My name is Graham Short, I initially got involved with Scouting through a friend of my wife's by helping out at pack holidays. I then joined 1st Norton Scout Group in Stockton & Thornaby District, Cleveland, in 1991 and completed my leader training in 1996. In 1998 I moved out of Cleveland and into North Yorkshire and joined Hillside Scout Group in Vale of Mowbray District, which is near Thirsk, in 1999.

My interests other than Scouting are hiking and bird watching. My hiking has taken me to some exotic and not so exotic locations. I first started hiking when my father and I completed the Lyke Wake Walk in 1977 and then went on to do the White Rose Walk the following year, these are both challenge walks on the North York Moors of 42 and 36 miles respectively.

When I was a little older my friend Tony and I attempted the Cleveland Way which is an almost circular walk of 107 miles around the edge of the North York Moors National Park, which we completed in 6 days in 1987. Unfortunately I don't have any photo's from this walk. On day 1 we walked from Helmsley to Osmotherley, day 2 Osmotherley to Kildale, day 3 Kildale to Saltburn, day 4 Saltburn to Whitby , day 5 Whitby to Scarborough and then on day 6 we had a short walk of 7 miles into Filey.

We then went on to do Wainwrights Coast to Coast walk in 1989, 196 miles from St Bees Head in Cumbria to Robin Hoods Bay in North Yorkshire. Along the way we met 2 girls from Scotland, Jackie and Jackie who were going as far Kirby Stephen and then we met Alan while crossing the North York Moors.

Then the West Highland Way in 1991, 96 miles from the outskirts of Glasgow to Fort William. With a quick run up Ben Nevis at the end.

Next was the Tour de Mont Blanc in 1993 a circular walk of 140 miles around Mont Blanc in France, Italy and Switzerland.

The Cumbria Way in 1995 70 miles from Ulverston to Carlisle. This time my brother Ian joined us and we met Irene from Holland and Colin from Southern Ontario, Canada.

Then in 1997 we did the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu, a 5 day hike with porters, which was organized by a tour company.

Our most recent walk has been back packing in the Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada. We followed Upland trail for three days before doing a bit of site seeing in Toronto and Niagara Falls. The walking was harder than we had anticipated averaging only 1.5miles per hour compared to our usual 3miles per hour. This was probably due to the scrambling like terrain over tree roots and rocks on a constantly undulating path and also time taken out to take photo's. Here are a few of them.

In February we went to the Dolomites to try a new activity, snow shoeing. The snow shoes were a cross between a snow shoe and a crampon. This was great fun and quite hard going at times in deep snow, Our first day was a short walk into a nearby valley to get used to walking with the snow shoes. Day 2 was a "Flat" (so our guide told us) walk across a number of small peaks and then back to the refuge. Day 3 we walked down out of the snow covered mountains to sped the last day in Castelrotto. In the last picture I have shown the second and third days walks with a yellow line.

In 2006 we went to Morocco to climb mount Mgoun at 4067m the second highest mountain in Morocco. The holiday was booked with Explore for the beginning of September. We flew from heathrow to Casablanca then on to Marrakesh. The temperature at the airport was 36°C which seemed rather warm for 11pm. We then transferred to the hotel. In the morning we set off for the Atlas Mountains, stopping at Azilal and then Ait Mohammed for a picnic. We arrived at the gite mid afternoon which gave us some time for a warm up walk before the start of our 5 day hike. The walking on each day was long and at times hard work in the heat (42°C at times in the valley). The scenary was spectacular, seeing the contrast between the fertile valleys and the ruggerd mountains. On the fourth day we climbed Mgoun starting at 5am and walking by torch light. We made it to the summit by 11am, then it was all down hill, very hard on the knees, which is when the walking poles made all the difference. At the end of the 5 day walk we headed back to Marrakesh stopping at the Cascades d'Ouzoud. Once back in Marrakesh we had a whirl wind tour of the souks before dinner. The next day we set off for home via Casablanca.Thanks to Ali and Pete for the group photo.