For the last two work parties we have concentrated on opening up some of the paths in the woods. South Gloucester council would normally keep a lot of our paths clear from March onwards by regular mowing but they have not been able to do this for the last two years because the machinery they use has not been available - it's broken and not yet been replaced. Consequently we have needed to to this work by hand as best we can. It's hard, time consuming work and we struggle to keep all the paths open all the time.
For the work party on Wednesday 25th June, we tackled the path from post 6 at the top of the steps up from the bridge along to the viewpoint near post 8. Four volunteers went along and opened it up.
This was what we started with ...
____________________________________________________________
Six of us went along to the Sunday 13th July work party. That day was in the middle of an official heatwave so working out in the open, in full sun at temperatures around 27 deg C was not a viable option. We took to the woods! It was still hot but we did have plenty of shade and had decided to finish earlier than our usual time. What we did was to clear the path that runs from post 17 on the Jubilee Way along to post 16 in the old plantation.
This is post 17 and you can see the grass and other vegetation encroaching from both sides.
Going past here into the wood we found a fallen willow causing an obstruction ...
... and an overgrown path through undergrowth and brambles. A bit of a jungle!
We started by clearing some of the larger obstructions and bits of vegetation that were hanging over the path.
Aiden and Cathy cleared a lot of brambles alongside the path ...
... and before long we had a pretty decent pathway through the central section.
Quite soon the whole of the path had been cleared to create a really nice short walk in the shade.
The volunteers worked hard to get the work done in trying working conditions. They should be very proud of all their efforts this morning.