Thanks to my wonderful husband (he’ll expect me to write that), I was able to go on another volunteering day with the National Trust while he took the day off to look after the pooch.
I was excited to get back out and about, spending a whole day doing something in the outdoors. For this day, we were working in Coledale, down in the valley maintaining the trees that have been planted there over the past 2-3 years. You’ll have maybe seen them – they’ve got the tree equivalent to a dog collar around them with a stake attached and hammered into the ground. Our job was to go over these on one side of the river and make sure they were staked properly after the wild weather, making sure trees were still growing in them all and maintain the tubes and stakes.
What a lovely day to get out in – drizzle and grey skies, a proper Cumbrian day. I met up with the team and jumped in the 4×4 up towards the valley through Braithwaite. 5 of us (3 rangers and 2 volunteers) set off after getting out the car on our way down towards where the trees were planted. After a little detour trying to get a sheep out of the enclosure, armed with mallets and spare cable ties, we started making our way through the trees.
What a great bunch of people. Turns out the other volunteer had been looking after these new trees since they were planted and came out in her spare time to maintain them. She also encouraged me to go wild swimming in some of the small tarns, which was already on my radar for something to try this summer but unlike her, I may stick to wearing a wet suit! She’d already been out swimming 3 times this year – a braver woman than me! I also learned from one of the rangers that it was the beginning of a massive project in creating woodland around the valley that had been lost and would perhaps start to provide some natural flood defence for Braithwaite down below us. Many different trees have been planted and they are hoping to plant more in the future.
After a quick lunch it was onwards to finish the section on our side of the river, which we managed to do pretty quickly. There was a small section on the other side of the river which still needed looked at and after a quick debate, we decided that the river definitely looked crossable and seen as we had plenty of time we might as well hop over and finish those off too.
As we got down to the river, our confidence in crossing it wained slightly. It was definitely a lot wider than it looked from the top of the field and only one of us had wellies on. But we managed to find some well placed mossy tufts to get us across, which reminded me of old school Mario jumping from one to the other to get to the other side.
Safely across, it didn’t take long to get the last section done and I was back down to the car within half an hour.
What a great day – spending time outdoors and really feeling like I accomplished something meaningful. I had plenty of time to take in my surroundings and appreciate the environment I was in. Unfortunately we couldn’t see the tops of the fells around us, but I knew they were there and the view along the valley was pretty, still with some snow left over from the other week. It is definitely a worthwhile cause to invest a bit of time in. Not only do you help maintain the National Trust’s area, but you start to learn so much more about the local area and how it’s managed for the enjoyment of everyone. I can’t wait until I get to go back out again!
Mindfell Walker 