BITM Christmas Camp at Dauntsey
Camp Report Christmas at Dauntsey David, Di and myself, plus Adrian, Alan, Robin and Chrissie. Using a recipe she had recently got hold of, Di made some mincemeat which included honey (provided by my Dauntsey Lock bees), and people said they enjoyed the slightly different taste from shop-bought mincemeat. She kept us well-fed, and by the time we had demolished our evening meal nobody wanted to go out much in the evenings apart from several visits to the pub round the corner. We have two jigsaw addicts, who spend every minute in the hall poring over – and finishing – four 1,000 piece ones, three of which I had won in a raffle this year. Most of the rest of us also get drawn into this puzzling occupation on and off. We all enjoyed just sitting around chatting. Our Christmas Camps usually include several regulars, but it is nice to also welcome some newcomers to Dauntsey. Well done to everybody for achieving a great deal. Rachael Banyard For the avoidance of any possible misunderstanding, we’d like to point out that this was an independent camp, not a Wilts & Berks Canal Trust event
Chrissie Dixon
Organising Christmas camps does tend to be a matter of trying to predict what the weather is going to throw at us, and what jobs are going to be possible. Fortunately this time the weather was kind to us, and the work went very well. We had a bit of rain on Boxing Day, but otherwise it remained dry – but cold, but then that is “boss’s weather”, because more gets done because you have to work hard to keep warm. Our local hire company lent us a 8tonne excavator, free of charge, which proved very useful, particularly as we had Adrian Sturgess with us, and he took charge of that side of the operation. There were various patches of the canal which had become very reeded up, but it is now clear enough for our former BW tug to get almost to the end of my section. Adrian also widened the towpath where it had become a bit narrow, uprooting some of the hedgerow growth, but we managed to save enough saplings to replant 3ft further back. He also did some large excavator training for Alan ‘Lifeboat’ Simister, who only gets to operate machinery once a year. When Jeff arrived complete with trusty chainsaw, several trees bit the dust, and were duly demolished for burning. We used our tug to cut back a long length of the offside hedge, where it had been growing across the canal. Whilst poling the boat across, Robin Bishop managed to slide down the pole, and had to go back to the accommodation for a complete change of clothing. As usual, there was noone on hand with a camera. There were a lot of brambles to clear on both sides, so one way or another we had plenty of fuel for some big bonfires. Rob Brotherston managed to mow up the middle of the towpath right up to the far end. After a fairly recent operation on my spine, I have been struggling to keep up with the maintenance on two miles of canal at Dauntsey, and Di – now past 80 – is also finding it quite hard work to keep the path, hedge and bank clear, and this year has concentrated on the west side of the road. It’s amazing how quickly it all gets overgrown! We had seven of BITM on the camp: Matt, Laurence, Jeff, Rob,
Clearing the offside bank
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