Devon Weekend

17th-18th March 2007

We had a nice early start for the trip down to Barnstaple, but didn't quite manage to do any work until the afternoon! Emma wasn't there - which was fortunate for her, since the wind was brisk on Clovelly hill fort. Serene gave her first tools talk, cheered-on by an enthusiastic audience. It was your fairly typical 'scrub clearance of iron-age earthworks' task, albeit with a bonfire that had to meet English Heritage regulations.

After work we tricked Vicky into taking Charlotte into Morrisons with her (still wearing her "special" BUCG issue yellow coat and trousers), but she got her own back by not buying any meat. D'oh! Still, we had a pasta feast in the village hall once some saucepans had been prised out of the locals. The combination of St Patricks night and the presence of our young females proved a heady mix for the locals in Taddiport's pub.... we were wooed and/or insulted throughout the evening!

Sunday was nice and sunny, except for the hail storms (for the second time this academic year). For our second day's work we were cutting down gorse and making a really big pile. This was to conserve some rare culm [read: boggy] grassland. After work had finished, I (Tim) cut down what may be my last tree before leaving Bristol, to the dismay of the ranger. That's dismay that I cut down another tree once everyone had packed-up, not dismay that I might not be cutting down more trees in the future. Which, blatantly, I will.

Tim's photos

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