Dodging the Rain on the PVT and Peregrine Falcon spotting!

Having seen various weather forecasts for today we nearly cancelled the days biking trips for Year 8. The forecast predicted Heavy showers all day and following a soaking yesterday the students weren't keen for another.

We did however in the end take our chances and this turned out to be the right call. A small shower early on in the day followed by sunny intervals.

Today's session was pretty much a mirror image of yesterday apart from a different change over point with the climbing who opted to go indoors. This meant the climbing group were bused to Goodameavy for the exchange.

Both groups enjoyed the mix of easy tarmac on the Plym Valley Trail (PVT) and off road across the moors near Clearbrook.

With the afternoon session blessing us with a little more sun we were able to stop for 20 minutes at the Peregrine Falcon Project for a really good look through the National Trust telescopes at the new chicks and the juvenile male from last years hatchlings. The last image in this post was taken of this young male with my camera through the lens of telescope.

Overall a good day and a good decision to head out regardless of the forecast.  

A soggy day on the Plym Valley Trail

Today I have been out with 2 groups of Year 8 students from Plymouth College. We parked at the National Trust car park at the southern end of Plymbridge Woods.  Group 1 cycled along the Plym Valley Trail all the way to Clearbrook before taking on a short loop of open moorland. The last section of the ride contoured along the access track to Dewerstone Cottage where we met group 2 following their climbing session.

After a swift stop for lunch I handed Group 1 over to Gavin for some climbing and took group 2 from him to cycle the mornings route in reverse. 

With both groups we stopped at the Plym Valley Peregrine Falcon Project where the National Trust staff gave a short talk on the birds and the project before letting them see the three 5 week old chicks and the adult male through the telescopes.

Both groups had a good time despite the very heavy showers (pictures taken during the sunny spells). Both the cycling and climbing groups had very soggy days.