Nine of us met Ranger Gary in the main Lyme Park car park and, instead of being taken to where we would be thistle thrashing, we were asked if we'd help move some Fallow deer from Hampers Wood. We drove up to the Stables and left our cars there, then walked the rest of the way. Hampers Wood is almost surrounded by a dry stone wall but there are gaps in the wall for people to walk through. We went in and tried to spread out to cover the width of the wood, walking slowly so the deer could see or hear us and, because they are very timid, would run out through one of the gaps. Some deer saw us as we approached and, we hope, left the wood. As we walked along, the Rangers put fencing over the gaps so the deer couldn't get back in. As we retraced our steps to leave the way we entered the wood, some of our group saw a couple of deer still in the wood so we had to go back in and try and encourage them to leave. I've never been 'deer herding' before, so yet another 'first' with MNTV:-)
We went back to our cars and moved them again, this time to the wood store, so we didn't take too long to walk to where we were using slashers to cut down the thistles in part of the deer sanctuary. If they were left for another few weeks, they would start to spread their seeds enabling new thistles to grow. Some of the thistles easy to find and slash but some were in long grass making it a bit tricky to get down near the base to slash them.
It was a varied day and, having missed an early downpour before we got to Lyme, the weather improved throughout the day. The views of the Cheshire plains, when we stopped for lunch, were magnificent. Two of our group couldn't stay for the afternoon so, by the time we took a group photo at the end of the day, there were only 7 of us remaining.
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