The Longest Day Up

When avid biker and Advanced Motorcyclist Keith Bartlett suggested to his biker son-in-law Ben Smither, that they should sign up for The Longest Day Up Challenge, they saw it as a way of enjoying some motorbike riding time together. Little did they realise what it would really entail.

The Longest Day Up Challenge, is now in its fifth year, having raised over £75,000 so far for Cancer Research UK. The event format is for a signed up group of motor-bikers to set out from Lands End at sunrise on the longest day, the 21st June, and to ride to John O'Groats, arriving before sunrise on 22nd June, some 900+ miles later. It is important to point out now, that this is not a race as the challenge can be completed without breaking any laws. This is an endurance challenge and if that isn't enough, then each participant must have bought a machine, have it prepared, legal and ready to ride specifically for the challenge. No favourite, comfortable fast machines here, in a word "cheap" and that meant costing no more than £300. 

  


It was at the end of 2016 that Keith and Ben, at 30, the youngest rider taking part in this years challenge, began their search for a suitable machine and they realised that finding a working bike for £300 was more difficult than expected. Eventually, Keith, a RoSPA Gold rider and volunteer Bloodrunner, located a Kawasaki ZZR400 for sale in north London. Sold as a 'runner' it took many hours of TLC to bring it back to life after having lived under a Leylandi hedge for the previous two years. There were several surprises during the 'recovery', even finding the underside of the exhaust pipe patched up with gaffer tape.

Ben, whose grandfather Malcolm Smither was well known in the motorbike trade before his retirement, found a larger Yamaha XJ600 but it needed some major tinkering. Thankfully, between Keith and Ben, each of them being capable engineers, they were able to fix the bike. 

By January, both machines were road legal and the serious testing started...and then it dawned! What had they let themselves in for? Would it be a dry ride? What should they eat? What would be the most comfortable clothes for their backsides but most of all, how would they keep awake for all those hours riding between checkpoints?

Sleep deprivation will be a huge challenge and so they have sought advice from previous participants as well as record breaking Rhys Lawrey, who rode non-stop around the world. His advice, should they choose to follow it is: "Water, Snickers bars and power naps."

Keith from Saffron Walden, a LeJog veteran from a previous charity ride in 2005, and Ben who lives in Leigh on Sea with his wife Frankie, will set off for Cornwall on Monday 19th June before the start of their challenge. They will follow the set route, which actively avoids motorways and have purposely not set themselves any personal targets for the day. It is more important for them both just to finish the ride, and complete it safely. This is particularly so for Ben who will fly straight back from Scotland to be home with his young son and wife, who is soon to give birth to their second child.

 

Ben said: “Keith and I will be riding together but my biggest worry is waiting for him to have his power naps. Short sleeps is not something he is known for! We will have to set a 15 minute alarm or we might get left behind.”
 

Keith, who hopes for a double celebration in John O'Groats, both for his birthday and arriving in one tired piece said: "We would like to raise as much as we can for Cancer Research UK as we all have friends and family who have been affected by this awful disease."

 
If you would like to support the riders you can visit their JustGiving pages by following the links below.
Do please leave any good wishes for the guys in the comments box below - they will need all the encouragement they can get.

Many thanks.
Keiths JustGiving
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/keith-bartlett

Bens JustGiving
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Benjamin-Smither1

For more about the challenge go to
www.thelongestdaydownchallenge.co.uk 

Oh, and I will be on hand at the end of their ride, covering the story for the press so will bring you an update on this 'midsummer madness' challenge. Keep an eye on Twitter too https://twitter.com/ailecphoto

Meanwhile here is the online press version of this post
http://www.saffronwaldenreporter.co.uk

Wild Ireland - Basking Sharks

As many of you know, I have an interest and involvement in marine activities in the waters of West Cork. Some days the weather is just gruesome, other days it is just amazing, and so I look back with joy at a 'flaming first of June' last year. This was a day when basking shark activity was particularly spectacular, as was the minke whale activity but it was the former that was creating the headlines.

For a couple of weeks last summer, basking sharks were being seen off the coast, just outside Castlehaven harbour and also in Toehead Bay, my home patch. Each evening we could watch upwards of a dozen 'baskers' skulking around the waters in an effort to make the most of the feeding in the plankton-rich water. This activity came to the attention of a great Irish naturalist, film-maker, and regular visitor to West Cork, Colin Stafford-Johnson

I too was making the most of the increased activity and was getting out with Cork Whale Watch on the Holly Jo as much as I could, and on this particular day, we had to wait for the boat to come in, as yer man had grabbed the opportunity to get out early on the water with the film crew and his curragh, in search of these basking sharks.

Needless to say, a successful morning out filming rendered a slightly later than planned return to Reen Pier, thus pushing the start of our own trip on a bit but we didn't mind. Pádraig Whooley of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group launched into an impromptu and entertaining pier-side seminar on cetaceans for the benefit of those who hadn't been whale, or indeed, basking shark watching before.

With Colin no.2 now safely back onto land, (a sunny backdrop of Castletownshend behind him) we were able to look forward to going out on our own trip with Colin no.1. With the Holly Jo dwarfing the curragh which Colin Stafford-Johnson was using as his signature filming platform, we were content with the relatively larger viewing platform from which to make our observations

With the drone having done its' work for the day, it was packed carefully away into the box, the aerial shots providing an even better perspective than ever I could manage of these gentle giants of the sea, from the viewing platform on the Holly Jo.

Not knowing the actual schedule for the resulting programmes, I was delighted to see part 1 of Wild Ireland: The Edge of the World scheduled, appropriately for St Patricks' Day last week, with part 2 to be shown tonight at 9pm on BBC2. This week, showing the basking sharks in Donegal, in the north. A quick message to Colin Stafford-Johnson checking to see if the West Cork 'baskers' would also feature rendered this reply.

"Hi Celia.
Sharks were filmed in several places but could only be shown in one as it were.....I think they placed them in Donegal in this episode...Colin."

So you never know, it might be this one above which features this evening...well I would like to think so!

Do try to catch Wild Ireland: The Edge of the World tonight, or on catch up iPlayer - wonderful escapism in a week that will be memorable for tragic reasons.

Twelfth Night

Amongst the assignments I take on as a photographer, there is one type I much enjoy - theatre. However, most are in the predictable environment of one of several theatres I regularly go to shoot in but on Thursday last week, it was the turn of outdoor theatre. Great! A summer evening out in the beautiful grounds of the Odney Estate in Berkshire, to photograph an Edwardian take on the Shakespeare classic, Twelfth Night. What could be nicer?

Well, the weather for a start! As I drove around the M25, I watched whilst the sky became ever more depressing as I sat in an equally depressing 20 mph traffic jam. Sure enough, when I finally arrived on site, the rain was drizzling in that 'getting you wetter than you think' way.

As I set up on this final dress rehearsal night, it was imperative that kit was waterproofed, whilst a few hardy souls took to the seats to watch this final run-through, also duly waterproofed.

Main challenges for the night: keeping my roving camera dry by tucking the handle into my coat pocket of a beautifully distracting large brightly coloured, borrowed golfing brolly, leaving my hands free to do the business. And as with any theatre shoot, that is active, anticipating moves, avoiding shots directly into spotlights and, an issue with outdoor shoots, dealing with ever changing light levels.

The opening scene had Viola entering dripping wet, having been rescued from the shipwreck. (Not much help needed with that effect then, nor on successive performances by all accounts!)
So without Much Ado (oh, hang on, that is another play) I will just let you take in a few shots for the ambiance of the (very damp) evening.

And the curtain call...

Hats off to all involved for making it through, despite the awful wet conditions, and not least for not being distracted by a meandering photographer with a colourful big brolly!

Look forward to the next shoot...in the dry please guys?!!

Nature Notings...

Today, during my walk with mutt I observed... Iridescent pollen beetles on thistle flowers.

Privet flowers, with their not-so-pleasant distinct aroma, which reminded me of the long summer days playing in my childhood neighbourhood.

Lords and ladies that had gone to seed.

Nice, new, neat future butterfly nurseries.

Butterfly nurseries where the kids had taken over.

And a vivid blue male small damselfly which finally sat still for just long enough to be photographed.


Who says nature isn't interesting?!