Jo Blogs: Popty Ping

So I said I would try do a post about working at the Centre of Alternative Technologies. It's taken me a while cos there's so much to write and really I should be writing essays! But anyway hope you enjoy the pics and all, it was a really great week.

By the way, the place was in Wales and during the week we discovered that microwave in Welsh is "Popty Ping" - hence the title!

This is a long post so have a beautiful, beautiful song (and a lovely ginger wizard) to keep you company!

I hadn't heard of CAT before when I started searching for useful things to do over the summer holidays, but once I started talking about them it seemed like a lot of people had. The place started up in the 60s I think, as a bit of a hippy colony which aimed to be an example in self-sustainability in terms of food, energy, etc.

Now it's much larger and more education focused, and although continues to grow food and provide renewable energy, it isn't self-sustaining. I think the move to focus on being an educational 'tourist' centre was a good one though - it will certainly mean a bigger impact and influence.

Anyway if you're interested the website is here.

So anyways, got the train up to Wales which took a couple of hours but I had plenty of reading material to keep me occupied! Got to Machynlleth (Ma-hunth-lith I think you pronounce it!!) which is the nearest town and had about an hour to wait for the bus to the centre so wandered around and found a cafe for lunch (which turned out to be run by CAT I found out later!). Felt like an intrepid explorer entering the little cafe in the middle of Wales on my own with all my luggage and backpack, lol.

Found the bus stop and asked the driver to tell me where to get off. Had a 5 min walk from there, then finally saw the centre! Was welcomed and ushered into this - a water powered clifftop railway to take visitors up the steep slope!

Then taken to the 'Tea Chest'. This is like the staff room where hot drinks are available and where lunch is served everyday. All the food was vegetarian (as it's more env friendly - meat requires a lot of land/energy/water to produce) but really good. There was a nice casual tree in the middle of the room.

About 10 minutes after I entered a girl with green dreadlocks came up and asked if I'd like to go foraging for mushrooms with her. I declined (interesting as that situation would have been, I'd been told to wait for someone).

Above the Tea Chest were the short-term volunteer (STV) rooms where I stayed with 3 other STVs, Bethan, Amy and Susie - all really nice girls I enjoyed spending the week with. It wasn't luxurious but it was warm and all that we needed!

One night we all walked about half an hour into the nearest village to go to the 'folk night' at the local pub. We played a bit of darts and befriended an old man wearing a fluorescent jacket, lumberjack shirt, unfastened jeans and not many teeth. He showed us how to play darts then tried to score for us. Sadly he could not see very well and shouted out very consistent wrong scores which we subtly ignored.

Walking back was ridiculously scary - pitch black deserted country roads with no sight of civilisation. We almost died.

(Me, Susie, Amy and Bethan)

The long term volunteers also started the same week, so it was nice to chat to them and not be the only newbies (there's tons of permanent staff - all v.friendly though).

We were given different tasks during the week. Susie worked in the office, but for the rest of us it was mostly just get-your-hands-dirty practical stuff to help run the place. There was loads of info about to read in our free time and the staff were really knowledgeable though so still learnt a lot.

The work was SO laid back, we had 2 1/2hr coffee breaks plus an hour for lunch, and if we wanted more time to explore it was given!

One of our tasks was helping in the organic garden which supplies food for the restaurant and staff canteen. A really nice ex-long term volunteer called Katie showed us what to do.

Another of the days we worked in the 'Eco-Cabins' which are used for school trips etc. They are off-grid and had displays to show how much energy they were using - the aim was to keep below a certain amount. People staying also had to collect their own water and wood (which they could bring up using this ladder contraption). The whole aim is to make people consider their energy use and not have a throwaway approach to it.

We helped a guy called Rennie ("like the indigestion tablets") fix up and paint the cabins. He had a sound system which blared out classic rock. The cabins were just above the gardens so this was also the soundtrack when we were working down there!

We also did some work in the forest, clearing invasive species like Rhododendron (let loose with saws and other good anger management tools), and putting together bundles of bracken to line the paths to prevent erosion.

While in the woods we saw this bird hide that some architecture students had made - amazing!

Here are some general views of the place - I think it's really pretty.

It's even more amazing to know that the site used to be an old quarry - you can still see parts of it, like in the photo below

Here's a photo of what the place used to look like.

Some of the technologies around included a woodchip CHP (Combined Heat and Power) generator

Roger the technician's alternative to a van!

Solar panels with clear backgrounds to let natural light and heat in

Wind Turbines - and scale models for educational purposes!

Hobbit homes!!

And a 'Rocket Composter'!

One of the newest editions to the site is this new eco building, built to house students on the courses they run. It used a lot of new technologies, like compressed earth walls.

In our spare time there was plenty to do. One night we hiked up to the reservoir and had a very brief dip in it! Someone had built a little hut/sauna next to it so heated that up and ran in from the cold dark lake!

Susie also had a grand plan to make a bicycle-powered smoothie maker, with the help of Roger the mechanic. Here's the progress they made during the week!