It was so q___t in the early evening that we went off on a tour of demolished old farm sites (see previous post).
But then normal Saturday night service was resumed. A drone over historic and beautiful silver birch woodland picked up a fire. Five men and a large campfire. They were invited to leave and get a taxi home. Goodbye.
Concurrently we observed a couple taking a firepit for an evening walk in the same woodland. They were invited to leave.
The drone then picked up torches several hundred metres away. Four humans and a spaniel were camping in a respectful leave-no-trace way. We bade them good evening …. but as we were leaving i spotted that one of them had pitched a Saunders Space Packer Plus. ‘At least thirty years old’ guessed the owner, ‘i got it for my eighteenth’ he said. I asked if it would be okay if i just sat there ‘til dawn admiring it but they thought that was a bit odd so i left.
Protecting that woodland and extinguishing the fire took the whole resource several hours. As a result a lot of the rest of our patch went unchecked.
We’re one small sachet of jam trying to spread itself across 56km2 of moorland. We may well be the only ranger resource out after dark in the whole National Park.
Possibly another seven or so rainless days ahead.
The fire risk rises further.