Coniston Team
by Rob Clarke, sponsored by Heart of the Lakes Cottages
August 2009 - Volunteers from far and wide
After a couple of months of lovely summer weather we’re back to normal for the time of year now – a mix of sun and showers, with a bit of a slant towards the showers. From a footpath worker’s perspective a bit of rain is ideal, it stops the soil getting too dusty and helps any landscaping to settle in quicker. It also lets us see where the water is running on our paths, helping us get our drainage in the right places. It’d be nice if it would wait until we’d gone home before it rained though!
Similarly to the last entry we’ve not been alone in experiencing the mixed weather. Earlier in the season we’d worked lots with other teams, recently we’ve been working with volunteer groups from a variety of backgrounds ….
We’ve had a repeat visit from the ‘Traditional Boundaries, Traditional skills’ training group from Northumberland National Park. This year long course aims to provide people with the skills needed to find work in the countryside and for the second year the trainees spent a week working with us. Some of our traditional skills they learnt included pitching, landscaping and, as pictured, puzzling over what to do with a large rock stuck in a muddy hole.
Northumberland group trainees receiving some hints
One of the benefits of working in the Lake District as opposed to somewhere more remote is that we go home at the end of every day. One of our volunteer groups didn’t do this though, a combined camping and working holiday stayed up on the fells for three nights along with staff from the National Trust’s Basecamp at High Wray. Despite the aforementioned mixed weather they kept in good spirits and completed a lot of good quality work, putting a new path over a very boggy section of moorland and installing a large drain to keep water off of the path. Everyone enjoyed the experience of wild camping overnight near the worksite but they were all ready for the return to civilisation at the end of the last day!
The sun always shines at the end of a holiday
Probably the most unusual group we’ve had working with us was a stag party - A group of friends who’ve had a long involvement with the outdoors through the Scout movement, they wanted to put something back in to an environment that had given them a lot of pleasure over the years. Cleverly, they’d put off the more traditional stag party celebrations until after they’d worked with us – although we hope they had enough energy left for the evening after a hard day of putting stepping stones through bogs …
