Rhodybashing at Lyme Park on 22nd January 2017

Undeterred by the cold weather, eight of us spent today rhodybashing in Lantern Wood.  Daniel had wildly overestimated how long the journey from home would take him and was parked up by 9 o'clock but that did mean he saw ~100 runners set off from the lake by the restaurants on the monthly 10K Parkrun.  He thought to himself he must do that race one day!

Everyone else appeared by 9:30 and we drove in two cars and ranger Dan's 4x4 up to the stables from where we walked the 1km to the worksite.  A fire was smouldering from Thursday's work party and Neil and Andy set about getting this going again to burn the cut rhody they had left behind.  Absent any wind it took an hour+ to get decent ignition!  We were glad of the fire's warmth because throughout the morning snow and sleet flurried.  Once Thursday's cuttings were on their way to being burned we began cutting into the rhody uphill towards the Lantern.

After cake break at 11 we lit a second fire a little further uphill and spent the rest of the day stoking both fires with our cuttings.  Looking around you could see big expanses of dense tall rhody - it will take years to clear the whole wood!  At 2:30 we stopped loading both fires and let them burn down until 3:15 when, marked with red and white tape, they were left to burn out.

Daniel