Padarn Country Park Iolo's Great Welsh Parks


Padarn Country Park

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There are over 30 country parks in Wales.

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Thousands of people visit them every year.

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Some are old estates of wealthy landlords...

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..some are old industrial sites.

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The parks are usually close to towns,

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and that's because they've been set aside for us to enjoy

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on our doorstep.

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But what I like about them most

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is that they're great places for wildlife.

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If you keep your eyes open, you will see some great sights.

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I'm on Llyn Padarn.

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It is the second largest natural lake in the whole of Wales

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and it lies at the northern edge of the Snowdonia National Park.

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And all around me here you can see some of the high mountains.

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And in the distance over there is the highest of them all, Snowdon.

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And today, the lake is in the centre of a fantastic country park.

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Padarn Country Park is next to the town of Llanberis,

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the departure point for the Snowdon Mountain Railway.

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The country park is set in a stunning landscape

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surrounded by mountains.

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It has been largely created on the site

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of the old Dinorwic Slate Quarry.

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It's a busy tourist destination

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and the National Slate Museum is also based in the park.

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Slate mining on a vast scale began here during the 19th century.

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At its peak, Dinorwic employed more than 3,000 men,

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and it was the second largest

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opencast slate producer in the world.

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These workers were working, in effect, on cliff faces

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on one of the highest mountains in Snowdonia.

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I can only imagine the hard conditions these men faced

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during a working day.

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At the time, it was pretty much the only work available in the area,

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and this is where most men would end up for virtually their entire lives.

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Like many old industries, slate mining eventually declined

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and, in 1969, Dinorwic Quarry closed.

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Much of the quarry was acquired by the local county council

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to protect it as an industrial heritage site

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and for the creation of a country park.

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BIRDSONG

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There are some footpaths through this quarry.

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You've got to stick to the path

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because it's quite a dangerous place, really, but listen to this.

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Listen to that. BIRD CALLS

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Can you hear that? That's a fantastic early-morning call.

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And if you come here in late March, early April, you'll hear this.

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It's a ring ouzel. Now, a ring ouzel now is one

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of the most sought-after birds in the whole of the UK.

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All the birders say, "Oh, I'd like to see a ring ouzel."

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And here's one singing, just behind me.

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And now is the time, late March, early April,

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because they are just back from North Africa,

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and this is a male establishing his territory here.

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And he's picked the perfect spot,

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because he is right on the edge of a sheer cliff there,

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and he's got the quarry like an amphitheatre,

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all around him. So that song is carrying for kilometres,

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and any female nearby is going to think,

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"Oh, there's a male around."

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In she comes. But fabulous!

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Just don't hear that anywhere near often enough these days.

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Dinorwic Quarry was a huge site.

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Some of the working levels were high up on the mountainside

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at around 500 metres above sea level.

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Although the scars of the old industry are still here,

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nature is gradually reclaiming this beautiful landscape...

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..and it's a perfect place for mountain goats.

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They're not naturally wild and they're also not native to Wales.

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They were brought here by different people centuries ago

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and over the years they escaped, and today roam much of Snowdonia.

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Padarn Country Park is probably one of the best places to see them and,

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during early spring, you'll be sure to see young kids.

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TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS

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The trains of the old quarry

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have been lovingly restored by Llanberis Lake Railway,

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which is one of the attractions of Padarn Country Park.

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This locomotive is being prepared for service by Jenny Gorton.

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-Hiya.

-Hiya.

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You're lighting the boiler?

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Yeah, lighting it, getting the fire going to get the steam for the day.

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And I see on here it says 1922.

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Is that when she was built?

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That was the year she was first built in Leeds, yeah.

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Wow! Cos they're beautiful things,

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they really are lovely-looking things.

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They've got a heart and soul, haven't they?

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You're right, they have. And your job, then, is...

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What are you? An engineer of some kind?

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-I'm the chief engineer here.

-Chief engineer?

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So my job's basically to look after the engines.

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So, if anything goes wrong, you and the team then

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have to make sure that it's fixed and that they're going back again?

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-That's right, yeah.

-And now, of course,

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they run along the edge of the lake here.

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Yes, along from Llanberis

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in the village opposite Snowdon Mountain Railway

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-right to the far end of the lake.

-How many of these are there?

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I see you've got three out here now.

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Well, we've got these two steam engines, there's the diesel...

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-Oh, right.

-..that we use to get the coaches out in the morning.

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-Yeah.

-And then we've got a third steam engine, just like these,

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which is currently being rebuilt at the moment in our workshop here.

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And would all of these have worked here originally?

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Yes, they all came from the quarry.

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-Did they?

-They were all bought, when the quarry closed, by this company.

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Wow! And do you know what?

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You've looked after them really, really well.

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I would imagine they're in better condition now

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-than they were when they were working.

-Quite probably.

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They had a hard life in the quarry and the emphasis was more on getting

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the job done than keeping them in immaculate condition.

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During early spring, birds are beginning to nest in the park.

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These bluetits have found a perfect place in the workshop building.

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But the best place to find nesting birds

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is in the ancient woodland on the east side of Llyn Padarn.

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BIRD CALLS

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It's amazing that these trees have survived two centuries of mining,

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but, thankfully, this woodland is largely untouched,

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and it's a nesting site for one of Wales' most important migrants,

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the pied flycatcher.

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They're lovely birds.

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They really are smart birds, these pied flycatchers.

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The male and female are very different.

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He's striking, a really striking black and white.

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She's more camouflaged, really, sort of brown and white.

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And morning's the best time, not just because now's the time

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that they sing, they'll find a perch and they'll advertise territory now,

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but their nest-building takes place in the morning as well.

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And she, at the moment, she's looking round,

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she's looking for old leaves,

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she's looking for bits of grass to line the nest.

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Many of the pied flycatchers that come from Africa to Britain

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every spring end up in Welsh woodlands,

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particularly in these ancient oak woodlands of Snowdonia.

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If you come here during the first week in May,

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when the leaves have not fully opened

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and when the migrant birds have just returned,

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you'll also hear and see another lovely bird

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in Coedwig Dinorwic.

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WARBLING TWEETS

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Can you hear that call?

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That's a wood warbler.

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It's another migrant and it's literally just arrived in now,

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the last day or two.

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That's a more familiar song, this lovely descending song, its call.

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And they'll perch up,

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quite close by often in these woods,

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and it'll sing and sing and sing and sing and sing

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until it attracts a mate.

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And if you want to see these, now's the time to come,

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before the leaves arrive.

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You'll get lovely views.

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A lot of people say about warblers they are not very interesting birds,

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but the wood warbler is actually quite a beautiful little bird.

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There he goes again. It's a lovely song.

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It's a colourful sort of yellowy green colour

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with a bright white belly.

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It really is a lovely bird and I always think, with the wood warbler,

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that it's a sign, not just of spring,

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but the fact that summer isn't far away.

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Although this beautiful ancient woodland

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was largely unaffected by mining, you'll find

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some old quarry buildings hidden away amongst the trees,

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and they were sited here for a very good reason.

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This is where the gunpowder was kept for the quarry.

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I'm with local historian Gareth Roberts.

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It's sitting here, on its own, in the wood.

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Yes, it's holding such dangerous, volatile...

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Well, it's basically nitro-glycerine powder.

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And it can blow up...

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..on anything, any heat, that sort of thing.

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So it needed to be tucked out of the way?

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As far away as possible.

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And here we are, here's your first clue about the volatility

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-of what's being kept in here.

-Look at the thickness of that wall!

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-Look at the thickness of that.

-Look at that!

-Yeah, yeah.

-Wow!

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And the other thing, it's double walled, double hulled.

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Oh, I can see that, yeah.

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So you can actually walk around in like a little

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corridor sort of thing.

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There's another one in here.

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So there's another compartment.

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-No windows.

-No, no.

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There is one there but that doesn't go out, OK,

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because that's a double-hulled wall over there.

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Now, the thing that happens here is that the roof, when it was roofed,

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was deliberately weak so that if there was any explosion here,

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the power of that explosion would go upwards into the air

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instead of sideways. It would go sideways, of course, as well...

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But the thick wall and the double walls would prevent that

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-as much as possible.

-So the whole reason for the double wall is that,

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if these walls explode,

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the first wall takes away the strength of the explosion as much as

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possible so that by the time it hits the second wall,

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it then dissipates the explosion even further.

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-Wow!

-So, hopefully, it encloses the explosion as much as possible.

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And these things, they'd explode.

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Well, this one hasn't, obviously, because it's in pretty good shape.

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There's probably, underneath us, another foot, maybe two,

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there's probably also a slate floor to try and keep this stuff

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as cold as possible so that...

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Because, you know, we get hot summers, just like everywhere else.

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What's fascinating now, it's been abandoned for who knows how long,

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but nature's taken over.

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You've got maidenhair, spleenwort everywhere and,

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if you look behind you here, look at that,

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you've got a wren building a nest. Look at that! Isn't that brilliant?

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Nature is taking over many of the quarry's relics,

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and the old work levels

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are favourite places for slowworms, our legless lizards.

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Local wildlife guide Gareth Jones monitors them.

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And look here.

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-No, I can't see any.

-No, no, nothing.

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OK, let's put that one back down.

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So, when do you come to monitor these usually, then?

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Oh, I caught my finger under that one!

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I usually come about...

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..end of March onwards.

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So that's when it starts to warm up, does it?

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-Yeah, yeah.

-They're going to be out and about?

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A nice big flat one here.

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If you lift that one,

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I'll have a shufty underneath, see what we can see.

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Oh, wow!

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-There's two there.

-What a beauty!

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Oh, there are, yes.

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Wow, look at that! I tell you what, I won't touch them.

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-That's a big female there.

-There's one, look. Look at that!

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That's quite nice. That's a young female.

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That's a big old female, isn't it?

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Look at the size on her!

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Tucked in perfectly.

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Wow! That is a beauty.

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And female because of the line down the back.

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Black stripe, yeah. The males have got, like, blue diamonds

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-all the way along the middle.

-Oh, have they?

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Oh, little beauties!

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And, of course, here is ideal for them.

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It's an old industrial site

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but it's got all these flat slates everywhere,

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-so it's perfect.

-Ideal.

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Lots of places to hide and lots of food, Gareth.

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Obviously plenty of slugs and ants here for them.

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Yeah, because there are ants everywhere here.

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I mean, she's in the perfect place.

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All she's got to do is lie there and open her mouth every now and again,

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let the ants go in, chew on those and say, thank you very much!

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Llyn Padarn is around two miles long

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and reaches depths of up to 30 metres.

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It's amongst the deepest lakes in Wales,

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and it's a special site in the country park

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as it is one of the few lakes in Britain where you find

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Arctic char, a rare fish that's a living relic

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from the time when the lake was formed soon after the Ice Age.

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They are one of the park's hidden secrets.

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Above the surface,

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the lake is better known for its outdoor pursuits.

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It's one of the prime spots in Snowdonia for water sports.

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Sorcha is one of the instructors on the lake.

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-Hiya.

-Hello.

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-Paddle boarding?

-Yes.

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I had a go at this last year. I was rubbish.

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SHE LAUGHS

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Don't fall in, whatever you do.

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You were rubbish? I can't imagine you being rubbish.

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I was. No, I was rubbish at it.

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I don't know. I just couldn't get my balance on it.

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So, what's this? This is a class you're taking, is it?

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Yes, just a bit of instruction, really,

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just going through the fundamentals of stand-up paddle boarding.

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Having a bit of a play about, really.

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And you've got the kayaks and the canoes out as well.

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-Yeah.

-Is the lake good for this or would you be better off on the sea?

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Oh, I think the lake's fantastic to learn in and to teach in.

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It's a very sheltered area and provides a great environment

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for beginners as well as people who want to kind of progress their level

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but in quite a very safe environment,

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because all of these lagoons around here are very sheltered.

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But then, as soon as you break out of these lagoons on a very choppy

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or windy day, you do get a whole different type

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of environmental issues, kind of like wind,

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and you do get a little bit of a kind of baby waves

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that you have to deal with.

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So the currents do tend to be created as well,

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so if you did want to push yourself as well...

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The lake is perfect for all levels.

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And, I suppose, if things do go wrong, all that's going to happen,

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you're going to go from here to the far side.

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And that's not even that far.

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Most people swim over to that side and back on a daily basis.

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And the great thing about the lake is it's really shallow

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the whole way round, so you can walk round the whole lake

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and never really be committing to anything too dangerous.

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And it's nice, it's really nice

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to see so many people coming here and taking advantage of the lake,

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-you know, it really is.

-And as soon as the sun comes out as well,

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it's like a little hive for everyone.

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You get loads of children down in the pontoon, playing about,

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and loads of swimmers.

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I think it's wonderful.

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And that's the nature of a country park - it's for everyone and,

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although it's busy, particularly during the summer,

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it's big enough for some quiet spots.

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At the Snowdon end of the lake, you'll find Dolbadarn Castle.

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It was built by Llewellyn the Great during the 13th century

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to guard the main route through Llanberis Pass.

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For such a busy park,

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there's actually quite a nice quiet bit here.

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It's the river that flows from Llyn Peris just over there,

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with the mountains around it, into Llyn Padarn down below.

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It's a very slow-moving section of river

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and it's very good for insects.

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You'll have different hatches at different times of the year.

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You'll have your caddis flies hatching out,

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you'll have your mayflies hatching out,

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you'll have your midges as well.

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And that means that, whenever you come here on a warm, still morning,

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just like it is now, lots of insects above the water.

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And what's interesting is that four, five, six, maybe,

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swallows have come,

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probably ones that are nesting in the old slate buildings there.

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They've come down here to feed, and you see them skimming...

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Here's one now. Skimming over the surface of the water, beak open,

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literally hoovering up all of these insects.

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It's a brilliant place for them to just come and feed.

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One flooded part of the old quarry is used for scuba diving training.

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I can testify that this is very deep,

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cold water as this is where I learnt to dive.

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Geoff Williams was amongst the last men to be employed here

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when it was a working quarry.

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It's a fair old size as well, isn't it?

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It's only when you come in and stand like this

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you see how big they are. Now, you worked here?

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Yes, I started in '63 and I did my apprenticeship.

0:20:010:20:06

It closed in '69.

0:20:060:20:08

-Doing what?

-Slate making.

0:20:080:20:10

Out of the blocks you had the slate.

0:20:120:20:14

You had to split them to start with

0:20:140:20:17

for roughly the first year, probably,

0:20:170:20:20

but if the teacher said that you'd passed,

0:20:200:20:23

then you had to trim the slates.

0:20:230:20:24

So it was a long apprenticeship, then?

0:20:240:20:27

-Yes.

-As an old quarryman yourself, it's now a country park.

0:20:270:20:31

-Yes.

-And it's being used again for different things.

0:20:310:20:35

Does that please you, the fact that it's still being used?

0:20:350:20:38

Yes, of course.

0:20:380:20:40

It's a lot better than being kept to go downhill, really,

0:20:400:20:44

with nothing here to do.

0:20:440:20:46

There are climbers, there are divers in the lakes here,

0:20:460:20:50

there are cycle paths all along the side of the quarry,

0:20:500:20:53

places to run and keep fit and things like that.

0:20:530:20:56

Not as busy as it was but still fairly busy.

0:20:560:20:58

Very busy, yes.

0:20:580:21:00

It's nice to see, I think, that it's become a country park,

0:21:000:21:04

and the people can come. Yes, they can enjoy the peace, the solitude,

0:21:040:21:07

the wildlife, but they can learn about the history as well.

0:21:070:21:10

Yes, they can.

0:21:100:21:11

I've come down to the shallow end of the lake here now

0:21:470:21:49

and just look at that dramatic scenery behind me.

0:21:490:21:53

And the moods here change constantly, especially now.

0:21:530:21:56

As we come into autumn, it looks more threatening,

0:21:560:21:59

the wind has picked up and it's quite a bit cooler as well.

0:21:590:22:02

And I've come down here because some friends who fish the lake,

0:22:020:22:05

they tell me it's a good place for otters.

0:22:050:22:07

Now, they are mainly nocturnal, especially here.

0:22:070:22:10

You don't see them by day very often but, down towards this end,

0:22:100:22:13

it's more sheltered and you get flatter rocks as well.

0:22:130:22:17

And what I'm going to do is I'm going to have a look

0:22:170:22:19

and see if I can find signs that the otters have been there,

0:22:190:22:22

maybe bits of fish, maybe some spraint.

0:22:220:22:24

So we'll go down and have a look.

0:22:240:22:26

Here we are, look. This is perfect.

0:22:340:22:37

I've picked up my trusty trail camera here,

0:22:370:22:40

and you can see the marks,

0:22:400:22:43

old spraint marks here,

0:22:430:22:45

where it's coloured the rock a little bit.

0:22:450:22:48

Quite a few of them, actually. Some fresher stuff here, too.

0:22:480:22:51

Look at that there.

0:22:510:22:52

See that? That's very fresh otter spraint.

0:22:520:22:54

That's still wet, actually, that one.

0:22:540:22:57

Yeah. Phew! That's definitely otter spraint.

0:22:570:22:59

So, what I'm going to do is put this up here,

0:22:590:23:01

maybe pointing towards the end here, and if anything comes up anywhere...

0:23:010:23:05

That's the joy of these, if anything moves on here,

0:23:050:23:08

this'll get it while I'm snoring away in my bed, hopefully.

0:23:080:23:11

Right, let's get this set up now.

0:23:110:23:13

'The next morning, it was time to see

0:23:330:23:35

'what was caught on the trail camera.'

0:23:350:23:37

So, really interesting stuff going on here last night.

0:23:370:23:40

Quite a bit of activity as well.

0:23:400:23:42

There we are. It's an otter, just leaving the stone here,

0:23:440:23:47

going into the water,

0:23:470:23:49

going on to that stone and then going over and back into the water.

0:23:490:23:53

Quite brief, quite brief, but that was at 1am -

0:23:530:23:56

pitch-black then, of course.

0:23:560:23:58

Let's have a look at this next one now.

0:23:580:24:00

That's quite nice. That's just again very, very brief.

0:24:000:24:03

That was a camera I put on that rock, looking this way.

0:24:030:24:06

You can see the camera, this one, on the rock,

0:24:060:24:08

and the otter just going into the water.

0:24:080:24:11

So they obviously visit this regularly.

0:24:110:24:14

I would imagine what's happening is that they're coming on here

0:24:140:24:17

to spraint. There's some very fresh spraint there.

0:24:170:24:21

That was from last night,

0:24:210:24:23

so one of the otters coming on here

0:24:230:24:25

would have just sprainted, I think, there.

0:24:250:24:28

Got one more to have a look at.

0:24:280:24:30

Oh, look at that. Look at that! Right up to the camera.

0:24:300:24:33

Oh! Think we can safely say that's a male,

0:24:330:24:36

a rather well-endowed male there!

0:24:360:24:38

And I'm pretty sure that that would have been him coming right

0:24:380:24:41

where I am now, sprainting, leaving his mark,

0:24:410:24:44

warning any other otter, look,

0:24:440:24:46

there's already an otter on this territory, keep away.

0:24:460:24:49

So he's sprainted there and he's gone back into the water.

0:24:490:24:53

That's really nice, right by the camera, too.

0:24:530:24:55

Let's have a look at this last one.

0:24:550:24:57

All right, there's another... Oh, two otters!

0:24:570:25:00

Oh, that's nice! Look at that.

0:25:000:25:01

It's a dog otter up on here and a female otter just down here.

0:25:010:25:06

They've both gone into the water, diving down, away they go,

0:25:060:25:09

and they both go off together.

0:25:090:25:12

Well, that's really, really nice.

0:25:120:25:13

That's lovely, seeing both of them like that.

0:25:130:25:16

We shouldn't be shocked either, really, because when I was a lad

0:25:160:25:19

otters were quite rare, but this part of North Wales,

0:25:190:25:22

this was their stronghold, even then,

0:25:220:25:25

and there would have been otters here back then as well.

0:25:250:25:27

So they are doing really well, here.

0:25:270:25:29

It's a lake, it's got a lot of fish here, it's ideal for them,

0:25:290:25:33

but that's absolutely brilliant.

0:25:330:25:34

There's some lovely views of otters there.

0:25:340:25:37

As we move later into the autumn,

0:25:460:25:48

the fruit-bearing trees that have spread up the old slate tips

0:25:480:25:52

add colour to what was once a grey landscape.

0:25:520:25:54

It's a fantastic autumn for berries, especially for rowan.

0:26:000:26:05

I've got a rowan behind me here,

0:26:050:26:07

and it's absolutely laden with these bright, bright red berries.

0:26:070:26:11

And now that we are into October

0:26:110:26:14

we've got these winter thrushes arriving from Scandinavia,

0:26:140:26:17

and we've got probably a couple of dozen redwing in here, beautiful,

0:26:170:26:21

small, about the size of a song thrush maybe,

0:26:210:26:24

with this bright red underwing.

0:26:240:26:27

And they are coming in... Here's one now, just landed on a berry there.

0:26:270:26:30

They are coming in, feeding on berries, gorging themselves,

0:26:300:26:33

not staying for long,

0:26:330:26:34

then they'll go off and they'll digest those berries,

0:26:340:26:37

and they come back and feed up again.

0:26:370:26:39

And sometimes, when you get large numbers,

0:26:390:26:41

they'll strip the whole tree and then move on.

0:26:410:26:44

Many of these redwing will hang around Padarn Country Park

0:27:020:27:05

until the berries have all been eaten.

0:27:050:27:07

They will then move on to look for a new crop in another area

0:27:090:27:12

and overwinter in Wales before returning to Scandinavia to nest

0:27:120:27:16

the following spring.

0:27:160:27:17

Llyn Padarn behind me here and, of course,

0:27:280:27:30

the otters we saw were right down the far end.

0:27:300:27:32

They are probably tucked away in a holt somewhere now.

0:27:320:27:35

And this ancient woodland here, oak dominated -

0:27:350:27:38

that probably hasn't changed

0:27:380:27:39

for hundreds of years, I don't think.

0:27:390:27:41

And this, it's a real place of contrast.

0:27:410:27:44

You've got natural beauty, iconic landscapes,

0:27:440:27:47

probably some of the most famous landscapes in the whole of Britain,

0:27:470:27:51

and then you've got man-made scars.

0:27:510:27:54

Man has literally carved out the mountainside here.

0:27:540:27:57

And now, of course, this is a place of leisure,

0:27:570:28:00

this is a place for walking, for biking, for climbing.

0:28:000:28:03

I wonder what the old quarrymen would think of that.

0:28:030:28:06

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