The end of an era ...

So far this year we’ve been exceptionally lucky with the weather. We had one day where we ended up building the drystone wall in the ‘Outdoors indoors’ room (see 26^th March entry) at Wray Castle due to heavy snow preventing us getting to the real wall we were intending to go to, but apart from that it’s been fine every time we’ve had volunteers out with us.

 

Not a usual walling problem - fitting stone next to a skirting board!

So this run of decent weather (ie not raining) has meant we’ve been able to get back down to our ongoing project putting the new path in on Wray Bay, just down from the castle. We started work on this way back in August 2011 and have been plugging away, working towards the castle ever since them.

 

Landing party! Brathay Trust arrive at Wray Bay .

In a first for us, the weather was so good that on one of the days the group we were working with arrived by canoe! They were all local young people staying at nearby Brathay Hall and working with us as part of a Princes Trust project. They’d all never done anything like this before and were all saying they would be bringing their families back to look at their bit of path. The National Trust’s new director general happened to be at the castle on the same day so the group also got to give her a lesson in how to use the power barrow – which we think was probably a first for her too!

 



Dame Helen Ghosh with her power barrow tutor ...

It’s been great having a big project like this to work away at, but it’s coming to and end now. A recent day working there with Littledale Hall Therapeutic Community, a residential rehabilitation centre from near Lancaster, saw us put the final turf in place on the side of the path. Quite emotional really ….

 



Littledale Hall putting the final turfs in place

There’s a couple of days work left to do yet, laying the rest of the gravel path surface and tidying the site up. But it’s very satisfying to look back on the completed path and remember all the many different volunteers who’ve put their bit into the project. This path is a true testament to the statement 'we couldn't have done it without them' .....

 By Rob Clarke, Community Ranger, High Wray Basecamp

A Year at High Wray Basecamp

At Basecamp we are full to bursting with enthusiastic groups keen to get their hands dirty for our beautiful Lake District countryside. This was my first year in the Lake District meeting and working with so many people on some fantastic conservation projects. Here are some of my highlights of the year…

Volunteers from West Runton Scripture Union: Hard work but a beautiful view!

1) The Wray Bay path – Partly funded through Windermere Reflections, we have been out in force building a solid footpath along the shores of Windermere in the Wray Castle grounds. We’ve had lots of volunteer help with this project with some days being wetter than others! We exceeded our target length for the year, creating a footpath that’s suitable for electric wheelchairs, bikes and pushchairs, increasing access to the wilder Western shore.

 Fix the Fells Camping Working Holiday: What a place to set up home for 3 days…

2) Fix the Fells Camping Working Holidays – I really enjoyed the Fix the Fells camping working holidays up on Martcrag Moor in the Langdale Valley in June and August. This involved a long walk in with everyone carrying their own kit to spend 3 nights up on the fell. The group worked hard in all weathers to improve the route through eroded peat bog. I don’t know how we would have managed without all the cake…

 Working Holiday volunteers: The end of the holiday saw a nearly finished frame!

3) Green woodworking working holiday - Perhaps my favourite highlight was our first green woodworking holiday to build a new woodshed for Basecamp. Our old one was very old and rickety so what better idea than to spend a week constructing a new one in traditional methods!? The oak for the main frame came from the National Trust woodlands felled by our very own foresters. The good news is the shed now has a roof, cladding and some wood drying inside.

 Littledale Hall Therapeutic Community: The reward for a hard days rhododendron bashing

4) Rhododendron Bashing - Everyone loves a bit of destruction and a roaring fire. We’ve been attacking the rhodi problem on the property as part of a large grant scheme. We couldn’t do this without the help of all our volunteers! We aim to make 2013 an even more destructive year for those rhodis!

So what for 2013?

My highlights of the year wouldn’t be so memorable without the good humour and hard work of our amazing volunteers and other rangers. We look forward to working with all the great characters that come with our groups (as well as meeting new ones!) to help conserve and protect the Lake District.

Let’s hope the weather is kinder to us in 2013…

Clair Payne

Ranger (Volunteers)

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

A red ribbon day

Leo (aged 4!) doing the honours for us, with a little help from his friends.

As regular readers of our blog will know already, our rangers team and volunteer groups have been doing a lot of work this year improving access between Wray Castle and Lake Windermere's western shore.

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.