For the last few days I’ve been preparing for the staff day out next Friday. I’ve been making mock-ups of some new signposts that are going to be instaled as part of a new project and doing a bit of research on the Sgwd yr Eira issues.
Volunteer day today. Me, Rex, Fransesca and Derek went down to Pont Melin Fach and put in two stiles along a new permissive footpath. Paul arrived later on to help us out and we needed the help as well - the second stile happened to be located on what seemed to be the remains of a drystone wall - not very easy digging!
Spent this afternoon carrying out another visitor survey at Gwaun Hepste car-park. This time though it was dead - I only managed get two surveys in the whole afternoon!
Today I helped build my first ever stile! Paul and I went up to Trebanog Isaf just over the hill from Penderyn where a new permissive footpath has been put in and added a new stile at the fence crossing.
The majority of this week has been spent up on Waun Figen Felen Bog. We spent three days airlifting the bags of gorse up onto the hill - and I had my first helicopter ride (see below).
On the third day of the helicopter lift the BBC came up to the bog to film for Iolo Williams’ Welsh Safari programme. Toby and I had a good chat in Welsh with Iolo and he’s a really nice guy and very knowledgable about wildlife and conservation issues.
Another few days have been spent up on the bog spreading the gorse and laying Geojute in the gulleys. The purpose of spreading the gorse is to prevent further erosion of the peat and encourage new plant growth. Geojute is a lighweight net made from jute fibre which prevents erosion and biodegrades within about one season.
The weather was really nice towards the beginning of the week but gradually worsened as the week went on. We went up this Wednesday (the 19th of September) with the volunteers and it was pretty wet and windy all day which meant plenty of hot drinks to keep us warm (see above)!
For the last three days I’ve been at Plas-Tan-Y-Bwlch in North Wales on a National Park induction course.
Plas Tan y Bwlch
On the first day me, Marcia and Alan drove up to North Wales arriving about lunch time. In the afternoon we had to give a presentation on our park which we did through the medium of ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’. Alan played the role of Chris Tarrant perfectly even though he’d never seen the show before! On Tuesday we went on a day trip and visited Beddgelert - a lovely little village. In the evening we had to give another group presentation - this time with staff from other parks. On Wednesday we had a group discussion and a presentation by a lady from a landscape conservation organization in Aberystwyth. And after a delicious lunch we headed back home.
Helped out on a check point for the British Heart Foundation sponsored run/walk today. In the early morning we drove half way up the mountain in the land-rover then used the quads to carry the kit the rest of the way to the check point we were on. It was amazing how fast some of the teams got around! The national Park team - Toby, Su and Nick - did really well coming in eighth position out of 42 teams although sadly Toby didn’t live up to the challenge of wearing a thong on the day!