Lochaber Countryfile


Lochaber

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Big country with magnificent scenery, an adventurer's paradise.

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to celebrate a very special Diamond Jubilee.

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Yes, the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme is 60 years old this year.

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midway through their challenging expedition.

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This lot are canoeing, climbing and cycling for six days straight.

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It was just the sense of the unknown.

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Helen is with his Royal Highness, the Earl of Wessex,

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in the Peak District, finding out about the Scheme's enduring appeal.

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By getting people to do a type of physical activity,

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a type of volunteering, a type of expedition, hopefully

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they'll find a passion, the thing that drives them.

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As the grouse shooting season gets underway,

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Charlotte referees both sides of the argument.

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when the two sides are as far apart as you two are, by way of example?

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And Adam discovers that pigs have their own particular personalities.

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Glencoe, one of our most stunning landscapes.

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The UK's highest mountain, towering Ben Nevis.

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And glittering lochs, the gateway to the Great Glen.

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We are in Lochaber in the Highlands of Scotland,

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an area nicknamed the outdoor capital of Great Britain.

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To prove it, I'm heading to the Great Glen

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I'm on the lookout for some very special explorers.

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They are hiking, canoeing and cycling,

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all the way from Fort William to Edinburgh via Inverness,

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to mark the 60th anniversary of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme

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Since it started, 2.5 million young men and women have walked, swum

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canoed and even danced their way to bronze, silver or gold awards.

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Including in 2000, an 18-year-old me,

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invited to Buckingham Palace with my dear old nan

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So, I'm well-qualified, if a little rusty,

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to join this team of six Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award holders,

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as they aim even higher on a special Diamond Challenge.

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So, Jen, everyone has heard of bronze, silver and gold

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Duke of Edinburgh awards, what is the Diamond Challenge all about

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The Diamond Challenge is more of everybody getting involved,

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whether they think it wants to be physical or a skill because D of E

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in itself has several different parts within it, to being an award,

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whereas this is more of a challenge for yourself and for a team.

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OK, so, talk me through, there's what six of you? Yep.

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What are you doing for your particular challenge?

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Then we're paddling the Great Glen from Fort William to Inverness

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Then we're going to cycle from Inverness to Edinburgh in two days.

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Wow! Today is the first day of canoeing.

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hopefully without me crashing into you too much!

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I'll only be here for the first day.

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So you've got all your stuff with you?

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You're camping, self-sufficient for five, six nights?

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It was the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip,

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who launched the scheme back in 1956.

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It was designed to bridge the gap between leaving school

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He enlisted a hero of the day, Lord Hunt,

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leader of the famous 1953 expedition that conquered Everest.

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It's perfectly true that the aim is to give young people the

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chance and encouragement to live fully to discover their own

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particular talents and make the very best use of their leisure,

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not just filling in time any old how,

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but adventurously and purposefully and interestingly

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Prince Philip hoped the scheme would give young people new skills

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These are the boys of Dunstable Grammar School out on fire practice,

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ably assisted by the local Fire Brigade.

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Health and Safety may have changed a bit since those days

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but every year, 250,000 14 to 24-year-olds start their award

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Prince Philip still attends many of the award ceremonies.

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So, this Diamond Challenge has a lot to live up to.

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Now, on Friday, this year's grouse shooting season opened

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and shoots will be taking place on moorland across the UK.

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But it's one of our most controversial countryside sports.

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You may find some of the images in this film upsetting.

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Remote, breathtaking and at this time of year, glorious.

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August 12, otherwise known as the Glorious Twelfth,

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is the start of the red grouse season.

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Every year, thousands of people take part in driven grouse shoots,

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A day's shooting can be anything from ?800 to more than ?2,000.

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Its supporters claim it contributes ?100 million a year

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to the rural economy and underpins 4,000 jobs.

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In walked-up shooting, the birds are flushed out by dogs.

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But in driven grouse shooting, beaters force the birds to fly

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over a standing line of guns and the numbers shot are much higher.

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It is estimated that in the 201 season, 700,000 were killed.

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Which is one reason why this is one of the more controversial

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So, we've brought together people from opposite sides of the argument.

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For driven grouse shooting, Andrew Gilruth,

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From the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust.

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who campaigns to ban driven grouse shooting.

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So, given these huge numbers, should we be doing this?

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The important point from a conservation perspective

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is actually what is on the ground afterwards.

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We know continuously from studies that some of our most

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threatened species exist in very high densities on grouse moors

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Its rich mosaic of habitat in this semi-natural habitat in the

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landscape that is behind us now is entirely down to what

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has been practised for generations on these moors.

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Driven grouse shooting is all about shooting

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large numbers of red grouse for fun.

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To produce those large numbers of red grouse for people to shoot

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you have to manage the habitat very intensively.

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That is actually where many of the problems come from.

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This is just a hobby, that's all it is.

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It needs to justify the damage it does to other species

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They can't be farmed so land is managed to maximise their numbers.

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stoats and crows are legally killed by gamekeepers.

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Other wildlife like black grouse and curlew flourish,

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So much so that they are often culled as well.

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But there are other predators, birds of prey.

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but some are still shot, trapped and poisoned.

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As Head of Investigations for the RSPB,

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Bob Elliott spends his life dealing with crimes like these.

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Hi, Bob, we picked a lovely day for this, didn't we?

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If you're managing the land for grouse,

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That is perfectly possible to do legally.

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What do you argue is actually happening then?

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We've had thousands of cases in 25 years of the illegal killing

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of birds of prey and lots of those cases are associated with the

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uplands where there is driven grouse shooting.

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So, the sheer desire to maximise the amount of grouse people have

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on the land is leading to criminal offences occurring.

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This year has been absolutely awful for the killing of birds of prey

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and every incident must be the tip of a much bigger iceberg.

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Can you definitely link those two in as confident a way as you just did?

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Yes, we are a conservation science organisation.

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I can only stand and talk to you because we have that science.

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So, who, in your mind, is doing this?

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I am very clear that gamekeepers are the people coming to court

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particularly with driven grouse moors.

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172 people were convicted of crimes against birds of prey in the UK

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I have come to the annual Game Fair here in Warwickshire to find out

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what the shooting lobby has to say about the illegal killing

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of birds of prey by members of their community.

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British Association for Shooting and Conservations, Duncan Thomas.

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The law is the law and there are strong wildlife laws in position

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Anybody found convicted of such offence would be expelled

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from our organisation. It does happen though, doesn't it?

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There might be a minute number of offences that occur.

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We will expel those people. We do not support it.

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We champion all the positivities of shooting.

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The shooting community is very good at policing itself.

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This argument surrounding birds of prey

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is perhaps the most heated part of the grouse shooting debate.

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Science shows that the bird called the hen harrier which is

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a particular problem on grouse moors, there ought to be

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300 pairs in England and this year there were three pairs.

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Can you honestly lay that simply at grouse shooting?

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Couldn't there be other environmental factors?

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I don't think anybody is going to argue that illegal persecution

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is anything other than the main and the vast

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majority of the problem for hen harriers.

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That is a bird that has been protected by law for over 60 years.

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Would you accept that, Andrew, that there is an issue with the

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illegal persecution, particularly of hen harriers?

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The incidents of interfering with birds of prey is going down.

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It is a known issue but I wouldn't suggest it is as big an issue

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Half of the suitable habitat that Mark's referring to for hen harriers

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doesn't have a gamekeeper on it at all,

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so it is a far more complicated picture

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than the one that he tries to suggest.

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Are you just oversimplifying this to get that hard message home? No

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Andrew is ducking the issue. You are just not facing up to reality.

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Look at the data on peregrines on grouse moors,

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look at the number of red kites that have died on grouse moors

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Wildlife crime is not a declining problem.

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Well, so Mark keeps saying, but actually the data doesn't show that.

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The disagreements continue but this isn't just an argument

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between small interest groups with little to do with the rest of us.

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Later I'll be looking at how the management of grouse moors

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has an impact far beyond the uplands.

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This is the Derbyshire Peak District,

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The great outdoors doesn't come much greater than this.

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It's where the right to roam was won back in the 1930s,

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and it's where I'm about to keep a royal appointment.

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I'm on the lookout for a bunch of intrepid explorers.

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of the Childwall Sports and Science Academy in Liverpool.

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They're all here practising for their Duke of Edinburgh Award.

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Teacher Stuart Cheetham will be keeping an eye on their progress.

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Try and find out where you are on the map using your compass.

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You need to start orientating the map

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so you know which way you're going to be travelling, OK?

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There are gold, silver and bronze awards.

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Bronze and silver involve learning a new skill,

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volunteering or undertaking an expedition,

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and there's an extra residential section at gold level.

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What made you sign up to Duke of Edinburgh in the first place, then?

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Well, it's kind of, like, very interesting, and...

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It's supposed to look good on your CV, so it's like...

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It'll benefit you if you wanted to go to university

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It's a very good experience, as well. Aye.

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Because, like, we don't normally ever go to the countryside

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cos we live in cities and stuff so it's good to be, like,

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out of our environment, and, like, have some freedom.

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Who has got the biggest backpack? Me!

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Is that because you've got... I've got... ..the most stuff? Yeah.

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I can hear tent pegs jangling somewhere.

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That for me is the short straw because they're hanging down behind

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'Today's expedition involves a nine-mile yomp

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'and it's their navigation and map-reading skills

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OK, so, we're going to look at what's called "take a bearing

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"from the map", and we're going to follow the compass direction, OK?

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Which direction do you think you're going to follow?

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Brilliant, exactly right - you're going to follow that direction arrow

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all the way in that direction towards those trees.

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The ladies are working towards their silver level

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of the Duke of Edinburgh. Yes. How hard is it?

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They're undertaking something that not many people do.

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It is so difficult for them to get on with it,

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get the right kit and know how to use all the maps, the compasses

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walk, and physically do it carrying that really big, heavy bag.

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They're on their own, independently making decisions for themselves

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We want them to have a lifelong love of the outside world,

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This is a big year for the Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

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It's 60 years since they first began.

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I'm joining His Royal Highness Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex,

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out with a different group of youngsters,

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and this time, they're going for gold.

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These guys are doing their gold award, which you completed. Yep

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which is about, what, 65 miles, I suppose.

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I think people don't realise how many elements there are.

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That's the expedition, but there's volunteering, skill, sport,

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all the other bits of it. Yeah It's a big undertaking, isn't it?

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you can do bit by bit, do it in your own time,

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but the object of the exercise is to try and introduce you

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to other types of activities, to other types of passions.

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So, you may play football because all your mates play football.

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Is that really what is your passion? So...

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And so by getting people to do a type of physical activity,

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a type of volunteering, a type of expedition,

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hopefully, they'll find a passion, THEIR passion,

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the thing that drives them, and is what they really want to do.

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Six decades of success... Yeah. ..for the awards.

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Where'd you think they'll be in another 60 years?

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I think there's going to be a real continuing need for the D of E

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to help young people to develop and to push the boundaries.

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But if there was one ambition, it would be that any young person

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anywhere in the world can do it if they want to.

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'But the Earl is keen to push still further,

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'and he's calling on Countryfile to help.'

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I was going to set one of your team a little bit of a challenge.

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I come across many young people who come across livestock...

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And for many people who come from cities or what have you,

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that's a bit of a shock to the system,

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and it would be brilliant if you could come up with some useful tips

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Sheep are not too bad, but cattle seem to be the big problem.

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HE LAUGHS A new chapter, livestock handling!

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There are plenty of stories of people disappearing over

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So, Team Countryfile - yes, that is you.

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If you have any tips to pass on to his Royal Highness,

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get in touch with the programme via Twitter or the website.

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Now it's time to catch up with the silver award pupils I met earlier.

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'And by the look of things, the challenge is taking its toll.'

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Oh, he's not stopping, he's head down!

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'But it's downhill to the camp, and in no time at all, the tents are up,

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'the rucksacks are off, and there's a sense of relief in the air.'

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This is a very organised camp! GIRLS LAUGH

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It was...great, but it was tiring as well. Yeah.

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How many hours did you walk for in the end?

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Six hours or something. Six hours of walking.

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I'm impressed, seriously, guys hats off!

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How different is this for you guys, because you live in Liverpool

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It was a big contrast, because we wouldn't usually...

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like, some of us wouldn't usually camp,

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If you weren't here, what would you be doing?

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because this is a big break in the norm for you

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Like, you get a good experience and, like,

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a sense of self sufficiency, and when you're older,

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you'll be able to, like, provide for yourself.

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towards their silver Duke of Edinburgh Award,

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but the real tests lie in the months ahead.

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For now, though, it's all smiles at a job well done.

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CAMERA CLICKS Brilliant work.

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The majestic splendour of the Scottish Highlands.

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Getting out there, finding a connection with nature,

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is something that enriches our lives.

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But what happens when things go wrong?

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The elements overwhelm us, we lose our way or fall,

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or simply find ourselves in need of rescue?

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If you're unlucky enough to find yourself in such a situation,

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86-year-old living legend Hamish MacInnes,

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will have had some part in saving you.

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When it comes to mountain rescue, Hamish literally wrote the book

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When I came to live here, there was a rescue team,

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and they went out with their Wellington boots and whatnot,

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and there was no money to buy anything else,

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and started getting money in so they could buy boots and that.

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Hamish led Glencoe Mountain Rescue from the 1960s to the 1990s.

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During this time, he designed his world-famous stretcher.

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In those days, there was no helicopters,

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So I had the idea of making a stretcher that would fold up, and...

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So you could get it into difficult places.

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I'd no desire to make stretchers - we just made one for the team

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but everybody wanted them, so that was the start of a new industry

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'Modern, lighter versions of Hamish's stretcher are now in use

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'all over the world, but he made an even bigger contribution

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'to saving lives with the invention of the all-metal ice axe.'

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you developed them with a metal handle.

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That's right. What inspired you to do that?

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Because the wooden ones were breaking.

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And I remember on one occasion in a gully on Ben Nevis,

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three climbers attempting it, and they fell off, and they had

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their ice axes stuck in the snow with the rope tied around.

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Now, just about every ice axe you see is made of metal.

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I could have been, but I was primarily interested in safety

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Staying safe in wild places starts with knowing where you are,

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and map and compass work is critical,

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'as Helen saw earlier with the Duke of Edinburgh participants

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'but mountain guide Dave Anderson is going to put that right.'

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I'm starting on a small knoll, shown on the map as a ring contour

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at the foot of a stunning mountain - the Buachaille Etive Mor.

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We know exactly where we are now, Sean,

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so what we're aiming for is a little hut in that direction,

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but we can't see that from here so we're going to have to take

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a bearing on a different feature first.

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I'm going to show you how to do that.

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We know we are on this ring contour, so we take a bearing

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to the stream junction, which is between where we are,

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We're going to line up the compass, this black line,

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from where we are to where we're going on that stream junction,

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we're going to turn the compass around,

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so that we're lined up with these blue lines,

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we're going to align that needle to north,

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and we're going to look in that direction there.

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So I'm aiming for this junction of two streams,

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where I'll take another bearing for the hut.

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What you do now is to choose waypoints along this compass

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bearing, so that we actually are following our bearing.

:23:54.:23:56.

Those can be boulders, or little grassy knolls,

:23:57.:24:00.

or even changes in colour in the grass, something like that.

:24:01.:24:02.

It's going to keep you on a bearing. Yeah.

:24:03.:24:05.

You're going to get to that stream junction, and from there take

:24:06.:24:08.

That's it, yeah! SEAN LAUGHS

:24:09.:24:13.

Well, tell my wife I love her if I don't make it!

:24:14.:24:16.

I shall see you, hopefully, in a couple of hours!

:24:17.:24:18.

Hopefully see you soon, yes! THEY LAUGH

:24:19.:24:20.

'The ground is incredibly rough and boggy.

:24:21.:24:27.

'Travelling in a straight line is difficult,

:24:28.:24:30.

'but the waypoints will get me back on track

:24:31.:24:32.

..to help you work out exactly where you are,

:24:33.:24:41.

and I think that's where the join in the streams is, just down there.

:24:42.:24:45.

I take another bearing towards the climber's hut,

:24:46.:24:51.

where I'm going to meet up with Dave.

:24:52.:24:56.

Visibility is good today, but I'm starting to understand

:24:57.:24:59.

just how easy it would be to become lost in this vast, wild terrain

:25:00.:25:20.

After hundreds of boggy yards, the hut comes into view.

:25:21.:25:24.

We kind of have something in the way, don't we? We certainly have!

:25:25.:25:36.

Not going to cross this river, it'd be too dangerous.

:25:37.:25:39.

So what you're going to do is to handrail the river,

:25:40.:25:42.

so use the river to get yourself to a footbridge further downstream.

:25:43.:25:46.

You don't need your compass for this - there's about three big

:25:47.:25:49.

bends in the river, so you can just tick them off as you pass them

:25:50.:25:53.

So, have the map in your head rather than your head in the map,

:25:54.:25:56.

and that will get you to the footbridge.

:25:57.:25:58.

OK, see you there, Dave. Nice one.

:25:59.:26:02.

'Using the river as a handrail is a great tip.

:26:03.:26:05.

'I soon have the three bends behind me.

:26:06.:26:11.

Hey! SEAN LAUGHS

:26:12.:26:27.

navigating my way around the map, actually, it's made me really

:26:28.:26:33.

aware of my surroundings, and aware of this beautiful place.

:26:34.:26:36.

Wilderness is beautiful, but can be hazardous.

:26:37.:26:43.

Thanks to people like Dave and Hamish,

:26:44.:26:45.

it's made just that little bit safer for us all.

:26:46.:26:50.

The issue of driven grouse shooting has polarised rural communities

:26:51.:26:54.

but as Charlotte's been finding out, there's evidence that its impact

:26:55.:26:57.

stretches far beyond the moorland estates.

:26:58.:27:10.

Our uplands might seem remote, but what happens here affects us all.

:27:11.:27:17.

The moors act as sponges, reducing flooding in towns and cities.

:27:18.:27:23.

Much of our drinking water comes from here,

:27:24.:27:25.

and the peat bogs capture CO2, helping to fight climate change

:27:26.:27:31.

They're also a much-loved part of the rural landscape.

:27:32.:27:35.

Grouse moors cover three and a half million acres of the UK,

:27:36.:27:39.

and given that we all have a stake in what happens on them,

:27:40.:27:42.

it's perhaps not surprising that the way they're managed

:27:43.:27:45.

is another subject of intense debate.

:27:46.:27:49.

It's been created by man over the centuries.

:27:50.:27:55.

Now, critics claim that on driven grouse moors, this management,

:27:56.:27:59.

especially the practice of burning the heather,

:28:00.:28:01.

shows that intensive moorland management

:28:02.:28:10.

increases flood risk, increases water treatment costs

:28:11.:28:13.

increases greenhouse gas emissions, reduces the life...

:28:14.:28:18.

The impact on water quality and also on flooding,

:28:19.:28:28.

because when you change these peat bogs by burning the heather,

:28:29.:28:32.

they absorb less water, and that's a worry.

:28:33.:28:35.

but the reality is that after the war and for 30 or 40 years

:28:36.:28:42.

the Government paid landowners to drain the land to increase it

:28:43.:28:45.

this was considered absolute wilderness out here.

:28:46.:28:52.

They were actually trying to bring it into agricultural production

:28:53.:28:55.

Now, that was mistaken, but that's fine,

:28:56.:28:57.

so we're putting that back together again now.

:28:58.:28:59.

So, Mark, it's not the grouse shooting,

:29:00.:29:03.

it's a long history of what we wanted this land to do?

:29:04.:29:06.

Well, Andrew seems to be living in the past all the time.

:29:07.:29:09.

I'm living right now and looking at the science and looking at

:29:10.:29:12.

what the future of these hills could look like.

:29:13.:29:15.

Look at Scandinavia, look at around the world,

:29:16.:29:17.

these places where they don't have driven grouse shooting,

:29:18.:29:20.

they manage that land partly to deliver clean water,

:29:21.:29:24.

Mark regularly keeps saying... Referring to back into the past

:29:25.:29:33.

the way that fire is managed on moors now is completely different

:29:34.:29:36.

to how it was being done 20 years ago,

:29:37.:29:38.

the way that we restore bogs is different.

:29:39.:29:41.

So, just to be clear, you think you can have all

:29:42.:29:44.

the environmental benefits and driven grouse shooting?

:29:45.:29:47.

I certainly do, yes. As a conservationist.

:29:48.:29:50.

Opponents of driven grouse shooting also claim that heather burning

:29:51.:29:57.

indiscriminately kills wildlife like snakes and small mammals.

:29:58.:30:02.

Back at the game fair, I asked Duncan Thomas from the

:30:03.:30:05.

British Association for Shooting and Conservation why it's necessary

:30:06.:30:09.

We want to create a diverse length of heather so we've got some stuff

:30:10.:30:13.

for shelter, some stuff for food and some stuff for a foraging area

:30:14.:30:18.

If we didn't manage that moor for grouse shooting,

:30:19.:30:21.

the moor would become a wild, sterile place and the vast

:30:22.:30:25.

range of species which benefit simply wouldn't be there.

:30:26.:30:29.

And also the other problem, the big problem here

:30:30.:30:32.

is the incredible fire risk that we'd be creating.

:30:33.:30:34.

We've seen moors devastated this year by wildfire.

:30:35.:30:38.

The tactical, careful, managed burning process produces

:30:39.:30:43.

thin strips of burns which stops the moorland fires.

:30:44.:30:48.

But wouldn't walked-up shooting where fewer grouse is shot,

:30:49.:30:51.

Within a few years, with the lack of investment, you would end up

:30:52.:30:59.

with long, rank heather that you couldn't even walk through.

:31:00.:31:03.

It's all about creating a sustainable surplus that we can

:31:04.:31:07.

shoot and we can celebrate and we can have an amazing time doing it.

:31:08.:31:10.

Shooting is fun! Just look at this all around you here.

:31:11.:31:13.

So, amidst all the differing points of view, is there a way forward

:31:14.:31:20.

Bob Elliott from the RSPB thinks there is.

:31:21.:31:24.

We've talked a lot about the problems, what are the solutions?

:31:25.:31:28.

Well, one thing we think could make a real difference is licensing

:31:29.:31:31.

We don't have any regulation at the moment and we think

:31:32.:31:36.

that would drive down the amount of criminality we're seeing and

:31:37.:31:40.

good estates would have nothing to fear from that.

:31:41.:31:44.

really important to the rural economy, and what you're

:31:45.:31:51.

trying to do is actually put them out of business.

:31:52.:31:53.

Come on, it's not asking for the world.

:31:54.:31:55.

and I absolutely don't want overregulation,

:31:56.:32:00.

Licensing is commonplace elsewhere in the world,

:32:01.:32:05.

Mark, what do you make of the idea of licensing?

:32:06.:32:09.

I don't think it's the best idea, because I've think licensing

:32:10.:32:12.

would be complicated and difficult to implement.

:32:13.:32:15.

Licensing has many roles in our society, but the question is,

:32:16.:32:20.

what is it we're actually trying to address?

:32:21.:32:22.

And if we're trying to address the conflict and the interests of

:32:23.:32:25.

the grouse moors and the birds of prey,

:32:26.:32:27.

there's no evidence that licensing is actually a solution.

:32:28.:32:30.

When the two sides are as far apart as you two are, by way of example...

:32:31.:32:36.

Well, we've agreed licensing wasn't a good idea!

:32:37.:32:39.

Well, we've agreed on one thing So what is the way forward?

:32:40.:32:41.

I'd like to see driven grouse shooting banned.

:32:42.:32:45.

We've already talked about the huge benefits out here.

:32:46.:32:49.

You've referred to the... Well, we've argued about them!

:32:50.:32:52.

..about the ?100 million that it contributes to our economy

:32:53.:32:55.

and the 4,000 jobs that it underpins.

:32:56.:32:57.

And there I think we should leave it, yes? Yes.

:32:58.:33:00.

Hoods up! SHE LAUGHS

:33:01.:33:03.

Driven grouse shooting has been part of the fabric of our

:33:04.:33:06.

countryside for 150 years and it increasingly inspires

:33:07.:33:10.

passionate and contradictory opinions.

:33:11.:33:14.

As we've seen, there's very little common ground between those

:33:15.:33:17.

for and those against driven grouse shooting.

:33:18.:33:20.

And anyone expecting resolutions to these arguments any time soon, well,

:33:21.:33:25.

that's a little bit like expecting sunshine on a rainy summer's day.

:33:26.:33:37.

I'm on Loch Lochy in Scotland's Great Glen,

:33:38.:33:41.

tagging along with an expedition marking the 60th anniversary

:33:42.:33:44.

They're all tough adventurers, but there's one thing even they dread.

:33:45.:33:56.

The minute monsters are almost invisible to the human eye,

:33:57.:34:03.

but they swarm in clouds of thousands and have a nasty bite

:34:04.:34:07.

I'm taking my chances ashore to find out more.

:34:08.:34:12.

Bill Kerr is a retired engineer but for the last two years,

:34:13.:34:15.

Now, what are you up to here? This is a midge trap.

:34:16.:34:22.

Have you heard about midges? I've definitely heard of midges, yes

:34:23.:34:26.

How do you trap them, how does this work?

:34:27.:34:28.

It's made out of cardboard with a wee bit of string, as you can see.

:34:29.:34:32.

And inside it, you'll notice that there's another piece of

:34:33.:34:35.

which has got an extremely sticky surface.

:34:36.:34:40.

So anything that lands on that surface will actually adhere to it.

:34:41.:34:43.

But just to give you an idea how effective this is... Yeah?

:34:44.:34:47.

..this is actually an old one from a few weeks ago

:34:48.:34:51.

which shows that there's midges on there.

:34:52.:34:53.

At its worst, what would it look like?

:34:54.:34:57.

and if you can imagine from there to there,

:34:58.:35:02.

Really? The whole thing just covered with midges?

:35:03.:35:06.

Well, information produced by Bill and other volunteers is added

:35:07.:35:15.

to weather data to produce an online midge forecast for Scotland.

:35:16.:35:21.

Now, Bill, there's a few in the air today,

:35:22.:35:23.

they're very hard to see on camera and I've checked the midge forecast.

:35:24.:35:26.

This is what your observations feed into.

:35:27.:35:29.

So if we look at our forecast for our Duke of Edinburgh kayakers

:35:30.:35:32.

starting Ben Nevis area, lots of midges.

:35:33.:35:35.

But interestingly, as they go along the Caledonian Canal,

:35:36.:35:38.

it goes five, four, three, two and one, up in Invergordon.

:35:39.:35:41.

So it just directly reduces the further north-east you go.

:35:42.:35:45.

Yeah, there aren't a lot of midges on the east coast of Scotland.

:35:46.:35:48.

and the north-west Highlands in particular.

:35:49.:35:52.

So presumably, the conditions of geography and land conditions

:35:53.:35:56.

must suit the midges more than it does over in the east.

:35:57.:35:59.

The bracken and rushes here provide ideal habitat.

:36:00.:36:04.

And midges love Western Scotland's warm, damp summers.

:36:05.:36:08.

but good news for birds and bats which feast on clouds of midges

:36:09.:36:18.

Scotland's midges are so notorious, there's even an online game.

:36:19.:36:23.

'But they've also spawned serious scientific research.

:36:24.:36:26.

'Before heading back out on the water,

:36:27.:36:28.

'the world's leading expert on midges.'

:36:29.:36:33.

How are you? Hi, I'm fine, thank you.

:36:34.:36:35.

So, tell me, why do they pick on us, Alison? Why do they bite us?

:36:36.:36:38.

Well, it's only the female midge that bites,

:36:39.:36:40.

and she needs a protein source to mature her eggs, so she'll feed

:36:41.:36:44.

on any mammal, so she loves cows, sheep, deer, erm, people as well.

:36:45.:36:49.

'Midges have an incredible sense of smell, and they use a neat trick

:36:50.:36:53.

'to track us down - it's all to do with the air we breathe out.'

:36:54.:36:57.

A midge will know that you're breathing

:36:58.:36:59.

and then as she becomes a little bit closer to you,

:37:00.:37:04.

she follows your CO2 plume and then your body chemistry kicks in

:37:05.:37:08.

as well, so the different smells your body's emanating,

:37:09.:37:11.

your body temperature as well and moisture, movement...

:37:12.:37:15.

All these cues kind of allow a midge to home in on

:37:16.:37:17.

a particular target they want to feed on.

:37:18.:37:19.

There's a whole industry around this, how did you get involved

:37:20.:37:22.

we use midge attractants we've identified for trapping systems

:37:23.:37:27.

but also we've developed our own insect repellent which is

:37:28.:37:30.

based on everything we know about how an insect finds you,

:37:31.:37:33.

and it's got components in it which will specifically block those

:37:34.:37:37.

receptors on insect antennae which find you.

:37:38.:37:40.

Let's do a bit of myth busting what does and doesn't work?

:37:41.:37:43.

vitamin B we know is slightly repellent to midges,

:37:44.:37:51.

And what about whisky, or is that just an excuse?

:37:52.:37:55.

I think that's just to kind of dull the effect of the midges, yeah

:37:56.:37:58.

'So, the advice during midge season -

:37:59.:38:01.

'check the forecast, cover up, and use repellents,

:38:02.:38:05.

'otherwise it could be game over for your Highland holiday.'

:38:06.:38:12.

'Now, this week, Adam's at home catching up with some of his

:38:13.:38:15.

'farm favourites, and that means pigs.

:38:16.:38:18.

'He's been around them his whole life,

:38:19.:38:20.

'Best of all, there are some new arrivals on the way.'

:38:21.:38:28.

We've got a number of pigs on the farm,

:38:29.:38:36.

we've got Iron Age, Tamworths, we've recently purchased some Berkshires,

:38:37.:38:40.

and these are my favourites, the Gloucestershire Old Spots.

:38:41.:38:44.

and the general rule of thumb is that pigs with floppy ears

:38:45.:38:49.

like this that cover their eyes are more docile than the ones

:38:50.:38:52.

with pricked ears where they can see more and are more alert.

:38:53.:38:55.

They're absolutely gorgeous, I adore them.

:38:56.:38:58.

'and we're expecting her to give birth any day now.'

:38:59.:39:04.

It's a cross between a Tamworth and a wild boar.

:39:05.:39:13.

She's so friendly, if you scratch her tummy, look

:39:14.:39:16.

She's perfectly happy to give birth out in the fields,

:39:17.:39:21.

I brought her into the stable just to keep an eye on her.

:39:22.:39:26.

When the piglets are born they want to move round to get to the teats,

:39:27.:39:31.

you'll see she lifts it, and the piglets will then be able to

:39:32.:39:37.

walk underneath her leg and attach themselves to the teats.

:39:38.:39:41.

Her leg then goes back down, a bit like a door shutting, and the

:39:42.:39:44.

piglets are caught in the arc between her front and her back legs.

:39:45.:39:48.

Hopefully she'll give birth in the next day or two.

:39:49.:39:55.

'But there's a sow next door that's already had her piglets

:39:56.:39:59.

'and there's a test I'm keen to try on them that's always amazed me '

:40:00.:40:03.

When the piglets feed, it's believed by scientists

:40:04.:40:06.

that they always line up on the same teats,

:40:07.:40:09.

so I've got a marker pen here, and I'm going to mark them

:40:10.:40:13.

in a row, and we'll look at them later and see if it's true.

:40:14.:40:16.

This is a little bit like a hierarchy, and the best milk is on

:40:17.:40:26.

the front teats, and so the piglets will jostle for position

:40:27.:40:30.

'If all goes to plan, when they next feed,

:40:31.:40:35.

'they should line up again in numerical order.'

:40:36.:40:39.

The sow has started feeding the piglets again,

:40:40.:40:46.

..then we've got four, three, two, so they're jostling for position.

:40:47.:40:56.

..three and four are the wrong way around, five, six...

:40:57.:41:03.

They've all gone into the completely correct position.

:41:04.:41:12.

I think it's absolutely remarkable, it's really quite exciting.

:41:13.:41:17.

Oh, no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you're a clever girl!

:41:18.:41:23.

'The more you understand your animals,

:41:24.:41:25.

'the better you can be at rearing them,

:41:26.:41:27.

'so when I heard about some new research into pig husbandry,

:41:28.:41:30.

'I headed to Abbey Home Farm to find out more.'

:41:31.:41:33.

'Dr Lisa Collins and Mary Friel from the University of Lincoln are

:41:34.:41:38.

'They've devised a way to determine personality traits in pigs

:41:39.:41:44.

'that could be of great benefit to farmers.

:41:45.:41:47.

Nice pen of pigs here, John, for the job.

:41:48.:41:55.

Yeah, I hope they'll work for the test.

:41:56.:41:57.

Mary, you've been on the ground doing the testing.

:41:58.:41:59.

What sort of things are you looking for?

:42:00.:42:01.

I'm measuring one main trait of their personality, which is,

:42:02.:42:03.

erm, whether they're reactive or proactive,

:42:04.:42:06.

so reactive pigs tend to be more cautious,

:42:07.:42:09.

they react more slowly, they're quieter,

:42:10.:42:12.

whereas proactive pigs tend to be more outgoing, they're more vocal.

:42:13.:42:16.

So would one be better than the other?

:42:17.:42:18.

No, not necessarily, they both have advantages and disadvantages.

:42:19.:42:21.

they're more likely to get to the resources first and potentially

:42:22.:42:27.

monopolise them, whereas reactives, although they're a little bit afraid

:42:28.:42:32.

of a new environment when they're first introduced to it,

:42:33.:42:34.

they tend to adapt better to it over time.

:42:35.:42:37.

So when getting groups of pigs together you need a bit of

:42:38.:42:39.

a balance, a bit of a mix? Absolutely, you do.

:42:40.:42:42.

do you know which ones are proactive and which ones are reactive?

:42:43.:42:46.

Er, well, it's going to be really interesting to see whether

:42:47.:42:49.

what I think is going to be what the test shows.

:42:50.:42:51.

So you reckon you've got a couple of bullies in here?

:42:52.:42:53.

There's certainly one who's a boss, yes.

:42:54.:42:55.

THEY LAUGH OK, well, let's give it a go.

:42:56.:42:57.

'each pig is put into a small pen for four minutes

:42:58.:43:04.

'Lisa will time how long the pigs spend exploring the test area,

:43:05.:43:12.

'Mary will record the grunts and when they touch the cone.

:43:13.:43:18.

'I'll time how long the pigs are stood still for,

:43:19.:43:21.

'red for proactive and green for reactive.'

:43:22.:43:26.

Just the one. Who's going to be first?

:43:27.:43:28.

we'd expect it to come in and take quite

:43:29.:43:34.

a long time to contact the cone but if it's a proactive pig it might

:43:35.:43:37.

come in a lot faster, more grunts, and generally move around more

:43:38.:43:41.

'Pig Number One doesn't seem to know what to do,

:43:42.:43:53.

'and is much more interested in the grass than the cone.'

:43:54.:43:57.

It just hasn't gone anywhere near the cone. No. Oh...

:43:58.:44:02.

OK, so what are the results for standing? 1:42. OK.

:44:03.:44:13.

'Mary records the timings on her computer,

:44:14.:44:16.

'and the formula confirms the result.'

:44:17.:44:18.

15 grunts per minute, so that makes him a really reactive pig

:44:19.:44:22.

It's a green R on the shoulder then, John. Yep, will do.

:44:23.:44:34.

'Pig Number Two is much the same as Pig Number One,

:44:35.:44:36.

'Pig Three may have taken two minutes to pluck up the courage

:44:37.:44:42.

'And this little pig wastes no time making friends.'

:44:43.:44:51.

'Pig Number Five seems pretty content with being tested.'

:44:52.:44:59.

So how did we end up, then, with the results?

:45:00.:45:11.

So we've found, out of six pigs here, we've got four reactive

:45:12.:45:15.

ones and only two proactive, and we also had quite a range within that.

:45:16.:45:20.

We had one pig that only grunted once in the test,

:45:21.:45:22.

and one pig that grunted over 150 times.

:45:23.:45:25.

They're very different characters, then, within the pen. Yep.

:45:26.:45:28.

What is it you're hoping to achieve, in the long term,

:45:29.:45:30.

So, I think, just to raise awareness first of all that different

:45:31.:45:35.

animals will have different personalities, and this will

:45:36.:45:38.

automatically impact on how they react to the environment

:45:39.:45:41.

around them and also how they react to each other.

:45:42.:45:44.

but these tests have a real practical purpose.'

:45:45.:45:48.

When you scale it up at the commercial level, what's happening

:45:49.:45:52.

is pigs generally tend to get split and mixed according to their

:45:53.:45:55.

weight, so you'd have a group of 50 pigs of a similar weight,

:45:56.:45:59.

and the reason that's problematic is that essentially,

:46:00.:46:02.

when you have proactive pigs, one of their characteristics

:46:03.:46:05.

is that they're better at getting to the resources,

:46:06.:46:07.

so they're more likely to be the heavier ones, and that could

:46:08.:46:10.

then lead to aggressive problems within those groups potentially

:46:11.:46:13.

And I suppose aggression and bullying will affect growth rates,

:46:14.:46:16.

it's a financial issue because the animals aren't growing so well.

:46:17.:46:21.

Exactly, yep, so it has multiple impacts, really, on the

:46:22.:46:24.

welfare of the pigs but also for the profit of the farmers themselves.

:46:25.:46:28.

Will it change the way you view the farming of your pigs?

:46:29.:46:32.

Yeah, really interesting and I think it will definitely make us

:46:33.:46:35.

think about what else we can do for the pigs cos, yeah,

:46:36.:46:37.

Yeah, I'll certainly be taking something home from this

:46:38.:46:41.

and thinking about the way we manage our pigs more carefully

:46:42.:46:53.

'This is Glencoe - one of Britain's best-loved wild spaces.

:46:54.:46:59.

'The rocks here are volcanic, the land carved by glaciers,

:47:00.:47:04.

'the crags etched by wild Atlantic weather.'

:47:05.:47:09.

'The National Trust for Scotland is responsible for the

:47:10.:47:21.

'conservation of the glen, which features

:47:22.:47:24.

'a wide range of habitats, from low moorland to stark, exposed cliffs.

:47:25.:47:32.

'But I've come to explore one of the rarest habitats in the world,

:47:33.:47:36.

'which only exists because of the persistent,

:47:37.:47:39.

'and a very particular type of landscape called

:47:40.:47:46.

'I'm heading up high with ecologist Dan Watson to discover what

:47:47.:47:55.

Well, it's a rare set of circumstances, particularly where

:47:56.:48:01.

we are in Scotland on the north west coast, there's a lot of rain.

:48:02.:48:05.

Yeah! We've also got these colossal boulders that have been

:48:06.:48:09.

brought down during the last Ice Age.

:48:10.:48:12.

They restrict access to things like deer that would come in

:48:13.:48:15.

So the combination of the narrow gorge,

:48:16.:48:20.

the boulders and the trees mean there's great humidity in here

:48:21.:48:24.

and that's what a lot of these oceanic bryophytes need,

:48:25.:48:28.

the things that are very special here.

:48:29.:48:34.

'Bryophytes are mosses and liverworts,

:48:35.:48:37.

'and in this strange and magical landscape, they are everywhere.

:48:38.:48:43.

Well, the most obvious thing here is that we're just surrounded by

:48:44.:48:46.

It's on the rocks, it's on the trees, just all around us.

:48:47.:48:51.

they way they're tumbled in all directions,

:48:52.:48:55.

they've got many different micro habitats,

:48:56.:48:57.

so we've got the top surface, which gets carpeted in this.

:48:58.:49:00.

You can see we've got vertical faces,

:49:01.:49:02.

we've got sloping faces, so there's just a vast variety

:49:03.:49:06.

'This variety of micro habitat is home to many types of mosses

:49:07.:49:11.

'with exquisite structures and fantastically descriptive names '

:49:12.:49:16.

Look at that one, it's really beautiful, isn't it

:49:17.:49:19.

Oh, yeah, just like an ostrich feather.

:49:20.:49:23.

Lovely. This one is also reasonably common,

:49:24.:49:28.

but has a much more western distribution.

:49:29.:49:30.

This one has a very descriptive name as well,

:49:31.:49:32.

this is bottlebrush moss. Bottlebrush?

:49:33.:49:34.

Yeah, cos it looks like something you could use to clean a bottle out.

:49:35.:49:37.

It looks like you could put it between your teeth,

:49:38.:49:39.

one of those little brushes you use...! Oh, yeah.

:49:40.:49:42.

I wouldn't advise that. Maybe not, maybe not.

:49:43.:49:45.

'Bryophytes are the oldest land dwelling plants on Earth.

:49:46.:49:49.

'They were the first to leave the sea and adapt to life on dry land.

:49:50.:49:53.

'Unlike normal plants they have no roots and no internal plumbing.

:49:54.:49:58.

'They absorb moisture from the atmosphere.

:49:59.:50:01.

'Botanist Gordon Rothero has made studying these fascinating plants

:50:02.:50:04.

How did you come to be so obsessed by these tiny little plants?

:50:05.:50:09.

Erm, just that if you spent a lot of time in this sort of habitat,

:50:10.:50:14.

much of what you see is sort of green stuff,

:50:15.:50:19.

and you eventually become quite interested in green stuff,

:50:20.:50:22.

and then when you start looking at it closely,

:50:23.:50:25.

it's absolutely fascinating. Yeah, each one's so different.

:50:26.:50:27.

they are really, really intricate species, and, you know,

:50:28.:50:31.

they've been around a very long time and they've evolved all kinds

:50:32.:50:34.

of intricate shapes, and, you know, they're just beautiful.

:50:35.:50:37.

Do we have any especially exciting species here? Yes, we do.

:50:38.:50:40.

For example, we have this purple spoonwort here,

:50:41.:50:43.

which is the name of this. Is this one rare?

:50:44.:50:46.

and you can find it all the way up and down the west coast of

:50:47.:50:50.

Scotland, and it occurs in parts of western Ireland and it occurs

:50:51.:50:54.

locally in parts of south-west Norway,

:50:55.:50:56.

but it doesn't occur anywhere else in Europe.

:50:57.:50:59.

And the biggest populations by far are in the west of Scotland.

:51:00.:51:04.

It doesn't occur in Wales or in England.

:51:05.:51:06.

So why is it so important to conserve habitat like this,

:51:07.:51:10.

Erm, it's important because it's part of our natural heritage.

:51:11.:51:15.

Things would be very, very different if the bryophytes weren't here

:51:16.:51:18.

They hold the moisture, they provide a habitat for frogs and for insects.

:51:19.:51:23.

We don't have very many rare plants in Scotland,

:51:24.:51:26.

and it's quite nice to look after the ones that we do have.

:51:27.:51:29.

'Coming to Glencoe, it's easy to be impressed by the grandeur of

:51:30.:51:34.

'the mountain landscape, the big picture.'

:51:35.:51:38.

But looking down and focusing in on that lush green carpet reveals

:51:39.:51:42.

a miniature landscape just as beautiful,

:51:43.:51:45.

and all thanks to that rainy Atlantic weather.

:51:46.:51:48.

But will they be getting more in the week ahead?

:51:49.:51:50.

Let's find out - here's the forecast.

:51:51.:52:06.

Yes, some areas of the UK have had too much of the Atlantic rain, and

:52:07.:52:13.

others nothing at all. We can see a turnaround later in the week. A busy

:52:14.:52:17.

day in the fields today, this picture sent in by a weather watcher

:52:18.:52:23.

in Kent. For the next few days, no sign of any rain. Temperatures will

:52:24.:52:28.

be rising, mainly because there will be more sunshine, but from the

:52:29.:52:30.

weekend onwards things turn more settled. Some rain is likely,

:52:31.:52:36.

perhaps not in Scotland, which had a lot of rain last week, but it could

:52:37.:52:40.

be further south, where it is needed most. No rain just yet because the

:52:41.:52:46.

pressure is rising. This area of high pressure is building across the

:52:47.:52:50.

UK. Because of that and the sun getting lower, we have more sunshine

:52:51.:52:54.

this evening in southern and eastern parts. Tonight, the cloud will

:52:55.:53:02.

continue to break. Maybe a bit cloudy for northern England and

:53:03.:53:06.

Northern Ireland. Chilly in the countryside in Scotland. Warming up

:53:07.:53:10.

quickly in the sunshine on Monday. Not much cloud first thing. We could

:53:11.:53:16.

see a bit more cloud late morning, around lunchtime, but the cloud will

:53:17.:53:20.

be thinner, so it will break up more readily. In the afternoon, returning

:53:21.:53:26.

more widely. Temperatures should be higher than today. It will feel

:53:27.:53:30.

pleasant with light winds. Tuesday looks dry and, for many places, it

:53:31.:53:34.

will be sunny. Temperatures rising quickly. A bit more cloud at times

:53:35.:53:41.

in eastern parts of England, with an onshore breeze, but away from here

:53:42.:53:45.

temperatures continuing to rise Highest of all in Wales and the West

:53:46.:53:50.

Country, mid to high 20s. We will not see the really hot air we

:53:51.:53:53.

thought we might. That is really across Spain, heading as far north

:53:54.:53:58.

as northern parts of France. Wind flow will be crucial because, around

:53:59.:54:04.

the high, it looks like our air may come all the way from Germany and

:54:05.:54:09.

the low countries. Still very warm, up to the mid-to high 20s. As the

:54:10.:54:13.

high pressure drifts further east on Wednesday, we have a weather front.

:54:14.:54:18.

This is the first sign of significant rain. Shower room rain

:54:19.:54:22.

overnight on Wednesday. Northern Ireland and Wales, it could be some

:54:23.:54:29.

thunderstorms. Very humid. Not as warm as Tuesday but, further east,

:54:30.:54:33.

still dry. This is where temperatures continue to rise.

:54:34.:54:38.

Getting into the high 20s perhaps through the Midlands and south-east

:54:39.:54:42.

England, and very warm around the Moray Firth, warmer than it has been

:54:43.:54:47.

for some time. In the late evening, things get more uncertain. We could

:54:48.:54:52.

see an area of low pressure developing, bringing rain rather

:54:53.:54:55.

than heat up from the near continent. It could be heavy and

:54:56.:54:59.

sundry overnight into Thursday across Wales in southern England. A

:55:00.:55:03.

bit of rainfall Northern Ireland. Further east, it is still dry. With

:55:04.:55:08.

an easterly wind, not quite as warm. Towards the end of the week, we have

:55:09.:55:13.

still got a weather front on the scene, much weaker by now. This area

:55:14.:55:20.

of low pressure threatens to come in off the Atlantic, Raby bringing some

:55:21.:55:23.

rain. Otherwise, some shower rebates of pieces of rain. -- showery bits

:55:24.:55:28.

and pieces. 'We're in Lochaber in Scotland's

:55:29.:55:40.

western Highlands, 'and I've been with

:55:41.:55:43.

a team of adventurers marking 'the 60th anniversary of the

:55:44.:55:46.

Duke of Edinburgh Awards, 'with a six-day expedition for the

:55:47.:55:49.

Diamond Challenge. 'It's time for me to catch up with

:55:50.:55:52.

them again on the waters of David and Katie, you're both sort of

:55:53.:55:55.

Gold D of E holders, is that right? Yep. What, for you, was the appeal

:55:56.:56:03.

of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards would you say? For me, erm, it was

:56:04.:56:06.

just the sense of the unknown. I didn't come from an outdoors-y

:56:07.:56:10.

family, erm, none of my family like being outdoors, so I fancied

:56:11.:56:14.

doing something different. Also, the fact that it looks quite

:56:15.:56:18.

good on your CV, I thought it'd be quite good for getting into

:56:19.:56:21.

universities, that sort of thing. But it kind of

:56:22.:56:24.

became more than that. It was a lot more fun than I

:56:25.:56:26.

expected it to be, and now it's kind of just like a way of life, which is

:56:27.:56:28.

why I still volunteer now, so.. I mean, obviously, it was

:56:29.:56:32.

conceived 60 years ago, that's why there's this

:56:33.:56:34.

diamond anniversary. Do you think it's dated?

:56:35.:56:37.

Do you think it's still as relevant, because a lot of young people now

:56:38.:56:40.

are chasing Pokemons around city centres, they're not

:56:41.:56:43.

necessarily canoeing lochs. I think it's more relevant now

:56:44.:56:46.

than it has ever been. Young people, I think, these days

:56:47.:56:49.

have kind of lost confidence in themselves, and I think doing

:56:50.:56:53.

something like this, they are capable of doing

:56:54.:56:56.

the big stuff really helps. You've devised quite

:56:57.:57:02.

a fiendish challenge here. Yeah You are only halfway through your

:57:03.:57:07.

second day, but at the end of it all, let me show you this, have

:57:08.:57:10.

you seen one of these? Oh, yeah Oh, wow! This is the

:57:11.:57:14.

diamond pin that will be at the end of it for you all,

:57:15.:57:17.

very exciting. And so I'm going to leave you there,

:57:18.:57:19.

guys, that's what's ahead of you, but to be honest,

:57:20.:57:22.

you're only a day and a half in You've still got four and

:57:23.:57:25.

a half days of hard slog before you earn that wonderful pin,

:57:26.:57:28.

so good luck. Thank you. I hope it goes well, I hope the wind

:57:29.:57:32.

stays behind you. All the best 'And the good news is anyone can

:57:33.:57:36.

join the adventure. 'The Diamond Challenge is open

:57:37.:57:42.

to all ages, even if you missed out 'on the Duke of Edinburgh Award

:57:43.:57:46.

Scheme the first time round.' All right, there, Joe?

:57:47.:57:51.

Hey, Naomi, how's it going? Good, come to offer you a lift

:57:52.:57:54.

You know what? I've come to offer you my

:57:55.:57:56.

spare paddle, d'you fancy it? Er, actually,

:57:57.:57:58.

I'm quite comfortable up here. Well, that's it from the Highlands

:57:59.:58:01.

and our look at 60 years of If you've been inspired to have

:58:02.:58:04.

a go, head for the website, Now, next week,

:58:05.:58:08.

we have something very special exclusive coverage from our first

:58:09.:58:13.

Countryfile Live event. Yes, Blenheim Palace is the setting

:58:14.:58:15.

for Countryfile's four-day celebration of the very best of

:58:16.:58:23.

the British countryside. Are you absolutely sure I can't

:58:24.:58:26.

give you a lift? The sun is shining, there's

:58:27.:58:31.

no midges, and, quite frankly, Fair play. See you later.

:58:32.:58:35.

See you later, take care. Bye!

:58:36.:58:39.

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