...Go geocaching

Tried orienteering or geocaching and fancy taking it further?

Geocaching

Days out

If you fancy bringing some friends or family out for a first experience, all five National Park Cntres have a village trail starting from them. Follow the clues around the village and end with a location for a cache to find.

Trail packs are issued with the hire of a GPS receiver at £5 per day (a £50 authorisation on a bank card is required as deposit - no money will be taken out of your account when the receiver is returned without damage).

Find the trails at Aysgarth Falls, Grassington, Hawes, Malham and Reeth National Park Centres.

Facilites

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has hidden several caches around the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

To find these and many others hidden by other enthusiasts log onto www.geocaching.com where you can create a user profile for free and then search for caches hidden in the UK and the rest of the world.

• Search for caches hidden by ‘Dales Diva’ to find out more about the National Park.  Each of her boxes has something in to help you understand more about a certain aspect of the park.  There are several hidden around Malham that tell you more about the geology of the area for example.
• Look for caches hidden by the ‘Pennine way ranger’ to inspire you to try part of the Pennine Way – one of England’s favourite multi-day walking routes.

Clubs

There are not really any geocaching clubs as such because it is all based on the web.

Orienteering

Days out

Most weekends orienteering clubs organise events at which courses are just put out for the day.  They are always friendly events and it doesn’t matter what standard you are at as there are courses to suit everyone from young children through to top competitors.  A full list of events is available on this page of the British Orienteering website.  Alternatively you might prefer to talk to your local club who will tell you about local events and training evenings where you can meet other people and find out about map reading techniques.

At an orienteering event you will have a map and use it to try and find different locations called controls. You prove you have found each one either through recorded a letter, punching a card, or by using an electronic dibber.  

Facilities

There are a number of permanent courses which you can try in the area which are available at any time and details of some of them are below. For a full list look on British Orienteering’s website.

For courses in the Richmond are contact Cleveland orienteering klub (CLOK) on 01287 624521.

For courses in the Northallerton area contact Forest Enterprise on 01751 472771 or 01287 631132.

Maps for courses in the Harrogate area are available from the Tourist Information Centre.

Clubs

There is a good selection of orienteering clubs in the area, all of which are very friendly and approachable.

Airienteers based in Ilkley area
Phone: Maurice Calvert on 0113 2576971
Website: www.orienteering.ilkley.org

CLARO orienteers based in Harrogate area
Phone Dave Gugan on 01423 564245
Website: www.claro-orienteering.org

East Pennines Orienteering Club (EPOC) based in the Calderdale and Kirklees area
Phone Neil Croasdell on 01422 241126
Website: www.eastpennineoc.org.uk

Lakeland Orienteering Club (LOC)
Phone Angela Heppenstall on 01565 754664
Website: lakeland-orienteering.org.uk

Cleveland Orienteering Klub (CLOK)
Phone Joe Dobbs on 01642 481135
Website: www.clok.org.uk