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Lorna Johnson qualified as a Blue Badge Guide in 2000, one of the ‘Millenium Babes’, and it wasn’t long before she was invited to attend a committee meeting of the branch which was held in Perth.
‘Sally Spaven was chairman of our branch and at the same time, Chairman of the STGA Board. Sheila Scott, Rosemary Thomson, Lene Langlands and Annie Lyndsay were active committee members then and soon after encouraged me to take on the role of Secretary.
Of the four STGA branches, Highlands and Islands had the lowest number of members but covered the largest geographical area including all of the Highlands, Western Isles and Northern Isles.
‘In 2002, roughly half of our 16 members resided in Perthshire with the rest scattered throughout the Highlands, including one guide who lived in Orkney. Most of us were guiding part-time and still pursuing our original careers. Not everyone used email or had access to the internet so communication was by phone or ‘snail mail’ with meetings kept to a minimum to avoid the cost and logistics of unnecessary travel.
‘With such a far-flung membership it was not possible to arrange a series of lectures during the winter season, and without the possibilities of Zoom that we enjoy today, the committees focussed on organising imaginative outings to different parts of the region, combining an AGM or Xmas lunch with the opportunity to visit established tourist sites and keep abreast of any new developments in each area.
‘For many guides living in close proximity to Edinburgh and Glasgow, day tours provide the backbone of their work. But for those guides living much further afield this is not a possibility. A number of cruise ships visit Dundee during each season providing guides with tours to St Andrews, Glamis Castle, Scone Palace, Falkland and Arbroath. At busy times during the cruise ship season, guides residing in Tayside will often be asked to go to Peterhead, Invergordon, Edinburgh and Greenock to supply guiding services when these ports are over- stretched.
‘Although it is great to be asked to provide those services, the sheer breadth and volume of knowledge required to guide in such diverse locations can feel overwhelming at times.
And of course, not every tour goes to plan. I well remember my first tour for a cruise ship from Dundee which happened to be on a Sunday. The brief was to take the passengers on a day trip to St Andrews for a walking tour of the castle, cathedral and town with time for shopping, followed by lunch at Glamis and a tour of the castle in the afternoon - what could go wrong? My coach arrived late and without a working microphone. The company couldn’t provide another coach or microphone so we set off with me trying to relay information up and down the coach as best I could. In St Andrews we disembarked for our walking tour with the cruise director close behind me questioning why all the shops were shut. I reassured her that some of the shops would open around noon after the church services had finished, but of course this didn’t allow enough time for their shopping. “Why had the programme been put together this way” she asked me accusingly, as if I was personally responsible.
On another occasion I was guiding from Invergordon on a particularly busy day with 3 German cruise ships in port and 70 coaches lined up ready to take passengers on excursions. Our coach set off with a cruise director translating for me. About 20 minutes later I got a phone call telling me to ‘reverse your route’ which meant going directly to Urquhart Castle. When we arrived, there were already 16 coaches ahead of us queuing to get into the coach park. When we finally disembarked, my passengers followed the other 500 or so Germans trying to squeeze into the site which could only be described as mayhem. Was I glad I didn’t speak German and couldn’t understand their complaints!
‘We are lucky in Perthshire to have Gleneagles Hotel on the doorstep, which has been a source of work in the Corporate and Incentive market over the years, and also provides private clients for those of us who do private driver guiding work. Some H&I guides concentrate on specialist tours e.g. farming, gardening or Outlander. For others, taking on extended tours for major tour operators forms the bulk of their work.
Over the next decade branch numbers grew to 26 members and new guides were recruited to the committee. Trish Strang was Chairman for a number of years followed by Stuart Shields, and ably assisted by Tom and Cairine Caskie, Sheila Wilson and Lorna
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