Rows and floes of angel's hair....

I've looked at Clouds that way... or so said Joni Mitchell, many many years ago...and today we were all cycling along the Cloud Trail to the sunny city of Derby.... several Scouts, a Young Leader, three Leaders and a couple of representatives of Guiding... fantastic day out, even though teh Kirk had to quit halfway.. a mix of unfamiliar machinery, numerous technical problems and (mostly!) my standard GSL-level of fitness... it was being overtaken by a canal boat that really decided me.. but I digress.... now, obviously, in today's clime, a cycle ride to a busy city 22 miles away by track must count as risky, and it got me to thinking about risk... and assessing that strange necessity... for necessity risk is... without risk, or at least the appearance of risk, life becomes stale and boring... now, our leader in charge had of course carried out a full risk assessment of the outing, including stuff like falling in canals, falling off bikes, falling in love with the rolling English Road... all that sort of stuff... and to be honest, it wasn't the daunting task that some people would have us believe.. I once attended a Night Hike, the briefing for which included reading through a fifty odd page risk assessment that had taken many weeks to write... and I recall many there being put off organising anything similar by saiid assessment... and I'm sure there are many out there who are discouraged.. but lets be honest, assessing risk is something we all do every day, from opening the corned beef (more of which later..) to crossing the road, and from what I can see, as long as those responsible have had a look at the activity, thought what could go wrong, and prepared for it, that should be sufficient.. for example, taking todays ride as an example, our man said to himself.. "There's a few roads to cross.. we'll make sure the scouts are shepherded over by a leader..." and "we'll tell them to be careful by the canal..." and we had few problems.. true, we had a couple of falls... neither of which required the first aid kit.. but thats biking on mud for you... some would call that unacceptable risk, apparently.. I call it normal... but I digress.... what I'm trying to say is that we really should not be put off doing activities simply because there is a risk of injury, as long as we can show that we've taken reasonable steps for preventing it, and are prepared to deal with it if happen it does... but even more, we should not let a fear of risk assessments do likewise.... as for us, all enjoyed the ride, no one fell in the canal, and I've learned to use my own bike... and like Joni, I've looked at clouds from both sides now.. and I really don't know clouds at all.... which leads me to say, enjoy your Scouting, and have fun... until next time, carry on being prepared.... !!