6th August 2017

Not much really appeared to happen this week. I decide to pop into the works around Manor farm crusher and the foot bridge.  There weren't any signs that said keep out. They simply warned people about deep water and machinery.  It was a weekend and nowt was going on.

The sun was bright and high on this day. My bridge camera fared better because of this. The photos are still a bit fuzzy at maximum zoom, but that is one curse of bridge cameras.

Because this week is so photo heavy I have split this post into four sections.

The first covers the area around the Pump Station.

The second is from the south footpath that runs along the Blackwater river.

The third is around the culvert area/entrance gate at Longwater Road.

The fourth is a little way west of the foot bridge at a heap of ballast.

6th Aug - Starting with the area around the Pump Station.

I climbed the bridge at the pump station to take a series of 360 degree shots. It is amazing how a couple of metres elevation changes the perspective of the view.

6th Aug - Now the south footpath along the Blackwater river

These next series of shots were taken as we headed west along the footpath next to the Blackwater river.

6th Aug - The area around the culvert/Longwater road entrance to the works.

The conveyor from Fleet Hill farm pops out of the culvert here, before continuing its journey across the works.  There is a lot of machinery here. Dotted around are large heaps of ballast, a mixture of sand and pebbles, no doubt from the works.  The ballast was quite coarse, with some quite large pebbles i.e. 60mm.

I took the opportunity to scramble to the top of one of the heaps to take photos of the area.  I also hopped on to one of the large concrete 'cubes' to do same.  Don't tell elf and safety or they'll have a fit!

I'm glad I did, as shortly after Cemex used spread the ballast out along the edge of the various lakes on this part of the reserve.

I never really did like this area.

6th Aug - The area a little way to the west of the foot bridge.

I was on a roll this week and decided to climb the biggest heap of ballast at the north of this part of the reserve, a little way west of the foot bridge.

The track from the foot bridge to the ballast heap had been freshly laid. I didn't realise this, and on my way back from the heap discovered that is was very, very muddy. I sank about 6 inches into wet loose mud with my new hiking boots! I immediately kept to the tracks made by trucks and bulldozers as they had compacted the soil.