Sunday 30 October 2011

Snowdonia Marathon (29 Oct 2011)

I stayed at home this week - thanks to Daniel for the text and photos...
Ten Bryn Gwynant drinks stationof us were in North Wales on Saturday helping out at the 29th Snowdonia Marathon. The race began at 10:30 and we split into three groups to man the drinks stations at Pen-y-Pass (5 miles), Bryn Gwynant (8 miles) and Llyn Dinas (11 miles). The four of us at Bryn Gwynant were joined by two mums and daughters from Huddersfield who worked with us from first runner to last! My ears are still ringing from Sue’s loud cries of “Energy bars… Energy bars at the back… Piece of energy bar…”

We were amazed by some of the runners we saw: the five-minute milers at the front, the man dressed as Batman, the man running in barefeet (!!!) and a blind runner with his guide. Surprisingly on the eve of Halloween there were no runners this year wearing black pointy hats! All of the runners were grateful for our refreshments and one of them christened us “water monitors”(!)

The working at the finsish in Llanberisdrizzle turned heavier as we drove back to Llanberis where we were asked to help out at the finish. We gave commemorative slate coasters to the finishers (several of whom quipped “Do you have a pint of beer to put on this?”) and wrapped them in space blankets. At 16:30 - six hours after the race had started - the organisers began to dismantle the finish gantry and re-open the roads to cars. At that point 60 runners were still out on the course. The last runner crossed the line in a time of 7hr 47m.

Here are some other results:

1st man 2hr 36m

1st woman 3hr 11m

1,424 finishers



Back The group back at baseat the basecamp we had a tasty supper of Lentil & vegetable cottage pie and Apple crumble & custard. The apples came fresh from Hazel’s garden. Hazel and Adrian did a 1,000 piece jigsaw and the others thought up weather-dependent activities for Sunday…



… which dawned dry and bright and we went for a walk and picnic on the Great Orme in Llandudno, returning home at 14:00.

Sunday 23 October 2011

Dumham Massey 23 Oct 2011


9 (or perhaps 10!) volunteers turned out to Dunham Massey and spent the day cutting and burning Rhododendron. Again I missed it as I was on holiday, I think at least 2 people must have been behind the camera......

Sunday 16 October 2011

Hare Hill on Sunday 16th Oct 2011

After some problems in the weeks leading up to the event trying to confirm where we would be going, Sue reported the following (while I was on holiday....)

We had a great workday in the end.

Eight of us turned up and were shown the final patch of rhody near the kiosk
(before you go into Hare Hill) that needed removing.
We managed to cut it all down, even getting all the roots up!
Despite the light drizzle in the morning, we easily got a fire going to burn
all the rhody. It brightened up late morning and, after having had lunch and
home-made cakes provided by Karin and Sue's mum, we raked over and started
planting daffodil bulbs around the kiosk.

It was a great workday, the volunteers on the kiosk chatted to us during the
day, Julia, the Ranger, kept coming back to check that we were okay, and we
handed out some leaflets to various members of the public who passed nearby.

The 'excitment' of the day was, when we disturbed 2 little mice who had been
living in the roots of the rhody, one of whom then tried to run towards the
fire thinking it would be a safe haven. Tim managed to dissuade it by
stamping his foot and making lots of noise and, hopefully, it ran away to
make a safe new home somewhere else.

Sunday 9 October 2011

Styal 9 Oct 2011

No photographs today - unless someone else emails some to me - as I forgot my camera.

Five volunteers turned out to work near the car park at Quarry Bank Mill (Styal), contributing to the setting up of a "camp building area.

There was a certain amound of material (fallen / cut branches and dead leaves) to be burnt and a certain amount of fencing to be done.

A previous group had put in most of the posts for two fences, most of the way in, and more or less in line with each other. We drove ones that were a little high in further till they were at the right level - adjusting their angles where this was possible, We added "dead-men" to the king posts and some braces...
the king posts are the bigger posts that hold the tension in the wire fence.
the deadmen are small pieces of timber nailed onto the post underground
they stop the post rotating - which would let the tension off the wires.
the braced are diagonal timbers that stop the wires from pulling the king post over.
We also put the wire on one section of fence.

The day was supprisingly warm and though a little damp the main rain held off until after 3pm.

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Stockport tunnels 5 October 2011

This evening we visited the North West's tourist attraction of the year - Stockport tunnels. Armed with flash lights, we had a fascinating tour of the network of tunnels dug especially to provide a safe haven for the residents of Stockport during the air raids of World War II. We saw row upon row of three-tier bunk beds (which brought back memories of uncomfortable nights in the Snowdownia moutain rescue centre), rows of toliets (flushing and otherwise), tool stores, kitchens, prision cells, and a very swish-looking medical centre.

Being several metres underground, it was very damp and there were droplets of water dripping from the metal mesh of the bunk beds and from the moss growing from the ceiling. I suppose a bit of damp was nothing compared to the risk of having your house fall on top of you!

We spent the evening in admiration; of the proactivity of the minister who commissioned the tunnels, of the engineering skill in 'building' them, of the organisation of thousands of scared people, of the comaradarie that develops in times of adversity...

Why are these tunnels not more widely appreciated? Several people who have lived in the area all their lives had not even heard of them!

Sunday 2 October 2011

Kinder Scout - "Hayfield" 2 Oct 2011

We (almost) always work outside but some work sites are more open than others.....

Thirteen volunteers turned out on a day with a mixed weather forecast. We had tools for a back up plan of Rhodibashing - but the latest forecasts were ok, and the sky looked cooperative - so we proceeded with the primary task - removing a redundant fenced enclosure from the top of Kinder Scout.

As we have done on previous occasions we hitched lifts in land rovers to Edale cross - and were reminded how strange it is that people go "off roading" for "pleasure"+. We then walked north along the pennine way for a while before heading off nearer to the edge of the plateau.

We were told that the area in question was badly burnt in the 70's and was fenced to keep the sheep out while regeneration work was attempted. Initial re seeding was done by hand and later when the technology became available heather seed was sprayed over the area from a helicopter, (the seed is fine enough to go through the jet of a crop sprayer). As the area is now reasonably well vegetated and because theoretically sheep are no longer grazing up there, the fence surrounding this patch was redundant.

So we removed it - we split into two groups and worked our way round in both directions - dismantling the fence and collecting the materials in to piles.
The larger "king" posts were left as "perches for birds of prey".
The resulting materials will be reused where possible on the estate.

At the end of the day a few examples of a club moss were spotted by one of the wardens. This "plant" has been spotted in a few places in the last few years on the estate - it is apparently a clean air indicator and was absent for about 120 years. I tried to photograph it - but my camera was selected for robustness and I didn't get a useful image.

As we had plenty of volunteers there was time for a pleasant walk down - avoiding the rough ride and seeing how some of the places we have worked actually fit together into the landscape.