Browse content similar to Wye Valley. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Call it inspirational - a landscape for artists and poets. | 0:00:28 | 0:00:33 | |
Call it inviting - it's where British tourism began. | 0:00:33 | 0:00:36 | |
Call it beautiful - green and deep and winding. | 0:00:36 | 0:00:40 | |
Call it the Wye Valley. | 0:00:40 | 0:00:42 | |
Just look at it. I never tire of coming to this place. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:47 | |
I love the woods and this river. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:50 | |
But today, I'm feeling slightly different. | 0:00:50 | 0:00:53 | |
A little bit anxious, and very on edge. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:56 | |
Could be something to do with this beast. | 0:00:56 | 0:00:59 | |
Unlike Ellie, I'm feeling pretty relaxed | 0:01:03 | 0:01:05 | |
about my visit to the Wye Valley, but then, | 0:01:05 | 0:01:08 | |
this is a place of the utmost peace and tranquillity. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:11 | |
Tintern Abbey, and I'm going to do a spot of time travelling | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
to find out what life was like for the monks who lived here | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
before Henry VIII turned it into a ruin. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:21 | |
Tom's in Lancashire investigating a controversial method | 0:01:21 | 0:01:24 | |
of extracting gas from reserves deep underground. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:28 | |
When it comes to fracking, the pressure's building, | 0:01:28 | 0:01:31 | |
with government, big business | 0:01:31 | 0:01:34 | |
and the environmentalists all pushing hard. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:37 | |
So, should we be getting gas from the rock? I'll be investigating. | 0:01:37 | 0:01:41 | |
And Adam's looking at two very different ways of dairy farming. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:46 | |
This cow having her back scratched, and this lovely lady here, | 0:01:46 | 0:01:50 | |
are dairy cows - specialists when it comes to producing lots of milk. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:54 | |
And this week, I'm visiting two dairy farms | 0:01:54 | 0:01:56 | |
that manage their cows in very different ways. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
The Wye Valley. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:08 | |
Straddling the border between England and Wales. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:11 | |
At its heart, the River Wye. | 0:02:11 | 0:02:14 | |
Intricate, almost tortuous, twists and turns, | 0:02:14 | 0:02:17 | |
but always majestic, with magnificent views | 0:02:17 | 0:02:21 | |
around every meandering bend. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:23 | |
The Wye Valley takes in the counties of Herefordshire, | 0:02:24 | 0:02:27 | |
Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire. | 0:02:27 | 0:02:29 | |
It's the only cross-border Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:33 | |
This is the village of Symonds Yat, border territory. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:41 | |
This side of the river is Gloucestershire, | 0:02:41 | 0:02:43 | |
and over there is Herefordshire. | 0:02:43 | 0:02:45 | |
It's not just this picture-perfect river that draws attention. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:50 | |
This spot is also a magnet for rock climbers. | 0:02:50 | 0:02:53 | |
This limestone valley has been shaped over 350 million years by water. | 0:02:56 | 0:03:01 | |
The jagged rocks and sheer cliffs | 0:03:01 | 0:03:04 | |
offer more than 800 tough routes in this even tougher terrain. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:08 | |
Matt was here last, squeezing into the Pancake Caves. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:11 | |
There's obviously a limit | 0:03:11 | 0:03:13 | |
to the people you can actually get in this bit! | 0:03:13 | 0:03:15 | |
Depends how much you like your cake. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:17 | |
'But instructor Sven Hassall is about to tell me | 0:03:19 | 0:03:21 | |
'exactly what he's got in store for me.' | 0:03:21 | 0:03:24 | |
Now then, Sven, talk me through what is happening today. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:26 | |
We're going down to an area of rock known locally as The Pinnacle. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:29 | |
We've got an abseil, because we have to get down there, | 0:03:29 | 0:03:31 | |
and it's all about climbing that and getting off it, | 0:03:31 | 0:03:34 | |
across a Tyrolean traverse. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:35 | |
A Tyrolean traverse? I don't know what that is. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:37 | |
In climbing terms, it is a rarely used climbing technique | 0:03:37 | 0:03:40 | |
to cross a gap. In this case, it's a 9mm-wide rope, | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
and you're going to shimmy across it above the gap. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:47 | |
-What?! Seriously? -Yes. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:49 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:03:49 | 0:03:51 | |
Ohhh! I'm really nervous, you know. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:53 | |
So I set out this morning, thinking I was going to have | 0:03:54 | 0:03:56 | |
a lovely day on Countryfile, looking at newts or rare orchids, | 0:03:56 | 0:04:01 | |
and instead, I'm taking my life into my hands! | 0:04:01 | 0:04:04 | |
I've got to do an abseil, I'm all right about that. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:07 | |
Climb, not so great, and this traverse, well, that's just... | 0:04:07 | 0:04:12 | |
the work of madmen. These madmen over here. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
'Whilst I get kitted up, let me introduce the rest of the team. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:20 | |
'Sven is assisted by Ryan and Bob, | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
'and I have also brought along specialised cameraman, Robin. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:26 | |
'He's filmed everywhere from the UK's largest waterfall | 0:04:26 | 0:04:29 | |
'to climbing in the Alps and in the canopy of the Amazon rainforest.' | 0:04:29 | 0:04:33 | |
Come down to me, mate. Nice and steady, no rush. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
-All the way to the edge? -Yeah. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:37 | |
'All set to go, Sven gives me instruction on rope technique | 0:04:37 | 0:04:40 | |
'to get me started on the abseil. And more importantly, how to stop.' | 0:04:40 | 0:04:45 | |
-OK. -No rush at all. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:46 | |
See, that looks like a shoelace. See how thin it is? | 0:04:46 | 0:04:49 | |
-What happens if the tree goes? -The tree never goes. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
-Trees have fallen down! -Trees don't meet industry standards. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:57 | |
'This is just the start. | 0:04:57 | 0:04:59 | |
'Before I get to the site where I will make the traverse, | 0:04:59 | 0:05:02 | |
'I need to abseil down a sheer cliff. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:04 | |
'And this is the easy bit.' | 0:05:04 | 0:05:07 | |
-Off we go? -Off you go. Yeah. OK. | 0:05:07 | 0:05:10 | |
Don't forget to look down, mate. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:11 | |
-Look at your feet. There are some steps there. -Oh, yeah. -Great. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:14 | |
-And it's just walking from here, OK? -Just walking? -Just walking. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:18 | |
-Nice and steady. No rush, mate, no rush. -OK. | 0:05:18 | 0:05:21 | |
I'm certainly not going to break any speed records! | 0:05:21 | 0:05:24 | |
That's a great position. So we're just walking down there. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:26 | |
-Just walk through this little gap? -Perfect. -Ah. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:30 | |
-Feet wide apart, bum back. -Oh, yeah. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:32 | |
Yeah. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:34 | |
Hello to you! | 0:05:35 | 0:05:38 | |
Apparently, there is a way to walk down here. | 0:05:38 | 0:05:42 | |
But what fun would that be? | 0:05:42 | 0:05:44 | |
Is it all right like this? | 0:05:46 | 0:05:47 | |
Perfect. Yeah. There we go. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:49 | |
Just keep leaning back. There's a little surprise below you. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
-You will have seen that. -There's a hole! | 0:05:52 | 0:05:55 | |
-Keep your feet on the top and lower your bum back. -Really? | 0:05:55 | 0:05:58 | |
Keep my feet on the rock? | 0:05:58 | 0:06:00 | |
Yeah, feet on the top, bum back, and you'll swing into space, OK? | 0:06:00 | 0:06:03 | |
Oh, I don't like this! Whoa. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:06 | |
My word! I like rock, not a great big void. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:11 | |
Hang on. I've still... | 0:06:11 | 0:06:13 | |
Whoo! | 0:06:13 | 0:06:14 | |
Hey! Actually, it's kind of more fun without a rock. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:18 | |
Yes, last few feet. Yes! Hey! | 0:06:21 | 0:06:25 | |
-Nicely done. -Yeah, I love that! | 0:06:25 | 0:06:28 | |
Look at that. My fingernails embedded into my palm. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:33 | |
-You make it look so easy! -It is! -It was great fun. I loved it. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:40 | |
-Yeah, it's good, isn't it? -Really good. -And that's the warm-up. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:43 | |
I know! I've seen what I've got lined up for me just over there. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:47 | |
'It's the first time I've seen the scale of the challenge ahead. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:51 | |
'Just look at it. I think at this point, | 0:06:51 | 0:06:54 | |
'I need to tell you, I really don't like heights. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:56 | |
'What a way to try and conquer that fear! | 0:06:56 | 0:06:59 | |
'Before I get to that, though, | 0:06:59 | 0:07:01 | |
'Sven will be putting me through my paces | 0:07:01 | 0:07:03 | |
'with a challenging practice climb.' | 0:07:03 | 0:07:05 | |
But next, they've been blamed for earthquakes and flaming taps. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:09 | |
Now fracking, the controversial method of getting gas | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
out of the ground, is back on the agenda. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:15 | |
The government are keen to see our natural underground reserves | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
exploited, but what does that mean for those living with | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
the prospect on the doorstep? | 0:07:21 | 0:07:23 | |
Here's Tom. | 0:07:23 | 0:07:24 | |
For centuries, we've powered our nation | 0:07:28 | 0:07:30 | |
with energy harvested from deep within the earth. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:34 | |
Coal mines once peppered our landscape. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:38 | |
Now, the UK relies on imports for most of its fuel. | 0:07:38 | 0:07:43 | |
But the discovery of a rich reservoir of gas | 0:07:43 | 0:07:46 | |
could change all that. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:47 | |
It is estimated that there are hundreds of trillions of cubic feet | 0:07:47 | 0:07:51 | |
of the stuff under the north of England alone, | 0:07:51 | 0:07:54 | |
and just a fraction of that | 0:07:54 | 0:07:56 | |
could satisfy the UK's gas demand for decades. | 0:07:56 | 0:08:00 | |
The problem is, the gas is buried deep under the earth, | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
trapped in tightly packed layers of rock called shale. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
The only effective method for releasing it is known as fracking. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:12 | |
Professor Ernest Rutter at Manchester University | 0:08:13 | 0:08:17 | |
has designed an experiment which shows how you get gas from a stone. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:22 | |
I can see the pressure on the dial beginning to rise here. | 0:08:22 | 0:08:26 | |
Just got up to 4,500. | 0:08:26 | 0:08:28 | |
'I'm ratcheting up the pressure, | 0:08:28 | 0:08:31 | |
'forcing pink wax into the centre of this clear plastic cylinder. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:35 | |
'Let's see what happens.' | 0:08:35 | 0:08:37 | |
Pressure's rising. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:40 | |
The liquid is a bit like a crowbar which is wedging a crack open, | 0:08:42 | 0:08:45 | |
forcing it into the rock. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:47 | |
'Real-life fracking uses a mixture of water, sand and chemicals, | 0:08:48 | 0:08:53 | |
'rather than the wax here. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:55 | |
'This forces cracks through the rock like the ones | 0:08:55 | 0:08:58 | |
'we see in our clear piece of plastic. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:00 | |
'The gas trapped within then floats to the surface.' | 0:09:00 | 0:09:03 | |
Isn't that beautiful? | 0:09:05 | 0:09:06 | |
These two butterfly wings, these two planar cracks, | 0:09:06 | 0:09:10 | |
breach the outside of the cylinder. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:13 | |
'Engineers refer to this extraction process as "unconventional".' | 0:09:13 | 0:09:17 | |
But outside the gas industry, | 0:09:17 | 0:09:19 | |
the word most commonly associated with fracking is "controversial". | 0:09:19 | 0:09:24 | |
'In 2010, it was claimed the extraction of shale gas in America | 0:09:27 | 0:09:31 | |
'had resulted in gas leaking into local water supplies, | 0:09:31 | 0:09:35 | |
'with explosive results. | 0:09:35 | 0:09:36 | |
'Geologists say this couldn't happen over here. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:42 | |
'But the inflammatory shots did little to help | 0:09:42 | 0:09:44 | |
'public perception of the industry. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:47 | |
'And then this happened.' | 0:09:47 | 0:09:48 | |
A controversial drilling operation for natural shale gas | 0:09:53 | 0:09:57 | |
has been suspended after a small earthquake near Blackpool. | 0:09:57 | 0:10:00 | |
At Preesall in Lancashire, the UK's first attempt at shale fracking | 0:10:00 | 0:10:04 | |
resulted in two minor earthquakes around the drilling site. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:09 | |
It's quite a funny story, really. I was in bed. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:11 | |
I'd felt something happen. I heard a bit of a rumble. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:13 | |
My phone pinged, I picked it up, | 0:10:13 | 0:10:15 | |
and it was my daughter at the other end of the house, | 0:10:15 | 0:10:17 | |
it was a text saying, "Was that you, Dad?" | 0:10:17 | 0:10:19 | |
Local farmer John Loftus had leased some of his land to the gas company. | 0:10:21 | 0:10:26 | |
They didn't damage your house or buildings at all? | 0:10:26 | 0:10:28 | |
Oh, it was very miniscule. My son lives at Ripon, | 0:10:28 | 0:10:31 | |
and this earthquake the week before was, I think, twice the size. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:34 | |
-Right. -And they don't have any fracking. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:36 | |
'Operations here were halted after the earthquakes, | 0:10:36 | 0:10:39 | |
'and there's been no fracking in the UK since. | 0:10:39 | 0:10:42 | |
'But unrelated seismic activity of this size is fairly common, | 0:10:42 | 0:10:46 | |
'and in 2012, a report into the local geology recommended: | 0:10:46 | 0:10:51 | |
'Certainly, John is still more than happy | 0:10:55 | 0:10:58 | |
'for it to go ahead on his land.' | 0:10:58 | 0:11:00 | |
So what was it like when they were actually | 0:11:00 | 0:11:02 | |
-doing the fracking and drilling here? -No real noise. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:05 | |
I mean, obviously, we live nearly half a mile from here, | 0:11:05 | 0:11:08 | |
but a lot of stone came in, | 0:11:08 | 0:11:10 | |
a lot of wagons up and down the road - | 0:11:10 | 0:11:12 | |
I think one day when they were taking it off, | 0:11:12 | 0:11:15 | |
there were 32 artics in a row. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:17 | |
So why do you do it? | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
I believe that the countryside is basically for the country, | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
and as farmers, we're only custodians of the countryside. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:25 | |
So you think this is a public-spirited thing to do? | 0:11:25 | 0:11:27 | |
It wasn't because of the cheque you got to put this on your land? | 0:11:27 | 0:11:29 | |
The cheque I got was less than two percent of my income. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:32 | |
Well, that might be quite a lot! You run quite a big farm here. | 0:11:32 | 0:11:35 | |
How much was it? Go on, tell me. | 0:11:35 | 0:11:36 | |
I'm not supposed to tell you, so I can't tell you, | 0:11:36 | 0:11:38 | |
but my best Angus bull that I sold last year | 0:11:38 | 0:11:42 | |
was twice as much as I get rent for this, | 0:11:42 | 0:11:44 | |
-and it's minuscule, to be honest. -Right. | 0:11:44 | 0:11:46 | |
'Minuscule for John could be large for other British farmers, | 0:11:46 | 0:11:50 | |
'but unlike their counterparts in the United States, | 0:11:50 | 0:11:53 | |
'it won't make them a fortune. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:55 | |
'There are different laws in Britain and America.' | 0:11:55 | 0:11:58 | |
Over there, the gas is owned by the landowner, | 0:11:58 | 0:12:02 | |
whereas here, it belongs to the Crown Estate, | 0:12:02 | 0:12:05 | |
and the farmer just gets paid | 0:12:05 | 0:12:07 | |
for leasing the land that the wellhead sits on. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:10 | |
'But there would be big winners, like the British government. | 0:12:11 | 0:12:14 | |
'In today's prices, it's already made £300 billion | 0:12:14 | 0:12:18 | |
'over the last 40 years on home-sourced energy, | 0:12:18 | 0:12:21 | |
'mainly from North Sea oil and other offshore operations. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:25 | |
'And if shale gas is worth just a fraction of that, | 0:12:25 | 0:12:29 | |
'it'll provide a windfall when the country needs it most. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:32 | |
'A good reason, then, | 0:12:33 | 0:12:35 | |
'to venture back underground in search of energy?' | 0:12:35 | 0:12:38 | |
This stuff, coal, powered Britain through the Industrial Revolution, | 0:12:45 | 0:12:49 | |
changed the country for ever. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:51 | |
'But should we still be looking to environmentally unfriendly | 0:12:51 | 0:12:55 | |
'fossil fuels to power our nation, | 0:12:55 | 0:12:57 | |
'or is shale gas simply too good an opportunity to miss? | 0:12:57 | 0:13:01 | |
'I'll be finding out later.' | 0:13:01 | 0:13:03 | |
The Wye Valley. Its river snakes through wooded slopes. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:16 | |
On its Welsh bank stands Tintern Abbey, | 0:13:17 | 0:13:20 | |
a gigantic skeleton open to the skies. | 0:13:20 | 0:13:23 | |
Talk about take your breath away. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:25 | |
I mean, this building is magnificent, | 0:13:25 | 0:13:28 | |
and just think what it must have looked like to medieval travellers | 0:13:28 | 0:13:31 | |
as they approached Tintern in its full glory. | 0:13:31 | 0:13:34 | |
Tintern was the first Cistercian abbey to be founded in Wales, | 0:13:41 | 0:13:45 | |
and only the second in the whole of Britain. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:47 | |
Work started in 1131, and it thrived for four centuries until, | 0:13:47 | 0:13:53 | |
like so many others, it was turned to ruin by King Henry VIII. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:57 | |
'But what was life like back then before the dissolution? | 0:14:01 | 0:14:04 | |
'How did the monks live? | 0:14:04 | 0:14:06 | |
'To find out, I'm going back 500 years, | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
'coming face to face with a man who can tell me.' | 0:14:10 | 0:14:12 | |
Let's do a spot of time travelling. | 0:14:13 | 0:14:15 | |
Brother Thomas is returning to the abbey | 0:14:21 | 0:14:23 | |
shortly after it was destroyed, and breaking his vow of silence. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:27 | |
Now, this was the chapter house, where we met in the morning | 0:14:28 | 0:14:32 | |
to set the pattern of our day. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:34 | |
-So this was the Abbey powerhouse? -Absolutely, yes. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:36 | |
This is our refectory. Once a day we ate here. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:42 | |
And what sort of things were on the menu? | 0:14:42 | 0:14:44 | |
Fish, eggs, and vegetables. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:47 | |
Everything grown on the estate. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:48 | |
And this is our warming house. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:53 | |
A kind of common room in the winter, largely, where monks came, | 0:14:53 | 0:14:57 | |
they read here, they would have had their tonsure haircut here. | 0:14:57 | 0:15:01 | |
A tonsure? The bald bit at the back? | 0:15:01 | 0:15:03 | |
The bald bit at the back, that's right. THEY LAUGH | 0:15:03 | 0:15:06 | |
How many monks would there have been? | 0:15:10 | 0:15:12 | |
At its height, about 80 of me, the choir monks, | 0:15:12 | 0:15:16 | |
and about 200 lay brothers. | 0:15:16 | 0:15:18 | |
Because you worked the fields all around here, didn't you? | 0:15:18 | 0:15:22 | |
It was very intensive farming that you monks were doing? | 0:15:22 | 0:15:25 | |
Absolutely. Yes, it certainly was. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:26 | |
And of course, Cistercian monks developed agriculture considerably. | 0:15:26 | 0:15:31 | |
-And it was a hard life for the monks, wasn't it? -Very hard, yes. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:34 | |
We were a Trappist order, a silent order, and very, very strict. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:38 | |
And I hear that, despite all the privations, | 0:15:38 | 0:15:42 | |
you monks did enjoy a little bevvy or two, didn't you? | 0:15:42 | 0:15:45 | |
Oh, Master...I think the hour has come for me to go to prayer! | 0:15:45 | 0:15:50 | |
-JOHN LAUGHS -Say no more! | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
OK, so Brother Thomas is actually Keith, the tour guide. | 0:15:56 | 0:15:59 | |
But it's well-known that monks were master brewers. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:03 | |
Maybe historian Madeleine Grey can tell me more. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:07 | |
They used to brew a lot of beer | 0:16:07 | 0:16:09 | |
because the water supply was so disgusting... | 0:16:09 | 0:16:13 | |
-And dangerous, presumably? -Yes, absolutely. | 0:16:13 | 0:16:15 | |
So you cleaned it up by brewing with it. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:17 | |
The men who worshipped in here | 0:16:17 | 0:16:19 | |
were not necessarily the ones who worked out in the fields? | 0:16:19 | 0:16:23 | |
Well, no. The bulk of the work is done by these lay brothers. | 0:16:23 | 0:16:27 | |
They were recruited from local peasant farming families. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:30 | |
If you think about it, it's quite a man-management issue. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:34 | |
You've got all these energetic young men, | 0:16:34 | 0:16:36 | |
you've got somehow to keep them under control, | 0:16:36 | 0:16:39 | |
so a combination of all that beer | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
and an awful lot of physical hard work in the fields, | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
and they were probably too tired to even have impure thoughts, | 0:16:45 | 0:16:49 | |
never mind doing anything about it! THEY LAUGH | 0:16:49 | 0:16:52 | |
But the simple, monastic life of Tintern was soon to end. | 0:16:56 | 0:17:00 | |
In 1536, it was surrendered to Henry VIII's officials. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:04 | |
Along with more than 800 other monasteries around the country, | 0:17:04 | 0:17:08 | |
the abbey was dissolved and stripped of its wealth, | 0:17:08 | 0:17:11 | |
and so ended a way of life which had lasted 400 years. | 0:17:11 | 0:17:16 | |
The monks of Tintern may be long gone, but their legacy lives on, | 0:17:16 | 0:17:20 | |
and one of the things that Brother Thomas and his ilk left for us | 0:17:20 | 0:17:24 | |
tastes surprisingly good. It's mead. | 0:17:24 | 0:17:26 | |
Later, I'll be heading to a local vineyard that's picked up | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
where the monks left off and is putting mead back on the map. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:35 | |
Now, the BBC's Summer Of Wildlife is all about getting out | 0:17:40 | 0:17:44 | |
and looking for the wildlife near your home. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:47 | |
As part of that project, | 0:17:47 | 0:17:48 | |
Countryfile asked wildlife cameraman Richard Taylor-Jones | 0:17:48 | 0:17:51 | |
what he could find near his home in Kent. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:54 | |
And I have a special reason for wondering if he was lucky. | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
As a wildlife cameraman, | 0:18:06 | 0:18:07 | |
there are some animals that are notoriously difficult to film. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:11 | |
For me, there's one species in particular | 0:18:11 | 0:18:13 | |
that's always caused me problems, | 0:18:13 | 0:18:15 | |
and it seems I'm not alone. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:19 | |
John was in Wales a few weeks back | 0:18:19 | 0:18:21 | |
and he had high hopes of seeing water voles, | 0:18:21 | 0:18:24 | |
Britain's fastest-declining mammal, with his own eyes. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:28 | |
In all my years on Countryfile, Sorcha, | 0:18:28 | 0:18:29 | |
I've never seen a water vole. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:31 | |
Am I going to be lucky today, do you think? | 0:18:31 | 0:18:33 | |
Sadly, not. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:35 | |
He had to be satisfied by some grainy images snapped by remote cameras. | 0:18:35 | 0:18:39 | |
But even that's something. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:42 | |
Water vole numbers have crashed by a staggering 95% since the 1970s. | 0:18:42 | 0:18:46 | |
My challenge today is to go one better. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:50 | |
I've come to a place just a few miles from home | 0:18:52 | 0:18:55 | |
where I've been guaranteed, | 0:18:55 | 0:18:58 | |
yes, GUARANTEED, I will see water voles. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:01 | |
So just perhaps, I'm going to have a little bit more luck than John. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:05 | |
And this is the place. | 0:19:05 | 0:19:07 | |
These fishing lakes are close to my home in Kent. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:11 | |
My mum told me years ago this place was good for wildlife, | 0:19:11 | 0:19:14 | |
but I've never bothered to look until now. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:17 | |
Within minutes, I've spotted some promising signs. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:21 | |
There's flattened grass by the lakeside | 0:19:21 | 0:19:23 | |
and nibbled vegetation, | 0:19:23 | 0:19:25 | |
which could be the work of water voles. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:27 | |
But this is the best sign of all. | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
A little patch of animal droppings. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:35 | |
And there's one way to find out who they belong to. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:41 | |
Now, then, water vole poo is often a greeny, browny colour, | 0:19:41 | 0:19:46 | |
which this is. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:48 | |
And then if you just squash it between your fingers, | 0:19:48 | 0:19:51 | |
it has a very sort of vegetabley texture. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:55 | |
It doesn't feel meaty in any way. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:58 | |
It doesn't smell too bad at all. | 0:19:58 | 0:20:00 | |
So I would say, going on the size, the colour, and the smell, | 0:20:00 | 0:20:05 | |
we probably do have a water vole latrine here. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:09 | |
Really good news. But to utterly convince me, | 0:20:10 | 0:20:13 | |
I need to see a water vole. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:15 | |
This looks like a burrow entrance, so I'll leave a bit of apple as bait | 0:20:15 | 0:20:19 | |
and plonk my remote camera down in front of it. | 0:20:19 | 0:20:21 | |
And if I've got a shot of them on this, then I know I can spend the | 0:20:22 | 0:20:26 | |
rest of the day in confidence waiting to get the shots I'm really after. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:31 | |
I'll need to leave my camera for a good few hours to stand any | 0:20:32 | 0:20:36 | |
chance of capturing water voles. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:38 | |
That gives me enough time to explore the rest of the lakes. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:42 | |
Hard to believe that only 20 years ago all this was a cauliflower field. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:48 | |
It became prone to flooding | 0:20:48 | 0:20:49 | |
so the farmer created these fishing lakes, | 0:20:49 | 0:20:52 | |
all now fringed by lush woodland. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:55 | |
A great example of how quickly nature can reclaim the landscape | 0:20:55 | 0:20:58 | |
if given a chance. | 0:20:58 | 0:21:00 | |
And, as if to prove the point, | 0:21:00 | 0:21:02 | |
some rather special flowers have appeared here. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
These are southern marsh orchids | 0:21:07 | 0:21:09 | |
and there are literally hundreds of them and, to me, | 0:21:09 | 0:21:13 | |
they kind of remind me of the fashion models of the flower world. | 0:21:13 | 0:21:17 | |
They're tall, skinny, just utterly gorgeous, | 0:21:17 | 0:21:20 | |
but there is a bit of a problem with them. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:22 | |
If you just come down here, let's have a look at this one. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:26 | |
I always feel that they get lost in amongst all this grass | 0:21:26 | 0:21:30 | |
and so what I want to do, | 0:21:30 | 0:21:32 | |
as we do love our photography here on Countryfile, I want to give it | 0:21:32 | 0:21:35 | |
the full studio treatment | 0:21:35 | 0:21:37 | |
and make it look as glamorous as I know it really can. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:40 | |
I've brought along my outdoor studio. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:47 | |
The aim is to isolate the flowers | 0:21:47 | 0:21:49 | |
by gently flattening down other vegetation around them and then | 0:21:49 | 0:21:52 | |
shoot against a pure white soft box. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:56 | |
Inside the soft box is a flash which backlights the orchid creating a soft | 0:21:56 | 0:22:00 | |
rim light around the edge of the flower. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:03 | |
Then flashes at the front are switched on | 0:22:03 | 0:22:05 | |
to really make those colours punch out. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:08 | |
You're left with a single stem of floral beauty | 0:22:09 | 0:22:12 | |
standing out like a model on the front of a fashion magazine. | 0:22:12 | 0:22:16 | |
Time now to get back to my remote water vole camera. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:21 | |
Has it got the proof I need? | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
Hey, hey, hey. Bingo! | 0:22:27 | 0:22:30 | |
There we go, water vole, dead slap in the middle of frame. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:34 | |
That gives me the encouragement to get out on that bank | 0:22:34 | 0:22:38 | |
and sit there for the next few hours. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:40 | |
Filming wildlife often involves a huge amount of waiting around. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:45 | |
But not this time. I can't believe what I'm seeing. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:50 | |
Look at this. Here he is. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:52 | |
A water vole. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:53 | |
And there's a fisherman totally unaware of what's just beneath him. | 0:22:55 | 0:22:59 | |
He's climbing up the vegetation like it's a rope. Stretching up. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:08 | |
This is lovely. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:10 | |
I think he's using the old dry vegetation to clamber up | 0:23:13 | 0:23:17 | |
and grab a piece of the fresher green stuff... | 0:23:17 | 0:23:20 | |
..without having to expose himself by going on top of the bank. | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
A large male water vole like this | 0:23:26 | 0:23:28 | |
can weigh up to three-quarters of a pound. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:31 | |
That's quite a bulk to haul around on a grass root, | 0:23:31 | 0:23:34 | |
but it appears this vole is as keen on swimming as it is climbing. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:39 | |
And soon he's back up on the bank and heading for the fisherman. | 0:23:39 | 0:23:43 | |
I love the fact that the angler is just | 0:23:43 | 0:23:47 | |
now sitting there with no idea | 0:23:47 | 0:23:51 | |
that Britain's fastest-declining mammal... | 0:23:51 | 0:23:54 | |
..is just, what, two yards in front of him? | 0:23:57 | 0:24:01 | |
This vole is keeping itself hidden for good reason. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
All sorts of predators love to eat them, especially American mink, | 0:24:04 | 0:24:09 | |
brought here in the 1970s, | 0:24:09 | 0:24:11 | |
and the key reason water vole numbers have collapsed. | 0:24:11 | 0:24:15 | |
I can't believe what I'm seeing and it's just about to get even better. | 0:24:15 | 0:24:20 | |
QUIETLY: I don't know if you can see from there, | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
but I can certainly see down this camera that we have a water vole. | 0:24:23 | 0:24:27 | |
It must be only three metres away from me. | 0:24:27 | 0:24:30 | |
It's just come out of its burrow | 0:24:31 | 0:24:34 | |
and coming out onto the wider lawn, | 0:24:34 | 0:24:38 | |
which perhaps isn't surprising | 0:24:38 | 0:24:40 | |
because I've left a little bit of apple there to tempt it out. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:43 | |
And he's incredibly relaxed. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:46 | |
These animals are constantly surrounded by humans. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:50 | |
Pretty much every day there are anglers out around this lake. | 0:24:50 | 0:24:55 | |
So the water voles have become very used to people being around, | 0:24:55 | 0:25:00 | |
which is making it really very easy for me to get the shots. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
It seems I've finally broken the curse of the water vole. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:10 | |
And, what's more, I've done it just a few minutes' drive from my house. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:13 | |
So, thanks, Mum! | 0:25:13 | 0:25:16 | |
Finding the water voles here has been a complete revelation to me | 0:25:16 | 0:25:20 | |
and I guess it just goes to show that no matter how well you | 0:25:20 | 0:25:22 | |
think you know your local area, if you keep on asking around, | 0:25:22 | 0:25:26 | |
if you keep looking, there's always something new to find. | 0:25:26 | 0:25:30 | |
And if you want to find out more about the incredible | 0:25:30 | 0:25:33 | |
species in your own backyard, go to the Countryfile website | 0:25:33 | 0:25:37 | |
where you'll find all the information about | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
the BBC's Summer Of Wildlife and how you can be part of it. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:43 | |
Next time, I hope to be on the trail of the elusive kingfisher. | 0:25:46 | 0:25:50 | |
I'm in the Wye Valley to try something I've never done before - | 0:25:55 | 0:26:00 | |
a Tyrolean traverse, travelling along a rope between two rock faces | 0:26:00 | 0:26:04 | |
high above the ground. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:06 | |
This is Symonds Yat Rock and that is one of only a handful of inland | 0:26:06 | 0:26:12 | |
rock pinnacles anywhere in the UK. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:15 | |
I've got a bad feeling about this. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:19 | |
The Pinnacle. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:21 | |
The route up is appropriately enough christened "Vertigo", | 0:26:21 | 0:26:26 | |
an energy-sapping 80-foot climb. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:29 | |
But before I go anywhere near that thing, | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
a bit of training is in order. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:34 | |
OK. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:44 | |
Right, OK, Ellie, the line here follows the line of least resistance | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
so it's the easiest round you can find. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:49 | |
And it's just like walking up the stairs you said? | 0:26:49 | 0:26:51 | |
Just like walking up the stairs, OK. The stairs are little bit smaller. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
Climb when you're ready. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:56 | |
'Symonds Yat is testing. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:00 | |
'But trees provide good anchor points for ropes, | 0:27:00 | 0:27:02 | |
'which really helps.' | 0:27:02 | 0:27:04 | |
-Great stuff. -Is that too big? -No, perfect, nice. | 0:27:04 | 0:27:07 | |
-Nicely done. -Suddenly I've gone silent, concentrating. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:13 | |
Up and over there? | 0:27:15 | 0:27:17 | |
'The limestone here has been stripped of plants. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:20 | |
'It should make it easier to climb | 0:27:20 | 0:27:22 | |
'but I'm struggling to get a good grip.' | 0:27:22 | 0:27:24 | |
It's a bit slippy. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:28 | |
Oh, I don't like it. Is that too high? | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
-You can do it that way. Whatever works for you. -None of them work. | 0:27:31 | 0:27:35 | |
Oh, man, this is supposed to be the easy one! | 0:27:35 | 0:27:37 | |
-That's actually really good technique, Ellie. -Yeah? | 0:27:43 | 0:27:46 | |
-We call that a step through. -Oh, I got my step through. | 0:27:46 | 0:27:49 | |
-Just going to admire this limestone for a while. -Now go straight up. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:55 | |
-All right. -Try and finish this when you touch the karabiner. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:58 | |
This is a fraction easier here. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:07 | |
Oh, lordy, it's not natural doing this. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
Why do people do this? | 0:28:11 | 0:28:14 | |
-Straight up to the karabiner. -Up to the karabiner. | 0:28:14 | 0:28:17 | |
Yes, yes, yes, yes. | 0:28:17 | 0:28:19 | |
Ding-a-ling! | 0:28:19 | 0:28:21 | |
'And there, looming in the background, what I'm training for. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:25 | |
'A much tougher and taller climb.' | 0:28:25 | 0:28:27 | |
-Hold on to this? -Yeah, if you wish. | 0:28:27 | 0:28:29 | |
I do, I do wish. All right, what am I doing? | 0:28:29 | 0:28:33 | |
Feet wide apart, that's the idea. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:34 | |
Yes, yes, yes. | 0:28:34 | 0:28:37 | |
Oh, sun. | 0:28:37 | 0:28:39 | |
-Nice and steady. -Lovely. | 0:28:39 | 0:28:42 | |
'What made this training climb so tricky is the shape of the valley. | 0:28:43 | 0:28:47 | |
'It's been cut by water instead of glaciers | 0:28:47 | 0:28:50 | |
'forming squarer, steeper walls.' | 0:28:50 | 0:28:52 | |
-There we go. -Perfect. | 0:28:53 | 0:28:56 | |
Yes, I'm down. | 0:28:59 | 0:29:02 | |
-I bet that was an easy climb, wasn't it, in climbing terms? -Not at all. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:04 | |
Not for me it wasn't. | 0:29:04 | 0:29:06 | |
Actually, in climbing terms, we have a grading system, | 0:29:06 | 0:29:08 | |
the English grading system, and this is graded very difficult. | 0:29:08 | 0:29:11 | |
Oh, very difficult. Hey, that was good, that was good. | 0:29:11 | 0:29:14 | |
Nice and short, as well. | 0:29:14 | 0:29:16 | |
'A successful training session but will it hold me | 0:29:16 | 0:29:19 | |
'in good stead for the main climb ahead?' | 0:29:19 | 0:29:22 | |
Well, I'm very glad I had a couple of training climbs | 0:29:22 | 0:29:24 | |
because sitting at the bottom of this... | 0:29:24 | 0:29:27 | |
SHE SIGHS | 0:29:27 | 0:29:28 | |
..feels slightly terrifying. | 0:29:28 | 0:29:32 | |
I think I'm just going to sit here and think about it for a while. | 0:29:32 | 0:29:35 | |
Now, earlier, we heard how controversial method of extracting | 0:29:42 | 0:29:45 | |
untapped underground gas deposits has had a shaky start in the UK. | 0:29:45 | 0:29:51 | |
But, with the government now firmly backing plans for fracking, | 0:29:51 | 0:29:54 | |
are there any credible reasons for standing in its way? | 0:29:54 | 0:29:57 | |
Here's Tom again. | 0:29:57 | 0:29:59 | |
The United Kingdom is an energy-hungry country. | 0:30:01 | 0:30:05 | |
But, in the next few years, there's a chance we may be energy starved. | 0:30:05 | 0:30:09 | |
The regulator, Ofgem, | 0:30:13 | 0:30:14 | |
has warned that we might run short of electricity in the next decade | 0:30:14 | 0:30:18 | |
and that's partly down to our reliance on this mucky stuff. | 0:30:18 | 0:30:24 | |
So, let's shed some light on the situation. | 0:30:24 | 0:30:27 | |
Last year, the UK relied on coal to generate | 0:30:29 | 0:30:32 | |
nearly 40% of our electricity. | 0:30:32 | 0:30:35 | |
But due to EU emissions rules, at least 5 of our 17 coal-fired | 0:30:35 | 0:30:40 | |
power stations will have closed by the end of 2015, | 0:30:40 | 0:30:44 | |
taking 10% of our power capacity off-line. | 0:30:44 | 0:30:47 | |
Ofgem want the energy industry to get new sources of power on the grid | 0:30:50 | 0:30:55 | |
so we can prevent the lights going out. | 0:30:55 | 0:30:58 | |
For the British government, at least, | 0:30:59 | 0:31:01 | |
that could be where shale gas comes in. | 0:31:01 | 0:31:04 | |
At a time when we're crying out for reliable home-grown | 0:31:04 | 0:31:07 | |
sources of energy, the answer could be under our feet. | 0:31:07 | 0:31:11 | |
It's beneath the old coalfields | 0:31:11 | 0:31:13 | |
so if we look to see where we extracted the most coal, the | 0:31:13 | 0:31:16 | |
chances are, beneath that is where we're going to find the most shale. | 0:31:16 | 0:31:21 | |
'You can find shale gas under most of the UK | 0:31:21 | 0:31:24 | |
'but Professor Peter Styles from Keele University thinks the most | 0:31:24 | 0:31:27 | |
'interesting reserves might be under the north of England, | 0:31:27 | 0:31:31 | |
'Central Scotland, south of London | 0:31:31 | 0:31:35 | |
'and on the Irish border.' | 0:31:35 | 0:31:37 | |
So these are where there are promising shales | 0:31:37 | 0:31:40 | |
but does that actually mean we can get gas out of them viably? | 0:31:40 | 0:31:44 | |
We will never get the total volume of gas out and, on average, | 0:31:44 | 0:31:49 | |
we'd be lucky to get 10% out, but 10% of these numbers are still | 0:31:49 | 0:31:53 | |
very large amounts, potentially many tens of years of UK gas supply. | 0:31:53 | 0:31:58 | |
Are we going to see a rash of wells across the country? | 0:31:58 | 0:32:01 | |
Individual holes in the ground, | 0:32:01 | 0:32:03 | |
probably of the order of 1,000, but that's not what you | 0:32:03 | 0:32:07 | |
see at the surface because these wells | 0:32:07 | 0:32:10 | |
are drilled from a pad about the size of a football field | 0:32:10 | 0:32:13 | |
and perhaps 10, perhaps 20 wells will be drilled from one of those. | 0:32:13 | 0:32:17 | |
So we may have 100 of those | 0:32:17 | 0:32:21 | |
across an area the same as Yorkshire and Lancashire. | 0:32:21 | 0:32:25 | |
Shale gas sites could be coming to some of the most beautiful | 0:32:27 | 0:32:30 | |
parts of the country. | 0:32:30 | 0:32:32 | |
In Lancashire, where they've already had a small | 0:32:33 | 0:32:36 | |
taste of the industry, the anti-fracking movement is still | 0:32:36 | 0:32:39 | |
working hard to make people aware of the potential problems. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:42 | |
I don't know what's going to become of it. | 0:32:49 | 0:32:50 | |
I think it's going to go ahead. | 0:32:50 | 0:32:52 | |
I don't know if it's something you've ever looked at. | 0:32:52 | 0:32:54 | |
-I really think we should go for it. -You think we should go for it, right. | 0:32:54 | 0:32:58 | |
It's a joke. An absolute joke. | 0:32:58 | 0:33:00 | |
Ian Roberts runs a local anti-fracking group from the small | 0:33:00 | 0:33:04 | |
town of St-Anne's-on-Sea on the Fylde coast. | 0:33:04 | 0:33:07 | |
There's a whole range of issues. | 0:33:08 | 0:33:10 | |
If you look at where these sites are, the infrastructure, | 0:33:10 | 0:33:13 | |
the roads just aren't there. | 0:33:13 | 0:33:15 | |
These are country tracks often | 0:33:15 | 0:33:16 | |
and you're going to be bringing thousands of heavy-duty wagons | 0:33:16 | 0:33:20 | |
full of chemicals and waste water to these sites. | 0:33:20 | 0:33:23 | |
And tourism. This is an absolutely beautiful coast. | 0:33:23 | 0:33:28 | |
Are people going to be attracted to the rural Fylde coast | 0:33:28 | 0:33:32 | |
if you've got an industrialised zone? | 0:33:32 | 0:33:35 | |
But in the next few years, | 0:33:35 | 0:33:36 | |
doesn't shale gas play a role in keeping the lights on? | 0:33:36 | 0:33:38 | |
I don't believe so. | 0:33:38 | 0:33:39 | |
I think we need to shift our investments into renewables. | 0:33:39 | 0:33:42 | |
This is exactly the wrong point in history at which to be | 0:33:42 | 0:33:45 | |
investing in, scrambling for the last bits of fossil fuel. | 0:33:45 | 0:33:49 | |
Fracking also uses huge amounts of water mixed with sand and chemicals. | 0:33:50 | 0:33:55 | |
The water companies have voiced concerns over the possibility | 0:33:55 | 0:33:58 | |
of contamination of local supplies and potential shortages. | 0:33:58 | 0:34:04 | |
So, are the environmental worries credible enough to halt | 0:34:04 | 0:34:07 | |
the so-called dash for gas? | 0:34:07 | 0:34:10 | |
Francis Egan is the CEO of Cuadrilla, | 0:34:10 | 0:34:13 | |
the only company to have actually fracked for shale gas in the UK. | 0:34:13 | 0:34:17 | |
100 sites takes a total land area of two square kilometres | 0:34:17 | 0:34:21 | |
across 1,200 square kilometres. | 0:34:21 | 0:34:23 | |
I think that can be fitted into the County of Lancashire fairly | 0:34:23 | 0:34:26 | |
easily without a huge amount of disruption. | 0:34:26 | 0:34:28 | |
Are there not big environmental concerns over water here? | 0:34:28 | 0:34:31 | |
You're going to use a lot and it comes out of the ground polluted. | 0:34:31 | 0:34:34 | |
You say it's polluted but actually, | 0:34:34 | 0:34:35 | |
the Environment Agency classification under EU legislation | 0:34:35 | 0:34:38 | |
is non-hazardous, but it does need treatment. | 0:34:38 | 0:34:40 | |
So it's officially classified as a non-hazardous waste, OK? | 0:34:40 | 0:34:43 | |
That's not to say that you would put into your drinking supply. | 0:34:43 | 0:34:46 | |
It does need treatment. But it's not a threat to public health. | 0:34:46 | 0:34:51 | |
But what about the concerns over our continued reliance on fossil fuels? | 0:34:51 | 0:34:55 | |
After all, the UK is legally bound to | 0:34:55 | 0:34:58 | |
an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, | 0:34:58 | 0:35:02 | |
so should we rush to a carbon-rich fuel like shale gas? | 0:35:02 | 0:35:07 | |
The question is not will we be using gas, because we will. | 0:35:07 | 0:35:09 | |
The question is, where is it coming from? | 0:35:09 | 0:35:11 | |
Now, is it better for the environment to develop it here | 0:35:11 | 0:35:14 | |
in a highly regulated UK, European Union environment? | 0:35:14 | 0:35:17 | |
Or to import it from halfway across the world in a ship? | 0:35:17 | 0:35:20 | |
Gas is a much more environmentally benign fossil fuel than coal, | 0:35:20 | 0:35:24 | |
so there is plenty of room to reduce emissions and still use gas. | 0:35:24 | 0:35:26 | |
And, in fact, that's what happened in the US. | 0:35:26 | 0:35:28 | |
The US has increased its share of gas and electricity generation | 0:35:28 | 0:35:32 | |
and increased its renewables and it's reducing CO2. | 0:35:32 | 0:35:35 | |
We've done none of those. | 0:35:35 | 0:35:36 | |
Fossil fuels helped build modern Britain | 0:35:37 | 0:35:40 | |
but pulling more of them out of the ground can only increase | 0:35:40 | 0:35:43 | |
the levels of climate-changing gas in our atmosphere. | 0:35:43 | 0:35:46 | |
With concerns over energy supplies, and the country's financial worries, | 0:35:46 | 0:35:51 | |
the big question is, do we have any choice? | 0:35:51 | 0:35:54 | |
Just like coal in previous centuries, reserves of shale gas appear | 0:35:54 | 0:35:59 | |
to be plentiful and the technology to reach them is developing fast. | 0:35:59 | 0:36:05 | |
And, when you combine that with the government's obvious enthusiasm, | 0:36:05 | 0:36:09 | |
then environmentalists are going to have to work hard to keep it | 0:36:09 | 0:36:13 | |
all locked up underground. | 0:36:13 | 0:36:16 | |
Adam doesn't have dairy cows on his farm, but he knows just how | 0:36:19 | 0:36:23 | |
tough dairy farming is and he's taking a look now at two very | 0:36:23 | 0:36:27 | |
different approaches to meeting the challenges faced by the industry. | 0:36:27 | 0:36:30 | |
These are my Gloucester cattle. | 0:36:37 | 0:36:39 | |
They're a lovely old-fashioned, dual-purpose breed | 0:36:39 | 0:36:41 | |
so quite good at producing milk and quite good at producing beef, | 0:36:41 | 0:36:45 | |
but not brilliant at either. | 0:36:45 | 0:36:47 | |
And, after World War II, | 0:36:47 | 0:36:49 | |
we were a starving nation and we needed farmers to go for | 0:36:49 | 0:36:52 | |
out-and-out production and so we specialised in our cattle farming. | 0:36:52 | 0:36:56 | |
We went for the dairy cow for milk, the Friesian | 0:36:56 | 0:36:59 | |
and then the Holstein and, in the beef world, | 0:36:59 | 0:37:01 | |
we went for the Hereford and then Continental beef breeds. | 0:37:01 | 0:37:04 | |
So now, in modern-day farming, we have beef cattle and dairy cattle. | 0:37:04 | 0:37:08 | |
I'm off to see two dairy farms just down the road from me | 0:37:13 | 0:37:16 | |
in Gloucestershire that have very different approaches to | 0:37:16 | 0:37:19 | |
producing milk. | 0:37:19 | 0:37:20 | |
Rob Alan farms a herd of 150 cows. | 0:37:22 | 0:37:25 | |
Yeah, let's have a look around. | 0:37:25 | 0:37:27 | |
Would you consider yourself a very typical dairy farm here? | 0:37:28 | 0:37:31 | |
Yeah, I'd say so. I'm a third-generation dairy farmer. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:34 | |
What sort of cows are you farming? | 0:37:34 | 0:37:38 | |
Years ago, when my father first came to this farm, | 0:37:38 | 0:37:40 | |
we were very much Friesian-type cows. | 0:37:40 | 0:37:42 | |
But now, in more recent times, | 0:37:42 | 0:37:45 | |
we've obviously introduced the Holstein genetic. | 0:37:45 | 0:37:47 | |
So you're getting a productive cow | 0:37:47 | 0:37:49 | |
-but also one that can survive off grass? -That's right, yes. | 0:37:49 | 0:37:52 | |
So, really, what you want is lots of lovely leafy grass that's | 0:37:52 | 0:37:56 | |
full of sugar and protein that the cow churns up with its rumen | 0:37:56 | 0:38:00 | |
to produce great quality milk? | 0:38:00 | 0:38:02 | |
Yeah, that's right. It's important to get the timings right, | 0:38:02 | 0:38:05 | |
get the cows out to the grass at the right growth stage. | 0:38:05 | 0:38:08 | |
When the sun is out, I think the grass is like everybody else. | 0:38:08 | 0:38:10 | |
It's essentially happier and it's more nutritious | 0:38:10 | 0:38:13 | |
and hopefully we'll get more milk from it. | 0:38:13 | 0:38:16 | |
You're a young man. Where do you see the future? | 0:38:16 | 0:38:19 | |
Well, I'd like to be running a viable dairy business | 0:38:19 | 0:38:22 | |
in years to come. | 0:38:22 | 0:38:23 | |
Obviously, to double the number of cows out in this field, | 0:38:23 | 0:38:25 | |
it wouldn't make sense. | 0:38:25 | 0:38:27 | |
I need more land area to do that. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:29 | |
You could run out of grass quickly, if you put too many cows out? | 0:38:29 | 0:38:32 | |
That's right cos, essentially, | 0:38:32 | 0:38:34 | |
they've got to stay within reason to the holding | 0:38:34 | 0:38:36 | |
because obviously we're bringing them in early mornings | 0:38:36 | 0:38:38 | |
and late afternoons to be milked. | 0:38:38 | 0:38:40 | |
So even if there was land available three or four miles away, | 0:38:40 | 0:38:43 | |
it wouldn't suit what we're trying to achieve. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:45 | |
Yeah, cos the cows can't walk all the way there | 0:38:45 | 0:38:47 | |
-and all the way back again. -No. | 0:38:47 | 0:38:49 | |
You all right, girls? | 0:38:49 | 0:38:52 | |
-So this is the business end then? -That's it. | 0:38:52 | 0:38:54 | |
This is where all the magic happens, yeah. | 0:38:54 | 0:38:56 | |
What sort of yields are you getting? How much milk per cow? | 0:38:56 | 0:38:59 | |
On an annual basis, we'd be doing about 8,500-9,000 litres. | 0:38:59 | 0:39:03 | |
And the cows would be doing about 28 litres a day. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:06 | |
How does that compare to when your dad first started milking cows? | 0:39:06 | 0:39:09 | |
Well, the old Friesian-type cows | 0:39:09 | 0:39:11 | |
-were doing between 4,000 and 6,000 litres, really. -Crikey! | 0:39:11 | 0:39:14 | |
So you've really pushed things on? | 0:39:14 | 0:39:16 | |
-Yeah, that's right. -And can you push things any further now? | 0:39:16 | 0:39:18 | |
-Where's the future? -I think for the system we're running at the moment | 0:39:18 | 0:39:22 | |
we're about maxed out, really, | 0:39:22 | 0:39:24 | |
without introducing a lot more supplementary feeding. | 0:39:24 | 0:39:27 | |
And you're happy with that? | 0:39:27 | 0:39:29 | |
Yeah, I enjoy seeing the cows out at grass | 0:39:29 | 0:39:31 | |
and I enjoy the different management techniques. | 0:39:31 | 0:39:33 | |
It's going well. | 0:39:33 | 0:39:35 | |
Rob has ambitions for the future, but he's at the limit of how much | 0:39:37 | 0:39:40 | |
milk he can produce with his present system. | 0:39:40 | 0:39:42 | |
So I'm taking him to a farm where they have a herd six times | 0:39:44 | 0:39:47 | |
greater than Rob's and achieve a 30% higher yield from their cows. | 0:39:47 | 0:39:52 | |
David Ball is the farm manager. | 0:39:52 | 0:39:54 | |
-It's a lot of dairy cows, Rob, isn't it? -Yeah, that's a lot of cows. | 0:39:56 | 0:40:00 | |
Very impressive. And so, how many have you got here, David? | 0:40:00 | 0:40:04 | |
-We've got 900 cows in the herd. -And these cows don't ever go outside? | 0:40:04 | 0:40:09 | |
That's correct. We keep the cows inside all the time. | 0:40:09 | 0:40:12 | |
We do that because, on this farm, | 0:40:12 | 0:40:15 | |
it's not a suitable farm for growing grass all year round. | 0:40:15 | 0:40:20 | |
It's very drought prone | 0:40:20 | 0:40:21 | |
and particularly with the weather conditions at the moment, | 0:40:21 | 0:40:23 | |
grass growth is very unreliable | 0:40:23 | 0:40:25 | |
and so we choose to house these cows so that we can provide | 0:40:25 | 0:40:29 | |
ration for them, for their needs, and comfortable beds for them | 0:40:29 | 0:40:33 | |
to rest in the relatively cool environment in the shed here. | 0:40:33 | 0:40:37 | |
And what about the breed? | 0:40:37 | 0:40:39 | |
These are Holstein cows | 0:40:39 | 0:40:40 | |
and they are bred for high production of milk. | 0:40:40 | 0:40:44 | |
They require high levels of input in terms of their nutrition | 0:40:46 | 0:40:50 | |
and their diet to support that sort of milk yield. | 0:40:50 | 0:40:53 | |
This is what we call a total mix ration, a TMR. | 0:40:55 | 0:40:58 | |
It's available to them 24 hours a day. | 0:40:58 | 0:41:01 | |
It's made up of the three forages that we grow on the farm. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:04 | |
That's grass, lucerne and maize and we add to that | 0:41:04 | 0:41:07 | |
a blend of by-products that we buy from the human food industry. | 0:41:07 | 0:41:11 | |
We use a nutritionist who visits us fortnightly | 0:41:11 | 0:41:14 | |
to construct a ration in great detail. | 0:41:14 | 0:41:16 | |
We do monitor the cows very closely. | 0:41:16 | 0:41:19 | |
We take blood samples and we take dung samples | 0:41:19 | 0:41:22 | |
so that we can monitor the effect of the ration | 0:41:22 | 0:41:25 | |
and how the digestion of the cow is going on. | 0:41:25 | 0:41:28 | |
Here they are investing heavily in the future, | 0:41:30 | 0:41:32 | |
with this new state-of-the-art high-tech facility | 0:41:32 | 0:41:34 | |
where all the cows' needs are catered for. | 0:41:34 | 0:41:37 | |
But there's still no getting away from the fact that this is intensive. | 0:41:39 | 0:41:43 | |
And, for some, this type of farming is hard to accept. | 0:41:43 | 0:41:46 | |
While David shows Rob around, I've invited along Amy Jackson, | 0:41:46 | 0:41:50 | |
who's an agricultural PR consultant with two decades' experience | 0:41:50 | 0:41:53 | |
in the farming industry. | 0:41:53 | 0:41:56 | |
The public like to see cows out at grass, don't they? | 0:41:56 | 0:41:59 | |
Absolutely, because that's what they have become accustomed to | 0:41:59 | 0:42:02 | |
over the years, | 0:42:02 | 0:42:04 | |
pictures of cows on green fields, but actually, the reality is, | 0:42:04 | 0:42:08 | |
if you look at British cow hours, more than 50% of them | 0:42:08 | 0:42:11 | |
are spent inside because of the winter period | 0:42:11 | 0:42:13 | |
and probably up to a fifth of cows are in 365 days a year now. | 0:42:13 | 0:42:17 | |
Year in, year out. | 0:42:17 | 0:42:19 | |
So I think what we have to do is try | 0:42:19 | 0:42:20 | |
and get people used to the idea that some cows are inside. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:23 | |
So, with Rob's system and David's system, | 0:42:23 | 0:42:25 | |
what are the problems that they might face? | 0:42:25 | 0:42:28 | |
Rob obviously has his cows going outside in the summer | 0:42:28 | 0:42:30 | |
and that brings its own issues. | 0:42:30 | 0:42:32 | |
You know, there's flies outside and on a day like today, | 0:42:32 | 0:42:36 | |
you have to make sure they have enough shade. | 0:42:36 | 0:42:38 | |
You have to make sure that when the grass growth slows down | 0:42:38 | 0:42:41 | |
they're actually getting enough food into themselves. | 0:42:41 | 0:42:43 | |
Something you can't control is the weather. | 0:42:43 | 0:42:45 | |
Here, obviously, you can | 0:42:45 | 0:42:46 | |
make sure their nutrition is more balanced | 0:42:46 | 0:42:48 | |
but then we have to make sure that their udders are clean | 0:42:48 | 0:42:50 | |
and feet are healthy so you have to keep on top of that continually | 0:42:50 | 0:42:54 | |
and quite often, on a farm like this, | 0:42:54 | 0:42:56 | |
you have weekly foot trimming and vets in on a regular visit | 0:42:56 | 0:42:59 | |
to make sure that that's on top of as well. | 0:42:59 | 0:43:01 | |
So, with all the different systems, cows outdoor all year, | 0:43:01 | 0:43:04 | |
half and half, and then this kind of system, is there a right or wrong? | 0:43:04 | 0:43:08 | |
No, I think it's about how it's all managed. | 0:43:08 | 0:43:10 | |
Certainly there are different risks with different systems, | 0:43:10 | 0:43:12 | |
different pros and cons. | 0:43:12 | 0:43:13 | |
It's all about how you manage those on each farm. | 0:43:13 | 0:43:16 | |
Is this kind of system then, keeping the price of milk at the right price? | 0:43:16 | 0:43:20 | |
Well, it's not about keeping the price of milk down. | 0:43:20 | 0:43:22 | |
We've lost about a billion litres' worth of milk production | 0:43:22 | 0:43:25 | |
in this country in the last ten years | 0:43:25 | 0:43:27 | |
and that's 1,000 farms' worth, 1,000 average farms, | 0:43:27 | 0:43:29 | |
so we need to think, if we want to keep having British milk | 0:43:29 | 0:43:32 | |
we need to support farmers who are expanding | 0:43:32 | 0:43:34 | |
so we can keep milk production in the UK. | 0:43:34 | 0:43:36 | |
Rob, for you, you've got your cows out at grass during the summer. | 0:43:40 | 0:43:44 | |
-Do you find this going against the grain a bit? -No, not necessarily. | 0:43:44 | 0:43:49 | |
I think, in terms of investment for my future, | 0:43:49 | 0:43:52 | |
I'd quite like to incorporate maybe the two systems | 0:43:52 | 0:43:54 | |
so cows giving more milk, run a very similar system to David, | 0:43:54 | 0:43:58 | |
but then still maintain the cows out at grass. | 0:43:58 | 0:44:02 | |
And if you're going to expand, because you haven't got enough | 0:44:02 | 0:44:04 | |
-fields, I suppose that's the only way forward? -Yeah, that's right. | 0:44:04 | 0:44:07 | |
It's natural progress and, like I say, we could have an indoor | 0:44:07 | 0:44:11 | |
group and an outdoor group and utilise the best of both worlds. | 0:44:11 | 0:44:15 | |
It's been fascinating for me to meet two dairy farmers | 0:44:15 | 0:44:18 | |
that keep their cows in very different ways | 0:44:18 | 0:44:20 | |
but what seems to be crucial is that, | 0:44:20 | 0:44:22 | |
whatever system they are in, that the cows are well looked after. | 0:44:22 | 0:44:25 | |
Next week we're busy making hay and I'll be taking a look | 0:44:27 | 0:44:30 | |
at the effect the weather has had on my other crops over the past year. | 0:44:30 | 0:44:34 | |
-JOHN: -Right now I'm heading into the hills above Tintern Abbey | 0:44:38 | 0:44:41 | |
to one of the oldest commercial vineyards in Wales. | 0:44:41 | 0:44:44 | |
For over 30 years, it's been producing wines from the very | 0:44:44 | 0:44:47 | |
slopes thought to have been farmed by the monks. | 0:44:47 | 0:44:51 | |
The monks down at the Abbey abided by the rule that they should | 0:44:51 | 0:44:54 | |
live by the labours of their own hands and not accept charity, | 0:44:54 | 0:44:58 | |
so one way of doing that was to produce | 0:44:58 | 0:45:01 | |
and sell alcohol from their vineyards and from their own brews. | 0:45:01 | 0:45:05 | |
The monks worked this hillside from as early as the 12th century. | 0:45:11 | 0:45:15 | |
Today, in the shadow of the spectacular ruins, | 0:45:18 | 0:45:21 | |
Colin and Judith Dudley are continuing the tradition. | 0:45:21 | 0:45:24 | |
I must say, Judith, the words "Wales" and "vineyards" | 0:45:24 | 0:45:29 | |
don't normally come in the same sentence to me. | 0:45:29 | 0:45:32 | |
There are actually 17 vineyards in Wales now. Ours is the oldest one. | 0:45:32 | 0:45:37 | |
You are not just producing wine, but mead as well. | 0:45:37 | 0:45:41 | |
Yes, we started doing the mead | 0:45:41 | 0:45:43 | |
because we would get visitors coming to the vineyards | 0:45:43 | 0:45:46 | |
asking what the mead was that the monks used to drink at the abbey. | 0:45:46 | 0:45:49 | |
-Because mead is a mixture of honey and water, fermenting? -That's right. | 0:45:49 | 0:45:53 | |
That's the traditional mead. | 0:45:53 | 0:45:55 | |
The mead that we actually make here is called a hippocras. | 0:45:55 | 0:45:59 | |
It's made with white wine, honey and spices in it. | 0:45:59 | 0:46:03 | |
It would have been used medicinally. | 0:46:03 | 0:46:05 | |
These days, spiced drinks, fancy ciders are all the rage. | 0:46:05 | 0:46:11 | |
-Do you think there is a good future for mead? -I do, yes. | 0:46:11 | 0:46:14 | |
It does seem very popular. | 0:46:14 | 0:46:16 | |
Particularly, I would say, at Christmas time. | 0:46:16 | 0:46:18 | |
The spices we use are similar to the ones in mulled wine. | 0:46:18 | 0:46:22 | |
People associate that with Christmas, | 0:46:22 | 0:46:24 | |
but people drink it all the year round. | 0:46:24 | 0:46:27 | |
Judith says that just as a wine's character is determined by the type | 0:46:27 | 0:46:31 | |
of grape, the flavour of mead is all down to the honey that is used. | 0:46:31 | 0:46:35 | |
And for Richard Liddell, his bees help make a mean mead. | 0:46:37 | 0:46:41 | |
Just get my gloves on. | 0:46:43 | 0:46:44 | |
What effect does smoking have on the bees then, Richard? | 0:46:44 | 0:46:48 | |
It's kidding the bees there is a forest fire on the way. | 0:46:48 | 0:46:51 | |
So really what they want to do is fill their stomachs with honey, | 0:46:51 | 0:46:56 | |
so that they can decamp and make another hive | 0:46:56 | 0:47:00 | |
somewhere far away where the fire isn't. | 0:47:00 | 0:47:04 | |
And of course the beauty of that is that if you have a bee that has | 0:47:04 | 0:47:08 | |
-a full stomach with honey, it's not going to sting you. -Right. | 0:47:08 | 0:47:12 | |
So a little gentle smoke on the top there. | 0:47:12 | 0:47:15 | |
Would the monks down at Tintern | 0:47:15 | 0:47:16 | |
have used the same technique of smoking to get their honey? | 0:47:16 | 0:47:20 | |
I'm not absolutely sure, but one thing is certain, | 0:47:20 | 0:47:22 | |
they did used to have to destroy some of the hives | 0:47:22 | 0:47:26 | |
in order to recover the honey from the bees. | 0:47:26 | 0:47:28 | |
Of course, don't forget, in history, | 0:47:28 | 0:47:31 | |
honey wasn't the food of the ordinary person. | 0:47:31 | 0:47:34 | |
It was the food of kings, lords and ladies. | 0:47:34 | 0:47:36 | |
What about mead, was that the same? | 0:47:36 | 0:47:38 | |
Mead was the same, yes, and historically, farms used to have | 0:47:38 | 0:47:42 | |
to give barrels of mead to the lord of the manor as their due tithes. | 0:47:42 | 0:47:47 | |
-Look at that beautiful texture of that. -Wonderful. | 0:47:49 | 0:47:51 | |
Fantastic, God's wonderful nectar. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:53 | |
The honey is added to white wine | 0:47:56 | 0:47:58 | |
and spiced with ginger, cinnamon and cloves. | 0:47:58 | 0:48:01 | |
Leave to ferment for a couple of months, | 0:48:01 | 0:48:03 | |
and you've got a mead any monk would be proud of. | 0:48:03 | 0:48:07 | |
Right, Judith, I'd very much like to taste this Welsh spicy mead of yours. | 0:48:07 | 0:48:14 | |
-Yes. -Grown with your grapes and using your honey, Richard. | 0:48:14 | 0:48:17 | |
Absolutely, there's no food miles here. | 0:48:17 | 0:48:19 | |
Everything gathered within a few yards of this table. | 0:48:19 | 0:48:22 | |
-Absolutely right. -And now for the tasting. | 0:48:22 | 0:48:26 | |
Mmm, it is very nice. But it's not quite what I expected. | 0:48:28 | 0:48:32 | |
It's not as sweet as I thought it would be. | 0:48:32 | 0:48:35 | |
This is because it's a wine mead, wine-based. | 0:48:35 | 0:48:37 | |
But you can't taste the wine as such, you get the spices | 0:48:37 | 0:48:41 | |
-and the honey at the end. -Yes, you do. -I'm glad you said honey. | 0:48:41 | 0:48:44 | |
-And this was the monks' medicine, was it? -Oh, absolutely. -Nice medicine! | 0:48:44 | 0:48:48 | |
I'll have a drop more of it. | 0:48:48 | 0:48:50 | |
In the meantime, I'm going to hand you over to the BBC weather studio | 0:48:50 | 0:48:53 | |
for the Countryfile weather forecast for the week ahead. | 0:48:53 | 0:48:56 | |
Cheers. | 0:48:56 | 0:48:57 | |
. | 0:50:50 | 0:50:57 | |
The majestic River Wye has carved out the splendour of the valley | 0:51:07 | 0:51:11 | |
that shares its name. | 0:51:11 | 0:51:12 | |
But while many come to appreciate the tranquillity | 0:51:12 | 0:51:16 | |
this place has to offer, I'm enjoying anything but. | 0:51:16 | 0:51:20 | |
Earlier, I conquered a tricky abseil | 0:51:20 | 0:51:22 | |
before enduring a testing training climb, | 0:51:22 | 0:51:25 | |
all in preparation for my next challenge. | 0:51:25 | 0:51:29 | |
And now I'm at the foot of the Pinnacle. | 0:51:30 | 0:51:33 | |
80 feet of sheer hell. | 0:51:34 | 0:51:37 | |
350 million unforgiving years have shaped this beast. | 0:51:37 | 0:51:43 | |
Stacks like this are normally only found at sea. | 0:51:43 | 0:51:47 | |
And how I wish this one was too. | 0:51:48 | 0:51:51 | |
But it's not. It's here. | 0:51:51 | 0:51:53 | |
Surrounded by jagged rocks. | 0:51:53 | 0:51:56 | |
And it's what I've got to conquer if I'm to make the Tyrolean traverse. | 0:51:56 | 0:52:01 | |
And here is that traverse. | 0:52:03 | 0:52:06 | |
If I make it up to the top, that's how I'll get off. | 0:52:06 | 0:52:09 | |
Travelling high above the valley floor, on the thinnest of ropes. | 0:52:09 | 0:52:14 | |
Fewer than one percent of climbers have ever done one. | 0:52:14 | 0:52:18 | |
Sven may be an experienced hand, but I'm still mighty nervous. | 0:52:18 | 0:52:22 | |
Right, then. | 0:52:22 | 0:52:24 | |
Oh, I've actually got to do this now. | 0:52:25 | 0:52:28 | |
Oh, man! | 0:52:28 | 0:52:30 | |
LABOURED BREATHING | 0:52:35 | 0:52:38 | |
I've only just started. It makes me want to cry. | 0:52:38 | 0:52:41 | |
That's it, Ellie, that's it. | 0:52:43 | 0:52:45 | |
Come on, come on. | 0:52:52 | 0:52:53 | |
Yes, yes, yes. | 0:52:53 | 0:52:55 | |
OK, I need to take a second. | 0:52:56 | 0:52:58 | |
-No worries. -Just to breathe. | 0:52:58 | 0:53:00 | |
I'm making schoolboy errors, using my arms. It's all about the legs. | 0:53:00 | 0:53:04 | |
Don't look down. | 0:53:04 | 0:53:05 | |
No, I can't do this. | 0:53:11 | 0:53:12 | |
OK. | 0:53:14 | 0:53:16 | |
Robin, you can see. Have I got a good hold? | 0:53:21 | 0:53:24 | |
Yeah, it's pretty good. | 0:53:24 | 0:53:25 | |
I can't bear this. Come on, come on. Yes, yes, yes. | 0:53:25 | 0:53:30 | |
That's it. There's nothing else to hold onto. | 0:53:37 | 0:53:40 | |
Yes, I'm OK here. | 0:53:47 | 0:53:49 | |
I'm not even looking, I'm just going to chat to the rock. | 0:53:53 | 0:53:56 | |
Me and the limestone. | 0:53:56 | 0:53:58 | |
It's nice lichen. | 0:53:59 | 0:54:01 | |
Chewing the grain, this is just where I want to be(!) | 0:54:01 | 0:54:04 | |
Having a great time. | 0:54:04 | 0:54:06 | |
Nice climbing, Ellie. | 0:54:07 | 0:54:09 | |
OK, nearly at the top. | 0:54:18 | 0:54:20 | |
-Nearly at the top. -Nice one. | 0:54:20 | 0:54:22 | |
Yes, yes, yes. | 0:54:25 | 0:54:27 | |
Ah, I'm nearly there, nearly there. | 0:54:27 | 0:54:30 | |
Go on, Ellie. | 0:54:30 | 0:54:32 | |
Right, don't mess, I've still got to get up there. Lovely big rocks. | 0:54:32 | 0:54:36 | |
Lovely big steps. | 0:54:36 | 0:54:38 | |
Sven, I'm here! | 0:54:41 | 0:54:43 | |
Oh, wow! | 0:54:48 | 0:54:49 | |
That's amazing. I can barely speak, I'm so nervous. Oh, it's incredible. | 0:54:51 | 0:54:57 | |
That's awesome. | 0:54:58 | 0:54:59 | |
I just wish there was a lift down. | 0:55:02 | 0:55:04 | |
Having conquered the Pinnacle, I'm feeling very relieved. | 0:55:08 | 0:55:12 | |
But I can't tell you how glad I'll be to get off. | 0:55:12 | 0:55:15 | |
Oh, I'm looking right down the line | 0:55:15 | 0:55:18 | |
at this enormous disappearing ground beneath me. | 0:55:18 | 0:55:21 | |
-What have I got to do? -Whenever you are ready, | 0:55:21 | 0:55:24 | |
I'm just going to ask you to shuffle on down, sit down here. | 0:55:24 | 0:55:28 | |
And then step on the blocks down below, | 0:55:28 | 0:55:30 | |
OK, and we'll take it from there. | 0:55:30 | 0:55:32 | |
OK, so I'm sitting down here. | 0:55:32 | 0:55:34 | |
You're going to sit down where your feet are now. | 0:55:34 | 0:55:37 | |
Man, looking down is a disaster, isn't it? Just don't do it. | 0:55:37 | 0:55:41 | |
-Right, so shuffle, shuffle. -Down to the edge. | 0:55:41 | 0:55:45 | |
-This is crazy. OK. -Lower yourself down. | 0:55:45 | 0:55:48 | |
-Really? -Yes. | 0:55:48 | 0:55:50 | |
All right. | 0:55:50 | 0:55:52 | |
Hang on. OK, I'm lowered, I'm lowered. | 0:55:52 | 0:55:56 | |
Ohh! | 0:55:58 | 0:55:59 | |
Oh, yes! | 0:55:59 | 0:56:01 | |
Look at the view. I've got time to enjoy it. | 0:56:03 | 0:56:07 | |
Hey, it's incredible! | 0:56:09 | 0:56:11 | |
The whole of Symonds Yat is buzzing on a summer's day. | 0:56:13 | 0:56:17 | |
Right, at some point, I need to turn round. Is this the point now? | 0:56:17 | 0:56:20 | |
Spin myself round. Now the work begins. | 0:56:22 | 0:56:26 | |
Come on. I've got a tree to get to. | 0:56:27 | 0:56:30 | |
Oh, work those biceps. | 0:56:32 | 0:56:34 | |
Let's get up off that edge. My word! | 0:56:37 | 0:56:39 | |
Oh, my goodness, I can't believe I just did that! | 0:56:39 | 0:56:42 | |
Got it. | 0:56:44 | 0:56:45 | |
I'm alive. LAUGHS | 0:56:46 | 0:56:49 | |
That was amazing. I'm exhausted...but alive. | 0:56:49 | 0:56:53 | |
Well, that is definitely it for this week. | 0:56:53 | 0:56:57 | |
Next week, John is in Northumberland on the trail | 0:56:57 | 0:56:59 | |
of a creature that is rarely seen | 0:56:59 | 0:57:01 | |
and he joins the team of people | 0:57:01 | 0:57:03 | |
who have discovered an amazing Bronze Age burial. | 0:57:03 | 0:57:07 | |
I'll still be having a lie-down by then. See you soon. | 0:57:07 | 0:57:11 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:57:24 | 0:57:28 |