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You won’t know until you try: taster weekends in the UK   Price/dates/status Our taster weekends were honoured in The Independent on Sunday’s "Best Holiday for Green-Minded Travellers" list. Taster weekends are just what they say they are: weekends that will give you a unique insight into what it’s like to be in the field with Biosphere Expeditions assisting scientists with wildlife research and conservation. They are always set amongst the stunning scenery and wildlife of Britain’s National Parks where you will be part of a small team, alongside a park ranger and your expedition leader. You will discover expedition and wildlife research and conservation skills such as working with a map, GPS and compass, collecting important animal data, reading animal tracks and signs, using telemetry equipment and wildlife camera traps. You will also learn about the national park you are in, its fauna and flora, history and the conservation work going on inside.   PRICE = Taster weekend contribution (land only per slot) £195 per person. Note that if you subsequently join one of our 2-week expeditions or 1-week projects, £100 will be credited towards your expedition or project contribution. The £195 taster weekend contribution per person is the same for all taster weekends, single or double, and includes all meals, Saturday night accommodation, training, excursions, equipment, etc. The taster weekend contribution is quoted in British pound sterling. Try the XE currency converter for other currencies. Dates & times New Forest National Park: 20/21 June 2009 Broads National Park: 4/5 July 2009 Taster weekends start on Saturday at 09.00 and end on Sunday around 15.00 – 16.00. Status The colour of the dates above indicateds the weekend's status. Green: Taster weekends of status green have spaces available. Amber: Taster weekends of status amber have few spaces available. To join them you need to decide soon, so please get in touch to talk about availability. Red: Taster weekends of status red have no spaces available (or have already been to the field). If a taster weekend is full already, you may have the option of going on a waiting list. Weather expected during taster weekend What can we say – British  . Come prepared for anything. Taster weekend base This will always be a three- or four-star hotel in or near the National Park, so you will be well fed and looked after. Wherever possible and where such schemes exist, it will be award-winning hotels that are approved by the National Park and run themselves with the environment in mind. More details inside. Team size Up to 15 team members + 1 park ranger/guide + 1 expedition leader. Skills & prerequisites required None. You don't need to be a scientist or have any special qualifications - everyone can take part and there are no age limits whatsoever. Can laypeople really be of help to serious research & conservation projects? Fitness level required None. If you are healthy and enjoy the outdoors, you’ll be fine. Will it be for me or am I too old/young/unfit? Team assembly point This will always be at the hotel base and therefore in central location within or very near to the National Park. What about carbon neutrality? Who makes my travel arrangements? Details Each taster weekend follows the same basic plan of creating a mini expedition. Just like on expedition there is an assembly point that you have to get to under your own steam (and where you will meet at 09.00 on Saturday morning) to start your taster weekend. And just like on expedition we’ll start with introductions, a safety talk and a brief overview of what’s to come. Below is a general outline of the weekend, but please remember that plans can change, for example due to the weather, and that you need to stay flexible and approach things with a sense of humour – just like on expedition. Saturday morning Introductions, safety talk, brief outline of the weekend ahead and the people and parties involved. Introduction to research techniques and equipment such as GPS, compass, map, hand-held radios, camera traps, radio telemetry equipment, data sheets and data collection techniques, recognising animal tracks and signs, etc. Coffee break and sandwich lunch at the hotel base. Saturday afternoon Into the field with your expedition leader and a park ranger/guide to practice the skills learned in the morning. You’ll be locating radio telemetry transmitters, setting up camera traps, doing a bit of navigating and learning how to recognise animal signs & tracks and record them just like a conservation scientist or a team member on expedition would. Your expedition leader will be your link to our expeditions, so if you find a fox track, for example, your expedition leader may use this as an opportunity to talk to you about wolf tracks on expedition and how to record and measure them. Your park ranger/guide will create local relevancy and teach you about the local flora & fauna, the National Park and its conservation work, history and other interesting historical and social facts. After our field walk we go back to our hotel base for a three-course dinner (vegetarians and other special diets can be catered for on request). Saturday evening After dinner, there’ll be a presentation about Biosphere Expeditions and all its expeditions and projects worldwide to wet your appetite. After this there’s time to chat, relax and socialise before turning in for the night. Sunday Our day starts with a buffet breakfast at the hotel base (we will also make up our lunch pack from the buffet). After a brief overview of the day, we go into the field again, this time to a different habitat, but not before we check the results of our camera trapping from the day before. In the field we continue to try out our newly acquired skills and learn more about the local wildlife and its conservation. Lunch will be in the field, just as it would be on a working day out on expedition. By the end of the weekend you should have a very good idea about the National Park and what being on expedition is like. We return to the hotel base at around 15.00 for a final coffee and farewells. On some weekends, there is an optional add-on of an hour or so to go for an off-road drive in the expedition Land Rover. On this drive, the expedition leader will show you what the vehicle can do and what kinds of skills you will need and be taught on expeditions that involve Land Rovers. National Park locations The Peak District is an upland area in central and northern England, lying mainly in northern Derbyshire, but also covering parts of Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire and South and West Yorkshire. Most of the area falls within the Peak District National Park, whose designation in 1951 made it the first national park in the British Isles. It is an area of great diversity and conventionally split into the northern Dark Peak, where most of the moorland is found and where the geology is gritstone, and the southern White Peak, where most of the population lives and where the geology is mainly limestone based. The New Forest is an area of southern England, which includes the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and old-growth forest. The New Forest habitat covers south west Hampshire and some of south Wiltshire. Like much of England, the New Forest was originally forested, but parts were cleared for cultivation from the Stone Age and into the Bronze Age. The New Forest was created as a royal forest in 1079 by William the Conqueror for the hunting of (mainly) deer. It was first recorded as "Nova Foresta" in the Domesday Book in 1086. The Broads are a network of mostly navigable rivers and lakes (known locally as broads) in the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The Broads are Britain's largest protected wetland and third largest inland waterway, with the status of a national park. The area is also home to some of the rarest plants and animals in the UK. The Broads Authority was set up in 1989, with responsibility for conservation, planning, recreation and waterways. For many years broads were regarded as natural features of the landscape. It was only in the 1960s that Dr Joyce Lambert showed that they were artificial features, the effect of flooding on early peat excavations. The Romans first exploited the rich peat beds of the area for fuel, and in the Middle Ages the local monasteries began to excavate the "turbaries" (peat diggings) as a business, selling fuel to Norwich and Great Yarmouth. Then the sea levels began to rise, and the pits began to flood. Despite the construction of wind pumps and dykes, the flooding continued and resulted in the typical broads landscape of today, with its reed beds, grazing marshes and wet woodlands. Maps     Google map of all Biosphere Expeditions study sites, expedition bases, assembly points, office locations, etc.   Pictures In the Peak Disctrict. Thor's cave in the Peak District. Peak District hotel base. In the New Forest. Alder trees by the Beaulieu river near Fawley ford. New Forest hotel base. In the Broads. In the Broads.  Broads hotel base. Learning about navigation. Land Rover on its way to a drop-off point in the forest.   On a field walk. On a field walk. Which way was North again? Learning how to use spotting scopes and binoculars. Trying out radio telemetry.   Learning how to set up a camera trap.  Learning how to set up a camera trap. Learning how to read tracks & record data. Trying out radio communication. Talking to a park ranger. Getting ready for a canoe expedition. On a canoe expedition. On a canoe expedition using a telemetry receiver. An expedition team. Press This year I promise... 10 fun ways to keep your resolve on track in English  View article 106.95 Kb Briefing The taster weekend briefing contains detailed information on all our weekends. Briefings are provided as pdf documents and you must provide a name, country of residence and valid e-mail address to be able to download one. You can access briefings via the Download Centre. Join Go on, you know you want to Sign up here.