Rhodie Bash

 We set off at 10am on a surprisingly sunny day, heading towards our day of Rhodie Bashing, not completely sure what to expect. We met up with Jack who showed us the area of woodland we were to work on, clearing away a non-native invasive species of plant, the rhododendron. With saws and loppers in hand we set off to destroy every last plant we got our hands on.

The Arran Ranger; Jack, started burning the Rhodies and created a fire in the area, which we embraced a couple hours in to the bashing when we roasted marshmallows; some people even made smores with ginger biscuits and digestives.

Despite all of our efforts, the pesky midgies and wasps and any other little creatures hiding in the moss set out to thwart our tough labour. Despite this, we did not stop our strenuous task in hand and we carried on to clear large amounts of clever Rhodies which had covered most of the ground in which we were working on.

After 6 hours, we called it a day when the mud had gotten into our shoes, all up our legs, and just genually everywhere. Yet that didn't stop us from quickly posing proudly with the Rhodie pile still waiting to be burned.

To end our day Jack surprised us with chocolate bunnies to thank us for our hard work, which didn't last long. Overall, it brought great pleasure as well as awareness regarding the ecosystem on Arran.