Hello hello hello
Warm welcomes to the second installment of Otesha’s Tartan Trail adventure! What a whirlwind training we had at the wonderful Whitmuir Organic Farm... Flooded out of our field within the first few days we relocated to our new home – a big dry barn, camped up near the pigs and later joined by an army of baby turkeys, who we’d helped herd into the neighbouring barn to tweet to us through the night.
We had a varied programme, from our first read through of the script, to conflict resolution workshops, to bike maintenance, to writing up our food mandate: what to eat and where to buy as agreed by the team. Tartan Trailers will abide by a “flexigan” – flexible vegan – diet, buying as locally and organically as feasibly possible!
There was a whole lot of laughter and new friendships were made – including jolly moments jamming with guitars, a tambourine and our new friend Doug (a charming bloke in charge of Whitmuir’s livestock).
A highlight of the week was our first excursion with the trailers – off we tootled to Penicuik where we indulged in long hot showers (the first in FIVE days!). Well… let’s make this an honest blog… two thirds of us indulged in cleanliness whilst the remaining four continued to delight us with their “natural” odours since bike repairs took priority. We certainly were smelly but happy campers.
Training week concluded with a magical day with Calu, Edd, and Iona who organised an impromptu treasure hunt, which had us running across fields, scouring chicken sheds, and creeping into a teepee, until we discovered an antique treasure chest filled with delicious fairtrade chocolate and a mysterious invitation to don our glad rags for a delightful dinner party, accompanied by instructions to bring along bike lights…
It is important to note at this point that the Tartan Trailers’ “glad rags” include face glitter, underwear over muddy trousers, “dresses” created from sarongs and many other exciting bits such as ….wait for it…a CLEAN shirt.
…De de dah…. and our team were bestowed with our upcycled Otesha t-shirts in an array of colours, followed by a jolly knees up and our very first one minute bike light disco!!!
Phewee – what a week! It was then a farewell to Edd and Iona, and a day off before the big pack up and goodbye to Whitmuir farm as we mounted our two wheeled steeds and swooped towards Edinburgh with our first performance at the Fringe in sight!
