Have map, will walk

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.