Simon Evans of the Wye and Usk Foundation
Ramblings
BBC
4.5 • 768 Ratings
🗓️ 18 October 2012
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Clare Balding walks with Simon Evans and his family along a tributary of the Usk, in the shadow of the Sugar Loaf. Simon is a passionate fisherman and river conservationist who works for the Wye and Usk Foundation.
Simon's wife Hazel and their two children - Freya and Arlo - also joined in... Freya contributing musical accompaniment (Peter Rabbit had a fly upon his nose...) and Arlo narrowly avoiding tree-branches from his elevated position in Simon's backpack. A highlight was discovering otter spraint under a bridge - concrete evidence of recent otter activity. It's lilac-scented although perhaps not (as Clare pointed out) enough to warrant taking it home and putting it in her chest of drawers...
An extraordinary 1000 year old sweet chestnut tree loomed into view towards the end of the walk... one of the boughs as big as a sizable tree. Clare's attempts to create a human circle ended in tears.. not her's... rather Freya's nose got rather too close to the trunk.
We started at the Red Lion pub in Llanbedr, the walk took us along a tributary of the River Usk...(with a small trout leaping upstream) to our end point at The Bell in the village of Glangrwyney
Producer: Karen Gregor.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | 11 climbers appeared to have died on the world's second highest mountain K2. |
| 0:06.4 | It was one of the deadliest days in mountaineering history. |
| 0:09.9 | Rock falls, avalanches. |
| 0:11.6 | Huge pieces of ice. |
| 0:12.9 | All are big enough to kill you. |
| 0:14.3 | He just flew out into Devoid, and he was gone. |
| 0:17.3 | How did it all go so wrong? |
| 0:19.2 | And is it really worth risking death to feel alive? Why would somebody |
| 0:23.5 | pay to go to a place called the death zone on vacation? Extreme, peak danger with me, Natalia |
| 0:30.3 | Melman Petrazella. Listen to the full series now first on BBC Sounds. This is a download from the BBC. |
| 0:37.9 | It's ramblings on Radio 4 with me, Claire Boulding. |
| 0:43.5 | Fred, do you want to hold my hand? Are you okay? |
| 0:46.6 | Are you alright? |
| 0:48.3 | You can do? Oh, good gal. |
| 0:49.8 | There we go. |
| 0:51.9 | In this series of ramblings, we have been discovering wildlife. |
| 0:55.6 | We've been walking for wildlife, as it were. |
| 0:57.9 | And today we're in search of otters, which might be a little difficult to find, |
| 1:03.7 | but we're going to have fun in the attempt. |
| 1:06.8 | And I have with me a fishing nut, self-confessed fishing nut, Simon Evans, his wife Hazel, and their two children, Freya and Arlo, and their dog Daisy. |
| 1:18.8 | Freya, how old are you? |
| 1:20.7 | Four years old. And how often do you come walking? |
... |
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