Talkback: Fire Warning For Peak District

April has been remarkably dry - I think something like only 50% of normal rainfall and, in case you havent noticed, the last couple weeks have been unseasonably warm.

So..OK, fire warning is of no surprise...but is it worth being sooo dimsissive as same old same old with a yawn?

 It's only,same old, same old, if you,ve been there before.

 There will be hundreds of firstimers who need handholding,

and hundreds who need telling again. Not just for  fire warnings.

 Cheers.

Fine, if the intention is to tell people to be careful and not to start fires.

But what do you do about deliberate arson. A polite request doesn't work.

I've yet to see a moorland fire that was started by accident!

Best Peak District story I heard in this respect concerned some guy trying to stop some ramblers crossing a moor, preaching about the risk of fire, and all the time he was smoking and carelessly flicking his ash onto dry grass!

It's hard to educate idiots.

This sunday is my nephews birthday, him and his mates are "wanting to do something different", the idea was for half a dozen of them to go for a piss up in the peaks and have a bonfire etc, as young uns do.

I've managed to put him off but i doubt if he hadn't been a family member it'd have fallen on deaf ears.

Also seen tweets tonight about people out there doing this exact thing, up by fox house as usual, just hope they don't burn the place down.

Include a little history in your walks. Pecsaetan - Ancient Derbyshire, Staffordshire and South Yorkshire - http://pecsaetan.weebly.com/

Hi

I think Twiglegs maybe referring to my 'tweets' last night. Nipped out at the last minute to take advantage of the good weather for a video I'm working on - not too dissimiliar to this:

Upper Derwent Valley

I set off from the Fox House Inn and made my way into Burbage Rocks area below Carl Wark Fort and....bloody hell. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Despite numerous recently put up signs warning not to camp, no BBQ's fire risk etc - there were a number of crowds using disposable BBQ's here there and everywhere.

And as I headed on into the valley, I caught up with one lad and seven lasses (make of that what you will ) carrying crates of beer, bedding in barious formas wrapped in bin liners - the full monty.

Having worked a great deal with the PDNPA and it's affiliates of late I felt it not only morally right but a sense of duty to approach this group and 'have a word in their ear'.

To be fair, them and others I spoke to were sound as a pound - quite simply they were ignorant to the risks and damage they may cause.

There were no 'exchange of words and fists' or anything. In fact talking to them in laymans terms they were very receptive.

Consequently, I left them be to have a good time - so to speak - and noted from my distant camp no fires made, which I'm pretty sure they would have done. Granted, the females in the group would likely be more considerate - a bunch of lads may have gone ahead and made a fire for camping etc anyway.

Sign of the times. I felt somewhat of a hypocrite if I reported them seeing as I was out on a wild camp myself.

But I did head back their way early this morning and there was no litter - so fair play to em.

But Burbage Rocks, Surprise View and places like it close by main roads tend to attract these kinds of acitvities - though not always with the same result

Same old ? How are people new to the peak supposed to know unless told? Most people don't realise that peat can be used as a fuel, most people just think it's mud. Same old same old could apply better to people moaning about perfectly good advice

In short don't really know what your problem is with that article. Do you moan about every rehash of articles about mountain rescue and other safety issues?

Mrs. Nesbit wrote (see)

He's so damned attractive when he's forceful

GrumpyOldMan wrote (see)

April has been remarkably dry - I think something like only 50% of normal rainfall and, in case you havent noticed, the last couple weeks have been unseasonably warm.

Include a little history in your walks. Pecsaetan - Ancient Derbyshire, Staffordshire and South Yorkshire - http://pecsaetan.weebly.com/