Mid-morning yesterday the Team received a request from Northumbria Police to assist with a search for a high risk missing person in the Kielder area. The male’s car had been located in the car park at Kielder. Along with North of Tyne MRT, we headed up to Kielder Castle to liaise with the Police Search Adviser.
A detailed search of the woodland involving MR personnel, two Search & Rescue Dogs, a Police dog handler and Police officers was conducted in and around Kielder Castle. The National Police Air Support unit supported searchers on the ground by flying over the open areas.
As the search was progressing, further information came to light which indicated the missing person was out of the area. The Teams were stood down and Police investigations are ongoing.
The incident involved 16 Team members for 7 hours.
Here is a brand new promotional video for Kielder Water & Forest Park, the most tranquil place in England. www.visitkielder.com for more up to date information.
May’s event started at our normal start and breakfast venue, the Dukes Pantry at Kielder Castle. The drive along the C200 towards the Castle gave a little clue to what sort of day we were going to have with some rather large puddles spanning the road.
After registration and driver briefing we headed off into Bewshaugh where the tracks were wet and muddy but didn’t pose any problems until we got to a track that crosses Sturdy Sike. Here the track had washed out quite badly but we managed to get all the 4×4’s, ranging from a brand new Land Rover Freelander, a VW Touareg, a Mercedes GL and the usual range of other Land Rovers, down the incline and washed out section with very little problems.
After Bewshaugh we headed into Kielder for a circular loop ending at the Dam for a lunch and toilet stop. After a rather damp lunchtime we headed back over the dam for another loop of the Southern part of the Forest. Once complete we headed back over the dam to Falstone Forest and did a couple of circular tracks around the fire tower before finishing the day off at the dam car park around 5pm.
Chatting to a few of the supporters after the event it transpired that this had been their first time off-road and they were surprised just how capable their own vehicles were and how they had really enjoyed the day. We would love to welcome you back to a future event and extend that invitation to anybody else who has a 4×4 but maybe haven’t really used it off-road, why not book a Kielder 4×4 Safari and come and join in the fun and raise some money for the Mountain Rescue Team.
If this sounds like something you would like to experience then why not head over to our bookings page and sign up for the next Safari on Sunday 30th June 2013
If you require any further information please don’t hesitate to get in touch, you can find our details on the Contact Page
The Kielder 4×4 Safari proceeds go to Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team. Registered Charity 511313.
Amateur meteorologist Doug Paulley has started producing weather forecasts just for the Kielder area. Doug, who is studying with the Open University, noted that Kielder and it surrounding areas has its own ‘micro climate’ and some of the forecasts available were not very reliable so Doug decided to produce his own forecasts which he has kindly allowed us to post on our website.
Doug’s forecasts are generated eight times a day and are valid for Kielder Water and the immediate surrounding forest. He provides up to 6 day forecasts with an hour-by-hour resolution, and he also provide a free email service, where subscribers receive the latest forecast once a day at 7:10am.
Doug takes data from thousands of Government METAR and SYNOP weather stations up to 3,000km away; also from weather buoys, weather balloon soundings, ozone measurements and the inter-Government created Global Forecast System model outputs. He then uses this data as the base for his interactive local atmospheric modeling system and parse the output as a detailed weather forecast.
The idea is hopefully to be able to provide a useful resource for organisations such as ourselves and Calvert Trust Kielder are also using his forecasting service. Having carefully tailored his forecasting model specifically for Kielder area, he has hopes that it may be of better accuracy than some of the others. Doug is also trying to implement a Kielder Midge forecast and a midge warning .
April’s event started with a welcome return to The Duke’s Pantry at Kielder Castle for breakfast and sorting paperwork, the Mountain Rescue team also brought their brand new vehicle with them to show off to the the capacity entry for the Safari. By taking part in the Kielder 4×4 Safari you have helped towards the huge cost of buying and equipping the new vehicle, and the Mountain Rescue Team would like to thank all those who support our event and those who support the Team directly as without your support they would not be able to operate.
Making a début on this event also was Kielder 4×4 Safari’s new (to us) support vehicle, the white Land Rover Defender 110 has been retired from an active serving Mountain Rescue vehicle and will now be used by the Safari as a support vehicle on events and also keep an eye out for it at some of the local shows in the summer where we will be doing more fund raising.
As we were fully booked for the event we had to split the cars into two groups, which meant two convoys, each doing a separate route, then meeting up at the Dam at lunchtime and then the convoys switched routes in the afternoon. We had a mixture of surfaces to deal with, from the snow on the higher ground, some muddy trails and we even had to contend with dust on convoy two’s run back to the castle.
We had quite a few new faces on this event and from talking to people at the end everybody seems to have enjoyed themselves and we would love to welcome you back at a future event, this welcome of course is also extended to our regular visitors, some of who have supported us for a long time.
If this sounds like something you would like to experience then why not head over to our bookings page and sign up for the next Safari on Saturday 18th May 2013
If you require any further information please don’t hesitate to get in touch, you can find our details on the Contact Page
The Kielder 4×4 Safari proceeds go to Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team. Registered Charity 511313.
Kielder 4x4 Safari Support Vehicle - Curlew X-Ray Kielder 4x4 Safari Support Vehicle - Curlew X-Ray
The Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team Land Rover Curlew Delta
The Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team Land Rover Curlew Delta The Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team Land Rover Curlew Delta
Scream if you are enjoying yourself
The Dam car park nearly full with Safari supporters
Members of The Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team
The Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team Land Rover Curlew Delta The Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team Land Rover Curlew Delta
3 Land Rover's daisy chained together to winch a Land Rover Defender out of a ditch 3 Land Rover's daisy chained together to winch a Land Rover Defender out of a ditch
Whoops
and it's out.......
I think it needs a wash now! Kielder 4x4 Safari Support Vehicle - Curlew X-Ray
As we reported on our Facebook page, the Kielder Osprey’s had been spotted in and around the area. Well, today they have been spotted on the two nesting sites which are visible via a live camera link up to the Dukes Pantry. Only single Osprey’s have been sighted, a male and a female but they have visited both nesting sites so hopefully their breeding partners will be arriving soon. Osprey’s returned to Kielder in 2009 after a 200 year absence, at first there was only one breeding pair but in 2011 another pair has since joined them.
As the Osprey’s get ready to breed and hopefully raise their young the Kielder 4×4 Safari likes to give them a bit of peace and quiet to give them the best possible chance, so the Wainhope Quarry and a few of the other tracks that we use in the area will be out of bounds until the Osprey’s leave usually around mid September. But, don’t worry Kielder Forest is the largest man-made woodland in England so there are plenty of other tracks available to us.
The Dukes Pantry, which is our normal meeting place to check documentation and of course have breakfast normally has a live video link to the two nesting sights so hopefully you will be able to catch a glimpse of these magnificent birds.
When we arrived at Kielder Forest and Water park early on the morning of our February event we were greeted with a blanket of mist covering the reservoir and filling the valley, most of the snow had disappeared from the lower parts of the forest but was still visible on the hilltops. We also had a new meeting venue for breakfast as the Duke’s Pantry is still undergoing its renovations at the Castle. The new meeting place was The Boat Inn at Leaplish Waterside Park and the staff provided a great welcome and a very filling breakfast which was eaten overlooking the perfectly still reservoir.
The first Kielder 4×4 Safari of 2013 took place yesterday in a very cold and snowy Kielder Forest in Northumberland. With the Dukes Pantry closed for refurbishment we met for breakfast and signing on at The Boe Rigg just outside Bellingham. Once everybody was fed and the briefing had taken place we headed off into the forest, with about a dozen cars in the convoy, because the Safari has access to tracks not normally available to the public we were literally creating our own tracks in the virgin snow! At times Ian in the lead car had difficulty knowing where the track was so we had to proceed with caution but luckily we made it through the morning session without incident and headed back to Kielder Castle for lunch.
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