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We finally got our first duty rosta (if that’s the right word for it) – we chose one duty for August, and one for September. I figured it’s best to start small and work up rather than book myself up fully and have to cancel some.
August – Dig and plant a wildflower meadow, Whitefield Park, Bury
We got there all psyched for our first ranger contribution and it was a glorious day, with the sun cracking the flags; I got my first tan since Poland! Aga and I were the only volunteers to sign up to this duty, Whitefield Park not being the most well-known or cared about park in the area. It’s a shame because it’s lovely, with a nice playground, some professional bowling greens and a load of well-looked-after plants, trees and flowers. Plus it’s local and so should be important for the residents.
There’s a south-east facing slope that gets a lot of sun, and we dug a small test bed of about 4m x 2m (there was only us two and the park ranger!) – then we sowed it with some very expensive wildflower seeds and raked them in. Hopefully we’ll see them next spring.
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So we went to the interview last week with the Ranger Service at Burrs Country Park – I can’t believe I’ve lived in the area for a year and I’ve never visited this place… it’s beautiful. Will definitely have to find an hour or two for a stroll as it’s only about a mile away from my house.
The rangers were really nice, Kathryn and Neil, and they went through everything we wanted to know without us even having to ask. We have to commit to a minimum of one activity a month (shouldn’t be too hard) and each quarter we get a list of all the duties across the three boroughs (Bury, Bolton and Salford) from which to choose.
There’s around 90 voluntary rangers across the valley, and about 85% are trained volunteers so that looks like the most popular route. The next training courses aren’t until October so it should give us a bit of time to see if we like it. They asked about my rock-climbing for some reason so perhaps they’ll be some opportunity for single rope technique like clearing dangerous trees, or securing crumbling overhangs with wire mesh?
Just one big problem for me – they recommended getting a tetanus vaccination as there’s a good chance of mucky injuries. I really, really hate needles. What kind of malicious mind first thought about sticking a hollow, metal tube into someone’s arm?
Just waiting on our welcome pack and I’ll let you know some more.
Went gear shopping over the weekend and bought some new kit to play with as I eagerly await the end of the hayfever season…
HiTech scrambling boots
My choice was between a pair of Regatta boots and the HiTech ones – now HiTech are like your cheap and cheerfuls but in this case they were so much more comfortable than the Regattas; possibly because I’m not used to the way hiking boots feel but one thing I’ve learned through my rockclimbing phase was that you’ve got to choose comfort over performance when you’re starting out on a new activity. Gonna ease my way into walking gently so any advanced performance will be totally lost on me anyway.
Waterproofing care spray for aforementioned boots
My new HiTech boots have a waterproof inner layer but I want to make sure my feet stay dry. I bought some Granger’s Superpruf for £6.99 – for that price it had better be more than fancy PVA glue solution. I’ll test it on my boots and if I’m happy I’ll give my backpack a spray too.
220ml butane/propane gas canister
I bought this far in preparation for a new stove I’m looking to buy next payday, the Optimus Crux Lite. It got through to the final shortlist on Trail magazine’s stove test, costs on average £40 and weighs a puny 72g. Roughgear.co.uk gave me some stellar gear advice and they sell the Optimus Crux Lite for £35. Being a gear junkie I decided I need one. Hmm… a £15 stove might be a better first stove investment since cutting my pack weight isn’t top of my list at the moment.
A tip from a newbie like myself who has just done his research on stoves… there are 2 canister fittings, EN417 Lindel which is a threaded valve, and CampingGaz which is smooth. Check the stove you’re thinking on buying for compatibility – EN417 is by far more common and personally I like the added security of screwing my stove firmly onto my gas canister.
Compass
Standard plastic rectangle compass with 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 scale rulers down the side (which fit perfectly with Ordnance Survey maps). All the important bits glow in the dark too.
OS Select map (1:25,000)
This is the one bit of kit I’m well pleased at – Ordnance Survey have a service called OS Select whereby you can center an OS map around whichever location you want. If I buy a standard map with all the nice walks nearby then my house is annoyingly just off the map… not anymore!
I asked them to put my house in the bottom right corner of the map so now I’ve got everything Northwest of my HQ. I reckon this would make a really good present for someone who is into walking; the map even comes in a presentation box that fits onto your bookcase.
I spent hours pouring over the map and trying to dig up my old training on 6-figure grid references. There’s so many routes I want to try around my area like Burrs Country Park, Peel Tower on Holcombe Moor, and Wayoh Resevoir. I’ll post some Google Earth KMZ files when I get chance.
Aga and I signed up for our local voluntary ranger service around the Croal Valley to give us some motivation for getting out of the house. Much to my initial dismay, the voluntary ranger service does not issue you with a horse and and indian, nor do you get a brightly coloured lycra suit and a giant mechanised dinosaur. Instead it involves looking after your local countryside, meeting new people, and learning new skills.
Right now though I’m in Poland again, around the Bydgoszcz area, and it’s 32 degrees centigrade with glorious sunshine. I left Manchester on Wednesday so I won’t hear back from the voluntary ranger service until I get back next week. They have to interview me and my girlfriend to make sure we’re not complete nutcases just after a uniform and a chainsaw!
There’s training available such as first aid, and power tools (chainsaws anyone?). Aga has her degree minor in agriculture and she’s often frustrated that she hasn’t had an opportunity to use her skills yet, so she’s well up for the ranger service too.
From what I know so far, you choose which of the monthly duties you can commit to- these might include such things as checking nature walks for any problems or vandalism, planting saplings, or clearing fallen trees after big storms (which has a good chance of involving chainsaws).
Speaking of trees, there’s a lot of huge pine and birch forests around here which would be cool to trek into and get lost for a couple of days, but in Poland the wildlife is slightly more wild than back in England and I don’t fancy my chances against wolves and boars. They might even have bears here but I’m not sure. I think I’ll start off against sheep and work upwards.
I’ll be spending some time in Gdansk tomorrow on the Baltic coast – I kind of imagine it to be a concrete post-soviet dystopia, like Milton-Keynes by the sea, but I’m sure I’ll be proved wrong. Apparently there were prehistoric forests that are now under the baltic sea and that’s why amber literally washes up on the shore – people go beach combing for amber after storms.
