Tori James blog

Yesterday I was invited to go along to the Out of the Woods festival in Bute Park, Cardiff. There was all sorts going on, from a coracle rowing demonstration, to a birds of prey display (I held a very cute white Barn Owl), to basket weaving as well as every type of dog you could imagine, including a poodle with a very sparkly “bling” collar!!

I was there to support SARDA, the South Wales Search & Rescue Dog Association in raising awareness of the charity and chatting to potential volunteers. I also presented a prize in the Four Paws Dog Show. The Dog Show was open to all, with categories for the ‘waggiest tail’ to ‘best puppy’. Amy (left below) and her dog Louie won the prize for ‘best rescue dog’ and received a trophy from SARDA & Four Paws.

Both charities are heavily reliant on donations to fund their activities, and most importantly the willingness of volunteers to assist them in the day to day running of the organisations. Volunteers with SARDA South Wales can help to train search and rescue dogs by hiding from them during training to provide a human scent for the dogs to practice finding, help with fundraising activities, or with the necessary experience even become a search dog handler.

For further information about volunteering visit www.sardasouthwales.org.uk

It’s been my busiest month on record, with talks in Pembrokeshire, Cardiff, Hereford, London including one at St James’ Palace for recipients of the Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

Amongst the talks, Sarah Mayer, Maria Leijerstam and myself have been working on our newly formed group, Cardiff Explorers. We’ve now had two get-togethers, some great support from the Terra Nova bar in Cardiff Bay as well as Cotswold Outdoor and the mailing list is growing on a weekly basis (cardiffexplorers@gmail.com for more info). Our next meeting will be at the Terra Nova Bar in Cardiff Bay on Thursday 9 September.

In September I’m really looking forward to delivering some talks to secondary schools in Pembrokeshire. These will combine the highs and lows of climbing Mount Everest with the opportunity for students to find out how they can have their first expedition experience with BSES Expeditions.

 

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Last week Sarah, Maria and I launched Cardiff Explorers at the Terra Nova Bar in Cardiff Bay. We were overwhelmed by the number of people who turned up and inspired by some of the things that people had done and were planning. The next get-together will be on 5 August 2010 - email cardiffexplorers@gmail.com if you’d like to be on the mailing list for events.

On Thursday I met Chloe Smith and her dad Jeff who will both climb Kilimanjaro next month for charity. Chloe is only 15 and has organised an Evening of Inspiration at the Vue Cinema, Millennium Plaza in Cardiff on Thursday 22 July in support of Barnardos. Head-lining a packed evening of speakers will be the blind adventurer Miles Hilton-Barber. I’ll be there speaking about Everest too!

For more information visit http://www.chloesclimb.com/?page_id=270

It’s bike week this week so I decided to commute from work in Carmarthen back to Pembrokeshire, approx 30 miles. In order to avoid the A40 I took a wonderful scenic route via Meidrim, Llanboidy, Login and Clunderwen - beautiful countryside but a few too many valleys and a 1 in 5 gradient hill - ouch! Thankfully I now have a road bike and am still getting used to not having two panniers weighing me down!

If you missed the blog posts about my New Zealand cycle, just go to www.girlsbikenewzealand.com.

This is exciting news! Cardiff Explorers will launch on 8 July. Having been involved in various adventure/expedition networks when living in London I realised that Cardiff was missing something. I keep hearing about exciting expedition plans and challenges that south Wales individuals are planning and Cardiff Explorers will be the place where people can share stories, make contacts and get advice.

My partners in crime are fellow NZ cycling buddy Maria Leijerstam and fellow BSES Expeditions staff member Sarah Mayer. Once a month, we’ll be inviting along an eclectic mix of exciting speakers to inspire you and share their expertise.

Membership of Cardiff Explorers is completely FREE, just drop me an email (tori@torijames.com) if you’d like to be put on the mailing list. We’ll be giving away free outdoor kit at our launch event - now there’s a reason to come along!! See you at 7pm at Terra Nova Bar in Cardiff Bay on 8 July.

Until recently I knew very little about the work of the South Wales Search & Rescue Dog Association (SARDA). Just like the Mountain Rescue (England & Wales) and the Wales Air Ambulance, SARDA (South Wales) relies on charitable donations to operate. It is made up entirely of volunteers who give up their time to train the dogs and run the charity. SARDA teams will accompany Mountain Rescue teams on call outs where the skills of a trained search dog will maximise the success of the search, for example in large forested areas.

I am very excited to have been asked to be an Honorary Patron for the SARDA (South Wales) and I hope to be able to go out with the team on a training exercise soon where I’ll be asked to be a ‘body’. I’ll need to hide from the dogs for several hours, probably in a wet ditch in the cold, awaiting a slobbery greeting!

SARDA are always looking for new volunteers who are willing to go out on similar exercises - if you are interested contact chris.daw@sardasouthwales.org.uk. I’ve been told that it’s a really satisfying experience to know that you’re helping to train a dog that may go on to find a missing person on a real call out. I’ll blog again once I’ve been out!

Visit the SARDA (South Wales) website for more information.

On 15 June 1910, the Terra Nova set sail from Cardiff. This ship was to take Captain Scott and his team on a voyage around the world to Antarctica for an inhospitable journey to the South Pole. They succeeded in their goal, but found that they had been beaten by the Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen. Sadly, Scott and his team died on the return journey.

As part of the celebrations for the 100^th Anniversary of Scott’s departure I am part of a series of lunchtime talks at the Norwegian Church in Cardiff Bay. Bring your sandwiches or enjoy a selection of Norwegian specialities from the café and have yourself a lunchtime adventure.

WEDNESDAY LUNCHTIMES 1.10pm, £2 entry

26 May 2010 – Turning Hot Ideas into Cold, Hard Reality – Tori James

2 June 2010 – Antarctic Oasis – Clive Woodman

9 June 2010 - SS Terra Nova – Mike Tarver

16 June 2010 - Scott and the “Antartist” – Rowan Huntley

See www.lunchtimeadventures.com for more details.

Cant y Cant is a new book designed for Welsh learners full of fascinating information and colour pictures about a wide range of subjects including fashion, food, disasters, cartoons, sport, women and famous Welsh people.

There are 100 topics, all just a 100 words long. You can find a piece about me in the ‘Welsh Firsts’ section along with Gwynfor Evans the first MP for Plaid Cymru in Westminster, and Pryce Pryce-Jones a successful entrepreneur who was the first person to start selling goods through the post.

To assist Welsh learners there is a vocabulary at the bottom of every page and a range of styles from letters, dialogues and descriptions to help learners to get used to seeing Welsh on the written page. I’ve certainly improved my welsh vocabularly after just one page.

Cant y Cant by Alun Charles is priced at £7.99 and published by Gomer Press www.gomer.co.uk 01559 363092. It will be officially launched at the National Eisteddfod in Ebbw Vale during the summer of 2010 with a presentation by the author at the Welsh learners tent, Maes-D.

Last week I returned from New Zealand, mission complete. Maria Leijerstam and I cycled a total of 2400km from Cape Reinga at the north of New Zealand’s North island to Bluff at the tip of the South Island. We documented our journey in a blog (see www.girlsbikenewzealand.com) and are currently working on a television documentary.

There are more photographs of our journey in the Gallery section of this website.

It’s a common question; so what’s next? After a lull in exciting trips I’ve finally got another adventure in sight, New Zealand. Thanks to my sister’s recent move to Wellington I have been inspired to follow her halfway across the world and see for myself all of the adventurous things New Zealand has to offer. It’s arguably not on the scale of Everest but I’m not pretending it’s going to be easy, I’m told that saddle sores are not pleasant!

The aim? To cycle the length of New Zealand by ‘women power‘ alone and to kayak the Cook Strait. I’ll be cycling with Maria Leijerstam, one of the UK’s top female adventure racers and one of only a handful of women to have completed the Marathon des Sables.

Follow our progress at www.girlsbikenewzealand.com