Spring Newsletter: Stepping into Spring!
This is the Spring ‘24 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!
2024 marks a new era for Adventure Oban. With our first long-term member of staff, we have been launched into what is set to be an exciting year for us and our community! We’re an active, living organisation - just as our community is an active, living and changing thing.
Take a look at just a handful of the things we’ve been up to so far in 2024:
March’s Weekend of Community Action
Some of the NATA dig crew up at Glencruitten Woods
Over the Oban Spring Clean weekend, we brought together two groups of hardy volunteers to help tidy-up our town! NATA (North Argyll Trail Association - find out more info here: adventureoban.org/nata) got to work on a section of mountain bike trail which was falling into disrepair out at Glencruitten Woods. Their hard work means that the Mossy Bog Trail will remain open and rideable. Ride on up to the woods and go check it out!
The Black Lynn Clean-Up Crew!
Getting equally as mucky, another amazing team donned their wetsuits and got stuck in to clearing and unblocking the Black Lynn. They filled up at least 10 bags (and a kayak!) of rubbish and worked away at willow which was forming natural dams. These dams slow water flow, removing them helps address a contributing factor which makes this one of the most flood prone areas of our town.
Maintaining our town in these ways is an integral part of keeping our community outdoors and active. If you’d like to get involved, email hannah@adventureoban.org.
Active Travel Blog
Adventure Oban Trustee Isla McCulloch during our Active Travel Consultation
Last week, we published a blog written in response to the recent ‘active travel’ consultation for our town. Click the button below to read more:
Back in late 2022, Adventure Oban helped deliver a full active travel plan for Oban - this was done entirely voluntarily. Fast forward to now and a new consultation commissioned by the Council is being rolled out. We feel it's important to say: the elements being pushed in this most recent consultation were not a feature of the original consultation, nor were they surfaced as areas of concern by the community.
After sharing the blog widely online and receiving a high level of engagement on the Information Oban Facebook group, we encourage you to read both the blog piece and the plan we put together with the Argyll and Bute Coast and Countryside Trust (ACT), supported by Argyll and Bute Council.
If we want to see positive changes that address key local issues like these, it’s important that we come together as a community and talk. Sharing your view contributes to the conversation which in turn increases the volume of our collective public voice. Join in, have your say.
Miles is on tour!
Dunbeg Primary School - can you spot Miltean and Miles?!
Remember Where’s Wally? - how about Where’s Miles? Dunbeg Primary have been enthusiastic participants of our One Million Miles initiative from the very get-go. The school has clocked up over 14k miles this academic year alone! We visited the school with Adventure Oban mascots Miltean and Miles (Miltean’s Primary School sibling) just before they headed off on Easter break. Miles will stay on at Dunbeg for half a term of One Million Miles antics before moving to another school and continuing his tour of the area. We’ll feature each school’s pictures, videos and stories as they use Miles to help encourage the Daily Mile and continue engagement with One Million Miles.
Would you like your school to receive Miles next? Get in touch below!
An Adventurous Easter Weekend
All smiles during the North Argyll Cycle Club Eggventure Oban Session!
Fun for all ages and stages at Eggventure Oban!
What an EGGS-tra special Easter weekend we just had! Easter Sunday saw the return of our Oban-wide egg hunt, Eggventure Oban! A huge thank you to all those who sent in photos, it's great to see where the hunt took you.
Partnering with North Argyll Cycle Club (NACC), we hosted an egg-hunt-by-bike in Glencruitten Woods, providing the perfect opportunity to burn off some of that chocolate-fuelled energy. Everyone loved stuffing their pockets with eggs and it was great motivation to get up some of those hills!
Meanwhile, out on the hill we were joined by a brilliant group of families for our Hill Skills courses. The sun shone and we enjoyed stunning views (through the rain and hail...) up on Ardsheal Hill. Ross Christie led us through the weekend’s activities which were thoroughly enjoyed by all, thank you Ross. We really hope the families that came to join us feel better equipped to head out into the hills together themselves. We would love to host more of these courses in the future - drop us a message if you'd be interested or have a suggestion on another topic you'd like to learn more about!
Sun…
…and rain during our Family Hill Skills session!
What an incredible weekend! If you haven't done so already, make sure to head to our website to log your miles from your activities: adventureoban.org/onemillionmiles. Our Hill Skills participants collectively hiked 28 miles, and our riders from Sunday rode 42 miles! It's amazing how quickly the miles add up when we come together.
Re_Store Shop Display
If you find yourself walking along Oban’s George Street in the next couple weeks, keep an eye out on the new Re_Store shop window! The wonderful Renuka Ramanujam has designed a gorgeous display to promote Adventure Oban and Atlantis Leisure. The aim of the window is to encourage people to Step into Spring and get active, now that the weather seems to be improving!
Phew! That’s just about all we have time to bring you up to speed on this quarter. Stay subscribed for another update in a few months, and until then, make sure you’re following us on Facebook and Instagram using the links below,
See you outside!
Hannah, Ben, Isla, Iwan, Dave, Laura, Jane and Neil
The Adventure Oban Team
