Summer Edition 2018 - North York Moors National Park
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Summer Edition 2018 Denise’s update….
Tammy’s update….
A lot has happened since our last newsletter.
The 9th intake of Explorer Club families finished their
sessions and ‘graduated’ to become Explorer
Volunteers. In June they were presented with their
John Muir Discovery Award certificates.
Steaming ahead on the Rail Trail,
Sunday 10 June.
Our young Explorer Volunteers enjoyed
steaming along on the railway from
Grosmont to Goathland itself, as well as
steaming along the old railway line which
is now a wonderful 3.5 mile walk along a
gravel track back to Grosmont. No mean
feat for young legs! The “grown-ups”
amongst us seemed interested in my
snippets about the industrial and social
history of this original, pioneering railway,
whilst the children were happy finding
different things along the path and
I look forward to seeing them continue volunteering playing Pooh sticks over the various
with the Park. bridges over the river. Mind you, the best
activity by far was making big splashes
12 new families started their Explorer Club journey in by chucking boulders into the shallow
June. In addition to this, there are 10 families on a River Esk from one of the river beaches.
waiting list! We got wet in the sunshine – and we
were happy. Such fun! However, I hadn’t
The first session for our new expected to use up most of my antiseptic
families was held at The Moors wipes cleaning up minor cuts and grazes
National Park Centre. – I discovered the boys were especially
good at tripping over their own feet, or
someone else’s! Happily, a good time
was had by all.
Looking forward to our next guided, 2
mile walk on 24th July when we will
explore the highest point on the
Cleveland Way near Clay Bank.
If any of you have ideas for Explorer
Volunteer sessions, please contact
In the morning, they had a go at Denise on the following email;
stile and bridge building.
explorers@northyorkmoors.org.uk
Tammy’s update continued….
After lunch, they helped to plant some woodrush plants in Crow Wood.
The woodrush plants will help to bind the soil and reduce the amount of silt
that gets washed into the River Esk. In turn, this will improve the quality of
the water as part of the Pearl Mussel Recovery Project.
A big thank you to Clara and Molly who have
been assisting me with the Explorer Club
sessions. It has been great having them join
the Explorer team.
The Explorer Volunteers have now
officially adopted the Welcome Area in
Staithes following two successful
gardening tasks.
The Welcome Area is a really important site as it is the first thing
people see on their arrival in Staithes. This means it needs to be kept
in tip-top condition. So far this year, the Explorer Volunteers have moved and spread mulch, carried
out some weeding and done a litter pick. There is still plenty to do which is why we are returning
again on Saturday 21 July. Over the
next few months, we will continue to
help maintain the area and hopefully put
some edging in on the flowerbeds in
order to
stop the
mulch
getting
washed onto the path.
In May, Denise arranged a very
enjoyable trip to Beyond Boundaries in Commondale. The families who came along helped prepare
milk for the lambs and fed them, went on a tour of the farm, built bird boxes and helped to build a
maze in the wood.
I hope to see some of you out and about in the National Park in the coming months.
Keep exploring! Tammy
NEW! Favourite Walks!
May Beck to Falling Foss
I am sure lots of you have a favourite walk that you like to do in the North
York Moors National Park so I thought it would be nice to share these with
other Explorer families. I will start it off with one of my favourite walks.
Enjoy a lovely wander through a deciduous woodland to Falling Foss waterfall. Rest for a while with
a cuppa and cake in the idyllic Falling Foss Tea Garden. I love this walk because it is relaxing to
stroll along listening to the birds singing and the water in May Beck trickling over the rocks.
Upcoming Explorer Volunteer Activity Sessions
The Explorer Volunteers are our families who have taken part in the Explorer Club and graduated to
become National Park Volunteers. Denise has been busy organising lots of exciting sessions for you
over the coming months. In addition to these sessions, there will be opportunities to help maintain the
Welcome Area in Staithes.
Bracken Bashing at the Bee Boles - Saturday 14 July
2.30pm to 5pm (approx)
Meet in The Moors National Park Centre, Danby next to the
minibus.
We will be travelling to the site in the minibus so places are
limited.
Come along and help to control the bracken at the Bee
Boles near Glaisdale.
A perfect setting to
enjoy spending time with other Explorer Volunteer families and
get rid of any stress and tension with a bit of bracken bashing!!
You might be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a green tiger
beetle or some butterflies.
Gardening at Staithes Welcome Area - Saturday 21 July
10.45am to 1.45pm
Meet in Bank Top car park Grid reference: NZ781185 Postcode: TS13 5AD.
Parking charges -1 hour - £2, 2 hours - £3, 4 hours - £4
Come along and help to carry out some gardening work in the Welcome Area in Staithes.
Weeds will need pulling up before we spread more mulch on the
flowerbeds. We have already put six bags of mulch onto the soil so
far this year!
Upcoming Explorer Volunteer Activity Sessions continued..
Cleveland Way Walk and Work Task - Tuesday 24 July
10:30am to 2:30pm.
Meet in the Forestry Commission car park at Clay Bank on the
B1257 Stokesley to Helmsley Road.
Grid reference: NZ780185
http://gridreferencefinder.com/os.php?x=457216&y=503573
A guided, 2 mile walk up to and along the Cleveland Way on Urra
Moor. This is the highest point of the Moors with spectacular views
in every direction. Led by Andrew Carter (thank you!), Cleveland
Way Maintenance Ranger. Our work task on the day will be to clear
and restore cross drains.
Beach Clean Work Task - Monday 20 August
2pm to 5pm
Meet at the bandstand near Whitby Pier .
Join Denise, Jude and Louise on a litter pick on Whitby
Beach followed by beach games. There will be time for
refreshments or an ice cream on Whitby Pier.
All these activity sessions are now on My Volunteer
Page - app.betterimpact.com/Login/Volunteer
Places are limited so sign up quickly to avoid
disappointment. When you sign up, you will be asked
to add the number of people who will be in your group.
Once the maximum number of people have signed up,
you will no longer be able to book a place.
If after signing up, you find you are unable to attend, please can you remove yourself from the activity
by clicking on the schedule tab and then selecting ‘remove’ next to the activity. This will then free up
the place for somebody else. Please get in touch if you have any problems
A big thank you to Denise who is doing a brilliant job at arranging different activities for you to
get involved with! Thanks also to rangers, Bernie and Naomi for finding work tasks for us!
Other things to do in the Park….
Follow the link to find out what’s happening in the National Park over the
coming months;
www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/visiting/see-and-do/out-and-about
Activities include making tree-shirts, going on a great stick hunt, archery
and kayaking. There is a charge for some activities.
Take part in a National Wildlife Survey…...
Big Butterfly Count - 20th July to 12th August 2018
The big butterfly count is a
nationwide survey aimed at helping
Butterfly Conservation assess the
health of our environment. It was
launched in 2010 and has rapidly
become the world's biggest survey
of butterflies. Over 60,000 people
took part in 2017, submitting
62,500 counts of butterflies and day
- flying moths from across the UK.
Follow the link below to get involved!
www.bigbutterflycount.org
UK Ladybird Survey
The Ladybird Survey aims to facilitate the recording
of all the UK's ladybirds.
Ladybirds belong to the scientific family
Coccinellidae. In Britain, some 46 species belong to
this family, although only 26 of these are recognisably ladybirds.
Find out more about how you can send in your sightings by following the link below;
www.ladybird-survey.org/ladybirds.aspx
iRecord
www.brc.ac.uk/irecord/
This website enables you to manage and share your wildlife sightings.
My Volunteer Page
Don’t forget to check on My Volunteer Page every now and then. On your home page you can read
the volunteer news. By clicking on the opportunities tab, you can see all the activities you are
qualified to take part in. In addition to the activities Denise and myself put on, you are also able to see
’Activities open to all volunteers’. Not all activities will be suitable for families so it is worth checking
with the activity leader or volunteer team (volunteers@northyorkmoors.org.uk) prior to signing up.
John Muir Award - Explorer Level
Happy Campers!
Two of our Explorer Volunteer families who have teamed up to work on the
next level of the John Muir Award, invited me on a camping trip! They had
decided to focus on Whitby for their project.
It’s a long time since I’ve been camping so I had to go up into the loft and
try and unearth all my gear! Prior to the trip, Jude (our leader and chef) had
given myself and Louise jobs to do on-site. Louise was responsible for
games and snacks while I was given the task of dealing with all the ‘faffy’
bits!
We arrived at Beacon Farm campsite in glorious sunshine. We set about putting the gazebo up which
would be our communal kitchen tent. This proved to be far more challenging than anticipated. I had
borrowed the tent from a friend but the coding on the different poles was
baffling and made no sense to me. Thankfully with the help of Jude, we
eventually got the gazebo put up. Jude (who was
responsible for the food for the three days) had
brought everything except the kitchen sink!
The three boys, helped put the other tents up before
disappearing on a bug hunt!
While Jude sorted the various meals for the adults, I
was put in charge of the BBQ. I’m not sure the boys were
that keen on burnt sausages but they did eat most of them.
After dinner, Joey, Rafe and Rémi helped to wash and dry the pots.
Jude is extremely well organised and had brought along
three desert coats which she had brought back from her
travels. These were coats designed to keep people warm on
the cold nights in the desert. When I first read the email
telling me that she was bringing them, I had read ‘desert’ as
‘dessert’ and thought we had to dress up posh for our pudding! Little did we
know that the coats would come in really useful due to a complete change in the
weather overnight. As a turned in for the night, I got a rather nasty shock!
Crawling into my tent, I knelt on something hard,
putting my hand out to steady myself, I felt something
squishy beneath my fingers. It appeared that I had been
the victim of a practical joke set up by the boys! The hard
object was a fake poo and the squishy thing a rather large
pretend slug!
On opening the tent up the next morning, we were
greeted by a North Sea fret! You couldn’t see the end of the campsite for a layer of
thick, damp mist! This didn’t deter us from sticking to our itinerary for the trip. We
parked up by the abbey, which you could only just see. After exploring the
graveyard, wandering around the church and visiting the Youth Hostel, we walked down the 199 steps!
By now, we were getting a little bit chilly so popped into a coffee shop for a warm drink. Following
lunch near the lifeboat station where the boys tried to teach me to dance ’The Floss’, we meandered
our way through the streets before deciding it was time to try some crabbing. As the adults had never
been crabbing, we were totally clueless as to what to do. Luckily, a fellow crabber took pity on us and
showed the boys how to get started. Unfortunately, we weren’t to be lucky on our first attempt and our
nets remained empty!
Happy Campers continued…..
We were rather late getting back to the campsite that evening so it
was gone 10pm before the adults got fed. This was partly due to
Louise and myself who had been given the task of building the log
burning stove. In addition to this, I was also overseeing the BBQ.
Louise made a start, then I helped by putting the base on only to
discover I had put it on upside down! My fault for not reading the
instructions. I asked Louise to take the base off again while I went
and turned over the burgers. On my return, I found that we were
missing two screws!! We did in the end manage to find them after crawling around on our hands and
knees conducting a fingertip search. After such a busy day, we were glad to get to bed.
Yet again, we awoke to a damp mist. When we asked the boys what
they wanted to do that day, they all replied ‘go crabbing!’. As it was so
dreary, we decided to take the boys to ‘Mini Monsters’ in Ruswarp so
they could burn off some of their energy in the soft play area before
heading back into Whitby.
On arrival in Whitby, Jude and Louise left me in charge of getting the
three boys to the crabbing spot near the swing bridge while they went off
to get some bait! Having never been left solely in charge of three
children before, I had to devise a way of
ensuring I didn’t lose any of them so I set about
explaining ‘Operation Handle’ to the boys. To
cut a long story short, I made Rémi the leader,
Joey behind him had to hold the handle of
Rémi’s backpack, Rafe who was behind Joey
had to hold his handle and I grasped onto Rafe’s handle. With them all
safely holding onto each other’s handle, we picked our way through the
hordes of people. I was able to steer from the back and shout instructions
to the leader at the front. We did get some funny looks but the mission was
accomplished when we all arrived safely at our destination! Eventually
Louise and Jude reappeared (I suspect they may have had a sneaky coffee
while we were waiting for them). We loaded the crabbing nets up with a
bait of raw bacon and cast over nets into the water. Not much happened for a while but one by one
the boys each caught a crab. I even managed to net one myself which I was really excited about.
The boys all bravely held their crabs before returning them safely to the water. Packing away the
nets, I was relieved that I hadn’t lost any of them and that they still had all their fingers intact.
After chips for lunch, we strolled off in the direction of the
amusement arcades to try our luck on the 2p machines. Then
it was back to the campsite. On the evening, we lit the log
burner using the bark peeling's from the birch logs. The
children sat happily peeling little bits off for me to put on the
fire. Once the logs were burning nicely, we toasted
marshmallows in the flames!
On the morning of our last day, the mist seemed to have become even thicker
so we had to dismantle wet tents which was rather unpleasant. The boys
helped. It seemed to take less time to take things down than it had to set
everything up but I think it was probably just because we wanted to get out of
the cold, damp environment.
It was a fantastic trip which I thoroughly enjoyed! I can’t wait for the next one!
Out and about with our Explorer Families
Philomena
Philomena has been busy since her first Explorer Club session where she found some
nettles and built a house (den) in Crow Wood.
She has been to Whitby on the beach and played in the sand.
At Botton Village fete she got her face painted.
Philomena spent a lot of time one day just playing
with flowerpots. They made a lovely matching hat
and shoes!
Thanks Philomena for sharing what you have been
up to with the rest of us!
Helen and Emily
Two weeks ago Emily and I registered our allotments in the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust slow worm
survey. We met Natalie and have two study sites where a felt sheet covers the land and we have
to check two mornings a week to see if a slow worm is hiding under it. Nothing so far! We also
have to be wary for adders. She would take anyone with a plot in north of the Park - I think!
Despite it’s
appearance, a
slow-worm is not
a worm or a
snake. It is in
fact a legless
lizard!
They like to
bask in the
sun so keep
a lookout
between
March and
October!
Keep us posted on how the survey is going!
NEW! Introducing Waverley the Wanderer!
I was an unloved, unnamed bear put up for sale in
a charity shop in Pickering. One day a small boy
came into the shop with his Nanna looking for
something to buy, he saw me so I put on my best
cute bear face in the hope I would find a new
home...
It worked!! Boy2 (as I call him now) loved me and
bought me...
A few weeks later I went on my first holiday to
Scotland, it was quite a long journey in the car and
the boys were messing about so we stopped off at
New Lanark World Heritage Site. What with
learning about history, walking, nature and playing
we were all tired out and had a nap until we got to our holiday apartment
in Ayr on the west coast.
And so in Scotland we visited a lot of places, including beaches,
railways (of course), even a private miniature garden railway, just
my size (thank you to Christopher Vine, author of the Peter's
Railway Books for letting us loose in his garden and drive his train),
this is not open to the general public by the way, heritage centres,
and Edinburgh Castle.
That was an exciting day, Dad drove us
to a park and ride near the City and we
caught a tram into Edinburgh (we were
all excited about that), and then walked
a long way up to the Castle. It was whilst at the top of the Castle I was
named.. Mum pointed out to the boys a train station and bridge that
they could see and told them it was called Waverley Station, we all
thought that name suited me, so I am now called Waverley the
Wanderer (because I love to travel)..
If you would like to follow my adventures then check out my Twitter page @Waverley_the, I am
quite surprised as it has only been going just over a month.. I have over 70 followers and over
20,000 impressions of my tweets. To those who don't know what Twitter is, it is like a modern
version of a diary where you just post random thoughts and adventures.
I’m looking forward to having more fun with Mum, Dad and the 2 boys and you might see me
taking part in some North York Moors National Park volunteering, if you do please say
Hello..
Written by Sharon, Michael, Charlie and Waverley
Find out what Waverley has been up to over the summer in our Autumn edition newsletter!
Friends for Waverley
Do you have a favourite teddy bear or soft toy that joins you when you are out
and about exploring? If so, perhaps you would like to share what
you and them have been up to in our next newsletter. It would be
great to meet them so bring them along to an Explorer Club or
Explorer Volunteer session. I am sure Waverley would like to make
some new friends!
NEW! Photo Competition!
Each edition of the newsletter, I will chose a winning photo from the ones you send in or post on our
Facebook page!
You don’t need to wait until I ask for items for the next newsletter. Just email photos to me
whenever you have a spare moment. The photo can be of anything to do with exploring!
Gone crabbing!
Winner!
Taken by Jude
Runners-up!
Three Buzzing Bees! Taken by Helen Which way next? Taken by BethActivities for ‘Older’ Explorers
Caption Competition
We all need a good laugh every now and then! Think of some captions for these photos!
Quick Quiz!
1. What is the proper name for a fox’s tail?
2. Which two species of deer are native to Britain
1 3. Which two flowers would you find in an orchestra?
4. What type of creature is a Portuguese man-of-war?
5. What is the study of bird eggs called?
6. By what name is the crane fly better known?
Mindfulness
Answers to the Spring Edition’s Quick Quiz!
Name all 15 UK National Parks
North York Moors Exmoor
Yorkshire Dales South Downs Are you feeling
stressed? Do you spend
Northumberland Pembrokeshire Coast
most of your time
Lake District Cairngorm rushing from one thing
to the next?
Peak District Snowdonia
Try some outdoor
Broads Loch Lomond & the Trossachs mindfulness!
www.countryfile.com/
Dartmoor New Forest
article/mindfulness-
Brecon Beacons naturePuzzles and Jokes for a Rainy Day...
Bug Jokes
Minibeast Word Scramble
Q: What do you call a snail on a ship?
A: A snailor! Can you unscramble the letters to make the
names of eight minibeasts?
Q: How do bees get to school?
A: On the school buzz!
1. tohm 2. rpsgasopher 3. fyl 4. meublebbe
Q: What do you do with a sick wasp?
A: Take it to a waspital! 5. ryldadbi 6. sepird 7. spaw 8. eteleb
Q: What goes zzub zzub?
A: A bee flying backwards!
Q: What is the biggest ant in the world?
A: An elephant Summer Wordsearch
sunshine
Summer Wordsearch hot
beach
sea
picnic
swimming
paddling
sandcastles
net
bucket
spade
insects
flowers
holidays
camping
Spring Wordsearch
Spring Edition Answers
Flower Word Scramble
1. daffodil 2. lily 3. rose 4. blossom 5. daisy 6.
buttercup 7. crocus 8. bluebell
Spot the difference
Whose eggs?
1. blackbird 2. frog 3. butterfly 4. lizardActivities for our Young Explorers
Design your own butterfly!
Seashore Which insects do these heads belong to?
Draw on things you might find on a visit to a beach? 1 2
3 4
Explorer Volunteers Facebook page
Only group members can post and view posts. It is not open to the public to view.
To join this exclusive group, let me know the email address you have linked to your Facebook account and I will
send you an invite to join the group.
If you would like anything including in our next newsletter, please contact Tammy Andrews -
Email: t.andrews@northyorkmoors.org.uk Tel: 01439 770657 Mobile: 07854718693
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THIS EDITION OF THE EXPLORER VOLUNTEERS NEWSLETTERYou can also read
