Occupation?-Tobogganist

Billy Connolly has a sketch about asking a perfectly normal question & getting the most unusual, unexpected answer.( hence the title)

I’m sat outside the pub at the end of today and get talking to 2 guys – One turns out to be a musician about 70 years old who worked at some stage with a couple of Billy Connolly‘s bands . Interesting enough – so I turned to the other guy and say “are you walking the way then?He replies “Gold Panning” – I snort my beer and say is that the wind up that you tell tourists around here? No seriously he says I still use traditional methods but today I’ve been “sniping” I spent the entire day in a dry suit with a snorkel in a shallow stream . I tell him I’m still being wound up – and a couple of the guys join in to a tell me that this is actually a real thing in the area. A major company has opened up a long closed goldmine and already taken £2 million worth of gold just from the”tailings” of a long closed goldmine – ie the waste that technology in those days could not extract gold . These guys are just hobbyist freelancers.

I say they need to prove it  and they promise to meet on the trail and show me as I set off tomorrow as they start early as will I be doing for the longest 30k day over Rannoch Moor – let’s see !!

I just love pub chat.

….. otherwise this day is July 8th – and i’m doing the Falls of Falloch to Tyndrum .