The Isle of Bute Blog

Things have been quiet regarding BT, and I had wondered if all was well, however a new message has been posted, so as usual, I’m passing on the content for anyone that may be concerned, but not a geocacher with access to the original, from April 5, 2008:

For those of you who would like to know how Ewan is doing:

His family have been able to sell their house and find a bungalow nearby, which when altered will accommodate his wheelchair.

It’s depressing, and means there’s not likely to be many more posts added to this blog.

Two of the notional criteria for making it into this blog are that an item is generally interesting and positive (I count that as a single criteria), and that ferries operations (or rather gripes thereof) are not the sole contributors under the  general Category of Transport.

Back in 2004, it occurred to me that reading The Buteman (and discounting the ads and suchlike) was rather like looking at a printed version of Crimewatch, and that the paper could largely have been handed over to the island’s police for preparation. That’s no criticism of The Buteman, as a spin around any of the other papers covering the Clyde coast from Gourock to Girvan, including the islands, is little better, and they appear to have little more to report than vandalism, gang violence, cons, and other activities between people, which are best described as less than savoury.

Transport’s little better, with the ongoing theme being that no-one but the passengers cares about the passengers. And this year has the additional benefit of ferries moving into the previous classification, as the level of threats and violence to passengers and crew has grown to the extent that the Marine Police have been notified.

Rather than zap the blog altogether, it will be left in place lest anything jolly turn up, and there’s always the past entries to look at, from what might be referred to as ‘Happier Times’

Staggering out of a big name supermarket on the less well heeled side of Glasgow today, I had a rummage around a big carousel they have positioned at the exit, and which is loaded with leaflets for dozens of attractions and locations around Scotland. It’s quite handy if I happen to be passing, as it saves trundling into tourist centres and museum to gather these up.

I’d assumed it would just have been loaded with the newest goodies, in readiness for the Easter rush, but was disappointed when I finally got home and unpacked the goodies to see what I had collected. I knew it had the Bute - Scotland’s Unexplored Isle booklet from Visit Scotland in it, but I hadn’t expected to open it and be faced with Bute: official visitor guide 2007 inside.

I don’t know how often they update or produce these guides, but after having a flick through to remind myself of the content, reckon there probably will/should be a new one for each season, as there’s no doubt that the content is, at least ina part, out of date.

Not really something that anyone is to blame for (everything doesn’t have to be reduced to that sort of level), but it is an example of how something simple can torpedo a good idea if a watchful eye is not kept on it.

Update!

Maybe I should take that last forgiving remark back.

I just had a look at the current Visit Bute web site, which is billed as The Official Site of Isle of Bute Marketing and Tourism and when I clicked on the Brochure Request link, was offered the option to Order the new 2005 brochure now and receive free updates.

That’s not really good enough from the official site, and definitely not the sort of thing the Scottish Government’s Tourism Minister would want to see, given his order for Scotland to increase its tourism by 50% over the next few years.

Apart from being interesting, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on ferries around the country, as this can help in maintaining a balanced view when considering the pros and cons of local events - especially if they might affect you.

Looking a little further along the coast and to the north, a number of destinations in the Western Isles will benefit from a Scottish Governement subsidy over the coming three years, and in the pilot scheme will receive some £22.5 million in Road Equivalent Tariff (RET), intended to make the ferry trip cost equivalent to that of a similar journey of the same length by road. Some fares have been halved as a result.

On a Pro/Con basis, the scheme has led to calls from some that the subsidy benefits the Western Isles (which has Scottish Nationalist MSPs), but not Orkney and Shetland (which has Lib Dem MSPs), however it has been noted that the RET fare from Aberdeen to Shetland is less than that of the equivalent road trip. Further problems are then encountered as the destinations that don’t share in the subsidy claim that they are losing visitors, as visitors choose to travel on the routes with the lower fares.

It was interesting to see that three days of hovercraft trials have taken place on the Clyde this week.

BBC Scotland News video report

With a vague memory of having seen the original service, and also noting the tests being carried out on a hoverbarge (not destined for use on the Clyde) on the local waters, it’s indicative that there is still some room for thinking ‘outside the box’, and is coincident with similar trials that have already taken place over on the Firth of Forth.

As with the original Clyde hovercraft service of the 1960s, the Forth service looks as if it is already descending into a morass of name-calling an blame allocation as the various parties involved argue about who is going to foot the various costs of setting things up, and what grants, subsidies, initiatives and the like are going to be on offer. This service looks as if it years away from becoming reality, two years has been mentioned.

Coincidentally, the news report mentions a potential timescale of two years for getting a Clyde service underway too, so we can probably take that with a large pinch of salt and not hold our breath waiting, since it’s nowhere near as far advanced as the Forth project.

The first service only managed to limp along for a year before what amounts to little more than politics strangled it, and I wonder of this one has any more chance of success.

The project is a combined effort involving Clydefast and Glasgow City Council.

I know folk in Glasgow have little time for the council in regard to projects and planning, so that’s not a good start, and if you look into the past, you’ll find that Clydefast kept everyone waiting for new, fast ferries to arrive on the Clyde, even suggesting that the vessels were so close to delivery that they were organising the temporary use of other vessels, just to get things started. The replacements never arrived. The fast ferries never arrived.

I’ve gone from interested to glum in 340 words.

I was interested to see that there was a suggestion that the big ferry might be better served by moving to an hourly timetable.

Even more interesting was an unexpected outburst of Common Sense, with the idea being received by some reasoned logic that there may be some merit to its appearance, rather than the usual anti-CalMac rhetoric that any suggestion from the company seems to receive, as if it was the spawn of the devil - progress indeed.

I freely admit to having missed more than one ferry thanks to the 45 minute schedule, and been left fuming on the pier while waiting for the next, and not just for another 45 minutes either - my travel plans used to conveniently land in the hole that sat in the timetable when the ‘next’ sailing was hopped over while the boat was serviced, meaning lots of time to enjoy the view, and consider that I really should be carrying a copy of the timetable.

They say the hourly schedule would integrate better with trains and buses, no bad thing thing since they don’t seem to be willing to lift a finger and integrate (or be offered the same hostility as CalMac), and that there would be a benefit in that although the frequency would change, the total sailing would not necessarily be reduced, as there would be earlier and later sailing in the day. And that’s interesting, since this is something that is often cried out for, but when trialled in the past result in more or less empty boats when late sailing were added.

Worth watching to see how the idea develops. But don’t watch too closely as change will be slow - changes to the timetable need six month’s notification to the Scottish Governement.

Although the extent of trials of a Road Equivalent Tarrif system on the ferries serving the Western Isles were published months ago, and specifically excluded a wider roll out from day one, it was amusing (and predictable) to see that as soon as the trial was due to begin, the Rumour Machine was spurred into action, and tales of a wider coverage of the system circulated.

The system mimics that which has been in use in Norway for some time, and basically prices the ferry route as if it was being travelled by road.

By way of example, the return ferry fare for a car from the mainland to Stornoway is some £140. Under RET, the fares would be set at £5, plus a further 60p a mile, dropping the cost of the 42 mile Stornoway - Ullapool trip by around one third. The 76 mile crossing from Oban to Castlebay on Barra, could see its cost halved.

As usual, someone’s nose has been put out of joint, and those on Orkney and Shetland are said to be angry that they have not been included, while others are moaning about the three selected routes taking visitors away from those routes which do not have the new, lower tariffs.

Makes perfect sense of course, and after much whining and beating of chests because there is no RET, once the moaning has seen its trial arrive, switch the whining and beating of chests to the way the trial is run, and forget about the forthcoming results of the trial, not even seen yet.

Don’t you love people, politics, and personal agendas?

One of the things that has saddened me over the years, particularly the more recent ones, has been the invention or creation of the ‘Clone Location’.

What are Clone Locations? They’re simply the sanitised locations that local worthies and activists campaign for in the name of having a clean and tidy environment, and a desire not to be seen as the ‘poor relation’ in comparison to their neighbours. I’d imagine there’s also a silver-tongued salesman working his magic somewhere in the background too, keen to see the place spruced up so it will attract developers. The trouble is, when a place is cleaned up and the developers move in, they all seem to carry the same box of parts, and when they’re finished their handiwork looks the same whether it’s on Bute, the north east coast, the Clyde coast, or a small town or village anywhere aroud the land. If you landed by parachute, and had been wearing a blindfold, when you took it off, you wouldn’t really have much of a clue where you were as you looked around at the bog standard swathes of block paving, standard nasty white double glazing units, and neutral shades of cream paint plastered over everything.

To avoid any misunderstanding, or misquoting, I’m certainly not referring to cleaning up anything dangerous or hazardous, but the threshold as to what falls into that category seems to be getting lower and lower all the time, as the lawyers become more and more desperate to find clients someone to sue in our blossoming Compensation Culture. Only a decade or so ago, I had a relative hospitalised for three nights after taking a tumble thanks to the state of the nearby pavement - no one was interested. Today, we could probably have made a small fortune, and at no risk, thanks to a ‘No Win, No Fee’ firm of ambulance chasing lawyers.

Nowadays, it seems that if anything is different or interesting, it has to be erased because it’s and eyesore.

The Co-worker was a feature at Ettrick Bay, I doubt the same was really true of the Cat at Port Bannatyne, or of some of the less photogenic bits and pieces abandoned around the land, and here I’m thinking of old buildings and the liken. If they’re truly dangerous, they have to go of course, but it would be as well to keep one on on what is left, and keep in mind that the attraction of any ‘interesting’ place is not down to any one factor, but a combination. If we continually chase the clean and neat and tidy icon, then there’s always the risk of becoming a Clone Location, looking like every other little clean and neat and tidy location around the land, at which point the visitors will vote with their feet, and walk to the one at the end of their street, instead of making the effort to go somewhere that’s a little bit different, and a little bit more interesting.

I for one like to be parachuted into places that tell me where I am the minute I set eyes on them, rather than have me think “Now, which one is this?”

I must admit that when I decided to start The Isle of Bute Blog things were quite different around me.

For one, I had a much more positive outlook, and was surrounded, or in touch, with people who were similarly positive. While that’s still true of the dependable few (and I hope those that may look in here recognise themselves, even though one of the negative aspects is a desire to retain some anonymity), there is a downside in that it’s given be a reference point in the past, and that has simply served to show how everything around me seems to decline, with little evidence of improvement. Even trying the “Ah well, it’s a New Year, let’s try a fresh start” failed miserably when I missed the New Year, and the following days, finding myself with not interest in anything else other that the bottle of pain-killers needed after some infection exploded within my gum, meaning no sleep, and nothing but more pain when i tried to eat. Still, once the flare-up decides to flare-down, there’s always the positive aspect that things might subsequently only get better.

One of my self-imposed rules was to waffle primarily only about Good News, or current events and items that might perhaps let a bit of dark humour in the form of satire or sardonic wit (that’s sarcasm with bit of humour) be exercised, and to avoid the issue of ferries and transport, in negative terms at least.

None of those really worked, or perhaps they worked too well… the Good News tended to be rather local and/or specialised, and not really of general interest; while there were quite a few opportunities for the occasional exercise of the satirical literary muscle, I’m afraid one instance of it being taken in the wrong spirit and moved into the personal domain was enough to waste it, as the idea was only to attract interest (for both sides, as it were) not generate any animosity or ill will. Ferries and transport are always easy meat when looked at in detail in an island environment, but it’s difficult to write any sort of neutral commentary when faces with the endless griping, moaning, wailing, and beating of chests from BFUG (Bute Ferry User Group), who seem to have but one purpose, and will never pay CalMac a compliment for anything, unless through extremely clenched teeth. (See what I mean about trying to write about ferries?)

I should just dump this idea as a bad, sad joke, but I still seem to be bloody-minded enough not to give up without a fight, so it will live on for a while too, if only to provide me with somewhere to drop interesting items for my own benefit, so I don’t forget them, or can look back and see roughly when they happened.

Since last year seemed to be marked by people with forums and photo sites being subjected to heavy-handed visits from the Boys in Blue - whatever happened to Free Speech and Public Comment (and here I am being quite distinct and excluding libel, which anyone that partakes of deserves all they get for abusing the privilege of Free Speech) - which all thankfully appeared to amount to nothing more than bluster, there won’t be anything sensational to be found here, unless… it’s proven and justified. I would love to drop some 3 letter acronyms in here as a hint, but even that would give too much away, so no fun there either. Oh well.

We’ll see what can be trawled up when I feel a bit better.

I seem to have a knack of dropping out of circulation just before something interesting happens, and the rule was in play once again, as I discovered, with an overflowing mailbox (full of notifications about geocache visits) and and brief update on Billy Twigger.

As always, I leave the detail of the words to the source (posted on September 16, 2007)…

More news from Ewan’s Dad: The move to a care home hasn’t happened yet; it’s a matter of a place becoming available and the arranging of training for their staff regarding Ewan’s special needs. The move should take place this month, we hope.
I’ve spoken to Ewan and Lorna about visits from fellow cachers and they’d both be very pleased to see people.
Probably the best approach is for you or your friends to liaise directly with Lorna or with Fraser (Ewan’s son). The best times are probably late afternoons i.e. from about 3.15/3.30pm - he’s often in the computer room until then. By the way, he has now bought his own lap-top - a declaration of intent if ever there was one!”

On September 22, a special geocaching event was held on the island, where the Scottish Geocaching Community adopted Billy’s caches,and took on their maintenance. A few more were also added to mark the day, with many being visited by those who visited on the day, and activity continuing thereafter.

Set to music, there is also a compilation of pictures taken of the day.

I remember visiting the first few caches not long after they appeared, and running out of ‘objects’ as I’d only meant to drop in on one or two in passing, while on a regular trip, and ended up spending the day trying to find them all (and failing). Now, 29 have been placed, most are still active, and provide an excellent opportunity to see places you might otherwise not visit.

There’s a summary and map (usually up to date) of Bute’s geocaches available on the Geocaching page in ButeWiki.