Mountain Boarding

Yesterday morning three WILD members followed a bright yellow bus to a secret location north of Cardiff. We were going mountain boarding for Issue 2, and didn't really know what to expect.

On arrival we got padded up and had a quick chat about the board and what we would be doing. It's basically a small snowboard on wheels. There were 5 pros with us, all from the BUCrew. They were welcoming, full of advice and a really good laugh.

To find out what happened next keep an eye on WILD magazine and WILD online.

Wildlife Walk

Our trip was originally postponed due to the snow, but this week WILD finally made it up into the Brecon Beacons to do the national park’s Wildlife Walks.

We met up with the park’s biodiversity project officer Gareth Ellis, whose job is to coordinate an action plan for conserving the park’s rarest wildlife. Gareth took us on a tour of the woods around the small town of Talgarth, which feature in two of the 12 Wildlife Walks detailed in a booklet published by the park. He advised us on the plants and animals to look out for along the way – find out what Gareth had to say in the March issue of WILD, out soon.

WILD returned home along the winding country roads, covered in pink sandstone mud, invigorated by the breezy fresh air and buzzing with enthusiasm for the spectacular scenery and thriving wildlife of the Brecon Beacons National Park.

Green Gym

Last week, one member of the WILD team spent the day with Cardiff's Green Gym, helping to turn a tract of wasteland into a lovely flower meadow.

Green Gyms are run by the BTCV and aim to get people active through outdoor work. Check out this month's edition of WILD for the full article...

This WILD member can now confirm that digging holes in stony ground is every bit as gruelling as a session with the weights. And as the site was on a particularly steep hill, extra calories were burnt by repeatedly traipsing up and down.

But working out in the fresh air and sunshine was heartening for both body and soul, and infinitely preferrably to gasping away on the treadmill while a real keeno whizzes along next to you...

A Wild Week

It’s been a busy time gearing up for the first issue of WILD, with the inside of Welsh trains becoming all too familiar.

Luckily, the outside of Wales is worth the effort. Last Monday WILD went foraging with bush-craft expert Andrew Price in the Gower.

Did you know that you can not only cook the new shoots of a cat tail rush in the same way as asparagus, but that you can dig up the roots to make crisps and if you beat the heads you get a high-energy snack? Thought not.

WILD also went sit-on-top kayaking in Porthcawl on Wednesday the same week. We had great fun, with loads of laughs, a few man-overboard crises and playing on the sand. Lucky it wasn’t a day later though- even we draw the line at kayaking in the snow!