aka Tales from the Eclipse …
We received a report and a photo from a witness of a couple having a BBQ on the moor at Totley Air Shaft. As soon as we arrived, a male (aka the one in the photo) walked straight up nose to nose with me and told me he ‘didn’t have a BBQ’. By his feet were cherry tomatoes and sliced mushrooms. In his hand was a bag with two paper plates stained with bbq residue . When we exited the moor he stood and argued with and filmed three rangers for 20 mins, adamant that he never had a bbq. Had he admitted it and apologised and cleared up and left it would have been a 10 minute issue. But because his partner was there it turned in to some perverse masculinity fuelled denial of fact. We ‘haven’t heard the end of it’, apparently. It was like some sort of Viz ‘barbecue denier’ character.
We reunited an elderly dementia sufferer with her husband. She was found walking up the road with her dog amidst traffic chaos. Kind campervaners loaned them blankets and deckchairs. We updated and then called off the police search and a ranger followed their car home to make sure they got their safely. In a night of hostility and stupidity, that was a gem of human kindness and great work by the ranger team.
Last night was awful. Thousands and thousands of people giving no consideration whatsoever to where they parked, access for public transport, farmers or other visitors, nor the damage to the environment. The crowds from 10pm until nigh on 2am for the meteor shower took those issues to the extreme. Thousands of unthinking, inconsiderate social-media hypnotised lemmings. A large number were also rude and or confrontational. From about 11pm there seemed to be a focussed social media driven stampede with droves of people arriving, abandoning vehicles and following a dot on their phone screens regardless of sense, reason or law.
Probably my least enjoyable volunteer rangering day ever.
Possibly the busiest night in recent history. Didn’t see a single ranger from the National Trust or the National Park 🧐