From Ireland to damson jam Wednesday, September 06, 2006

As "proper work" goes, filming adventure races is hard to beat. I've just got back from 6 days on the West coast of Ireland, filming 'GaleForce West', the first adventure race of it's kind in County Mayo. I've been seakayaking in the Achill Head and Gallway area once before but I really appreciated it's beauty when I saw it from the land aswell. We were lucky to have mostly dry and sunny weather and could enjoy the many mountains, the wonderful myriad of islands, the steep cliffs and sweeps of sandy beaches. My job was generally to climb up a mountain, or small hill, ahead of the competitors and then film them as they approached me. It involves a lot of running through bogs and over uneven ground so that I can get as many different shots as possible in 5 or 10 minutes. I spent a lot of time on top of conical Croagh Patrick, near Westport aswell as in several other lovely areas. I usually work on a few adventure races every year, employed by 'Dream Team TV' as one of their camera operators. It's a great way to see some of the UKs most beautiful areas and be paid to keep fit! The days are long, with very little sleep often, but I really enjoy it.


I got back home to Wales yesterday and am straight into making homemade jam with Alun. The damson trees in the garden are full of purple fruit ( or at least they were until this afternoon). Right now they are boiling away with a frightening amount of sugar, the old jam jars are washed and being sterilised in the oven, and we are looking forward to our first installment of homemade jam on our toast tomorrow morning!