July Newsletter: Schools out!
This is the July edition of a newsletter that everyone on the Adventure Oban mailing list receives at the start of every month. Fill in the very simple form at this link to sign up to get Adventure Oban news, updates and future plans straight to your inbox!
Holidays are here!
The ‘thwack’ of Wimbledon TV coverage can be heard through open windows, followed by Tour de France highlights enjoyed over iced lollies as freshly released school pupils bound into 7 weeks of freedom: summer has arrived and the weather is here to match it! June was an action-packed run up to the holidays here at Adventure Oban, read on to find out what’s been happening:
Adventurers of Oban
This month we kicked off a new series called Adventurers of Oban. A big reason for Adventure Oban’s existence is to showcase the amazing activities and community that Oban is home to. We thought what better way to do that than to hear from the community itself. So each week, #AdventurersOfOban hears from a different guest about why they love Oban and in what way it’s the perfect location for them to enjoy the outdoors. Young, old, local, visitor, professional athlete or everyday enthusiast: everyone’s story is valid and interesting.
You can read up on the stories featured so far via our social media channels and on the Adventurers of Oban page on this website.
And if you’d like to feature as an Adventurer of Oban, feel free to get in touch!
One Million Miles at Oban High
Before they broke up for the holidays, we managed to catch up with Niamh, Kate and Hannah - three of the newly elected Senior Pupil Leadership Team (SPLT) at Oban High School. Made up of school and clan captains, the SPLT help to lead the school, acting as a link between teachers, pupils and the wider community. Along with their colleagues, the girls take over from the previous year’s leadership team in the school’s adoption of One Million Miles. They lead their respective clans in pursuit of the One Million Miles Cup, awarded to the clan with the highest number of miles on the day of the Argyllshire Gathering (26th August this year) - with all miles counting towards the wider project.
Working alongside schools is an important part of what Adventure Oban seeks to do, so it’s brilliant to have such enthusiastic ambassadors and supporters in the SPLT - here’s to a great year ahead!
A Library of Libraries | Adventure Library
Earlier in June, we were delighted to be invited to an online meeting of a newly formed network of Scottish sharing libraries. We met with around 20 other sharing libraries from across the country to discuss ways we could help and support one another. Similar networks such as SENScotland have acted as umbrella organisations to help social enterprises and third sector organisations for many years, being of particular support throughout the Covid pandemic. It’s therefore really exciting to be involved in setting up a similar network that will provide assistance for sharing libraries up and down the country in the future.
Lifetime Membership - for just £5
Did you know you can become a lifetime member of Adventure Oban? We’re a membership-based, community company and anyone can join as a member. We’ve now got all our systems set up to allow us to process memberships and for just £5 you can be a member for life.
With an active and engaged membership, Adventure Oban can hear more from the community and therefore do more for the community. If you’d like to become a member - head over to the Get Involved page on our website, fill in the simple form and we’ll do the rest.
Coming Up:
One Million Miles of Whisky!
James Morrison and Mattia Romero are two friends of Adventure Oban and are currently 1 week into a month long trip that sees them walk, kayak and run from Tomintoul in the Cairngorms to Lagavullin on Islay. Best of all? - they’re contributing all of their 600ish miles to One Million Miles! - (that includes 12 Munros and around 100 miles of kayaking - each!) The boys are visiting a number of distilleries along the way as they seek to tell the story of the spirit of Scotland, with the results being shown in a film of their journey called Spirit of the Land.
James and Mattia plan to arrive in Oban around the 11th of July, ahead of the onward kayak leg to Islay, You can follow their progress at the following link:
Spirit of the Land on Instagram
Miltean goes clubbing!
Miltean has had a busy year, bustling between schools all across Argyll, meeting young people and helping explain the idea behind One Million Miles and Adventure Oban. Now that the schools have broken up for the holidays, Miltean is going to get out and about meeting clubs and organisations as we begin to build the Activities page on our website. The Activities page will be a one-stop shop where you’ll be able to find information and contact details of a range of clubs and organisations offering outdoor pursuits and activities in the local area.
Million Mile Beach Clean | Save the Date!
The next One Million Mile Beach Clean is taking on Saturday the 14th of August. We’ll be covering new areas to last time so there’ll be plenty to do! If you’d like to help lead a beach clean in your area and need a hand getting equipment organised (we can provide bags, litter pickers etc) then drop us a line at hello@adventureoban.org
One Million Miles | Top Tips
Here’s a few handy hints to help you when heading out to log activity for One Million Miles:
1. Log your Strava miles. We’ve realised not everyone knew that the Strava group doesn’t automatically update your miles! You need to log them separately at adventureoban.org/onemillionmiles.
2. Add One Million Miles to your phone’s home screen. Click the 3 dots on your phone browser of choice and choose ‘add to home screen’ to create a shortcut that makes it even easier to log your miles!
3. Take Miltean on an adventure. If you’d like to take Miltean on an adventure send an email to hello@adventureoban.org or DM us on Facebook or Instagram.
As ever, we’ve got lots going on each week, so keep in touch via this website and all the Adventure Oban social media channels.
Here’s to Adventure!