Lake Belcher Hut Maintenance
Saturday 22 Jan 2011
We wanted fine weather to allow paint to dry so that a second coat could be done, and that is just the sort of day we got; in fact it was one of those really delightful days of very low wind, clear sky, yet not overly hot and minimal pesky insects.
Funds had been provided by Wildcare for paint for the external walls of the Lake Belcher hut and as it probably had not been painted since construction some 40 years ago this was soaked up rapidly. The entire hut was given one coat and the most exposed north-western facing side two coats. The timbers on this side were very badly disintegrating and the paint can only be regarded as delaying the inevitable complete decay.
Lots of rubbish brought out; bottles, bloated cans of old food and paper and other rubbish. Some open food had been left partly eaten and it and the maggots had to be buried; in all a pretty poor state that reflects badly on the visitors to the hut. On our previous survey visit in October 2008 we also carried out rubbish. Other huts in the park do not seem to be treated as badly and they get a lot more visitors, which seems to suggest that it is being caused by a few uncaring overnight users, including people who just go there for fishing.
It had been anticipated that we would not be back at the cars until later than usual, so the group funded a BBQ at the picnic ground on the way home.
Entrance to hut almost finished
Coating the badly weathered north west side.
We wanted fine weather to allow paint to dry so that a second coat could be done, and that is just the sort of day we got; in fact it was one of those really delightful days of very low wind, clear sky, yet not overly hot and minimal pesky insects.
Funds had been provided by Wildcare for paint for the external walls of the Lake Belcher hut and as it probably had not been painted since construction some 40 years ago this was soaked up rapidly. The entire hut was given one coat and the most exposed north-western facing side two coats. The timbers on this side were very badly disintegrating and the paint can only be regarded as delaying the inevitable complete decay.
Lots of rubbish brought out; bottles, bloated cans of old food and paper and other rubbish. Some open food had been left partly eaten and it and the maggots had to be buried; in all a pretty poor state that reflects badly on the visitors to the hut. On our previous survey visit in October 2008 we also carried out rubbish. Other huts in the park do not seem to be treated as badly and they get a lot more visitors, which seems to suggest that it is being caused by a few uncaring overnight users, including people who just go there for fishing.
It had been anticipated that we would not be back at the cars until later than usual, so the group funded a BBQ at the picnic ground on the way home.
Entrance to hut almost finished
Coating the badly weathered north west side.
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