The wild, wild west

Bowness, Ambleside and Windermere are great places to visit whilst holidaying in the Lakes, they provide a welcoming environment as a base for your stay. However, for the first time hiker, walking can be a little thin on the ground (no pun intended) and maybe you lack a bit of confidence in finding your way around a Cumbrian fell or negotiating footpaths?

Well I would like to tell you about a neat little bridleway that is situated on the western shore of Lake Windermere, which might seem like a different world when looking at it from Bowness, but I assure you come rain or shine the bridleway is a fantastic introduction to hiking and the transport links to and from it run regularly and like clockwork.

This flat 4 mile walk starts at Ferry house, just under the shadow of the currently in development Claife Viewing station. Viewed as the London Eye of it's day, it was built in 1799, and was the destination for the earliest tourists to the Lake District who would admire the very best view of the Lake through different coloured glass windows. It was deemed as a 'adventurous' place to visit as it took visitors out of their comfort zone and took them to an area that was seemingly inaccessible.

To reach the western shore of the lake, you can board a ferry from either Bowness; Ambleside or Brockhole which will take you down to Ferry House. At this point I reccomend a quick toilet break before setting off on your adventure.

From the toilets and keeping the Lake on your right at all times, follow the road for apx 100metres until you get to a footpath through a gate. Follow this path to a quiet lakeside road and turn right, and quite literally follow your nose.  Eventually the road becomes a track (bridleway) and you just keep heading north for apx 4 miles where you will see finger posts for Wray Castle. By this point you will have worked up a thirst, so nip into the Cafe at Wray Castle for a well earned brew and cake.

Your ferry home can be boarded from the jetty at Wray Castle and you'll have one of the best nights sleep you've had for a long time.

It really is that simple! The views are spectacular along the path, especially at Red Nab and if you don't fancy doing the full route, you can catch a ferry back from Bark Barn which will shorten your journey by one mile.

It's also worth noting that with this path being a bridleway, you can use your bikes.  Windermere cruises provide a bike service. Look at the map attached to alter your route accordingly.

Good luck and enjoy your visit, and if you see any of our Rangers (usually in red) be sure to say hello.

Building a path to recovery

How much can be achieved in two days? Well, if you have a big gang of hard working and willing volunteers – quite a lot!

The narrow path at the start of the work

 Shardale are a residential rehabilitation centre for people recovering from alcohol abuse problems. Staying at High Wray Basecamp volunteer centre for a week they helped us to refresh two sections of the path that runs from near where the ferry comes across from Bowness to Hilltop, the home of Beatrix Potter. It’s a popular path and is the main access route used by visitors to Hilltop who come on foot, but over the years had become quite overgrown and narrow. So, as part of the Windermere Reflections project we were digging back the edges and laying a fresh coating of gravel to return the path to it’s original width and glory.

A load of gravel arrives at the Hilltop path ....

... and the Ferry Hill path.

 And what a difference this has made! We were really impressed with the dedication, organisation and determination of Shardale and are very pleased with the progress on the path. It wasn't an easy job either - the digging out of the sides was difficult and generated an awful lot of turf and mud that then needed transporting to a position where we could load it onto a trailer and take it away. Then there was loading the various barrows with the gravel and getting that to the path to lay it down. Lots of walking, digging and lifting but despite many of the group finding the work quite tough everyone pulled their weight and carried on working right up until the last minute, a great effort.

Feel the burn! One of many barrow loads of turf moved up the hill.

Loading the trailer with turf and mud.

 It was a pleasure working with everyone and while we haven’t quite got the whole path finished the vast majority of it is done. More importantly, it’s done to a good standard so the next volunteer group we work on it with will have a good example of what we’re aiming for ….

So if you’re in the area, or taking a walk to Hilltop yourself be sure to look down at the path under your feet. Sometimes it’s easy to take them for granted, but spare a thought for all the hard work that has gone into making both your and many other walkers’ progress that little bit easier!

The Hilltop path team ....

Ferry Hill team one ....

Ferry Hill team two.

 By Rob Clarke, Basecamp community ranger

My shameful secret !

I’ve got an embarrassing and shameful secret, something I’ve been keeping from my friends and work colleagues. Something that a Countryside Ranger , of all people should be in control of. I think they suspect   ; there ‘s been strange looks in the corridor and conversations cut short as I walk into the room.

It’s something I thought I could deal with myself in private without outside help . I thought that was the best way , I thought I was strong enough.... I was wrong.

First it was just one then it was more than one and before I knew it , it was out of control. I don’t want you to think that I did nothing , I did try ... god knows I tried, I put hours in trying to stop it , last year I thought I’d got on top of it , I got cocky I suppose and that ‘s when it really took hold .

Well it’s time I faced my demons and came clean , so that you don’t  have to go through what I’ve been through , the skeleton in my cupboard, the shameful secret I’ve been trying to hide is   ......Himalayan balsam   it’s all over the bottom of the garden thousands of massive  plants with pink blousy flowers and then tens of thousands of seeds. There I’ve said it , and I feel much better now  that I’ve got it off my chest.

It’s a plant that is familiar in the British countryside introduced in 1839  by well meaning and curious Victorians they thought this exotic heavily perfumed pink flowering  plant  originally from the Himalayan mountains would look good in the garden . It did indeed look good in the garden but unfortunately it didn’t stay there ! This aggressively mobile plant has spring loaded seed cases that can fling the seed several metres and it thrives in almost any soil type . This means that it can ‘walk’ out of gardens  , along railway lines and down river banks where it grows in balsam stands,  tens of thousands strong out competing our native flora , by shading it out and taking its moisture.

For the last few years the National Trust ,  with hundreds of volunteers has been trying to eradicate this invasive species from our land in the Windermere catchment . We have been quite successful, I myself have lead volunteer groups pulling  balsam plants up by the roots . This makes my garden , one of the few remaining Himalayan balsam refuges on Trust land around Lake Windermere, something as I mentioned that is a bit embarrassing and not something I’m proud of . I have spent hours in the garden ,last year and this , pulling the plant up , but once the bracken has fallen over it forms a protective layer under which the balsam grows eventually poking its head up into the light to flower and seed . I am now involved in guerrilla warfare with it,  waiting for it to show itself and then pouncing on it and pulling it out or cutting the heads off it. It’s a battle that I think I am slowly winning now, I’ll find out for sure next year. 

Terminator vs. Mr Bean

If Himalayan balsam is  ‘ The Terminator’ of the plant world , an aggressive survivor that simply can not be stopped , then the touch- me- not balsam , our only native balsam  , is a bit more  ‘Mr Bean’.  It’s a nationally scarce plant found in the Lake District and North Wales, with an attractive yellow flower. The plant generally grows in small numbers in damp glades in woodlands and appears to be demanding in terms of light and moisture, it requires ground disturbance to spread. Balsam stands will grow and spread and then for no obvious reason ; disappear . We are lucky to have a good number of these balsam stands on our property in the south lakes  and now is a good time to find them in our woods . 

This unpredictable plant is also special because it plays host to a very scarce moth ,the caterpillars of the Netted Carpet moth, rely solely on this plant for their food . So the future of one is tied inextricably to the survival of the other. 

This is why at this time of year we are to be found on our hands and knees inspecting the underside of  leaves , looking for the small green caterpillars that will eventually become netted carpet moths. A job not made easier by the fact that the caterpillar is camouflaged and looks exactly like the seed pod and stem of the plant ! 

 

 As a result of some careful management  , grazing with cattle in some of our woods and  the spreading of seed , the number of plants  and moths are increasing . A significant success story for our native flora and fauna.

Paul Farrington

National Trust Ranger ( South Lakes )

Volunteers on film!

It's not all work with spades and wheelbarrows here at the Basecamp. We're always trying to raise awareness of the work we do at the volunteer centre and how it often has benefits beyond simply helping to look after our countryside alone. So we decided to try to make a film of the Basecamp experience. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a 'moving picture' worth.

The group we chose Littledale Hall Therapeutic Community, is a rehabilitation centre from Lancaster. They've been coming to Basecamp for years now and we've got a really good working relationship with them, so we decided on their April visit to roll the cameras.

Littledale Hall hard at work; cameras just out of sight ...

We spent the week working on our main job of the year, continuing the lakeshore path at Wray Bay. Local filmmaker Dayve Ward filmed the group on the work days and the group and National Trust rangers had small video cameras to catch extra footage. With all those cameras we ended up with quite a lot of footage to sort through!

The group on their completed section of path.

And that’s the thing about making even a short film, there’s an awful lot of work goes into producing a final product. It took a while, but after quite a few editing sessions we finally had a finished version. We’re very pleased with it and took it to Littledale Hall for a ‘premier showing’ where it went down very well.

Take a look at it below (it runs for around 6 minutes, longer than most 'on-line' videos but we wanted to be able to use it in presentations as well as posting it to our You Tube TV channel.)



Follow the link below to our NTSouth LakesTV channel and you can see more videos of our work here in the South Lakes.
NTSouthLakes TV channel.

post & photos by Rob
video by Rob & Dayve from Photography by Ward

Once more unto the ... shore



Muddy volunteers, certainly not disappointed!



Towards the end of last summer we started work with our volunteer groups putting a new path by the side of Windermere, through the field between Wray Castle and the Red Nab bridleway. This lovely walk has become increasingly popular with the opening of Wray Castle and the Windermere Reflections project promoting visits to this side of the lake. All these extra feet have caused the grass to become quite badly eroded, hence the need a for a path that’ll stand up to this level of use.