Despite the weather ... !

It was inevitable really that we would have to spend a lot of time in planning the project to lay pipes across to Derwent Island. There will be three pipes on the lake bed. One will supply fresh water; a second will supply LPG gas and the third will remove waste water. Now that the work is underway, there are clear stages to tackle and we can have a sense of achievement as each is completed.

Last week we had reached the stage where the three lengths of piping had to be rolled out and hauled across from the lake shore to the island. These are long, heavy and cumbersome to manoeuvre so I was concerned that this was going to be a very difficult stage to complete. In fact, the combined efforts of Trust Rangers from a number of areas and the contractor’s dive team ensured that it all went smoothly. It was a lot of hard work of course but there were no unexpected problems.

A rope was attached to one end of a pipe and the dive team took the rope across to the island. The dive team positioned a boat about half way across and from then on it was a case of hard graft just hauling and dragging the pipes. It all went incredibly well and definitely proved that many hands do make light work.

The other big project which has been started by the fell ranger footpath guys is on Castle Crag. They are going to be building a new stretch of stone-built pitch path. This will enable us to take out an old ladder stile that is definitely on its ‘last legs’. It will make it much easier and safer for people to access the area. It will also mean that long-term maintenance should be easier to carry out. 

That’s another job that’s going to require a lot of hard physical work but it is a beautiful place to be working if the weather is good. They’ve been a bit unlucky so far with the weather and have been working through some pretty cold, wintry showers. But, hats off to them, they have carried on regardless.

Daisy here:

We’ve been up Castle Crag.  It was great. I could hear peregrines. I didn’t know what they were but Roy said they were peregrines.