Episode 1 The Adventure Show

Hello and a very warm welcome

to a brand-new series of The Adventure Show.

This is now the tenth year of us bringing you the best

adventure sports action from Scotland and around the world,

and let me tell you this past decade has been quite a journey.

-Oh.

-Hello!

-Jimmy Dee from Dundee. I'm here.

Simple, straight climb, far too easy. That was great I'm knackered.

HE SHOUTS, CROWD CHEERS

I don't think anything can be tougher than this.

A brilliant race,

if only to do just once.

I have paddled the river before but all of a sudden my butterflies

are coming and it's trying to get them into formation and stuff.

So once again we are going to invite you to dump

and leave the morning commute, squeeze yourself into a wet suit

and some Lycra, and join us for a world of adventure and adrenaline.

We will also be following your exploits on what

we like to call "the big trip", where ordinary people

take on extraordinary challenges, all in the name of adventure.

But first we are launching our new series right

here on the River Tay in Highland Perthshire, for the premier event

in the Scottish kayak calendar, the Grandtully Canoe Slalom.

It's a really impressive place to come when the water level is like this.

You really know why you are doing canoe slalom.

It's very high, the water's moving really fast.

It's really challenging and very physical when it's like this.

You see technical bits that are just a lot of fun,

especially this cross down the bottom is so, so tiring.

Also in this month's show we are swapping paddles for pedals,

as we join someone who is making his living from just one wheel.

Life is about creating yourself through what you do,

and for me it's street unicycling helps me do that.

And join me later for one of the wildest

of wild weekends you can have anywhere.

But that is all to come. We are here at Grandtully for the Premier Slalom.

We will be covering the canoe and the kayak class,

and I am delighted to say we will have Olympic gold medallist

Tim Baillie on hand to offer an expert opinion.

-How are you doing?

-Yeah, good thanks.

Excellent. Now, the first thing I notice about this year,

Tim, there's a lot of water in the river.

How will that affect the race, do you think?

Yeah, we have been really lucky with the river level this year

cos generally it's more fun when it's higher,

it's more of an adventure.

And it means it's very powerful, it's quite unforgiving,

it's really quite physical.

You have got to be paddling as hard as you can to make some of

the crosses, but you have also got to be very subtle with the way you angle

and edge your boat, because there is lots of little creases and waves

and if you can use them you can make the distance,

and if you don't pick them up, regardless of how hard you

paddle, you are not going to make the distance.

Originally from Aberdeen, Tim has been paddling

since the age of three. The highlight of his career was that gold medal

at the 2012 London Olympics in the double canoe C2 class.

Now 33-years-old,

he has retired from the pressures of competitive paddling, but he has put

on his wet suit once again to show us the challenges of this course.

His first attempt didn't quite go to plan, which isn't perhaps

surprising, as he tackled these full-on conditions in a boat

he is not familiar with, a double-bladed kayak.

I actually borrowed the boat and the paddles, to be fair to myself,

but I got a bit caught out in the middle there,

and, yeah, caught an edge and very quickly

I thought, "I'm going to have to do a support stroke,"

and then I thought, "All right I need to remember how to roll here."

-And, of course, this is in a kayak, this is in a K boat.

-Yeah, happily,

I raced kayak until I was 23,

and I think the instinct was still there, so that was all right.

So we are on the course now, through gate one, talk us through it.

Yeah, gate one, two, three is relatively simple,

it's just a case of keeping the drive on, and picking up the waves.

And I guess so high in the course, you are looking to be quite efficient

as well. It's a nice wave here, just out of gate five to surf out to six.

It's what we call a ferry glider, it's where you are crossing

the flow with your bow at a slight upstream angle.

And that's just like a long straight ferry, tip six to seven.

Try and get your bow down a bit into gate eight.

And there you see I got actually a pretty nice break-out.

It's quite a big wave surf there...

As you're just leaning into that,

just letting the waves do all the work there.

If you can pick up the water

and get it to push you where you want to go, it's much less work.

I am coming down now to the absolute crux move on the course,

which is the cross from the red gate 13, above the green pole, 14,

and across to the other red gate, 15.

So what I am going to try

and do is get as close to the green pole here as I can. Sadly, I've

got nowhere near it and that means I'm going to fall even lower now.

So quite hard work to stay high in the river there, yeah?

Yeah, I mean I've done a really... definitely not a good job of this.

And you can see there I am fighting

and paddling all the way up the eddy. The last three gates are quite

a nice little tactical float, I guess you'd call it.

You can't really go much faster there than you're going,

you just need to be a bit neat to get the gates.

But that cross 13 to 15, I knew I was trying to avoid that.

And knowing it is just one part of it, actually doing it is

fairly difficult, fairly physical and really skilful as well.

So, yeah, it's going to be a big move.

We are kicking off the action with the women's kayak discipline

known as K1. The rules are simple - fastest down the course wins.

Each paddler has two runs, it's the best time from either that counts.

If you hit a gate there is a two-second penalty,

Miss one and there is a massive 50 seconds added to your time.

We are joining the women on their first run. Commentating with me

today are Duncan McCallum, and giving us that expert's eye, Tim Baillie.

And its under-23 paddler Alice Haining from Selkirk

now at the top of the course.

So Alice, she's a local girl, she knows the river well.

Based in Nottingham now,

but she has spent years here training over the years.

So very quick generally. A good balance of the strength

and power to make it stick, but also the subtle boat skills to

really make sure the boat's tracking well.

And it's just such a powerful river today that you can't really

give it an inch cos it will take a mile.

And very nicely done on that upstream gate,

as Alice has to push back across this huge water here in the river today.

And big, big white water catching her.

She is looking extremely strong into this upstream gate.

Struggling a little bit with the power, neatly through that.

And then cutting back across into the downstream gate,

looks like a little touch there.

Back into the nice calm water here, and then a massive ferry

glide across the river. Very, very full conditions.

They haven't managed to practise this course,

this is an event which is pretty much done onsite.

They can inspect it from both banks,

but they are not allowed to paddle it.

So really all these strokes are the first time

she will have done them on the river. Nicely up through 15, the calm

water and cutting back in to three or four downstream gates, nicely done.

There is a big kicker there that is trying to push

her on to the contact, she has managed that well.

And downstream, through the finish at 116.11, that's a pretty good time.

Next up its Mallory Franklin from Berkshire.

Mallory is one of the female athletes who is actually doubling up

today and racing in C1 and K1.

Probably, to be fair to her, C1 might be normally her stronger class.

The move through gate three to four is pretty important to stay

good there and efficient, and then there is a big move from five to

six. You have got to put on a lot of speed to get the wave, to get to six.

But then just as you are coming to six the wave wants to spit you

out too far, so you have got to hold off a wee bit,

be a little bit subtle through the gate.

And then fire off really hard again to get to seven. I think

she will be kind of not too unhappy with it, given the conditions.

She is definitely looking to challenge the top girls.

Another big move at nine,

I actually capsized there yesterday practising it.

It's a big wave there, you have got to try and work hard to get on it.

She will probably be fairly satisfied, given how difficult the course is today.

Onto the bottom parts of the course now, just five gates to go.

Mallory's looking solid as she works her way over towards gate 15.

Now, she must keep herself

focused for the final three downstream gates.

You can't really pick up much time on this section,

just a question of getting through cleanly,

Under the bridge, end in sight.

Mallory has made it down. 119.92, with two penalty points.

That puts her into second place behind Alice.

Into the top of the course now is 21-year-old Beth Latham.

Beth is from Yorkshire and is based in Nottingham, as most of the

GB paddlers are, some moving to London, of course,

and she has been in

the under-23 GB team, and the senior women's team for the last year.

Up through that gate, quite nice.

With a result of seventh in the World Cup last year in Cardiff,

a fantastic, fantastic position for her.

And back onto the course, straight down through these downhill gates.

With the full width of the river being used today with such

a huge depth of water, and Beth so far looking very, very strong.

Another big full river crossing here

and the course setters are making use of this high water.

When the river is as high as this it's a very, very physical test.

It takes a lot of energy to batter with the flows anywhere, where you

have got to make a cross, or in your eddy water, you have got to really

put a lot of effort in, so some really promising paddling there.

I think the key is to be efficient with your effort

and to be strategic, choose where you are going to put the effort in.

So, for instance, you can see the flow is going really quickly

downstream. Once you are in the flow, it is not that necessary to

sprint hard down the river because you are being taken there for free.

Oh, and that's not so good, she looks like she has just caught that.

There is a little stopper there,

it's pushed her much further down than she would've liked and she has

a long, long paddle into uphill 15. That has cost her quite some time.

But the three sprint gates down into the end, yeah,

and she is now into the finish with the time of 119.91.

So that puts Beth into second place,

with only one paddler to come, Fiona Pennie.

Fiona is the reigning European Champion, she won that race in Krakow

last year, and she is a fantastically powerful female athlete.

And she is local, she is from Crieff,

she knows this river really well.

Looking pretty strong, very, very focused, very determined to win.

And moved to London to take and train on the Olympic course,

and has been there a little while now, so this is a nice return home for her.

Huge, huge water here.

And rather than maybe looking as fluid as some of the girls,

Fiona looks like she is trying to fight her way through the water than use the water form.

But she is very strong, she won't run out of strength,

but maybe, maybe not taking the best use of the water or the best line.

Coming down here through 12, looking strong.

And down into this tricky uphill 13 where the water suddenly

gets very slow.

she looks like she has just tapped a rock there

with the left-hand paddle.

Trying to sprint up, keeping the nose of the boat straight

up in the river and that will keep you in line for this gate.

Oh, that's not so good - she looks like she's just caught that.

There is a little stopper there, it's pushed her much further down

than she would have liked.

And she has a long, long paddle into uphill 15.

That has cost her quite some time.

She looked like she was on a cracking run, and then, once again,

just the power of the water between 14 and 15 really blew her away.

And it's going to be interesting to see who has got the lead after

first runs.

Yeah, and into the finish at 117.01,

that puts her just behind Alice into second place.

And that first run down the course proved to be pivotal, with none of

the top women being able to improve on their time on their second runs.

So at the end of this women's K1 event, the results

looked like this. Beth Latham, from south of the border was third

with a time of 119.91 seconds.

Fiona Pennie took second with 117.01.

But out in the lead by just under a second, Alice Haining was

the fastest paddler here today at Grandtully with a time

of 116.11, making it a Scottish one-two on the podium today.

It's just nice to have done all my hard winter's training

and come out with a good outcome to open the season with.

It's pretty physical, like after my first run

I stopped after the finish and I was just like, "Oh, my God I can't

"move my arms," because once you stop it just hits you.

But it's nice to know you have worked hard as well.

It's my first Prem win as well.

So it's a nice way to open up the season.

Well, congratulations to Alice Haining, a paddler

we have featured quite a lot on The Adventure Show over

the years. Great to see her getting a victory.

It may be exciting on the water, but it's exciting in the city, too.

We are heading to the capital now to meet Jason Auld.

A lot of my life has been about trying to stand out in some way,

shape or form.

And it's absolutely a philosophy that I would preach to other

people as well.

He is a founding member of Voodoo Unicycles, the UK's only

extreme one-wheel team, and someone who is passionate about the sport.

Even when it means learning on the job.

That was just to show how hard it is.

It's very hard to be

original in this day or age, very, very hard.

I wouldn't say that what we do, what I do is original, per se,

but it's taking something established and doing your own thing with it.

You know, people always go on about trying to find themselves.

I don't think life is about finding yourself, I think it's about forging yourself.

It's about creating yourself through what you do.

And for me, street unicycling helps me do that.

OK, here we go.

Whilst you will normally see Jason on the streets of Edinburgh,

last year he and the Voodoo Unicycle team decided to head

north to the Highlands to see what was on offer

elsewhere in Scotland, and they took a camera with them.

We had a rough route planned out,

but none of us had really been in that part of the world before.

I was born and raised in Edinburgh, so I am absolutely a proud Scotsman

but I had never seen that part of the country, so it was quite eye-opening.

What ultimately we wanted to do was tackle a diverse range

of environments. We had all seasons in one week, it was incredible.

We were up a mountain in Skye and it was snowing,

and then we came down and it was bright sunshine. We were

on beaches with water that I honestly have never seen that colour before.

And then you go up north and you see the Highlands

and you are like, "Wow, this is really what Scotland is."

Scotland isn't Edinburgh Castle and tartan tat on the Royal Mile.

I mean it's...it really blew my mind,

it really changed my perception of the whole place.

More or less the first question that people ask me

about our Highlands video is about Mike on Kylesku Bridge.

Obviously, that was the jewel in the crown of the whole thing.

It was the last shot. It's the last shot for a reason, it was crazy!

And the way that played out was quite funny, actually. Myself and

the film maker were in a separate van from Mike and the rest of the guys.

And we were talking it over the whole climb,

and we were like, "Who is going to tell Mike's mum if Mike dies?"

I know that sounds really sombre,

but these things go through your head, and if Mike had fallen off

the bridge we probably would have had to take him home in a cardboard box.

We got there and we decided that we weren't going to let him do it,

we thought, "It's not worth it, we can throw some more shots in there."

The other guys had already shot it,

so we were kind of like thankful that we didn't have to see it in person.

I mean, after that there was a few close-up shots taken

and we had to see Mike on the railing again, and it was quite hairy.

It's kind of weird when you see one of your mates basically hovering

over impending doom, but, yeah Mike's confidence

far exceeded his fear.

Believe me, if Mike thought he was going to die by riding on that

bridge he wouldn't have been up there. He has ridden far thinner

things a couple of feet off the ground, so in essence all he needed

to do was replicate that skill a few hundred feet in the air.

So we all think about worst-case scenario.

And I think when you do what we do, when you put yourselves

in risky situations, you have to turn that voice off a little bit.

There is a large part of me and there is probably a large

part of the guys on my team that are spurred on by... It kind of lights

a fire under them when people tell them what they are doing isn't

cool or worthwhile, and you just kind of want to prove these people wrong.

Wah-ah-ah!

As I have said before in this programme, really,

really don't try this at home, please!

If that leaves you exhausted, here is something more relaxing,

but a big adventure nonetheless,

as we join Cameron McNeish on an unusual wild weekend.

Get your planning right and it's possible to escape to what

looks like a lunar landscape, where, in the absence of any detailed maps,

walking is still a journey of exploration.

And yet you can now travel here easily from Scotland.

I am on a wild weekend,

although I am kind of stretching the definition of weekend into

maybe four or five days, because this is a very special place.

This was the very heart of the ancient Hittite empire.

It was then colonised by Persians

and later became one of the biggest provinces of ancient Rome.

I am in Turkey, in Cappadocia. And I have to say

it's one of the most bizarre and surreal landscapes that

I have ever walked through.

Cameron's companion to this amazing place is Koray Ata,

someone as unusual as the landscape itself.

This whole region which your eye sees around is created by wind,

fire, and earth, and water, of course.

All the four elements are actively playing a role in creating this area.

About two million years ago, many volcanoes around here,

they erupted, and they filled all this region with about 150

-metres of tufa. This is what they call tufa.

-Tufa is this rock.

-Is this rock.

-It's a pale-coloured rock.

It's actually just ash, it's the ash of a volcano.

So these materials which are spat out from the volcano's crater, for

like 50, 40, hundreds of kilometres away from its originated place.

But when they cool they make a pressure on the tufa which is

beneath, so when the water and the wind erodes the tufa, what stays for

you is the stone on the top and the erosion which creates these shapes.

-This is remarkable. Is this caused by erosion?

-By erosion.

Not usually, actually. Mostly by winter erosions,

when the rain freezes in the minus degrees,

and expands and makes the rocks break and fall down.

It makes a perfect shelter, it's a natural shelter.

But I would be worried about that falling down.

As long as you are not in winter, and it's not minus degrees,

you shouldn't be afraid of that falling down.

I first came here when I was 16, with my family,

and I was like, "Wow, this is crazy! I have never seen something like this."

But this was just a short visit, and it's only after the university

that I really get interested in more deeper history,

and discovering, exploring not only the known Cappadocia, but

the alternative Cappadocia, the Cappadocia like here. This place,

I will bring you to more like this because this is what I love.

Koray, how long have you been guiding?

Now it's eight years. I was in the academy, in the university, doing a

Masters degree about History, Ancient History. I was having fun in uni.

So what made you change from the academic life to becoming

a man of the hills?

OK, one morning I woke up and I couldn't move,

I couldn't wake up, I couldn't say a word.

I was trying to speak

but all I was saying was just some weird noise like, "Abla, abla, abla."

And so they actually found that I got a blood clot in my brain.

A blood clot in your brain?

A blood clot in my brain, which paralysed my part of speech control.

And they said that I am very, very lucky I am still alive,

and they said it's only because I am young that I am still alive.

And they said that you must be ready that you will never be able to

speak again.

So I said, "Oh, come on, Koray. Tomorrow you wake up,

"you're fine again, that's it."

So one month, one and a half month, I couldn't say any word,

then I started to speak.

Then I said, "I am 25 years old and is this really what I wanted to do,

"like be behind a desk writing all the time?"

I mean, I love history, but is this really what I want?

So that blood clot and that situation made you reassess your whole

-lifestyle?

-Sure, yeah.

The winter sun is just dipping down towards the horizon now,

and we are coming to the end of our first walk with Koray.

And what a sensational walk it's been.

I honestly can say that I can't remember a walk that has excited me

just as much as this. Around every corner there has been something new.

And Koray has promised us

another one for tomorrow that is going to be equally as sensational.

I like to mix the walks on my wild weekends with as many eating

opportunities as possible, so I have come along to this traditional

Turkish restaurant where I hope the ladies will perhaps allow me

to help them, and we will see how it all ends up. Fingers crossed.

Could you ask the ladies what we are making?

THEY SPEAK TURKISH

-Now they are rolling leaves. they have inside rice, bulgur, mint...

-Mint.

-And...

-Onion?

-Yeah, onion.

And parsley. Parsley, yeah.

-Would you like to know how they prepared those?

-Yeah.

THEY SPEAK TURKISH

They put salt between and let it for about three weeks, saltwater

and so they become ready in a jar.

And they are ready for this process.

OK, so just roll, you don't have to tuck it in.

-Just roll it as tight as possible.

-Just roll.

-Not quite so good at that.

HE LAUGHS

Well, I am not really sure how helpful I was, but it looks

really good and I am most certainly looking forward to eating it.

I was expecting a simple plate of ravioli,

but this looks like the start of a complete Turkish banquet.

OK, thank you. Round two, ha-ha!

This is the yoghurt topping.

Mm! I have to say the hospitality here has been fantastic.

If you think Turkish cooking is nothing more than kebabs,

you are completely wrong. This is wonderful.

Welcome back to the wild white water here at Grandtully. We are

now moving on to the canoe class.

And there are differences between that and the K or kayak class we

have already seen, so we asked former winner here and current Olympic

champion Tim Baillie to explain to us how both classes measure up.

Now, the most obvious difference with the canoe category is that you

use a single-bladed paddle like this one, and in the kayak

category, which we also call K1, you use a double-bladed paddle.

Because I am used to paddling in a canoe I am going to try

and demonstrate the C1, and we have got

the European Champion, Fiona Pennie, who is going to demonstrate the K1.

When I look at a course, I know that I have both blades to play with,

but when I look at it from a C1 point of view

I have to think about the line

a bit more, I have to pronounce the line I am actually going to do more.

And then I have to think about where I might be stronger, actually

staying on the on side rather than going to the crossbar stroke,

so when you are taking the single blade over to the other side.

I mean, it's not maybe totally obvious

when we are actually in the boats,

but in a canoe boat I am kneeling in that boat, and obviously you are

sitting in your kayak, it's quite a key difference because the weight of your legs

in the front gives the boat a lot more forward speed and tracking.

I have noticed when I paddle the C1 it's far easier to pivot

the boat because I don't have the weight in the front of my boat,

my legs aren't there, they are underneath me when I am kneeling.

I guess coming out of the break-out was quite a key area,

where for you having the good power of the kayak, having both legs,

you could cut a really direct line and take a spin option.

Whereas, for myself, I wasn't really making it

when I tried to go the direct line, so I ended up going out much higher.

But then, because the boat pivots so easily,

I could actually pull the move forwards when I did it

and you see there I managed to just about get it forwards.

I am quite sure I couldn't get to that skill whether I had one,

two or 20 blades on my paddle.

Now we are catching up with the men's C1 class, one blade only.

With the absence of Olympic medallist, Scotland's David Florence,

this year's event is a chance for the up-and-coming young paddlers

to make their mark, and most of them are from south of the border.

20-year-old Ryan Westley doesn't underestimate the challenge

this Scottish river poses.

I live in Nottingham, train there and down Lee Valley,

a very predictable... a much slower-moving river.

It's a completely different sport.

We're used to nipping in behind stoppers. Here you've

got to play with the waves, you don't really know what's going on.

There's rocks that you don't really expect, it's just fast,

a lot prettier, obviously, and a bit more dangerous in certain

places, so it gets your heart pumping a little bit in a different way.

Another determined canoeist with an eye on getting to the

top of this sport is 17-year-old Sam Ibbotson.

He is a sixth-form student, also based in Nottingham.

A large part of it is probably pretty physical.

Obviously, the size of the water is quite big.

There is quite a few crosses,

but I'd say there is a good bit of skill in there in being able to pick up

those waves, and being able to use them to your advantage.

We are picking up the action on the second run for the C1 class,

and it's Sam Ibbotson now on the water.

He is currently lying in second place after the first run.

Sam is a super-exciting young talent,

and it seems like he has been a junior for ages.

He has got two older brothers that were both paddlers as well,

and he has just benefited from coming through as the youngest.

The C1 category is definitely the toughest class to be racing in,

with the difficulty in getting propulsion.

And on top of that the wind has been blowing up on second runs here,

and it is really coming and going and gusting very strongly.

He has always been there with his family

and racing on good water from a very young age, and now he has had

a bit of a growth spurt and put on a bit of height, he is very quick.

That looks like another pretty tidy run from him.

Neatly done, and into a nice trench between two big waves here,

beautifully done, beautiful line.

Popping out of that just to get this slower gate on upstream 13,

and very, very neat into that.

A big sprint right across the river, having to

take in one of the downstream gates here, through that very neatly.

And a nice high line taking him close in to 15, and you just get

pushed downstream very, very quickly there with that big water,

and you shouldn't fight against that, you need to let it take you.

And then when you are in to 15 sprint up very close to that.

Looks well done.

And then three downstream gates.

Good line from Sam here, fantastic,

fantastic paddle.

And that takes him through the finish at 124.57.

He did just pick up

two penalty points and that puts him in second place.

At the top of the course now,

let's see what 20-year-old Ryan Westley

can make of these conditions.

Had a great first run, currently in the lead. Let's see

if he can maintain that position.

Oh, it looked like a touch there, downstream gate four,

winds blowing five all over the place.

But he is through it clean, nicely done,

heading across the river now.

Working very hard.

Quick dip under six, over to the next upstream gate.

Such difficult conditions in this heavy water today for the canoe

class, but he has got through this one very nicely indeed.

Very exciting run from number four, Ryan Westley, there,

he has absolutely charged down the course.

He has been taking very direct lines, working hard

and really bossing the water about.

I think probably the first athlete that has matched

the physicality of the water today.

Ryan seems to be really be

finding his form which is a very good time for it in the run-in to

senior selection at the end of the month in London.

But, yeah another really good run from him there,

just a slight bit slower but he is still holding the overall lead.

So he has got to be happy at this stage.

Yeah, it's a time of 113.85, with two penalty points.

No improvement on his first run, but he is

still at the top of the leaderboard with just one paddler still to come.

Last down the course is 21-year-old Adam Burgess,

sitting in third place after run one, so will be keen

to improve on that.

Adam Burgess, number three, in GB colours,

he is really putting in a good, clean paddle here at the top of the course.

Beautifully rotating around on that single blade.

You can see the concentration on his face.

Maybe not quite as strong as some of the other paddlers,

but technically absolutely brilliant.

And with the big water here today, that might well put him

in a winning run. Nice and close there, through there.

Looks slightly more awkward with the paddle on the right-hand side

rather than the left, but controlled it well.

Slightly slower here, and he is going to have to sprint very far

up into this to get enough power and enough height.

Through all the little twigs and reeds,

he has just clipped a couple of them with the paddle, though.

And taking far too much time before setting himself up.

Yeah, Adam's a really fast, very exciting paddler to watch.

But I think today he has just struggled with the power

of the water a little bit, and he looked like he was on a good run.

But then he got stuck on a bit of a treadmill at gate 14,

he really wanted to make sure he got on the highway from 14 to 15,

but he just got stuck in the eddy in the middle.

And he will probably be disappointed not to have got in tighter there.

He was just going backwards when he was trying to catch the wave.

And that meant that he actually got spun out on the eddy line at

15 as well, and he will have dropped a heap of time there against Ryan.

Coming over the finish line,

he is across in 127.02, just faster than his first run.

He does look pretty pleased with that even though it is not enough

to improve on his current position.

So the results in the men's C1 are,

as we have seen Adam Burgess finished the race in third place.

Ahead of him in second place is Sam Ibbotson, with his fastest

run of 122.75, but first place went to Ryan Westley with

a commanding performance and an outstanding time of 114.65.

It's crazy - all the waves, big waves as you are coming down,

really inconsistent, going everywhere.

It's really hard to keep the boat tracking online.

Just with the width of the river

and the speed of the water you have got to put in a lot of effort across.

I had two really good runs, silly touches on the same gate

but ended up with the win which is what I came here for

and it's a lovely way to kick off the season.

Honestly, it looks like a canoe car park around here.

Congratulations to Ryan Westley - winner in the C1 category.

Now I am sure you all remember the Great British success

at the Olympics in the C2 category,

with gold and silver medals for Team GB,

but we understand that the Olympic future of C2 is in doubt,

with the IOC considering removing C2 as an Olympic discipline.

With competitors planning their Olympic dreams years, if not

decades, ahead, this is a particular blow for younger paddlers.

Now they have only one attempt left for Olympic glory.

It is a big shame because, yeah, we would be coming in to

our prime for 2020 basically. We would be the right age.

We would have been paddling for a long time,

and obviously we only started less than a year ago.

So it's, yes, it's still a very new thing to us

and a lot to learn before 2016.

19-year-old Zak Franklin races in a C2 boat

with C1 winner Ryan Westley.

For them, it's meant a significant change in their approach.

Obviously, for us, recently starting C2, we were looking more 2020, 2024.

So it's just meant we had to step up our timeline a bit,

and work a bit harder.

And we had a bit of a chat about it when we found out that it

wasn't going to be in 2020, and we decided we would go for 2016.

With it being so close, it's only like two years

of hard training and we may make it, we may not.

But it's worth a shot really.

It's a shame but I think it's still worth pushing for 2016.

In today's race, Zak and Ryan showed they have the potential for

a shot at an Olympic medal,

finishing first, two seconds ahead of their nearest rivals.

It's not all bad news for canoeists though.

It's proposed that women's C1 will be elevated to Olympic status.

Now this is an event that was only introduced a few years ago.

Now with the focus on Tokyo 2020, standards will go much higher.

And in today's race, the women were really put through their paces.

18-year-old Kimberley Woods from Rugby is one of the most

experienced women in C1, and had a great run down the river.

She hit one gate but had the fastest time by far - 144.11 seconds,

with two added for that touch.

So with the total time of 146.11, she was leading the field

by a massive 24 seconds at the start of the second run.

Rachel Houston is just 17 years old and from Perth -

one of the new generation of rising Scottish stars.

Despite missing two gates on her first run,

her second was much cleaner and she finished with a time of 161.27.

19-year-old Mallory Franklin also had a tough first run.

A medallist in the World Championship last year,

she performed much better second time down

and finished with a time of 148.85.

Yet the fastest time of the day went to Kimberley Woods

with that unbeatable first run.

C1 Women is quite a strong field.

I guess all you have to do is put in the best run that you can,

and I had quite a solid run to start with.

And there was a lot of mistakes going on with other people

so I was quite lucky that that happened.

So confirmation of those results.

Third was Rachel Houston with a time of 161.27.

Second place went to Mallory Franklin with a time of 148.85.

And Kimberley Woods' first run of 146.11

was enough to secure her the top spot.

Congratulations to Kimberley,

and hopefully that display of talent will stand us in good stead

when the event becomes an Olympic discipline in 2020.

More action from the water to come, but first we are heading back to

Turkey to find out what else Cameron got up to on his wild weekend.

We have wakened this morning to a very different kind of weather.

From the nice sunny weather yesterday,

this morning is more like Scotland.

It is actually quite chilly and blowing just a wee bit.

But Koray has brought me to a very different kind of landscape today.

Yesterday we were wandering through trees and it was all very pretty,

this is much starker, different colours of rocks.

And I am getting quite excited about what we are

going to see down here, it looks quite interesting.

This is one of my favourite places in all the Goreme region,

because now we are walking down to one of the most special churches

which is possible to see here in Goreme.

OK, well, let's go and do it. Let's see it.

This is called the Red Pit, or as we say - Kizilcukur.

Which is one of the most important places here in Goreme region.

It's not only important because of its natural beauty,

but also its historical beauty.

Because here are some very important churches.

And we will start with my favourite one

which is called the Uzumlu, or the Great Church.

And that's just here, that big rock.

It all looks like big rocks, as long as you are not inside.

It's a very old church.

The frescos inside are from the 8th century.

-8th century?

-8th century AD.

So almost 1,200 years old.

And one very special fresco makes this unique in all Cappadocia.

And that's the St Simeon fresco.

St Simeon is a very holy saint, holy man.

He spent all his life on one column,

and so his fresco is only found here.

-So that's him on the column.

-That's him on the column.

When you say he sat on the column,

you are talking about one of these fairy towers.

No, no, no just the column, a Roman column.

He just sat on a Roman column all the time?

He spent all his life there.

I have seen and heard some amazing things over the years,

but the thought of a man sitting on top of a Roman column

all his life, that really takes the biscuit.

This landscape provided an ideal hiding place

for a persecuted population.

As well as places for worship, the Christians needed to ensure

that where they lived and produced their food was also secret.

This was one of the most important

productions for the Cappadocia people.

Right, so what are all these little shelves for?

These, Cameron, are the pigeon houses, or the pigeon nests.

They were taking fertilizers out of the pigeons.

They were eating their eggs, using their meat like chickens.

It's much more protective to use the pigeon instead

of the chicken, because a chicken would immediately point

to people living in that place. That's what they wanted to avoid.

They didn't want anyone to know that they are living in that place.

It's a production place for the pigeons.

At least this is what you think when you first come inside.

But if you follow me, I will show you something else about this place.

-Oh, right, well lead on.

-Mind your head here.

-Oh, it's a flight of steps.

-Yes.

-I hadn't noticed the steps.

And they are long steps.

This is extraordinary!

It's just, you would never know from outside that this was here.

You couldn't have the slightest idea that here was something like that.

But this is more than just a church, it's like a cathedral.

It is a church, but it is like a cathedral.

It is the biggest one you can find here in the valley.

You know, this makes me feel like Indiana Jones.

-It's that sense of discovery.

-It's a sense of discovery.

Do you have any idea at all how this was carved out?

What is certain is that they started from the top,

so they were not digging from down, out and up, up.

They were starting from the high point and coming down,

so all the soil was sent out, while they were digging,

and then down, out, another hole, another window, out.

So they were going from up to down.

The other way, it would be impossible to make anyway.

What amazes me is how perfect the architecture is,

these beautiful aligned arches.

I totally agree, and also for me it's just like a wonder

because these people were not sophisticated architects.

This is different. You don't use the usual material,

you are just carving, it needs experience.

So it's something which passed from generation to generation

for these people.

It's just fascinating for me every time I come to Cappadocia.

It gives you so many clues about your ancestry.

Christians, Romans, Hittites - all are my ancestors.

Everybody who lived here is my ancestor.

So these are all remains of them, of course I am proud of them.

Of course I am proud of my country. I am happy to be here.

This is not only for me, this is for all of humankind, all of mankind.

What a special wild weekend that was.

If you want to find out about walking in Cappadocia

and travel to Turkey,

or any of the other items featured on the Adventure Show,

as ever, follow us on Facebook.

Now it's back to the white water.

Scottish athletes have proved we can get to the very top of the sport

but it requires total commitment and dedication.

We joined two ambitious young paddlers -

Bradley Forbes-Cryans from Edinburgh,

and this year's winner in the K1 Women's class -

20-year-old Alice Haining from Selkirk.

Alice has now moved south of the border to Nottingham

in order to combine studying with an intensive training regime.

We caught up with her on a brief visit back home to the Borders.

I have got a dream to go to the Olympics,

to go to the World Championships, and to be on the senior team.

And I will keep on driving for that. I've got time on my side.

I've got at least ten years, if I can do it, and that's loads of time.

And I enjoy the sport so much that I just want to keep on doing it.

I do it every day.

I have been doing it every day since I was ten years old

and it's still not boring to me.

In spite of her win at Grandtully,

Alice hasn't made the GB team this year.

Her mum knows that with stiff competition her

future could be uncertain.

She was close to making the team.

So when you have got six people wanting a team place,

three have to be disappointed, and three are going to get in.

And I think to make reserve would be her best place

if she didn't make the team. I think that's really fantastic.

I would like her to get a couple of years of study under her belt,

because you need something to fall back on.

She has got lots of good assets and I think you need to be

using your mind, you need to think about the future.

Canoeing is such an unpredictable sport -

it's whoever can lay it down on the day.

With moving to Nottingham just in June, I have built up my skill base

so much that I have acquired a lot of techniques.

And now it's just being consistent.

But I won at Grandtully, which is great.

It's my first Prem win, and on a home site.

I got promoted to Prem there as well.

So it's all happened in Scotland,

which is really nice since I am Scottish.

It's a great feeling. I wouldn't want it any other way.

Another young Scot who is aiming for the top is 19-year-old

Bradley Forbes-Cryans.

He is on the GB Potential Podium Programme

which targets athletes who could make it to the Olympics.

We joined him on one of his training sessions with coach Neil Shanks.

When I started out my career as a strength and conditioning coach,

the first ever athlete I came across was Bradley

as a young 13, 14-year-old.

He was still in school and just learning his trade.

I think the main step up was in 2012 when I made my first junior final.

That was when I kind of decided my school work wasn't going great

so I thought I would really take the opportunity to give it a go.

Monday to Friday, I am in the gym at least once a day.

Three of those sessions are weightlifting

and Olympic lifts, and the other two sessions are just recovery.

Where I come in for about an hour, an hour and a half,

and just do some stretching and muscle activation.

During the kayak, he is going to get in different positions,

which is just going to strain muscles.

So what we are doing is just mobilising up the tissues

and allowing them to be more free.

So when we go in to position with a bar

he is not restricted by flexibility.

He has got a really good work ethic, he trains hard,

he follows guidance from coaches.

And I think that's going to put him in good stead for the future.

We will be finding out how Bradley gets on in today's race shortly.

One thing's for sure though,

he is determined to make a real impact on this sport.

At the end of the summer, I plan to move down to London

to join in properly with the GB programmes.

Open up.

It will definitely be a benefit living there because that is

where selection is every year, through races on the course.

Hopefully we will see some of those younger paddlers

challenging for honours in the major events soon.

Next up, we are going to see how the big guns do it

here on the River Tay in the Men's K1.

On the first run down the course, many of the kayakers struggled

with the tough conditions.

Hopefuls Zak Franklin, Steffan Walker,

and Bradley Forbes-Cryans all missed gates.

Just two paddlers were really able to challenge the water,

seasoned pro Huw Swetnam was the fastest with a time of 104.45,

while Joe Coombs came in just behind him in 105.57.

We are joining the paddlers for their second run

as Joe Coombs takes to the water.

So we are straight into the action here with 22-year-old Joe Coombs.

He is a fulltime professional athlete based in Nottingham.

And he had a really good time in his first run of 105.57.

He is looking to improve that. It put him in second place.

And very nicely done through number five.

Good high line there to take him in to six and seven.

Quite good from Joe here.

Very nicely done through there.

Slightly slower than maybe he would have liked in to that gate,

the upstream gate.

But he has found a good line to go right across the whole

of the river to the right hand bank.

Oh, he is a little bit low there.

Very slow and ponderous coming out of this gate

into the downstream again, but neatly done.

Hugging the bank there in fairly calm water, reading the water well.

And he hasn't set himself up too high here.

He is going to get pushed very, very far down

coming in to this difficult upstream gate.

Joe was the one athlete in the Men's Kayak who actually pinned

the cross from gate 13 to gate 15 on the first runs.

And that was reflected in his overall second place after the first runs.

And unfortunately there, I think he had a pretty decent run

generally, but he couldn't recreate that amazing cross 13, 14, 15.

And so his second run is a fair bit slower.

He will be a bit disappointed not to improve and take the overall lead.

Joe crosses the line in a time of 110.12,

which means he is still in second place at the moment.

Next on the course is Steffan Walker from mid-Wales,

another under 23-year-old paddler.

Had a dreadful first run, struggled on the bottom of the course

and couldn't make it back up the river to upstream gate 15,

so that finished off his chances for that run.

And he has decided to conserve his energy so he could give it

all the second time around.

This run looking much, much better.

Very clean and precise paddling in the top half of the course.

Over to gate six and on to seven.

Now let's see how he gets on with upstream gate eight.

Very tidy indeed.

Heading in to the big water now.

Nice glide over that wave.

Seems much more in tune with the river this time around.

Massive improvement from Steffan there. He had a fairly,

I am sure he would admit it, abysmal first run with four gates missed.

Been pushing the course around pretty well,

and not the best cross, the 15.

But certainly, given that he would probably have good pace

on the rest of the course, I think that's a competitive effort there.

Really clean there, very quick.

Managed to maintain his power output right to the end.

Coming over the finish line, Steffan is across in 104.79.

Good enough for second place, for now anyway.

So just sprinting through the start now,

number eight, Bradley Forbes-Cryans from Edinburgh.

A young Scottish hopeful here, age 19,

had a really terrible first run.

He missed five gates completely and whacked another three.

The big water he is finding a little bit difficult.

And it looks to me as though he is putting the paddle in too

close to the boat which makes it very, very hard to control.

Better. This is better than the first run for sure.

And that's nicely done,

coming across the river nice and quick,

in to the middle three gates.

Good line.

And quite close in to this upstream gate. Neatly done.

Just maybe a little bit slow out of that,

but you have to come all the way across the river again

through this big, big channel into this upstream gate which catches

many people out because the water suddenly goes slow and very hard.

So through ten neatly, and then you've got two downstream

gates in the middle of the river. He's ducked under that quite well.

Looking tired,

lacking, maybe, the real power you need

for these very, very heavy water conditions.

Bradley, I'm sure, will be disappointed with his

day's racing now, really. He's a favourite Scottish athlete,

he was top British junior last year and he's really in surging form.

But today wasn't really his day, even though he enjoys the river

when it's high like this. He's struggled with this.

Just the same crux move for everyone is this

cross at the bottom - 13, 14, 15.

And just probably without that loss he'd be right up there,

but he's just shed a bit of time.

Comes across the line in 106.02, currently puts him

into fourth place.

Zak Franklin now on the course,

winner with his partner Ryan Westley in C2.

He's another under-23 paddler. He's been competing for over ten years,

so he does have the experience to draw on.

Looking very strong as he works his way through upstream gate eight

in to the big water,

taking a good straight line between the waves, over to ten.

That does look fast.

The time to beat is still Huw Swetnam's 104.45.

Yes, it's hard to find fault on Zak's run so far, as he heads

across the river,

trying to keep the boat as high as possible, nice.

A lot of the athletes are running similar pace for most of the course,

and then it's all coming down to 13, 14, 15...

And crucially, if you can get neat into 15, then it's worth

a lot of time, and Zak, he was pretty well in contact there

through the... He's upped his game and a fairly good run, managed

to keep a bit of boat speed running and carry that out to the flow.

Coming across to the line, it's going to be very close indeed!

104.21.

Just a fraction faster than Huw Swetnam's first run,

so the pressure's now on Huw at the top of the course.

So Huw, having heard that he's just lost his lead time here to

a competitor in the second run, has really got to pull it out of the bag

if he's wanting to win this, but he is a very seasoned competitor.

Has been competing at the highest level of the sport for many

years throughout the world.

So looking good, looking really, really powerful here.

He's very tight into the gates,

and not fazed by the high water. That's what experience gives you.

Looking for all the fast pieces that work,

and then the slower bits of water that you can guide yourself through.

And looking extremely strong and confident here.

He's one of the older athletes racing today. He's been

racing here for years and years, knows the river really well.

And he is also a pretty rangy guy, pretty big, and very, very fit,

so he should know what he's doing.

He's been pushing the course around pretty well.

I spoke to him between rides and he was pretty unhappy with

his bottom cross. We had a little bit of a chat about it,

and I can probably claim to have coached him on it.

Quite a conservative climb out of gate 13,

but then a very, very aggressive and direct run across through

14 and into 15. I think it's a massive improvement.

I mean, he knew what he was trying to do anyway, like everyone does -

it's just on this run, having had the chance to eye it up

on his first run, he's really got his eye in and pinned it there.

104.21's the time to beat,

and it's looking like he's well inside that.

Over the line it's 102.95 with no penalties.

What an amazing performance. Huw Swetnam is the clear winner.

So, at the end of two gruelling runs, the results look like this.

Steffan Walker came in third

with a time of 104.79.

Second place went to Zak Franklin

in 104.21, but out in the lead,

completing this incredibly taxing

course in 102.95, it's Huw Swetnam.

Definitely the second run felt really nice.

The first run I thought actually felt quite awful at the bottom,

until I discovered everyone felt like that.

Tim did have a little word with me. I spoke to him about that move.

He talked me through the line to take for second runs,

and helped me out. Cheers, Tim.

I don't think anyone will forget gates 13, 14,

and 15 for a very long time.

Glad I wasn't competing. I'd be heading past Perth by now.

And that's it for this month's Adventure Show.

Join us next time in Fort William, where the best mountain bikers

from around the globe will converge for the Mountain Bike World Cup.

Until then, thanks for your company. Bye for now.