Mites and Tites

CHEDDAR GORGE it seems is not only suffering from a surfeit of tourists but too many trees and shrubs as well. Of course, cutting these down raises some nice points of conservation ethics. Some local people are reported to have said. .

"They are interfering with nature and many of us are split about trying to put the clock back in the gorge. I think it's a foolish plan to take away the shrubs and plants. In effect, they are trying to make time stand still."

On the other side of the argument are the National Trust and the Nature Conservancy Council who state.

"There is a danger that Britain's largest limestone gorge could lose its unique characteristics and become just another ordinary wooded valley." and, "People come to the Cheddar Gorge because of its extraordinary rocky landscape. If that disappears why should they come? This scheme will benefit everyone by returning the gorge to how it looked before it was grazed."

And I just thought people only went for the fish and chips and ice cream.

PROMISES, PROMISES : "And there will be as much as you can drink until the beer runs out." Overheard in the back of a minibus.

A BRONZE AGE AXE was found recently near the The Angel public house in Pont Nedd Fechan. It was located about lm underground using a metal detector. It is a small, socketed axe head with a loop underneath it for binding it to a wooden haft. On the cheeks are three ribs which are a distinctive South Wales pattern and the quality of the casting has, apparently, got the archaeoligists at Cardiff Museum quite excited. It has now been dated as belonging to the late Bronze Age, making it about 3,500 years old.

DRAUGHTS?! "It almost sucked Chris's ears off!" - overheard whilst digging down Ogof Hebog 2.

IF YOU EVER GO ACROSS THE SEA TO IRELAND it might be worth plying those who went at Easter with lots of Guiness first. Two potential new sites were identified but left more or less unexplored due to lack of time.

YOU WASTED YOUR MONEY if you bought a copy of the London Evening Standard recently because of its headline "London, Pothole Capital of the World." The article under it had nothing at all to do with REAL potholes, only with indentations in the road surfaces.

NOTHING TO DO WITH CAVING but I thought you might enjoy this snippet from the Sunday Times of 1st May:-

"Another view held that the dinosaurs, which could weigh up to 160 tons, became incapable of intercourse. But this is ridiculed by Beverly Halstead of Reading University, who last year gave a public demonstration of tyranosaurus sex with his scientific assistant, Helen Haste."