By the Session Leader:
Of all the
sites where we regularly operate, today’s is the most distant.
Not only is Natural
England’s Aston Rowant reserve the venue which is the furthest away from
Wallingford, at 159 hectares it also the largest. There are at least five different places where we can meet; and of those five, today’s RV point was the most distant – also one
we do not visit very often. Half of our
group had never been there before, so it was a relief that everyone found the
place without getting lost.
Last time we
were there, we had a long trek from the car park over the escarpment to the top
where the views are magnificent, spoilt only by the roar of motorway traffic. To our surprise we only had a very short walk
this time: from the car park …
to the rides
…
which opened
out to give a glimpse of the view ahead:
Just the one
view, but relatively little noise.
Not that
there was much time to admire the view, or to notice the noise. Our task was to clear back the sides of the
rides where they had grown out to trap the walkers and stop the warden’s Land
Rover getting through. It was more or
less the usual combination of nettles, brambles, hawthorn, and small trees;
plus the occasional gorse-bush, wild rose, and honeysuckle.
The site
warden had decided to help us by sawing down a tree which we could then 'reduce' (cut up) and remove. Snag was: the chain saw would
not keep running. Blocked
carburettor? Air filter?
While he
went away back to his workshop, we set to, to show how much more reliable is a
bow saw.
The slight
snag with that was that the boughs fell into a huge mass of brambles and
nettles. Dragging that away was not easy
and the tangle had to be cut up first:
The warden
meanwhile had serviced his chain saw and was getting his Land Rover through:
He then
proceeded to reduce another tree to logs, just to show the might of machine
over human muscle and willpower:
Green-Gymmers
were enthusiastic about helping to load said logs into landie – only that part
of the job was postponed until after tea-break:
At the end
the main ride was cleared together with two side paths.
A satisfying
day, and a job completed. We had gone
the distance.
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