Just read this on Sky News, and thought it might be of interest.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/b ... spartandhp
Beware off piste riding in the Alps!
Re: Beware off piste riding in the Alps!
Nowt new especially after their lunch. On a bike they hear you coming but their big dogs have no road/lane sense. More than once the hound of the Baskervilles has nearly had me off. The last bunch we ran into invited us to lunch which was very hospitable seeing as they had closed off our trail.
The secret of a long life is knowing when its time to go.
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Re: Beware off piste riding in the Alps!
I have just come back from France and nearly all the Hunters and some of the dogs had high visibility jackets on(looks strange when they have real tree cammoflage and a high viz jacket on top) If i am ever wild camping in France i make it obvious i am there by wearing my headtorch switched on in case there are any shooters around. If i see private hunting signs or deer high seats i tend to camp somewhere else. Terrible tragedy but they do love their hunting and would never willingly lose their freedom to do what they like.
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Re: Beware off piste riding in the Alps!
Yeah I also quite enjoy my freedom - to not get shot by drunken farmers pretending to be marksmen! We live right next to a large forest and suffer the chasse about once a fortnight in Winter. I try not to go out on my bike on hunt days, although I reckon the sound of the engine makes your presence known quite well and it is walkers and MTB riders who are in most danger. Hunters in France were forced to wear hi-viz a few years back because they kept shooting each other. One year nearly 70 deaths were put down to chasseurs shooting one another as they crawled about in the woods. Apparently the figure has dropped quite a lot (maybe due to the hi-viz), but there have been high profile cases of local people uninvolved in the hunt being shot and injured/killed, and loads of farm animals and pets are shot or ripped apart by the hunt dogs every year. The press is full of reports these days and there is definitely a raised awareness that the chasse in its current form can present a real danger. All the drunken fast driving about in vans along local lanes in pursuit of the latest find also risks accidents, injured dogs etc. We regularly end up sorting out and trying to repatriate lost dogs on the evening of a hunt. To be fair, we sometimes get given a large side of venison or a boar's leg because of the inconvenience and noise, and some of our local hunters are decent friends of ours, but personally I'd rather not have the bribe and not have the hunting.frenchy3 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 15, 2018 8:12 am I have just come back from France and nearly all the Hunters and some of the dogs had high visibility jackets on(looks strange when they have real tree cammoflage and a high viz jacket on top) If i am ever wild camping in France i make it obvious i am there by wearing my headtorch switched on in case there are any shooters around. If i see private hunting signs or deer high seats i tend to camp somewhere else. Terrible tragedy but they do love their hunting and would never willingly lose their freedom to do what they like.
On the other side, the original idea of the hunt was/is to keep down the numbers of boar and deer and control the odd fox that kills farm animals, and it's a traditional feature of rural life that brings people together in the countryside for events and dinners etc. But bear-baiting and witch-burning were traditions once too....
Re: Beware off piste riding in the Alps!
And in a bizarre and typically British news story https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7511062/b ... ed-sister/
The secret of a long life is knowing when its time to go.
Re: Beware off piste riding in the Alps!
I read your post Dave and this just came to mind... Mr Lehrer's muse seems highly appropriatedaveuprite wrote: ↑Mon Oct 15, 2018 8:51 amYeah I also quite enjoy my freedom - to not get shot by drunken farmers pretending to be marksmen! We live right next to a large forest and suffer the chasse about once a fortnight in Winter. I try not to go out on my bike on hunt days, although I reckon the sound of the engine makes your presence known quite well and it is walkers and MTB riders who are in most danger. Hunters in France were forced to wear hi-viz a few years back because they kept shooting each other. One year nearly 70 deaths were put down to chasseurs shooting one another as they crawled about in the woods. Apparently the figure has dropped quite a lot (maybe due to the hi-viz), but there have been high profile cases of local people uninvolved in the hunt being shot and injured/killed, and loads of farm animals and pets are shot or ripped apart by the hunt dogs every year. The press is full of reports these days and there is definitely a raised awareness that the chasse in its current form can present a real danger. All the drunken fast driving about in vans along local lanes in pursuit of the latest find also risks accidents, injured dogs etc. We regularly end up sorting out and trying to repatriate lost dogs on the evening of a hunt. To be fair, we sometimes get given a large side of venison or a boar's leg because of the inconvenience and noise, and some of our local hunters are decent friends of ours, but personally I'd rather not have the bribe and not have the hunting.frenchy3 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 15, 2018 8:12 am I have just come back from France and nearly all the Hunters and some of the dogs had high visibility jackets on(looks strange when they have real tree cammoflage and a high viz jacket on top) If i am ever wild camping in France i make it obvious i am there by wearing my headtorch switched on in case there are any shooters around. If i see private hunting signs or deer high seats i tend to camp somewhere else. Terrible tragedy but they do love their hunting and would never willingly lose their freedom to do what they like.
On the other side, the original idea of the hunt was/is to keep down the numbers of boar and deer and control the odd fox that kills farm animals, and it's a traditional feature of rural life that brings people together in the countryside for events and dinners etc. But bear-baiting and witch-burning were traditions once too....
I was essentially weaned on Tom Lehrer's work in the early 60's, which might well explain something about Me!
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Re: Beware off piste riding in the Alps!
Thanks for posting that Steve. My mum used to play an album of his when I was a kid, so I do remember it well. Bloody funny guy.
'Poisoning Pigeons in the Park' was superb.
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Re: Beware off piste riding in the Alps!
An old neighbour of mine moved to rural Brittany and complained to the local Mayor about the hunting which he thought was too close to his house. A few weeks later he was woken at 3am by a group of farmers with shotguns who had got into his kitchen. They explained that they were following a dangerous 'beast' and were there to 'look after' him. He got the message and didn't complain again .
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Re: Beware off piste riding in the Alps!
One of his greats, in fact, he didn't write many turkeys at all. And 60 years on his works still stands up and is funny and relevant!daveuprite wrote: ↑Fri Oct 19, 2018 8:58 am
Thanks for posting that Steve. My mum used to play an album of his when I was a kid, so I do remember it well. Bloody funny guy.
'Poisoning Pigeons in the Park' was superb.