Author Archives: tpltravelled

It is brilliant that there is a growing number of ‘Smokey Bears’ calling in sightings of fire or smoke … Even with a lot of local knowledge these two pictures can be really hard to geolocate – and even harder still if we don’t know exactly where you are and which way you’re looking …Continue reading “Be Like Smokey”

at 1538hrs on Friday. The call is logged as lasting 22 seconds. Eighteen of them were Alex shouting.. TOMOTHERESAFUCKINGFIREATFROGGATTFROGGATTISFUCKINGALIGHTFUCKINGHELL the last 4 seconds were me saying ‘where exactly’ and him replying, ‘i’ll message you’.  And he did. And he sent this grid SK 24951 76509 and this photo  of the beginnings of the Froggatt Fire. Continue reading “Alex Rang ….”

Details had come to our attention about a happening in Bolehill (a large area of old quarries home to ravens and kestrels and a sea of stunning silver birch and a lot of climbers). Alcohol and fire were mentioned. Not that bothered about the alcohol. Everything in moderation. Except wildfire. After a 2.5 hr updateContinue reading “The Battle of Bolehill”

Another feature of Big Moor that i hadn’t seen despite passing it hundreds of times … Just inside the white gate to Barbrook Cottage off the A621 ‘Sheffield Road’ is a guide stone (on the left). The 1927 Clarion Rambler details (in great detail !) a route from here over Car Top, past the spoilContinue reading “Hiding In Plain Sight”

A report by the Office for Environmental Protection watchdog has confirmed that there is ‘no data or research to support the government argument that environmental legislation holds up building’. Comments made publically by Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner that ‘nature is a blocker to development’ have been disproven. Their comments legitimised the establishmentContinue reading “Mistruthing in Public”

Again, for those at the back, as the ‘we need more reservoirs’ stale voice choir chirp up yet again as 2025 looks increasingly likely to have a drought formally declared …. you don’t. You really don’t. Because relative to the size of the wastage problem, the efforts and expenditure on doing anything about it areContinue reading “Flush Weekly”

At 1530hrs yesterday (Friday) a very experienced and highly observant ranger colleague looking for snakes and birds on White Edge saw two bits of rusty metal sticking out of the ground. Each was easily identifiable as the tail fin of a WW2 mortar if you know what they look like.  Several other rangers deployed toContinue reading “There’s Mortar Rangering …”

Shared some ice creams with Bill and Flo as they depart back down to the South West after 2 weeks up here helping with the ring ouzel monitoring. Fond memories and belly-laugh aches from listening to him recount the North Lees ‘sheep and the fire’ sketch the other day. Haste ye Back. Scoff a bowlContinue reading “Any Given Tuesday”

Statistically speaking i’m not a fan of statistics. The recent release of the 2024 stats from Mountain Rescue England and Wales were turned in to infographics by @ordnancesurvey and subsequently many a media hare was sent running about ‘18-24 year olds being rescued in spades by mountain rescue teams because they are over-reliant on phoneContinue reading “Up The Elderly”

I sat on a bank side last night (Callow Bank above Hathersage). I’d gone there off the back of receiving this message … As it turns out i didn’t find whatever ‘it’ was. My ranger colleagues also put a drone up to no avail. I’d forgotten how remarkably complex at a micro scale the frontContinue reading “High and Dry”