Just a Quick Note – 25/11/2020

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Just a Quick Note

25th November 2020

The e-newsletter of the Twmbarlwm Society

Hello Folks

I hope this finds you all fit and healthy in body and soul.

Again, not a great deal to report on CTS activities but I wanted to remind you that we will be having our monthly litter pick up Twmbarlwm this coming Sunday – details below.

WORTH WATCHING

Do you remember, before the first lockdown, we were about to hold a talk at Crosskeys RFC by one of the people from the Gwent Levels project – like everything else it was cancelled. But if you are still interested in that area you will certainly like this link that the Living Levels sent to us – Dr Toby Driver recently gave an online virtual lecture on the work of the Royal Commission and their Aerial Survey work over the Gwent Levels and south Wales. The lecture is available to view on YouTube – it’s 50 minutes long, includes aerial images of areas you will no doubt recognise and I’m sure you’ll find it fascinating and very informative – click on the following link – tinyurl.com/y4wx4wd3

You can also check out their website www.livinglevels.org.uk for more online events.

WHAT A MESS

I haven’t been visiting Twmbarlwm as much as I used to and have not been there since before bonfire night (or bonfire fortnight as it is now) – but I went up there last weekend and was horrified to find the state it was in. The car park area was covered with the usual fast food detritus and all around was spent fireworks and scorched areas from a couple of fires. Someone had done a litter pick and left the bags for collection but the bags have been ripped open and scattered back around the common. There was also a couple of large fly tips by the rocks piled opposite the car park.

Worse was to come – as I walked up the ORPA – there was great deal of evidence of off-road vehicle activity with new deep muddy ruts ploughed into the track. When I got up onto the ridgeway there was tracks ploughed into the landscape as far as the eye could see – and then I spotted one of the culprits, a Land Rover Defender overturned onto its side and burnt out – a sad sight to see.

I reported this to the authorities – and people who follow our page on FaceBook have since told me that the vehicle has been up there for one to two weeks.

I hope to start new dialogue with the councils and police to see what measures we can strengthen to help stop this sort of behaviour. Please let me know if you could help or want to be part of this campaign.

WALKERS’ PARADISE

Despite the negativity of my report of the mess on Twmbarlwm above, I must say that I am always pleased to find that practically every time I go up there I nearly always find cars in the car park and the occupants, often entire families, are off walking the hill. A couple of years ago I rarely saw anyone when I was there walking the dogs – so whether it is the lockdown that has brought people into the great outdoors is anybody’s guess. Whatever the reason it just goes to show, you don’t need to walk miles and miles to get some awesome views and have some stress-free time with family and friends. I’m just happy to have this new appreciative audience of our landscape and hope that they too will want to help maintain our mountain in the future – and maybe join the society too. Please pass this message on.

LITTER PICK

This coming Sunday, 29th September, we will be organising our usual monthly litter pick on Twmbarlwm.

Anyone is welcome to join us (as long as you are not from England, still in lockdown) to help with the litter pick around the car park and common but note that we will NOT be providing hot drinks afterwards as usual, so please bring your own refreshments if required. If you have your own gloves and equipment so much the better.

We will be at the car park at 10:30 and we generally stay there for 2-3 hours

Everyone must observe social distancing for this activity so I’m afraid we won’t be able to offer any lifts up the mountain as usual. You should only work alongside people within your own “family bubble”.

We have pick-up sticks and rubbish bags and have hand sanitiser and wipes available – it is each person’s own responsibility to take necessary precautions such as wiping down any shared equipment before and after use.