Winter Newsletter: Welcome, 2025!
This is the Winter ‘25 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!
The start of this new year has gifted us some gorgeous weather, and with the days getting longer, we hope you’re looking forward to all the adventures to be had in 2025.
We’re busy looking to the year ahead too, continuing to build on all the amazing things we’ve achieved in 2024. Take a look at what we’ve been getting up to since our last update!
Active Travel
Our active travel coordinator Phil has been spending time in and amongst various schools, delivering sessions to both pupils and parents as part of our Active Routes to Schools project.
The kids have learned a lot about what active travel is and how to stay safe when doing so, and in return, we learned about their travelling habits to help inform us of the individual struggles of each school.
We're working at mapping the enablers and barriers to participation for travelling actively to our local schools. Our aim is to build a bigger picture of what the individual needs of each school is, and help activate and inspire parents and children to push for better opportunities for active travel in their area.
We're looking to set up some more engagement with even more schools this term:
In-class interactive lessons
After-school parents information sessions
Dr Bike sessions
Involvement in nationwide initiatives, like the Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel (24th March - 4th April)
Poster competition/campaigns
And more! Let us know if your school would like a visit or more support with anything active travel.
ReWild Walks
In October, alongside Atlantis, we took over from Lorn and Oban Healthy Options on running monthly ReWild walks. Free and open to all, the aim of these walks is to get outdoors, meet some new folk, and maybe learn a thing or two about the nature in the area.
If you’re interested in coming along, we have a WhatsApp group you can join to stay up-to-date on upcoming walks.
Winter Festival Shenanigans
We had a taste of the wintery weather to come in November during the Winter Festival!
A group of very brave bikers endured the cold and darkness on a night ride around the Ganavan trails. Trails take on a whole other feel when illuminated only by bike- and moon light! 3 months after the Big Bike Weekend, it was great to see that the trails were still being well ridden, and we even got to introduce 3 bikers to the trails for the first time.
Staying warm and dry, our Dave and Laura took over Atlantis’ SoftPlay to host an incredible touch pool session, with countless critters to meet up close. We’re so grateful for the wealth of knowledge our volunteers have to give young people the opportunity to learn about our amazing local marine life in such a unique way. The kids met decorator crabs, shannys and snakelocks anemones, just to name a few of the characters in the pool!
Ben Lora is BACK!
For the final dig day of the year, NATA headed to Ben Lora to reopen the Harvester 1 trail, which was a huge success! The hard work of 16 people out on the hill - that’s 32 volunteer hours - means that this trail is running great once again. If you haven’t ridden it already, go check it out!
One Million Miles!
In 2024, our community travelled 25,068 miles, which is further than the circumference of the earth!
We’re just a few thousand miles away from reaching 200,000! So if you’ve not gotten round to uploading your miles this past year, do the maths and then head to our website and do a ‘bulk upload’ to make it count!
Here are just a few of our stand-out totals from contributors in 2024:
Kilninver Primary School - 112 miles
With less than 20 students, this is a great total from the activities the kids did in the final term of the year!
Liz Parkes - 614 miles
Liz has been logging her miles since we first started up the totaliser! And with regular walks to the bus and attending ParkRun, this is an impressive total.
Matthew - 1860 miles
Our most consistent one-million-miler! Logging almost every day and becoming one of our furthest-travelling contributors this year.
Dunbeg Primary School - 7832 miles
The pupils of Dunbeg Primary School have put in a huge effort this year with their Daily Mile, just check out that total!
2024 was a big year, with two new members of staff, plenty of new volunteers joining the ranks and tonnes of activities hosted throughout. We’ve learned so much and have some exciting things in the pipeline for 2025. With so many amazing ideas and people around to help us make that happen, we’re really looking forward to seeing how this next year plays out.
See you outside!
Hannah, Ben, Isla, Iwan, Dave, Laura, Jane and Neil
The Adventure Oban Team
