Sad news about Billy Twigger

One of the hazards associated with putting a web site to sleep, rather than closing it down, is that you can lose touch with current developments, and it was with some sadness my periodic review revealed that Ewan Rice (Billy Twigger to geocachers that knew him) had passed away around noon on Sunday, May 31, 2009.

Tragically, Ewan had a serious fall from from a cliff while placing a new cache on Bute, at the end of August 2006. Fortunately, since he had been immobilised as a consequence of the fall, he was missed by his family when he failed to return home, and was found after a short search. The coastguard assisted, and Ewan was rescued and taken to hospital by air ambulance, where it was found he had broken his neck and also suffered brain damage. He was very poorly, and the initial prognosis was not good.

Over the following weeks and months, although confined to a wheelchair, Ewan appeared to be making progress despite one or two serious setbacks. By 2007, he had been able to visit places such as Kelvingrove, and his family had sold their homes in order to move into a bungalow, and have it modified for wheelchair use. 2008 saw less apparent progress, due to infections, and some related operations, but by the end of the year, Ewan had been able to move out of hospital in into the bungalow.

Sadly, this move was barely to last for a few weeks, and he had to return to hospital, after which his condition deteriorated significantly, and after a period of palliative care, Ewan passed away.

I can sympathise with Ewan’s family. Although the circumstances were quite different, I went through a similar process not too many years prior to this, and there is some irony in the fact that one of the diversions that had helped take my mind off things for a little while was a visit to Bute, and hunting down a few of Billy Twigger’s caches. Although I never managed to meet Ewan, the early cache hunting (Ewan had been one of the first to place caches in Scotland, and the first on Bute) meant we had actually exchanged a few emails regarding the caches, and some other subjects.

I thought I’d dig out the posts I’d made as the story progressed, as they also refer to his caches, which have now been adopted by other geocachers (I’d be giving hand too, but don’t live on the island), and will hopefully survive and be maintained in his memory.

Sad news, September 23, 2006

News of improvement – Twiggs, November 3, 2006

Billy Twigger’s recovery, November 23, 2006

Billy Twigger’s recovery, January 24, 2007

Quiet? March 28, 2007

A Thank You, April 11, 2007

Progress for Billy Twigger, June 26, 2007

BT progress continues, August 21, 2007

Geocaches secured, and a good day out, October 7, 2007

Billy Twigger update, April 19, 2008

Geocaching community forums

The following related forum threads were active at various times, and give more detail and remembrances:

Very sad news about Billy Twigger (GeoX forum) August 2006 to December 2006.

Billy Twigger’s recovery (Groundspeak forum) November 2006 to May 2009.

Sad news (Geox forum) Started: May 04, 2009 – contains photographs and service details.

An early find of The Plan geocache, as originally placed by Billy Twigger

I have to admit that it’s some time since I last hunted a cache, and The Plan was first found quite some time ago, but I won’t forget that day at the far end of the island, and the wind. Although the above pic doesn’t show any evidence, that’s only because it was taken behind the shelter afforded by the big rocks down there. In reality, there was gale blowing off the sea over the top of the rocks that would have taken your head off, and the only thing keeping the plastic bag from the cache from disappearing into the distance was the GPSr sitting on top of it.

I can only echo the thoughts of many others who have followed the Bute series of caches, and thank Ewan for encouraging us to make the effort to get to places we probably wouldn’t otherwise have bothered with, and missed.

Be careful out there!

The conclusion to this story is one that should remind us all to take care if our interests and hobbies take us off the beaten track. I’ve always been something of an urban explorer, and although I tend to scoff at people who insist on quoting Health & Safety regulations and advice unnecessarily, this is still not a subject to be taken lightly.

Because I always go alone, I am probably more careful than most. If I did have an accident, no-one would know or come looking for me, so I simply can’t afford to be careless, even if it might look as if I am to an observer. Although I do wonder, when I think of some of the places I’ve found myself hanging from in order to catch an interesting photograph.

This was highlighted again just this week, with a BBC News story of a fossil hunter who was actually seen falling to his death on the Isle of Skye:

A man whose body was found at the foot of a cliff on the Isle of Skye after a passenger on a pleasure boat saw somebody falling has been named.

Police said Axel Weisskopf, 59, was from Darmstadt in Germany. It was believed he was hunting for fossils.

He was seen falling as the boat was approaching Portree last Thursday.

Mr Weisskopf’s body was later found at Tom’s Cave at the foot of Ben Tianavaig. Police said a report would be submitted to the procurator fiscal.

Skye is highly regarded among palaeontologists and amateur fossil hunters for its prehistoric animal remains.

Dinosaur footprints and the earliest turtles known to live in water have been discovered on the island.

Billy Twigger update

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:

I’ve had a nice email from Ewan’s Dad. There continue to be ups and downs for Ewan. He has suffered from episodes of high temperature caused by various infections over the last few months, which have been a setback for him. He is due to have an operation to remove kidney stones which may be at the root of these infections. It has been postponed on at least one occasion due to his temperature, but will hopefully happen soon. All this has meant longer periods in bed, less access to physiotherapy and less computer practice.

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

It’s depressing

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’

Dusty Shelves

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.

Road Equivalent Tariff brings new problems

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.

Hovercraft trials on the Clyde

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.

Ferry sensible

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.

Western Isles trials spark rumour machine

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?

Is it really good?

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?”

A New Year

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.