Gate with a View: Francis’ Story
In the heart of our uplands, our volunteers play a crucial role protecting and maintaining access routes no matter the weather – in snow, rain, sleet and sunshine.
At 83 years old, Francis has been volunteering with Bannau Brycheiniog’s Upland Path Repair Scheme since 2015. What began as a way to care for the trails has become much more. A source of learning, connection and lasting friendships, Francis’ partner Caroline now also volunteers with the scheme. Together, they’ve given their time and energy to help look after the upland footpaths that allow many of us to enjoy this beautiful landscape.
So, what does volunteering mean to Francis? For him, it’s the perfect combination of:
- both enabling as much safe walking and cycling in our stunning landscape as possible, and
- protecting that beauty from destructive use, like erosion, and
- just being out in all that beauty, helping to keep ourselves fit and healthy, and
- forming good friendships as we walk and do hard work together.
“As now an 83 year old, I’m enormously grateful that I still have sufficient health and energy to offer this volunteer work from time to time. A local friend wondered aloud recently why myself and my partner Caroline were still doing this work in our 80’s, to which a response might be “We can still garden, and we can still walk the hills – so why not combine the two? Volunteering in the hills makes a difference for good for my sense of wellbeing. There is sometimes a real improvement from when we drive out, perhaps quite early, to volunteer, when my body is saying “Wouldn’t it be nicer to sit at home and read the paper?”, to when we have climbed up to the wide vista of the Beacons where I feel a strong and good affinity with the nature around us.”
For Francis and Caroline, volunteering isn’t just about looking after paths. It’s about looking after themselves, each other, and a landscape they clearly love. From all of us here in Bannau Brycheiniog we’d like to say a huge thank you to Francis, Caroline and all our volunteers for their continued support – diolch yn fawr!