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There are over 30 country parks in Wales. | 0:00:03 | 0:00:05 | |
Thousands of people visit them every year. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:09 | |
Some are old estates of wealthy landlords... | 0:00:10 | 0:00:13 | |
..some are old industrial sites. | 0:00:15 | 0:00:18 | |
The parks are usually close to towns, | 0:00:18 | 0:00:20 | |
and that's because they've been set aside for us to enjoy | 0:00:20 | 0:00:24 | |
on our doorstep. | 0:00:24 | 0:00:25 | |
But what I like about them most | 0:00:25 | 0:00:26 | |
is that they're great places for wildlife. | 0:00:26 | 0:00:29 | |
If you keep your eyes open, you will see some great sights. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:33 | |
I'm on Llyn Padarn. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:00 | |
It is the second largest natural lake in the whole of Wales | 0:01:00 | 0:01:04 | |
and it lies at the northern edge of the Snowdonia National Park. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:08 | |
And all around me here you can see some of the high mountains. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:12 | |
And in the distance over there is the highest of them all, Snowdon. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:16 | |
And today, the lake is in the centre of a fantastic country park. | 0:01:16 | 0:01:21 | |
Padarn Country Park is next to the town of Llanberis, | 0:01:24 | 0:01:28 | |
the departure point for the Snowdon Mountain Railway. | 0:01:28 | 0:01:31 | |
The country park is set in a stunning landscape | 0:01:35 | 0:01:38 | |
surrounded by mountains. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:40 | |
It has been largely created on the site | 0:01:42 | 0:01:45 | |
of the old Dinorwic Slate Quarry. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:46 | |
It's a busy tourist destination | 0:01:48 | 0:01:50 | |
and the National Slate Museum is also based in the park. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:53 | |
Slate mining on a vast scale began here during the 19th century. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:01 | |
At its peak, Dinorwic employed more than 3,000 men, | 0:02:04 | 0:02:08 | |
and it was the second largest | 0:02:08 | 0:02:10 | |
opencast slate producer in the world. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:12 | |
These workers were working, in effect, on cliff faces | 0:02:14 | 0:02:17 | |
on one of the highest mountains in Snowdonia. | 0:02:17 | 0:02:19 | |
I can only imagine the hard conditions these men faced | 0:02:23 | 0:02:26 | |
during a working day. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:27 | |
At the time, it was pretty much the only work available in the area, | 0:02:34 | 0:02:39 | |
and this is where most men would end up for virtually their entire lives. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:43 | |
Like many old industries, slate mining eventually declined | 0:02:52 | 0:02:56 | |
and, in 1969, Dinorwic Quarry closed. | 0:02:56 | 0:02:59 | |
Much of the quarry was acquired by the local county council | 0:03:03 | 0:03:06 | |
to protect it as an industrial heritage site | 0:03:06 | 0:03:09 | |
and for the creation of a country park. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:12 | |
BIRDSONG | 0:03:14 | 0:03:16 | |
There are some footpaths through this quarry. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
You've got to stick to the path | 0:03:31 | 0:03:33 | |
because it's quite a dangerous place, really, but listen to this. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:35 | |
Listen to that. BIRD CALLS | 0:03:35 | 0:03:37 | |
Can you hear that? That's a fantastic early-morning call. | 0:03:37 | 0:03:40 | |
And if you come here in late March, early April, you'll hear this. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:44 | |
It's a ring ouzel. Now, a ring ouzel now is one | 0:03:44 | 0:03:46 | |
of the most sought-after birds in the whole of the UK. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:49 | |
All the birders say, "Oh, I'd like to see a ring ouzel." | 0:03:49 | 0:03:52 | |
And here's one singing, just behind me. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:54 | |
And now is the time, late March, early April, | 0:03:54 | 0:03:56 | |
because they are just back from North Africa, | 0:03:56 | 0:03:59 | |
and this is a male establishing his territory here. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:03 | |
And he's picked the perfect spot, | 0:04:03 | 0:04:05 | |
because he is right on the edge of a sheer cliff there, | 0:04:05 | 0:04:08 | |
and he's got the quarry like an amphitheatre, | 0:04:08 | 0:04:12 | |
all around him. So that song is carrying for kilometres, | 0:04:12 | 0:04:17 | |
and any female nearby is going to think, | 0:04:17 | 0:04:19 | |
"Oh, there's a male around." | 0:04:19 | 0:04:20 | |
In she comes. But fabulous! | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
Just don't hear that anywhere near often enough these days. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:28 | |
Dinorwic Quarry was a huge site. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:38 | |
Some of the working levels were high up on the mountainside | 0:04:40 | 0:04:44 | |
at around 500 metres above sea level. | 0:04:44 | 0:04:46 | |
Although the scars of the old industry are still here, | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
nature is gradually reclaiming this beautiful landscape... | 0:04:50 | 0:04:54 | |
..and it's a perfect place for mountain goats. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:57 | |
They're not naturally wild and they're also not native to Wales. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:06 | |
They were brought here by different people centuries ago | 0:05:08 | 0:05:12 | |
and over the years they escaped, and today roam much of Snowdonia. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:16 | |
Padarn Country Park is probably one of the best places to see them and, | 0:05:23 | 0:05:27 | |
during early spring, you'll be sure to see young kids. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:30 | |
TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS | 0:05:37 | 0:05:39 | |
The trains of the old quarry | 0:05:42 | 0:05:43 | |
have been lovingly restored by Llanberis Lake Railway, | 0:05:43 | 0:05:46 | |
which is one of the attractions of Padarn Country Park. | 0:05:46 | 0:05:49 | |
This locomotive is being prepared for service by Jenny Gorton. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:54 | |
-Hiya. -Hiya. | 0:05:56 | 0:05:58 | |
You're lighting the boiler? | 0:05:58 | 0:06:00 | |
Yeah, lighting it, getting the fire going to get the steam for the day. | 0:06:00 | 0:06:03 | |
And I see on here it says 1922. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:05 | |
Is that when she was built? | 0:06:05 | 0:06:07 | |
That was the year she was first built in Leeds, yeah. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:09 | |
Wow! Cos they're beautiful things, | 0:06:09 | 0:06:11 | |
they really are lovely-looking things. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:14 | |
They've got a heart and soul, haven't they? | 0:06:14 | 0:06:16 | |
You're right, they have. And your job, then, is... | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
What are you? An engineer of some kind? | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
-I'm the chief engineer here. -Chief engineer? | 0:06:22 | 0:06:24 | |
So my job's basically to look after the engines. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:26 | |
So, if anything goes wrong, you and the team then | 0:06:26 | 0:06:30 | |
have to make sure that it's fixed and that they're going back again? | 0:06:30 | 0:06:32 | |
-That's right, yeah. -And now, of course, | 0:06:32 | 0:06:34 | |
they run along the edge of the lake here. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
Yes, along from Llanberis | 0:06:36 | 0:06:37 | |
in the village opposite Snowdon Mountain Railway | 0:06:37 | 0:06:40 | |
-right to the far end of the lake. -How many of these are there? | 0:06:40 | 0:06:43 | |
I see you've got three out here now. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:45 | |
Well, we've got these two steam engines, there's the diesel... | 0:06:45 | 0:06:47 | |
-Oh, right. -..that we use to get the coaches out in the morning. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:50 | |
-Yeah. -And then we've got a third steam engine, just like these, | 0:06:50 | 0:06:53 | |
which is currently being rebuilt at the moment in our workshop here. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:57 | |
And would all of these have worked here originally? | 0:06:57 | 0:06:59 | |
Yes, they all came from the quarry. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:00 | |
-Did they? -They were all bought, when the quarry closed, by this company. | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
Wow! And do you know what? | 0:07:03 | 0:07:05 | |
You've looked after them really, really well. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:07 | |
I would imagine they're in better condition now | 0:07:07 | 0:07:09 | |
-than they were when they were working. -Quite probably. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
They had a hard life in the quarry and the emphasis was more on getting | 0:07:12 | 0:07:15 | |
the job done than keeping them in immaculate condition. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:17 | |
During early spring, birds are beginning to nest in the park. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:50 | |
These bluetits have found a perfect place in the workshop building. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:56 | |
But the best place to find nesting birds | 0:08:02 | 0:08:04 | |
is in the ancient woodland on the east side of Llyn Padarn. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:07 | |
BIRD CALLS | 0:08:11 | 0:08:13 | |
It's amazing that these trees have survived two centuries of mining, | 0:08:23 | 0:08:27 | |
but, thankfully, this woodland is largely untouched, | 0:08:27 | 0:08:30 | |
and it's a nesting site for one of Wales' most important migrants, | 0:08:30 | 0:08:33 | |
the pied flycatcher. | 0:08:33 | 0:08:35 | |
They're lovely birds. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:44 | |
They really are smart birds, these pied flycatchers. | 0:08:44 | 0:08:46 | |
The male and female are very different. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:48 | |
He's striking, a really striking black and white. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:50 | |
She's more camouflaged, really, sort of brown and white. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:53 | |
And morning's the best time, not just because now's the time | 0:08:53 | 0:08:56 | |
that they sing, they'll find a perch and they'll advertise territory now, | 0:08:56 | 0:09:00 | |
but their nest-building takes place in the morning as well. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:04 | |
And she, at the moment, she's looking round, | 0:09:04 | 0:09:06 | |
she's looking for old leaves, | 0:09:06 | 0:09:08 | |
she's looking for bits of grass to line the nest. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:10 | |
Many of the pied flycatchers that come from Africa to Britain | 0:09:15 | 0:09:18 | |
every spring end up in Welsh woodlands, | 0:09:18 | 0:09:21 | |
particularly in these ancient oak woodlands of Snowdonia. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:24 | |
If you come here during the first week in May, | 0:09:29 | 0:09:32 | |
when the leaves have not fully opened | 0:09:32 | 0:09:34 | |
and when the migrant birds have just returned, | 0:09:34 | 0:09:36 | |
you'll also hear and see another lovely bird | 0:09:36 | 0:09:39 | |
in Coedwig Dinorwic. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:41 | |
WARBLING TWEETS | 0:09:41 | 0:09:43 | |
Can you hear that call? | 0:09:44 | 0:09:45 | |
That's a wood warbler. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:50 | |
It's another migrant and it's literally just arrived in now, | 0:09:50 | 0:09:53 | |
the last day or two. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:55 | |
That's a more familiar song, this lovely descending song, its call. | 0:09:55 | 0:09:59 | |
And they'll perch up, | 0:09:59 | 0:10:01 | |
quite close by often in these woods, | 0:10:01 | 0:10:04 | |
and it'll sing and sing and sing and sing and sing | 0:10:04 | 0:10:06 | |
until it attracts a mate. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:08 | |
And if you want to see these, now's the time to come, | 0:10:08 | 0:10:10 | |
before the leaves arrive. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:12 | |
You'll get lovely views. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:14 | |
A lot of people say about warblers they are not very interesting birds, | 0:10:14 | 0:10:17 | |
but the wood warbler is actually quite a beautiful little bird. | 0:10:17 | 0:10:20 | |
There he goes again. It's a lovely song. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:23 | |
It's a colourful sort of yellowy green colour | 0:10:23 | 0:10:26 | |
with a bright white belly. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:28 | |
It really is a lovely bird and I always think, with the wood warbler, | 0:10:28 | 0:10:31 | |
that it's a sign, not just of spring, | 0:10:31 | 0:10:34 | |
but the fact that summer isn't far away. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:36 | |
Although this beautiful ancient woodland | 0:10:49 | 0:10:51 | |
was largely unaffected by mining, you'll find | 0:10:51 | 0:10:54 | |
some old quarry buildings hidden away amongst the trees, | 0:10:54 | 0:10:58 | |
and they were sited here for a very good reason. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:01 | |
This is where the gunpowder was kept for the quarry. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:05 | |
I'm with local historian Gareth Roberts. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:09 | |
It's sitting here, on its own, in the wood. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:11 | |
Yes, it's holding such dangerous, volatile... | 0:11:11 | 0:11:15 | |
Well, it's basically nitro-glycerine powder. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:17 | |
And it can blow up... | 0:11:18 | 0:11:20 | |
..on anything, any heat, that sort of thing. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:24 | |
So it needed to be tucked out of the way? | 0:11:24 | 0:11:26 | |
As far away as possible. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:28 | |
And here we are, here's your first clue about the volatility | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
-of what's being kept in here. -Look at the thickness of that wall! | 0:11:31 | 0:11:35 | |
-Look at the thickness of that. -Look at that! -Yeah, yeah. -Wow! | 0:11:35 | 0:11:38 | |
And the other thing, it's double walled, double hulled. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:40 | |
Oh, I can see that, yeah. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:42 | |
So you can actually walk around in like a little | 0:11:42 | 0:11:44 | |
corridor sort of thing. | 0:11:44 | 0:11:46 | |
There's another one in here. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:48 | |
So there's another compartment. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:50 | |
-No windows. -No, no. | 0:11:50 | 0:11:52 | |
There is one there but that doesn't go out, OK, | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
because that's a double-hulled wall over there. | 0:11:55 | 0:11:58 | |
Now, the thing that happens here is that the roof, when it was roofed, | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
was deliberately weak so that if there was any explosion here, | 0:12:01 | 0:12:06 | |
the power of that explosion would go upwards into the air | 0:12:06 | 0:12:10 | |
instead of sideways. It would go sideways, of course, as well... | 0:12:10 | 0:12:14 | |
But the thick wall and the double walls would prevent that | 0:12:14 | 0:12:16 | |
-as much as possible. -So the whole reason for the double wall is that, | 0:12:16 | 0:12:20 | |
if these walls explode, | 0:12:20 | 0:12:22 | |
the first wall takes away the strength of the explosion as much as | 0:12:22 | 0:12:27 | |
possible so that by the time it hits the second wall, | 0:12:27 | 0:12:31 | |
it then dissipates the explosion even further. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:34 | |
-Wow! -So, hopefully, it encloses the explosion as much as possible. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:38 | |
And these things, they'd explode. | 0:12:38 | 0:12:40 | |
Well, this one hasn't, obviously, because it's in pretty good shape. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:43 | |
There's probably, underneath us, another foot, maybe two, | 0:12:43 | 0:12:46 | |
there's probably also a slate floor to try and keep this stuff | 0:12:46 | 0:12:50 | |
as cold as possible so that... | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
Because, you know, we get hot summers, just like everywhere else. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:56 | |
What's fascinating now, it's been abandoned for who knows how long, | 0:12:56 | 0:13:00 | |
but nature's taken over. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:02 | |
You've got maidenhair, spleenwort everywhere and, | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
if you look behind you here, look at that, | 0:13:05 | 0:13:07 | |
you've got a wren building a nest. Look at that! Isn't that brilliant? | 0:13:07 | 0:13:10 | |
Nature is taking over many of the quarry's relics, | 0:13:21 | 0:13:25 | |
and the old work levels | 0:13:25 | 0:13:26 | |
are favourite places for slowworms, our legless lizards. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:29 | |
Local wildlife guide Gareth Jones monitors them. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:36 | |
And look here. | 0:13:36 | 0:13:37 | |
-No, I can't see any. -No, no, nothing. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:43 | |
OK, let's put that one back down. | 0:13:43 | 0:13:45 | |
So, when do you come to monitor these usually, then? | 0:13:46 | 0:13:51 | |
Oh, I caught my finger under that one! | 0:13:51 | 0:13:53 | |
I usually come about... | 0:13:53 | 0:13:55 | |
..end of March onwards. | 0:13:57 | 0:13:59 | |
So that's when it starts to warm up, does it? | 0:13:59 | 0:14:01 | |
-Yeah, yeah. -They're going to be out and about? | 0:14:01 | 0:14:03 | |
A nice big flat one here. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:05 | |
If you lift that one, | 0:14:05 | 0:14:06 | |
I'll have a shufty underneath, see what we can see. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
Oh, wow! | 0:14:12 | 0:14:14 | |
-There's two there. -What a beauty! | 0:14:14 | 0:14:15 | |
Oh, there are, yes. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:17 | |
Wow, look at that! I tell you what, I won't touch them. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:20 | |
-That's a big female there. -There's one, look. Look at that! | 0:14:20 | 0:14:22 | |
That's quite nice. That's a young female. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:25 | |
That's a big old female, isn't it? | 0:14:25 | 0:14:26 | |
Look at the size on her! | 0:14:26 | 0:14:27 | |
Tucked in perfectly. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:30 | |
Wow! That is a beauty. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
And female because of the line down the back. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:34 | |
Black stripe, yeah. The males have got, like, blue diamonds | 0:14:34 | 0:14:37 | |
-all the way along the middle. -Oh, have they? | 0:14:37 | 0:14:39 | |
Oh, little beauties! | 0:14:39 | 0:14:41 | |
And, of course, here is ideal for them. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:43 | |
It's an old industrial site | 0:14:43 | 0:14:45 | |
but it's got all these flat slates everywhere, | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
-so it's perfect. -Ideal. | 0:14:48 | 0:14:49 | |
Lots of places to hide and lots of food, Gareth. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:52 | |
Obviously plenty of slugs and ants here for them. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:55 | |
Yeah, because there are ants everywhere here. | 0:14:55 | 0:14:57 | |
I mean, she's in the perfect place. | 0:14:57 | 0:14:59 | |
All she's got to do is lie there and open her mouth every now and again, | 0:14:59 | 0:15:02 | |
let the ants go in, chew on those and say, thank you very much! | 0:15:02 | 0:15:05 | |
Llyn Padarn is around two miles long | 0:15:07 | 0:15:09 | |
and reaches depths of up to 30 metres. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:12 | |
It's amongst the deepest lakes in Wales, | 0:15:15 | 0:15:17 | |
and it's a special site in the country park | 0:15:17 | 0:15:19 | |
as it is one of the few lakes in Britain where you find | 0:15:19 | 0:15:22 | |
Arctic char, a rare fish that's a living relic | 0:15:22 | 0:15:25 | |
from the time when the lake was formed soon after the Ice Age. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:29 | |
They are one of the park's hidden secrets. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:37 | |
Above the surface, | 0:15:46 | 0:15:47 | |
the lake is better known for its outdoor pursuits. | 0:15:47 | 0:15:50 | |
It's one of the prime spots in Snowdonia for water sports. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
Sorcha is one of the instructors on the lake. | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
-Hiya. -Hello. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:03 | |
-Paddle boarding? -Yes. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:05 | |
I had a go at this last year. I was rubbish. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:07 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:16:07 | 0:16:09 | |
Don't fall in, whatever you do. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:10 | |
You were rubbish? I can't imagine you being rubbish. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:12 | |
I was. No, I was rubbish at it. | 0:16:12 | 0:16:14 | |
I don't know. I just couldn't get my balance on it. | 0:16:14 | 0:16:16 | |
So, what's this? This is a class you're taking, is it? | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
Yes, just a bit of instruction, really, | 0:16:19 | 0:16:21 | |
just going through the fundamentals of stand-up paddle boarding. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:24 | |
Having a bit of a play about, really. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:26 | |
And you've got the kayaks and the canoes out as well. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:28 | |
-Yeah. -Is the lake good for this or would you be better off on the sea? | 0:16:28 | 0:16:32 | |
Oh, I think the lake's fantastic to learn in and to teach in. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:35 | |
It's a very sheltered area and provides a great environment | 0:16:35 | 0:16:39 | |
for beginners as well as people who want to kind of progress their level | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
but in quite a very safe environment, | 0:16:42 | 0:16:44 | |
because all of these lagoons around here are very sheltered. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:48 | |
But then, as soon as you break out of these lagoons on a very choppy | 0:16:48 | 0:16:51 | |
or windy day, you do get a whole different type | 0:16:51 | 0:16:53 | |
of environmental issues, kind of like wind, | 0:16:53 | 0:16:56 | |
and you do get a little bit of a kind of baby waves | 0:16:56 | 0:16:58 | |
that you have to deal with. | 0:16:58 | 0:17:00 | |
So the currents do tend to be created as well, | 0:17:00 | 0:17:02 | |
so if you did want to push yourself as well... | 0:17:02 | 0:17:05 | |
The lake is perfect for all levels. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:06 | |
And, I suppose, if things do go wrong, all that's going to happen, | 0:17:06 | 0:17:09 | |
you're going to go from here to the far side. | 0:17:09 | 0:17:11 | |
And that's not even that far. | 0:17:11 | 0:17:12 | |
Most people swim over to that side and back on a daily basis. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
And the great thing about the lake is it's really shallow | 0:17:15 | 0:17:17 | |
the whole way round, so you can walk round the whole lake | 0:17:17 | 0:17:20 | |
and never really be committing to anything too dangerous. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:23 | |
And it's nice, it's really nice | 0:17:23 | 0:17:24 | |
to see so many people coming here and taking advantage of the lake, | 0:17:24 | 0:17:28 | |
-you know, it really is. -And as soon as the sun comes out as well, | 0:17:28 | 0:17:30 | |
it's like a little hive for everyone. | 0:17:30 | 0:17:32 | |
You get loads of children down in the pontoon, playing about, | 0:17:32 | 0:17:35 | |
and loads of swimmers. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:37 | |
I think it's wonderful. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:39 | |
And that's the nature of a country park - it's for everyone and, | 0:17:41 | 0:17:45 | |
although it's busy, particularly during the summer, | 0:17:45 | 0:17:47 | |
it's big enough for some quiet spots. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:50 | |
At the Snowdon end of the lake, you'll find Dolbadarn Castle. | 0:17:54 | 0:17:58 | |
It was built by Llewellyn the Great during the 13th century | 0:17:59 | 0:18:03 | |
to guard the main route through Llanberis Pass. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:06 | |
For such a busy park, | 0:18:11 | 0:18:13 | |
there's actually quite a nice quiet bit here. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:16 | |
It's the river that flows from Llyn Peris just over there, | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
with the mountains around it, into Llyn Padarn down below. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:22 | |
It's a very slow-moving section of river | 0:18:22 | 0:18:25 | |
and it's very good for insects. | 0:18:25 | 0:18:27 | |
You'll have different hatches at different times of the year. | 0:18:27 | 0:18:30 | |
You'll have your caddis flies hatching out, | 0:18:30 | 0:18:32 | |
you'll have your mayflies hatching out, | 0:18:32 | 0:18:34 | |
you'll have your midges as well. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:36 | |
And that means that, whenever you come here on a warm, still morning, | 0:18:36 | 0:18:40 | |
just like it is now, lots of insects above the water. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:44 | |
And what's interesting is that four, five, six, maybe, | 0:18:44 | 0:18:47 | |
swallows have come, | 0:18:47 | 0:18:48 | |
probably ones that are nesting in the old slate buildings there. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
They've come down here to feed, and you see them skimming... | 0:18:51 | 0:18:54 | |
Here's one now. Skimming over the surface of the water, beak open, | 0:18:54 | 0:18:58 | |
literally hoovering up all of these insects. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:01 | |
It's a brilliant place for them to just come and feed. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:03 | |
One flooded part of the old quarry is used for scuba diving training. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:39 | |
I can testify that this is very deep, | 0:19:40 | 0:19:43 | |
cold water as this is where I learnt to dive. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
Geoff Williams was amongst the last men to be employed here | 0:19:48 | 0:19:51 | |
when it was a working quarry. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:53 | |
It's a fair old size as well, isn't it? | 0:19:54 | 0:19:56 | |
It's only when you come in and stand like this | 0:19:56 | 0:19:58 | |
you see how big they are. Now, you worked here? | 0:19:58 | 0:20:01 | |
Yes, I started in '63 and I did my apprenticeship. | 0:20:01 | 0:20:06 | |
It closed in '69. | 0:20:06 | 0:20:08 | |
-Doing what? -Slate making. | 0:20:08 | 0:20:10 | |
Out of the blocks you had the slate. | 0:20:12 | 0:20:14 | |
You had to split them to start with | 0:20:14 | 0:20:17 | |
for roughly the first year, probably, | 0:20:17 | 0:20:20 | |
but if the teacher said that you'd passed, | 0:20:20 | 0:20:23 | |
then you had to trim the slates. | 0:20:23 | 0:20:24 | |
So it was a long apprenticeship, then? | 0:20:24 | 0:20:27 | |
-Yes. -As an old quarryman yourself, it's now a country park. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:31 | |
-Yes. -And it's being used again for different things. | 0:20:31 | 0:20:35 | |
Does that please you, the fact that it's still being used? | 0:20:35 | 0:20:38 | |
Yes, of course. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:40 | |
It's a lot better than being kept to go downhill, really, | 0:20:40 | 0:20:44 | |
with nothing here to do. | 0:20:44 | 0:20:46 | |
There are climbers, there are divers in the lakes here, | 0:20:46 | 0:20:50 | |
there are cycle paths all along the side of the quarry, | 0:20:50 | 0:20:53 | |
places to run and keep fit and things like that. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:56 | |
Not as busy as it was but still fairly busy. | 0:20:56 | 0:20:58 | |
Very busy, yes. | 0:20:58 | 0:21:00 | |
It's nice to see, I think, that it's become a country park, | 0:21:00 | 0:21:04 | |
and the people can come. Yes, they can enjoy the peace, the solitude, | 0:21:04 | 0:21:07 | |
the wildlife, but they can learn about the history as well. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:10 | |
Yes, they can. | 0:21:10 | 0:21:11 | |
I've come down to the shallow end of the lake here now | 0:21:47 | 0:21:49 | |
and just look at that dramatic scenery behind me. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:53 | |
And the moods here change constantly, especially now. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:56 | |
As we come into autumn, it looks more threatening, | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
the wind has picked up and it's quite a bit cooler as well. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:02 | |
And I've come down here because some friends who fish the lake, | 0:22:02 | 0:22:05 | |
they tell me it's a good place for otters. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:07 | |
Now, they are mainly nocturnal, especially here. | 0:22:07 | 0:22:10 | |
You don't see them by day very often but, down towards this end, | 0:22:10 | 0:22:13 | |
it's more sheltered and you get flatter rocks as well. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:17 | |
And what I'm going to do is I'm going to have a look | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
and see if I can find signs that the otters have been there, | 0:22:19 | 0:22:22 | |
maybe bits of fish, maybe some spraint. | 0:22:22 | 0:22:24 | |
So we'll go down and have a look. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:26 | |
Here we are, look. This is perfect. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
I've picked up my trusty trail camera here, | 0:22:37 | 0:22:40 | |
and you can see the marks, | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
old spraint marks here, | 0:22:43 | 0:22:45 | |
where it's coloured the rock a little bit. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
Quite a few of them, actually. Some fresher stuff here, too. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:51 | |
Look at that there. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:52 | |
See that? That's very fresh otter spraint. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:54 | |
That's still wet, actually, that one. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
Yeah. Phew! That's definitely otter spraint. | 0:22:57 | 0:22:59 | |
So, what I'm going to do is put this up here, | 0:22:59 | 0:23:01 | |
maybe pointing towards the end here, and if anything comes up anywhere... | 0:23:01 | 0:23:05 | |
That's the joy of these, if anything moves on here, | 0:23:05 | 0:23:08 | |
this'll get it while I'm snoring away in my bed, hopefully. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
Right, let's get this set up now. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:13 | |
'The next morning, it was time to see | 0:23:33 | 0:23:35 | |
'what was caught on the trail camera.' | 0:23:35 | 0:23:37 | |
So, really interesting stuff going on here last night. | 0:23:37 | 0:23:40 | |
Quite a bit of activity as well. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:42 | |
There we are. It's an otter, just leaving the stone here, | 0:23:44 | 0:23:47 | |
going into the water, | 0:23:47 | 0:23:49 | |
going on to that stone and then going over and back into the water. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:53 | |
Quite brief, quite brief, but that was at 1am - | 0:23:53 | 0:23:56 | |
pitch-black then, of course. | 0:23:56 | 0:23:58 | |
Let's have a look at this next one now. | 0:23:58 | 0:24:00 | |
That's quite nice. That's just again very, very brief. | 0:24:00 | 0:24:03 | |
That was a camera I put on that rock, looking this way. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:06 | |
You can see the camera, this one, on the rock, | 0:24:06 | 0:24:08 | |
and the otter just going into the water. | 0:24:08 | 0:24:11 | |
So they obviously visit this regularly. | 0:24:11 | 0:24:14 | |
I would imagine what's happening is that they're coming on here | 0:24:14 | 0:24:17 | |
to spraint. There's some very fresh spraint there. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:21 | |
That was from last night, | 0:24:21 | 0:24:23 | |
so one of the otters coming on here | 0:24:23 | 0:24:25 | |
would have just sprainted, I think, there. | 0:24:25 | 0:24:28 | |
Got one more to have a look at. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:30 | |
Oh, look at that. Look at that! Right up to the camera. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:33 | |
Oh! Think we can safely say that's a male, | 0:24:33 | 0:24:36 | |
a rather well-endowed male there! | 0:24:36 | 0:24:38 | |
And I'm pretty sure that that would have been him coming right | 0:24:38 | 0:24:41 | |
where I am now, sprainting, leaving his mark, | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
warning any other otter, look, | 0:24:44 | 0:24:46 | |
there's already an otter on this territory, keep away. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
So he's sprainted there and he's gone back into the water. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:53 | |
That's really nice, right by the camera, too. | 0:24:53 | 0:24:55 | |
Let's have a look at this last one. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:57 | |
All right, there's another... Oh, two otters! | 0:24:57 | 0:25:00 | |
Oh, that's nice! Look at that. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:01 | |
It's a dog otter up on here and a female otter just down here. | 0:25:01 | 0:25:06 | |
They've both gone into the water, diving down, away they go, | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
and they both go off together. | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
Well, that's really, really nice. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:13 | |
That's lovely, seeing both of them like that. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:16 | |
We shouldn't be shocked either, really, because when I was a lad | 0:25:16 | 0:25:19 | |
otters were quite rare, but this part of North Wales, | 0:25:19 | 0:25:22 | |
this was their stronghold, even then, | 0:25:22 | 0:25:25 | |
and there would have been otters here back then as well. | 0:25:25 | 0:25:27 | |
So they are doing really well, here. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:29 | |
It's a lake, it's got a lot of fish here, it's ideal for them, | 0:25:29 | 0:25:33 | |
but that's absolutely brilliant. | 0:25:33 | 0:25:34 | |
There's some lovely views of otters there. | 0:25:34 | 0:25:37 | |
As we move later into the autumn, | 0:25:46 | 0:25:48 | |
the fruit-bearing trees that have spread up the old slate tips | 0:25:48 | 0:25:52 | |
add colour to what was once a grey landscape. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:54 | |
It's a fantastic autumn for berries, especially for rowan. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:05 | |
I've got a rowan behind me here, | 0:26:05 | 0:26:07 | |
and it's absolutely laden with these bright, bright red berries. | 0:26:07 | 0:26:11 | |
And now that we are into October | 0:26:11 | 0:26:14 | |
we've got these winter thrushes arriving from Scandinavia, | 0:26:14 | 0:26:17 | |
and we've got probably a couple of dozen redwing in here, beautiful, | 0:26:17 | 0:26:21 | |
small, about the size of a song thrush maybe, | 0:26:21 | 0:26:24 | |
with this bright red underwing. | 0:26:24 | 0:26:27 | |
And they are coming in... Here's one now, just landed on a berry there. | 0:26:27 | 0:26:30 | |
They are coming in, feeding on berries, gorging themselves, | 0:26:30 | 0:26:33 | |
not staying for long, | 0:26:33 | 0:26:34 | |
then they'll go off and they'll digest those berries, | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
and they come back and feed up again. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:39 | |
And sometimes, when you get large numbers, | 0:26:39 | 0:26:41 | |
they'll strip the whole tree and then move on. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:44 | |
Many of these redwing will hang around Padarn Country Park | 0:27:02 | 0:27:05 | |
until the berries have all been eaten. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:07 | |
They will then move on to look for a new crop in another area | 0:27:09 | 0:27:12 | |
and overwinter in Wales before returning to Scandinavia to nest | 0:27:12 | 0:27:16 | |
the following spring. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:17 | |
Llyn Padarn behind me here and, of course, | 0:27:28 | 0:27:30 | |
the otters we saw were right down the far end. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:32 | |
They are probably tucked away in a holt somewhere now. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:35 | |
And this ancient woodland here, oak dominated - | 0:27:35 | 0:27:38 | |
that probably hasn't changed | 0:27:38 | 0:27:39 | |
for hundreds of years, I don't think. | 0:27:39 | 0:27:41 | |
And this, it's a real place of contrast. | 0:27:41 | 0:27:44 | |
You've got natural beauty, iconic landscapes, | 0:27:44 | 0:27:47 | |
probably some of the most famous landscapes in the whole of Britain, | 0:27:47 | 0:27:51 | |
and then you've got man-made scars. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:54 | |
Man has literally carved out the mountainside here. | 0:27:54 | 0:27:57 | |
And now, of course, this is a place of leisure, | 0:27:57 | 0:28:00 | |
this is a place for walking, for biking, for climbing. | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
I wonder what the old quarrymen would think of that. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:06 |