The Isle of Wight challenge!

I woke up this morning and it was a warm beautiful sunny day, I knew it was going to be a very long and tiring day but I was really optimistic that things would start to happen for my campaign... I had three meetings planned on the Island and an 11am ferry. I started the morning with some actual work (yes I do have a job too) followed by checking the usual social media sites and I'm starting to see a pattern about my Daily Echo story making headlines!!
 
Front page news

At 10:30 I hear the news that I'm on the FRONT PAGE! On a Southampton based newspaper that goes to approximately 80,000 readers. Including my colleagues, who I was hoping to keep in the dark about the whole campaign - optimistic I know... Oh **** I get panicked and paranoid before telling myself I've done nothing wrong, and a re-assuring text from J.A. helps a lot, so I head to the local newsagent and buy 3 copies and decide telling everyone in the shop who I am is a good idea. They were mildly impressed, but no autographs.
 
See the photo left but note I am NOT the "BANNED DRIVER IN RIDE OF TERROR!"
 
Click here for full story in the Daily Echo
Click here for my facebook page more photos of the paper. Please like and share my page if you haven't already!!

 

So a great start to the day, and I am video blogging my the trip with time-lapse shots to the ferry, on the ferry, pulling away from Southampton, arriving in East Cowes, etc etc. I just make the ferry departure with a few minutes to spare and a quick chat with my PR lady, who feels like an unpaid agent (Thanks to Alyson and Innes) please see their websites below. I also squeeze in a quick photo with Bath school trip as we think this could run in the local paper in Bath as Al has contacts there - plus one of the UK based campaigners is from there so it would be great to get press on his 'patch'! 

 

Time to make some more calls as I've got numbers scribbled on my arm for the Monkey & Owl Haven, the Spinnaker Tower, IOW Radio and a postcode for Northwood House in West Cowes where I am meeting Ian Boyd - Head of Environment for Natural Enterprises. That gets keyed into the Sat Nav and off I go.

 

 
A country park for the community

Ian told me about a new development near Newport for the community to use and preserve and the work they are doing to preserve and build a natural habitat for the hazel door mouse, a European protected species. It was an inspiring interview and I took time to check out the park and new housing development from Barratt homes next door and shoot some footage which will hopefully edit well with the interview.
 
To find out more about Natural Enterprise please click here or visit their Twitter feed

 My next meeting was work related and on the way I found out my plans to abseil down the Spinnaker Tower this weekend for my campaign has been scuppered because its fully booked, and dispite Alyson's best attempts to chat to the PR lady it can't be done. I really want to do a big publicity stunt this weekend as a final push for the campaign. Still, I find out who is organising the booked abseils and leave a message with Naomi House to see if I can get involved with their charity at the weekend. Its a great cause so I leave a message and hope for a call back.

 
Martin & Lulu

After my official work business in Ryde (which I am not going to blog about) I head to the Owl and Monkey Haven near Newport, and the time of day means I am using my own personal time for these interviews (note to employers!). I didn't manage to speak to anyone about an interview here as the right person was never available so I just rocked up and asked for some time and got introduced to Don Walser, who started the Monkey and Owl Haven with his son and adopts animals from Kookaburras to Gibbons. It took 6 years to build! Don gave me a fantastic insite to why the park is so important and what campaigns he has currently to save Owl and Monkeys across the world but I was particularly interested in the Martin and Lulu appeal as I first came across this in August 2012 on my second visit to the park, a campaign to find Martin, a white-throated capuchin, a mate since he lost he brother and became distressed. At that time Lulu, who has been pushed out of her group in France, was in Quarentine for 6 months while their new enclosure was built, and then Lulu was introducted to Martin. It was amazing to see Martin & Lulu together happily, Don even announced Lulu is pregnant which no one else knew - you heard it here first folks!!

Abseiling down the Spinnaker Tower!

Finally I catch the ferry home and have well earned pint (Foster's - not my usual but let keep it Aussie!) and 10 minutes rest, its not long before I'm checking emails, facebook likes, twitter mentions and youtube hits again. And time for a phone call and some very good news, the lovely Nicole at Naomi House has squeezed me in to an abseiling slot on Sunday at 2pm! This is amazing news, I was over the moon I really think this will end my campaign with a bang. 

Straight off the ferry and I head to Heart Radio to pre-record an interview for a news bulletin for tomorrow mornings network news! Yes Network news is big, on Capital radio and all I believe. That didn't take too long and I ask to be tweeted by some of their DJ's, I'm not sure if that will happen but this is all good coverage.

So just time for a quick update on the campaign with my PR managers, and they even refuel me with a bacon sandwich. What a day.

Please check back soon to see the full video interview

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