Having looked out for and missed, the the boundary of the Fleet Nature Reserve - or what ever it's called, we were hauled over by THE WARDEN.
He offered
- NO IDENTIFICATION!
- NO EXPLANATION AS TO WHY WE SHOULD LEAVE
- A DIRECTIVE TO REMOVE OURSELVES FROM THE AREA
- AN ADMISSION THAT WE WERE BEING ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY
- AN INSISTENCE THAT WE HAD TRANSGRESSED THE ROW OF WARNING SIGNS ON LAND AND WATER - that may have been damaged over last winter (5 months ago), but, he insisted, "were there yesterday".
- WE HAD NO RIGHT OF INGRESS OR EGRESS AT ANY POINT ON THE FLEET.
Warning posts with signs on them? We had seen none. He insisted that they were there.
How the hell could we not see them - WE WERE LOOKING OUT FOR THEM!! We said we'd take a look on our return and let him know. HE GAVE US THE WRONG WEB ADDRESS!!!!! How professional of him - perhaps he's a volunteer, or was hoping we'd go away: for good?
Here then, are the posts we found between the first high water beach on the Chesil side,where we met the warden and the lifeboat house also on the Chesil side. They are all within a VERY EASY ROW of the beach he was on. He could have wandered down with us to take a look. He didn't bother.
Where are these signs that were there YESTERDAY?
Here is the only sign that could be seen from the Chesil ( interesting/inaccessible) side of the Fleet. It is weathered to a point of destruction. There is nothing to read here. Probably hasn't been FOR YEARS. YESTERDAY MY ARSE!
MeWally is looking at the continuation of these posts with information on them. Can't see them? No, and that's the problem. The distant white specks are swans. That's how we knew we were near the reserved area. The posts are there, but without an out board motor, why would anyone go to the other side of the Fleet to see why they're there. We didn't go to all that trouble for all the other posts in the FLeet!
Oh look, it's another post!
And here's another, along with a beach full of detritus. A fence is NO DEFENCE. One organisations fence is another tourists row of rubbish.
Good garden peas, could this be more posts? So many posts, so little time!
Looking landward, oh yeh, that'll be a post then. Surprise!
Hard to see, I know, but this one has a bird on it; is that legal, or will it topple your delicate eco system. when is an intruder not an intruder?
Here ends the post roll.
What of the signage available to us thick tourists?
No access/egress info/agreement here.
The detail implies that unmotorised craft can launch. We, because we're long term paddlers know about access; it's ground into us, so we stayed within the law - strictly. We stepped from East Fleet land into our floating boats. In my book that makes it legal - or at least, too close to call in legal terms.
I would suggest that you contact the organisations above if you have any concerns with the quality of the information imparted to your water sporting tourists.
A final few pointers:
If you can't afford to maintain your boundary markers, I suggest you find a way of raising funds.
Why not, at decent high tides, around springs, take people out in OC's and educate them. They'd pay good money for the privilege. Your precious reserve would be appreciated, protected, and funded. You never know, you may even earn bequests, the holy grail of all charitable trusts. You would also provide work for local people. I know, it sounds exhausting. There are people out there who would jump at the chance to make this paradigm shift. Use them.
Or you could stay as you are, insular, alienated, poor in every sense, isolated within your community and feeding duff information to the one or two little boats that drift onto your 'pond' (I would say 'pill') during a summer.
Rules aren't made to be broken, they're made to make us think WHY?
