What would your perfect adventure be?

[Harley's Dad]

Almost all mountains are beautiful when viewed from a distance. But even in our temperate UK climate don't ever get caught out up one when it's blowing hard and raining without the right wet-weather gear, map and compass - you could otherwise easily be dead within a few hours. I've done lots of hill/ mountain walking in my time, particularly when I was instructing Junior Leaders for the Gunners in the army (I've actually been to the top of Snowdon probably a dozen times but have yet to see the view from the top - it's always been clagged in!) There's huge satisfaction in getting to the top of even a small mountain, catching ones breath and then planning a sensible way down.

But leaving all that aside, my great adventure would involve sea fishing in tropical waters. I've caught sailfish in Oman and Kenya but how I'd love to be hooked up to a 1000lb Black Marlin off Cairns in NE Australia, or a 600lb Blue Marlin in, say, the Canaries. I've heard in the past of a guy who played a marlin for 22 hours off New Zealand and then it got off; how very character-building is that! And as a flyfisher, I'd love to fish for bonefish, spotting and casting to them in clear, shallow water and experience their sizzling runs when hooked (all would of course be put back).

Sadly all this is highly expensive - roughly $1,000 a day in most places for accommodation and a guide, when the sea and the fish in it are actually free! When we were in Maui (Hawaai) 18 months ago Harley and I sussed out all the boats operating out of the harbour there and finally took the plunge for a single day out on the one which seemed most successful ($800 for the day). We were due to start at 6am so I went to bed early. At about 2am James and Harley woke me with news of the Japanese earthquake and the tsunami which was expected to hit Hawaai in a few hours time. All the boats, including "ours" naturally scuttled out to sea to avoid being knocked about in the harbour. And ours having been forced out to sea and finding the tsunami much less worse than had been expected, decided that they might as well do a bit of fishing. They caught two marlin on "our" day!

Tony (life can be bloody unfair!)

[Harley's Dad]

Rodolphus, we have a spot not far from our cottage in the Hebs where the tide swirls in around a sandy point leaving a wealth of shells from day to day. A friend staying with us, who hailed originally from NE Scotland, identified many of them as "groatybuckies" (def sp!) like miniature cowries. Ever since we've known the spot as groatybucky point. I'll PM you an 8 figure grid ref if you're really keen ... anything could turn up.

This was the same spot where we found a Sowerbys Beaked Whale washed up, still alive, having caught its snout in a square of fishing net. I posted about it at the time.

And, deepest shame, I greatly admire the Faroes who restrict their fishing to what they need for a sustainable living, as opposed to most of the rest of the world which fishes utterly ruthlessly regardless of the future, or any care for ecology. The Spaniards, the Japanese and, more locally, the Norwegians are all especially guilty. But so too are the Brits - last time I went out from Southwold the North Sea was covered with professional boats all trawling huge bottom nets over every inch of the bottom. Never mind the future, never mind any thought for future eco-management - what I want is the money in my pocket now. And if it's the last fish in the North Sea, sod off, I'll catch it and it's money in my pocket.

How utterly selfish, and how deeply shortsighted. Up in the Hebs where divers farmed the scallops a short while ago, there are now trawlers hauling huge square chunks of chain across the bottom, totally regardless of the damage they are doing. They care only for the money they can make and no-one seems able to stop them ... it is one of the most disgraceful activities of our present times.

Tony (so my ideal adventure would involve wild fish, but I'd put them all back to grow on).