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Post Your Pics & Videos of the Great Outdoors

A ny more pictures of the event, Martin we had small updates on the Isle of Man results on our local NW news
Hi mate, the whole week was fantastic, I dont know of any major issues, the games were superb from day one to the end.
We meet quite a few IOM visitors, they were a great team coming third overall.
Your basketball teams were very vocal at the matches especially considering they were just a tiny minority in the spectator numbers, they were well prepared though with horns and ratchets etc … all good fun.

Also we had two IOM policemen with their white helmets walking around, I think they had a fantastic time with all the attention and photo calls!

We had extra police from several other islands including motor bike police .

The opening ceremony was spectacular (must of cost a fortune but that is another matter) with an estimated 4000 visitors and 12000 locals attending!

The whole of Guernsey was alive, all the busses we free for the week and an army of volunteers also ferried competitors around, every restaurant was full, the supermarkets extra busy and town was buzzing.

Of course not every local was happy with the numerous road closures for the cycling ,running and triathlons events.

This was as close as Guernsey will get to the TT feel I guess.

We went to as many sports as possible, leaving home most mornings at 9am and getting home at 6-7pm.

The very last event was the mini triathlon on the streets and in the harbour of our town, making the whole town car fee for a whole day was fantastic for us but again some folk complained!

Unfortunately we had rain for the last two hours of the week and because the town streets were actually a live race track with bikes racing around at 35mph, a lot of folk got caught out in the heavy rain with no escape until the race finished.

We were two of those folk, the weather went from sunny 23c to 18 with heavy rain and like every one else, we wore shorts and T shirts and ended up soaking wet and freezing cold.

There are lots of videos on youtube and most events were shown live on youtube.

Also you can look here https://guernsey2023.gg
 

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Looks like a great success, @foxfish ,credit to our local BBC news for Isle of Man updates,living in Greater Manchester it's our local island, notice even the Falklands were there, Worthy of TV coverage
 
There were quite a few TV producers and commentators on island, more for places like Bermuda and Cayman, who have bigger budgets than places like St Helena, Froya or Gozo who were more obviously on a budget!
There is this BBC production that concentrates on the older competitors ……. Island Games - One Sporting Family
We have a close relationship with the IOM due to many similarities including the air link that allowed the two islands to integrate during lock down.
The next games are in the Orkney islands but they wont be able to compete with this years games as they simply dont have the sports facility's or even the accommodation available.
Hosting this years games cost the islands tax payers a lot of money but it was a fabulous event that I am sure most competitors and visitors will never forget.
We met so many nice people, made many new friends and many people have promised to return.
 

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Todays walk, thru fields of wheat, bit of forest and the park and lakes.
Never seen so many crows before, a proper murder of crows - Counted 50.
Lakes had alit more trees planted. Still alot of water, but alot of grass has grown In.
 

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Looks great, did you look for any geodes?
I didn't look for geodes, but there are some fossils in the mudstones and siltstones. The formations are upper carboniferous, around 310 million years old. But unsurprisingly the site is a SSSI so hammering is frowned upon. The coast line is stunning, and primordial in places. It'd make an excellent setting for a Jurassic Park type film.

This is about as close as I got to finding any fossils 😁

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What a great afternoon taking advantage of Festung Guernsey open day around Albecq headland on Guernseys west coast.

There were four German bunkers open including two new ones recently restored that we had not previously seen.
IMG_9119.jpegOne of the bunkers contained a state of the art mortar launcher, this amazing device could throw out two mortar bombs a second at a range of 600mt .

Equally amazing was the build time, as for this particular bunker it was a mere 17 days! I am assuming this was the time it took to dig the hole shutter the shape and fill with concrete. A mixture of paid and slave workers were used under the instruction of German engineers.
Beautifully restored, a real time capsule and very interesting!
“For the benefit of my oversea friends who may not know that Guernsey was occupied by the German forces during the second world war.
They left a myriad of concrete building many of which are now very prominent features on our island!”IMG_9136.jpegIMG_9113.jpegIMG_9137.jpegIMG_9128.jpegIMG_9134.jpegIMG_9123.jpeg
 
Another mini adventure in Guernsey. I’m guessing you’re hoping the sea will do the excavating. It’ll be interesting to find out if the mine entrance opens up more too. Is it a deep mine? Could be a secret entrance to Agartha 😁
 
I have another video that tells the story about the mine but basically it all happened around 140 years ago just before the advent of dynamite.
People who lived nearby (not many at all) complained the 140’ long mine or maybe more accurately tunnel, was draining the land of water and it was forces to close!
 
Hi all,
@dw1305 is probably a fan of the floaters!
Definitely <"Duckweed Envy">.

Looking at the Duckweed (Lemna spp., it maybe L. minor), in the third image, it looks like they may have been a bit heavy handed with the fertiliser.

The second photo (the one with the Azolla) looks like it might be <"Landoltia (Spirodela) punctata">.

cheers Darrel
 
Grouse hunting on the state forest.

These are a few cell phone pics from an overnight camping & hunting trip a couple of weekends ago. This is a large (27,500 hectares) forest administration area and there are lots of corners to explore with wildlife everywhere.

I'm not a very serious hunter, but I did manage one Eastern Cottontail Rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus). I had never seen Rabbits in here before, but I observed this one along with another in the campground and a couple more along roadsides. So it must have been a good year for them. Any Rabbit here must stay on high alert at all times because almost every possible native wild predator is present including Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes), Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), Coyote (Canis latrans), Gray Wolf (Canis lupus), Black Bear (Ursus americanus), Fisher (Pekania pennanti), Bobcat (Lynx rufus) and various predatory Birds (Accipitriformes, Corvidae, Strigiformes).

With about 15 miles of hiking I flushed a few Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus), but with so much foliage still on the trees visibility was poor and I did not get any shots.

Other highlights included a large Black Bear and huge bull Wapiti (Cervus canadensis), both seen from the car. I was too slow with the phone to get pictures of these before they slipped into the forest.

It's always a privilege to get out here in the forest with the trees and the open space and the fresh air. Time goes by so quickly, but I hope I will get a couple more chances this fall.

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