deeply.
Speaker 2:It's crucial. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean I didn't have a camera until I was about 20. But I can. I can certainly attribute a lot of a lot of what I do now is is is down to sort of early experiences, you know, just just having the good fortune to grow up in a place and time where people were not paranoid about letting their kids play outdoors all day and just like sort of release you into the woods and be like you know.
Speaker 1:Be back by midnight, ideally, I know, and actually when you said that, I was like oh, I got it, I get it. Now I can. I can understand who you are. Now I was. I'm always trying to understand people a little bit, but usually it comes from that.
Speaker 1:As you, you're obviously well aware that that early childhood connection to and that doesn't mean going out with camera, because when you're six or whatever six or seven or eight or I don't know if you're allowed out of that, but I think you were about that. So you know you're not, you're not going out to create something necessarily. You might do it just as a byproduct, but you're going out to just enjoy and to be and to be in those woods. And I can imagine you're just going off. And I didn't. I was in Manchester as a centre would have growing up. So I was. I was allowed out into the alleyways to play with bikes, wasn't quite the same. But you know, I do think those early childhood experiences dictate who would become and what we love later in life and what we feel connected to. So you've clearly got that just ingrained in you. It's wonderful to hear.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's funny looking back, because, you know, there's many days where I don't I don't remember that I was going to the woods that day. I remember that I was going out to fight dragons with my, with my pal, but I was going out to go mountaineering on the grassy slope behind the house or something, and it's strange how, how expansive some of those very, very small places are in my memory, you know, and I remember, you know, I remember particular small details in the landscape as much grander and more significant than they probably are in truth, although, you know, I think you could argue about which one's real. But yes, you know, as you say, those early connections, they really matter. And, yeah, I think what's at the heart of a lot of creative people, once they grow up into adults, is that they, you know, it's just a relationship of a landscape that changes a little bit.
Speaker 2:It turns slightly from being a playground in the true sense of play, you know, just constantly stimulating the imagination, to a playground of a different type, where you're, I suppose, from my perspective, I'm constantly seeking sort of nuance and new things I haven't seen before in the place. You know, I did a presentation a little while ago and I was you know about my photography and I was putting a lot of thought into what it is that I'm actually looking for, and it's you know. So there's this tree. Okay, it's telling the story properly, is this tree?
Speaker 1:on.
Speaker 2:Rathi Murkis, it's Birch tree, and I've been photographing that tree for about 10 years now, probably since I moved here, and over time you eventually well, I've photographed it so many times that you see the same moment repeat itself.
Speaker 2:And I came home one night and I looked at my photos and I thought, oh, that's quite nice. And then I opened up a different folder in Lightroom and, lo and behold, there was the exact same photo and I thought I'd actually mis-filed it for a moment and was like no, no, this is four years ago and it's identical in every respect other than the snow line is in a slightly different place. It's like the same lighting on this tree, the same season, the leaves of the same shade everything is just identical apart from that one tiny detail. So it got me thinking well, what does a genuinely unique moment look like that won't be repeated for maybe 10 years or maybe 100 years? What does that real, once in a lifetime moment look like? And can I find it? Can I be there? So that's kind of the game for me really is to try and know a place so deeply that I can tell straight away like this is a special moment or no. This is beautiful, but this is its everyday beauty.
Speaker 1:I get that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and when you bring someone to that place for the first time, like if they've never been there before, you know, and you'll see them like grabbing their cameras and be like wow, this is amazing. And sometimes that first initial burst of creativity is what you need to get through before you actually start accessing the good stuff that lies beyond, once you've kind of taken all the obvious shots and seen it in all the more common shades of beauty that that place has.
Speaker 1:Totally understand what you're saying there and I think actually you're very similar to the way that I respond to the landscape, in that I enjoy that deeper connection and I think that we need to be shooting for like 10 years before we start to get somewhere. With one place, everybody's going to be shocked listening to this now go, oh, my goodness, I've got 10 years to go, but it's, it's, it's fact. And when I came to drama the rockets, I came to live in drama the rocket, I come and go, it was, but it's not naturally my, my landscape. It's not kind of a natural thing I would like. Well, but I was, I had to. Just, you know, it was a situation I had at the time. So I thought, like, what am I going to do? I'm going to start photographing Loch Ness, like I did it every day for a year. And then I just carried on doing it, not every day, but I thought I'll do a six or seven year project on it. Even though it wasn't, you know, completely natural to me, it was, yeah, it was really really interesting.
Speaker 1:And then I produced a book. At the end of it, loch Ness isn't one of the most sought after locations or the easiest locations to connect to, so that it needed that real deep time. Because you get one amazing morning where the conditions were so fabulous and there was actually. I'm sitting here with my book next to me, so I'm looking at the cover and it's it's okay, castle, and the steam coming off the lock and this mist and it's blue and it's winter. That doesn't happen. That happens like once every three years.
Speaker 1:That you know it needed that time and I suppose by the end of it I was kind of like I've sort of understand this place much better, but for me it wasn't. It isn't the place I connected to, the place I connect to beaches and hebodies so that's been a lot longer, been photographing that for a lot longer time but with less intensity.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I suppose you, I wonder if you find your. You find, firstly, you find your passion, you find your thing, and that's, as we said earlier, that's a lot to do with the childhood connections.
Speaker 1:You have to be self aware enough to know what that thing is and that place is, and then you're persistent and dedicated enough to keep doing that without being, oh, this is it. This is where my mind's going, without being distracted by the shiny things that probably seem immediately likeable to other people. So you know, so you might be doing this thing, and it's it's. It's actually fairly maybe not as I catching when we're talking about other people liking it and looking at it. Yeah, but you just kind of plod on and you do your thing, and you love doing it, and you get really deep with it, and this is where the powerful work comes in, isn't it? This is where the great work comes in, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's it. That's. It is not valuing others, others opinions, that's where it is.
Speaker 2:No, you're absolutely right when you find, when you find that thing that you know, whatever it is that you feel connected to. You know, for me it was Scott's pine trees, you know, it's just like wow, that's.
Speaker 2:That's really an iconically beautiful thing, yeah, and, but it's crucial. I mean, if you're setting out on this, on this road, where you want to create some sort of meaningful work, then you can't do it without listening to, to what's in your heart at that point. And, yes, ignore the opinions of others perceived or or received, because you know that that thing you said a minute ago, like that 10 year journey, it was like, yeah, you need to do that before you can even start to see. And it does sound daunting when you say it like that, but but you know what honestly it is its own reward. Actually it is. That process is an absolute joy, yeah, and every step you go further that road, you're kind of like, wow, how much further does this go? You know, and I would.
Speaker 2:Whenever I'm out in the kangorms and I see something new, I mean, sometimes I'm, I'm just absolutely shocked at the, the seemingly infinite ways that the mountains in the woods have to reinvent their own beauty. You know, and it's constantly familiar and yet constantly new, you know, and it was a thing a few years ago. So usually, you know, autumn is one of the one of the best times to be here in the kangorms because we get these fabulous autumn colors and we usually get temperature inversions in the mornings in October. And then there was one year where it just didn't happen at all, you know, and it's starting to feel like, oh, that's a bit of a shame, you know, it's just been too warm and too wet and so on, and so we didn't get any of those conditions until much later in the year and then, suddenly, just before Christmas, to my great surprise, we had the temperature inversion. That lasted about a week. You know just, it never stopped and it was, it was right throughout Scotland and every single day it was, you know, opening Instagram and people were posting photos of, like, I've been up this mountain and that mountain, and it was astonishing. You know, everybody was out having a great time.
Speaker 2:But I went out into the woods and you know, it's like you just have to imagine, like what's your absolute dream morning? Okay, now you can have it seven times in a row and it was just staggering. You know, there was this whorefrost that was coating everything and there was a low-lying mist. So you know, it was like every single facet of every tree was catching the light like a chandelier, and there were all these amazing shafts of light coming through the woods and so on, and eventually I just ran out of things to think about.
Speaker 2:You know, I couldn't. I'd be sitting at home in the morning thinking I don't know where to go tomorrow, because in the last few days I've already, you know, I've done everything I could possibly imagine, and the you know, the beauty of the landscape has now actually exceeded my imagination by considerable margin. So, but you know, if I hadn't spent 10 years waiting for that, I probably wouldn't have recognised it for what it was. I'd just have gone out and be like, oh, I had the nice morning, oh, I'll go out next week again, who knows. But but yeah, it's exhausting, isn't it? Yeah?
Speaker 1:when you get, when you get those like one after the other, after the other, so that you're like, oh, I've got to keep going, because it's just so incredible.
Speaker 1:And actually when you mentioned that, that October thing. I've always obviously October is the best time in the hands of Scotland. You've got to be here in that October and it used to fall on the kids. The kids holidays used to be when they were at school, used to be that sort of period, didn't it? And we'd often go away for because you that's what you do, you go away for the October holidays. It's a Scottish tradition, isn't it? And we'd go wherever we'd get, to Lewis or well, remember we went to Holland once and as we drove back from the airport and the beauty, just that, you know, the autumn colours had just come out and I was going. Why did I go to Holland? I should have been in that, and every time, every October, I'm like it's the place to be, don't be anywhere else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can relate to that. Yeah, my wife works in a school and she likes to go to herself for France in October. So every year she's like, oh, do you want to come to France? Versus you, no, why would I want to go anywhere else?
Speaker 1:It is. It is the place to be. I've got to say it's just amazing. I'm looking forward to this to this October. I'm going back to the Highlands in the middle I think it's about the 20th and then we're staying for a couple of weeks. So because in Harris there's well, there's no trees, there's no water and it's such a stark contrast. You know, I love it out there. But then when you come back in that sort of time, you know that time period, it's just like oh wow, you know there's no autumn. It doesn't feel like there's an autumn there when you come here and it's just, it's just orange, everything's orange.
Speaker 2:So I'll be back every October, definitely it's funny because I actually, well, since last year, I've resolved to try and make time to go to Harris every October because I had such a good time there last year. You know I adore Harris and I was really lucky last year because I got to spend a lot of my guiding season in the Hebrides, although it was just about the wettest summer.
Speaker 1:I think I could remember.
Speaker 2:But I had a wonderful, wonderful trip out there in October and I came, I came like within inches of getting one of the best shots in my life. I didn't quite get it. You know, it was out at Hushnish where we were. You know we were staying at the community owned camper van. But just there I went out one night thinking, oh, I wandered down to the beach and takes some photos of sunset and then I just, I just left the car park and I heard this stag roaring up on the hill and I thought, oh, this is pretty close. So I started heading uphill hoping that I could just just pop over the horizon and get a shot of it, before he, you know, ran away. And I got awfully close to this glorious, enormous stag, but the meanwhile behind me was the most staggering sunset I'd seen all year and so. But the sunset was on one side and the stag was on the other and it was just like, oh, if I could just find a way round to get a silhouette in this shot To move them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it just, it, just it didn't quite happen. But you know, it was one of those moments that just kind of, you know, lit the fires of imagination when you realize like, oh, this, this, like I could find this again, like this, this, this doesn't have to be a one off moment If I come back and keep pursuing this and that's a shot I'll get. So, yeah, I think it's just such a wonderful place. Harris, even living in Abymor, I certainly envy being able to, you know, to work on that kind of deep knowledge in that place. Yeah, it's something I'd love to do.
Speaker 1:Is that your dog barking?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, fortunately not being too noisy.
Speaker 1:This has been pretty good. I just I was. I was looking for your website earlier and I saw that you, you, you're an instructor by kayaking and canoeing, or would you just yeah, I haven't.
Speaker 2:I haven't done that for a while, but yes, so I was. I was a level two paddle sports coach before I, before I started, before my career veered more from instructing towards guiding. So, yeah, I used to. I used to like teach you know canoeing and kayaking, rock climbing and things like that, but discovered a while ago that what I really love is is guiding and just helping people to forge that, that emotional connection to places. Yeah, it's completely different thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, on different levels, but the reason I was asking you was that I just bought a fishing kayak and there is no more.
Speaker 1:I bought a fishing kayak. I will always go through all the different options. I've got this ridiculous whippet dog who doesn't like water, but I'm determined to get around the water with me. Now I paddleboard, I paddle a lot and she's not getting on a paddleboard. There's no way you should get a foot wet. She doesn't like getting a foot wet. So I thought what could I get her in so you know I can enjoy you being out together.
Speaker 1:You know what's the best possibility and I thought canoe and so I went and explored that and I thought, oh no, I'm not going to manage a canoe. Well, I probably could, but I actually had a long story but I couldn't actually buy one and get it out to the head. But it was pretty tricky, Right. So I ordered a fishing. It's a double fishing kayak Because it seemed to be the most stable thing and it's got two seats, so I reckon I can put it in. I don't know if I'll keep everybody updated on that, because that could be quite amusing actually.
Speaker 2:It can be very amusing. It can be very scary as well. Yeah, I can do. I love canoeing and yeah, I mean again while touching on both sides. You know water sports and deep connection and creativity. Loc Marie is like well is the other place that I absolutely adore. I find myself yearning for Loc Marie at times and just wanting to nip up there and just spend a few nights just to watch the scenery and so on. But yeah, if you're a canoeist, then Loc Marie is one of the most incredibly rewarding places because it's got these amazing islands which are covered in pine forest, so it's an astonishingly beautiful part of Scotland to explore. But Loc Marie is a scary old Loch, even to someone who's done a fair bit of sea kayaking and white water and so on. The waves on Loc Marie can get up to a couple of metres in height and you can be a very, very long way from shore in your tiny craft and feeling like, oh, I've got a long way to go. So yeah, it can be a bit scary sometimes out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you've got to be so careful. Yeah, it's not a water sports island. When I say I bought a fishing canoe, the reason is I'm not going to be even going far and probably just putling around the shore near my house actually. And again it comes back to this deeper connection. I don't want to, I don't have any aims to go anywhere away from the shoreline, because I know I've done a lot of paddling. I haven't done a lot of canoeing or kayaking, but I know water and I know how dangerous it is and I tend to just wait for flat, calm conditions because I don't like. I don't just don't like paddling. You know any paddling is choppy and it's just. Oh, it's just not nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely yeah, I just wait for those days and when you get that flat, calm, beautiful days and the idea is just to put around the shore and, I don't know, do some photography just to combine it. But it's just a connection.
Speaker 2:It's another dimension to explore, isn't it? I mean, it gives you a way of exploring, you know, physically, a place that you couldn't, yeah, but also, just, I mean, you know, I couldn't begin to express, like how pleasant it is and just how nice it is to feel, you know, that wooden paddle going down into the water and sort of feel the weight of the water, you know, pushing back on you and to kind of, you know, physically, intuitively, comprehend it rather than just with your eyes. You know there's more than one type of knowledge in this world. You know, this is the thing, and I think in our society we have come to idolize your mental knowledge, shall we say. You know cleverness and understanding and scientific understanding, and I mean, hey, I'm a science graduate, right, I get that and I enjoy all that. But there's so many different types of ways to understand a place and that physical exploration, I think, is crucial.
Speaker 2:But yes, one doesn't want to go too far, especially with water, because what I was going to say is that, you know, when I take, you know, I had this idea that canoeing with a dog would be a sort of blissful companionship. In Loch Murray it's more like assassination attempt after assassination attempt. You know he's just absolutely determined sometimes to flip the boat and I think I'm not having this. I'm not going out with you again. You know your little wretch.
Speaker 1:What sort of dog have you got?
Speaker 2:Well, he's a Nova Scotian duck tolling retriever, which is a bit of a mouthful the great dogs, if you're into the outdoors because they're very active and they're very, very smart. But they also have a sort of shutdown point, unlike colleagues, you know, like colleagues always keep on staring at the ball, you know. Whereas, yeah, tollers do you know, they reach a point where it's like okay, I've had enough, now I'm ready to go home, please. And they're generally very, very sweet natured, although mine's a bit more of a handful and it should be. Anyone listening thinking of getting one should be warned that they are renowned for the so-called taller scream. When they get really excited, they will scream. You know, they're like ah oh, my God it's my favourite person.
Speaker 2:he's back, ah, but mine also howls you know if he howls out the window of the neighbour's kids and things like that. So yeah, he's a bit of a handful.
Speaker 1:Sounds hard work yeah he is, yeah, he's a great companion, but yeah, he's hard work.
Speaker 2:Yes, be warned. Well, I'll keep you posted on the Whippet and the water.
Speaker 1:But yeah, the sky is really the one thing in life. She loves everything apart from water. So I kind of got the wrong dog, but we love her. So we're going to give it a go and she's got a little flotation device and that will see. We shall see, but anyway, I think that was just such a wonderful chat with you. I was so, so glad to have met you. Oh, it's been such a pleasure.
Speaker 2:Just about this. It's really nice.
Speaker 1:Isn't it funny how you can be in the same sort of vicinity of somebody for so long and never reconnect. Yes, yes, absolutely yeah, yeah, this podcast is great. This podcast is great. It's been a couple of times.
Speaker 2:For me, yeah, no, actually I have a very great friend, a chat, by the name of Hamish Napier, who some of you listeners might recognize and name is a folk musician. Okay, and Hamish and I we connected a few years ago because Hamish was writing an album about the woods in Straff's Bay. Oh, it was an album inspired by the Caledonian Forest. So we met because of that mutual passion and, yeah, once we met it was like why haven't we met before? Yeah, the nice, the wonderful thing about it was that earlier we were talking about how you have to sort of follow your interest and not worry about what other people think, and for me it was like, well, I've got this fascination with pine trees and Hamish just had that exact same thing. And it was so nice to just meet someone where you bond instantly over what is seemingly quite an obscure passion and not have to explain it or to justify it. It's just like, yeah, trees, man, they're just the business, aren't they? It's great.
Speaker 1:It's great. Yeah, no, I felt that as well.
Speaker 2:Just in the course of this. It's so nice to speak to someone who, again, you don't really need to explain that sense of meaningful connection and deep knowledge, and so on. It's just yeah, yep, yep, that's what it is, let's do it. Yeah, that's terrific.
Speaker 1:Wonderful and I think everybody will appreciate this conversation. It's so, thank you. Thank you very much for joining. Oh, thank you. We'll share your links on the show notes so people can go and find you. But thank you for joining me today.