Viper Rural

Outdoor Adventure 20 Years From Now

Author: Jim Hardcastle

Jim helps people plan and deliver effective communications. His background in the countryside sector provide him with a wealth of experience in rural marketing. Facilitation, fueled by coffee, with Post-Its at the ready, he’s here to help .

I know, I know, we still need to know how to use a compass, your skin’s waterproof and singlespeed bikes with no suspension are well hard. But we’re human. We love to innovate. If we didn’t we’d still be slopping around in muddy puddles. No offence to the caving community. Progress happens and the only constant is change. So, let’s look forward.

January 2030, what will outdoor activity on Mendip look like then?

• Car mileage per trip will decrease because of social pressure and road pricing meaning Mendip will be really busy because of the huge urban populations nearby
• Government intervention to protect AONBs like Mendip will lead to a ‘pay to play’ system - a Protected Landscape Pass will need to be bought
• Access will be severely restricted for ‘wildlife areas’, a direct intervention to balance the urban sprawl. Public access will be polarised; completely no-go areas or open access for foot, bike and horse
• Digital natives will introduce sophisticated ways of enjoying ‘their Mendip’ under the radar of urban visitors. Digital natives are the younger generation which has grown up with digital technologies and is completely at home with them
• You can book yourself into a retreat to retune your mental well-being. Mental health will be a key concern for our aged population
• More people will get lost and hurt themselves. There’s more people out there doing more outdoor activity and a greater percentage are being lulled into a false sense of security by the latest shiny bit of kit. The ‘pay to play’ income will go towards a core of full time Search and Rescue staff supported by volunteers
• Multi purpose outdoor activity play parks will be created in the redundant quarries by private enterprises
• Watching the tide come up to Axbridge because of the ‘managed retreat’ will be really popular from Crook Peak

Let's get active on Mendip to start planning our future. We’re all forced into these relatively small areas or corridors for our activity. We need to spread out more. If you widen a path the impact is spread and damage decreases. It’s surely the same at a larger scale? We don’t need more legislation forcing landowners to allow access. Surely we need some more entrepreneurial landowners to see the opportunities? Let’s put some of those future predictions in place before they are forced upon us.

- Posted on Tuesday 22 Dec 2009 at 21:25 by Jim Hardcastle

Tags: adventure (24), aonb (34), communication (27), community (6), digital (41), future (4), gadgets (1), government (2), gps (4), marketing (66), mendip (2), mendip hills (12), mountain bikes (4), outdoor (8), planning (33), rural (35), technology (3)