Christmas Camp BITM on the Wilts & Berks
hiding in the reeds on the offside - and the water voles stay snug in their burrows underneath the towpath. Di had one day off from providing our tea when Philip and Anne Smith invited us over to their farm for a delicious meal. Four of us were BITMites – Rob, Matt, Di and myself, unless you also count Mina, who was running around supervising us every day. The moment we got back to the accommodation each day she headed straight for her bowl, wolfed down her tea, and then crashed out on our bed until morning – but then she is an elderly dog. Luke and Robin stayed on until the 3rd January, also joined by Anthony from Melksham Branch, so we did get a bit more work done. In the evenings we completed almost 3 x 1,000 piece jigsaws, and most of us drove over to Swindon one evening in the hope of seeing Sully at the cinema, but unfortunately it wasn’t on until the following week, so two just stayed to see the latest Star Wars film. Matt was trained to drive the BITM van, and gained experience driving it to and from site each day. It was great fun, good to see everyone, and I’m very grateful for all that was achieved. It will spur us on to complete the rest of the clearance. Rachael Banyard
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Martin Ludgate
WRG BITM Christmas Camp Wilts & Berks Canal Despite relatively low numbers (maximum eight), the Christmas camp at Dauntsey went well, and we achieved quite a lot. We didn’t have a very auspicious start on Boxing Day when most people arrived, as it started to rain early on and got worse as the morning wore on. We were strimming the banks and hedge (including the offside, working from our workboat) up to the far western end of my section, but by lunchtime we had to throw in the towel – or at least get back to the cottage and find several towels to rub us down. From then on, the weather was kind to us, and we had no more rain until New Year’s Day when the camp was officially over. We had quite hard frosts at night, and it remained crisp and clear and quite sunny for working during the day, particularly with good bonfires going for whenever we stopped for breaks. We did one more day on the western end, and then transferred two miles to the east end where my section joined Philip Smith’s. We first cleared Philip’s 150m section from the road down to the start of my bit. Luke had acquired a back-pack strimmer, which makes it easier to clear the scrub along the banks, which also revealed masses of saplings, so a lot of Tirfor winching was carried out. We haven’t had time to do any maintenance at that end, probably for a year, so it had become quite overgrown. Each day we worked steadily down towards the Peterborough Arms, and achieved at least 450m clearance, wonderful! A further 600m was strimmed, and the brush left to burn later and stumps to be pulled. Di was working on the west side raking weeds and reeds out of the canal, in between shopping, cooking, and making sure that the army marched on its stomach. Most days she had to break the ice on the canal, which remained frozen through most of the week. The swans always seem to manage to keep a small patch clear of ice, but the moorhens never put in an appearance – presumably
Meanwhile our WRG BITM (Bit In The Middle) regional group held their own festive camp at Dauntsey on the Wilts & Berks Canal
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