Summer newsletter: walking, wheeling, skating & seashore scrambling

With schools back this week and a classic Oban wet and windy summer holidays behind us, we wanted to share some updates on what we have been up to and what’s coming up over the next few months. We kicked off the summer at the end of May with the Big Bike Weekend collab with The Rockfield Centre’s Spring Festival.

The weekend started with the incredible bike park at Atlantis, built by hand by our incredible team, we were fuelled by delicious pizzas from Sòlas and absolutely stowed out all night.

Saturday we had led rides round the trails and the Spring Festival at The Rockfield Centre saw us skating round the halls and checking out Andy Spink’s inspiring sketching exhibition of skateboarding round the islands. On Sunday the Big Bike Weekend was back at Ganavan in full force. We got muddy, shredded the trails, practiced our jumps and skills all before the rain came in in the afternoon! We are loving see how well ridden the trails at Ganavan have become and seeing confidence and technique grow year on year.

You can check out the full gallery of Big Bike Weekend snaps here. Photo credit for all BBW photos: Beth Chalmers.

The Bike Park is back at Atlantis for August!

Thursday 21st August - 5.30pm-8pm

SEND sessions in partnership with FAIR, a wonderful charity ensuring activities our accessible to all. Super chilled, longer sessions, quieter tracks, no crowds and no music gives time and space for all to come and have a go. Bookings only via ask@fairoli.co.uk.

Friday 22nd August - 4pm-8pm

Tunes… Sòlas pizzas.. bikes…! The same fun format as the May event.

Bookable from 4-5pm for balance bikes & early riders - use this link: https://forms.gle/ac8e9eqFFveTfH277

From 5pm, just turn up and ride. Entry by donation (we suggest £2 per 20 minute session). U16s must have a waiver signed by a parent or guardian, this can be gone on the day.

Active Routes to Schools is rolling into action…

We are delighted to have received funding from HITRANS to continue our Active Routes to Schools project. Last school year we ran 37 events & sessions, totally over 450 participants, including 400 children and 50 adults. This has included a community asset mapping project, in-school sessions on promoting active travel, Bikeability, STEM sessions, and bike repair sessions.

This year we aim to increase our impact through working with more schools in the Oban area* and expanding our offer to schools to include more activities. We are looking to work with students, school staff and parents to create school travel maps showing the best ways to get a walk, ride and wheel to local school. Alongside this, we are offering parent information sessions, increasing awareness of the benefits of active travel and the different initiatives that increase participation.

Part of our work will be supporting the fantastic staff at LiveArgyll and school staff to deliver Bikeability and give our young people the skills and confidence to cycle in their communities. We are also looking into delivering safe walking training so that children know how to keep themselves safe when walking through our towns and villages.

We will also be working closely with schools and parent groups to run walking and bike buses, where pupils get together to walk and cycle to school. This is a sociable, safe and fun way to get lots of people travelling actively to school.

Throughout the project we will be running Dr Bike sessions, where a qualified mechanic can check over bikes to make sure they are road worthy, do any minor repairs, or offer advice where more significant repairs are required to get the bike back on the road.

On the theme of bike repairs, we are also bringing STEM sessions to schools bringing Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths to life through an indepth look at what makes a bike work and how we can keep them rolling at their best.

Bike Recycling

As part of this project, we are offering recycled bikes to children, families and school staff to enable them to access the benefits of cycling. We are also taking donations of bikes so if you have a bike that is gathering dust and itching to be back on the road, then get in touch! If you are interested in receiving a bike or have a bike to donate, please contact Phil (activetravel@adventureoban.org) for more information.

Seashore scrambles galore!

We have had a few wonderful outings of the Oban Wildlife Club over the summer, with seashore scrambles at Dunstaffnage and Ganavan, newts and bluebells being some of the highlights so far. Keep an eye on our socials for future dates. They can sometimes be a bit last minute due to our unpredictable weather!

If you would like to find out more about how to get involved or volunteer with Adventure Oban’s activities please feel free to get in touch with Aidan Doherty and the team on hello@adventureoban.org.

*The geographic reach of the active travel project includes Oban High School and the majority of primary schools that feed into Oban High:

• Strath of Appin

• Taynuilt

• Barcaldine

• Park

• Rockfield

• Easdale

• Lochnell

• Dalmally

• Lismore

• Craignish

• Kilninver