“Great place to live. Great place to visit. One of England’s undiscovered jewels.”Matt Swindlehurst about Exmoor. We couldn’t have put it better ourselves!
Road Trip
Category: Activities
A visit to Exmoor
“Nearly cancelled w/e in @ExmoorNP @Exmoor4all cos of rain, so glad we went. Showers, rainbows & Snowdrop Valley – wow!”
Tweeted by Janette Noyes @Ginjan Sunday afternoon
Janette Noyes, Snowdrop Valley
Date for the Diary: Wimbleball Lake Astro Camp
From Saturday 1st until Saturday 8th March 2014 South West Lakes Trust would like to invite you to their Astro Camp at Wimbleball Lake as part of National Astronomy Week.
Exmoor National Park is designated as the International Dark Sky Reserve, the first place in Europe to achieve this prestigious award and only the second in the World. Wimbleball Lake was nominated as the first Dark Skies Discovery Site on Exmoor in November 2011.
The week long camp will incorporate a variety of exciting activities for all the family to enjoy including, talks and presentations, workshops, Planetarium, telescopes, stargazing opportunities, plus BBQ’s on Sat 1st, Friday 7th and Sat 8th March. People can attend for a couple of hours, or for the whole week, depending on their availability. Camping / caravanning is also available on our AA 3* rated campsite to maximize the stargazing opportunities. We also have 2 camping pods that are available to hire.
Alex Forster, South West Lakes Trust Exmoor Area Manager said, ‘South West Lakes Trust are really excited to be hosting this Astro Camp as part of National Astronomy Week. Stargazing at Wimbleball is phenomenal as there is so little light pollution, however there will be a wide variety of indoor activities each evening just in case it is cloudy!’
There are many positions at Wimbleball Lake where individual or group activities can take place with level hard surfaced areas overlooking the scenic lakeside with clear big sky views. For more information please call 01398 371116 or email aforster@swlakestrust.org.uk
South West Lakes Trust is the region’s largest combined environmental and recreational charity. Its 50 inland water sites, encompassing 5,000 hectares of land and water spread across Devon, Cornwall and West Somerset, attract in the region of 2m visits annually. It is listed as being in the top 3,000 of the country’s 150,000 charities. 3,112 days of assistance by volunteers were freely given in 2011, in return training was offered in relevant skills (86 days in 2011). SWLT involved over 90,000 people in water sports activities in 2011, including 24,400 children. It manages large tracts of moorland and significant areas of woodland, with Forest Stewardship Council accreditation.
Experience Exmoor Safaris: a journey of discovery
Sit back, relax and enjoy the views and the wildlife while you embark on an Exmoor safari with Experience Exmoor
The Calvert Trust helps armed forces families
The Calvert Trust’s three centres in Exmoor, the Lake District and Kielder are gearing up to help armed forces families from across the UK, following George Osborne’s announcement yesterday that they are one of the twenty four projects to receive funding from the third tranche of the MOD’s Armed Forces Covenant (LIBOR) Fund.
Over the next two years the three Calvert Trust centres will assist 240 serving, reserve and veteran armed forces families with a disabled service person, partner or a child in the family.
Tony Potter, CEO of Calvert Trust Exmoor and LIBOR project leader for The Calvert Trust; “we feel privileged that our project ‘Uniting Service families with disabilities’ has been selected by the MOD. The Calvert Trust already has a proven track record cooperating with many Armed Forces Charities; we are relishing the opportunity to help and support as many families as we can through our programme of adventurous activity breaks at our 3 Centres’.
One of the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant is to overcome disadvantage faced by members of the armed forces, especially those injured in service. The Calvert Trust has over 40 years’ experience in helping members of the disabled community to overcome obstacles and discover “it’s what you can do that counts”.
If you are a serving, reserve or veteran armed forces family and want to find out more about accessing this support please contact one of the three centres.
Exmoor; 01598 763221, Kielder; 01434 250232 or Lake District: 01768 772255.
The Chancellor’s announcement can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/news/libor-fines-fund-a-further-twenty-four-armed-forces-charities-and-good-causes
The Armed Forces Covenant sets out the relationship between the nation, the state and the armed forces. It recognises that the whole nation has a moral obligation to members of the armed forces and their families and it establishes how they should expect to be treated.
The Armed Forces Covenant (LIBOR) fund is £35 million of funding, taken from fines levied on banks for attempting to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). The Government allocated this money to the Covenant Reference Group to support the Armed Forces Covenant. The remaining funds will be allocated over the next two years.
The intention of the Libor Fund is to support the two key principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, which are that the Armed Forces Community should not face disadvantage in the provision of public and commercial services, and that special consideration is appropriate in some cases, especially for those who have given most such as the injured and the bereaved.
The Calvert Trust comprises three independent, not-for-profit, charities that each share the same Vision and Mission (which can be found on their website here: http://www.calvert-trust.org.uk/about-us/vision). The three centres are Calvert Trust Kielder, Lake District Calvert Trust and Calvert Trust Exmoor.
The Calvert Trust has 40 years’ experience in providing adventurous breaks to the disabled community. We pioneered access to challenging outdoor activities and our staff advise local authorities and sports governing bodies on access issues. Since 1974 we have helped over 200,000 people with disabilities to become more active and adventurous.
For more information about The Calvert Trust please contact Rob Lott, Head of Communications on rob@calvert-trust.org.uk or 01598 763221
Web: www.calvert-trust.org.uk/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CTExmoor, www.facebook.com/calverttrustkielder, www.facebook.com/pages/Calvert-Trust-Lakes/249894035066697
Twitter: @CalvertExmoor, @Calvert_Kielder, @CalvertLakes
YouTube: www.youtube.com/CalvertTrustExmoorUK
Letter from Exmoor: …….. can you hear the silence? ……………
By Gary Scarlett. First published on his Blog “Chunky Mamil” on 5 December 2013
I’ve been neglecting the blog a bit lately and riding my mtb so I thought I’d put both of those straight today. I have been riding though and meeting interesting people so although the keys have been idle I haven’t. With my rest days falling during the week and a last minute window in my good friend Jennifer’s schedule, I grabbed the opportunity to visit her and ride some of that flat stuff last Wednesday. Nice riding around the levels a real haven for birds, swans, herons, starlings the odd magpie and even a partridge but no pear tree 🙂 We rode some of those long straight roads they like around there but thankfully with little wind, stopped for coffee, chatted and even found a hill to ride up on the way back.Yesterday started a bit damp but I had to get out so did a quick loop on the road bike, it wasn’t too bad and was glad I got out. Still lots of colour about but as a friend of mine commented about this photo, winters coming over the hill 🙂
In the afternoon I was invited to lunch by the lovely Elke who promotes all things good on Exmoor through her Exmoor4all website. She had organised a Christmas lunch for some Exmoor business folk and kindly invited me along too as I always try to show how wonderful it is around here through the blog. The location was The Culbone, a pleasure to get to as it means driving up and along Porlock hill with great views to enjoy on the way. The food was excellent and so was the company, nice to meet people I sort of knew through twitter and some new people too.
So to today, very windy so definite mtb day, getting blown across the road on the road bike didn’t appeal at all. The usual slog up to Hopcott but sheltered and the trails were dry after this cold snap and rapid progress to the top of Grabbist hill with the wind behind me. Although it was dry the tracks are covered in leaves and hide roots, rocks and toxic dog leftovers, luckily just the odd stone whacked me in the shin today.
I went for a loop around the Crown estate woodland on the other side of Dunster, hard going in the wind on the exposed climb up and around Black Hill to the trig point. The descent was very quick but a bit boring on the fireroads but once nearer Dunster I rode some more interesting tracks before heading back up Grabbist Hill.
After negotiating the ascent of Grabbist I headed back up the ridge and down some of my favourite tracks back towards home, felt good, rode up stuff, not a bad ride at all.
Letter from Exmoor: …some summer days I hide away and wait for rain to come……..
Text and photos by Gary Scarlett who first published this post on his blog “Chunky Mamil” on 17 November 2013
Sundays off are a rare treat for me so I grabbed the opportunity to get up early and hit the hills on the mtb. I didn’t feel like it at first though, tired after going back on shift my and head felt clogged up with stupid thoughts, the first hill of the day felt like hard work even more than usual.I persevered though, the weather was cold, still and grey my kind of weather, the cloud just sits on the hills and you can get lost in the mist. Went down some new tracks and up some tracks I usually go down you get the idea, even though the legs felt like lead I still rode up them.
There’s a little track someone has made out in the forest so I headed down that towards home. So quiet and peaceful in the trees not a sound even the squirrels must have been having a lie in. It was so quiet I wish I could capture the moment or portray it better, it was a good place to be……..
Canadian Canoeing on the River Barle
We think that this really looks like a lot of fun. If it’s something you would like to try out, then get in touch with Exmoor Adventures (special discounts for Exmoor Club members available)
The only way is up???
Photo by http://www.twitchen.co.uk
Beast and Stagger
For more photos of last weekend’s events, The Exmoor Beast and Exmoor Stagger, pop over to www.robbarkerimages.com/events
Exmoor 4 all 