National Parks Week: 21st - 28th July

Now that 'Use Your Paths' week has been and gone, the next week of outdoor events looming on the horizon is National Parks Week. It's an annual event and this year it gets underway on Friday 21st July - that's the end of next week. The idea is to educate people in general about the importance of the national parks, and a full programme of events is scheduled to take place in all fourteen, with that aim in mind. These range from good old guided walks and bike rides through to a less predictable array of treasure hunts, boat trips, quizzes, bird-watching trips, and T-shirt printing sessions:-)

You can find a full list of events on the National Parks website. To give you a brief taste though, here's a very brief selection:

• Peak District: Climb Bleaklow or Kinder Scout with a National Park Ranger; watch the sun set in Dovedale; or look for wild flowers in the White Peak.
• Lake District: Take an Ullswater Lake Cruise, watch a slide show by a Volunteer Ranger, or follow the tracks of Wordsworth.
• Pembrokeshire Coast: Take an evening coastal walk or a day's island walk.
• Norfolk Broads: Listen to an evening of jazz as the sun sets over the reeds.
• Moors: Get your watercolours out to paint the area around the The Moors Centre or join a treasure hunt along the North Sea Trail, near Robin Hood's Bay.
• Dartmoor: Pick your guided walk, of the six hour moorland variety, the 'sketch and stroll' variety, or the butterfly-hunting variety.