After dark adventures at National Trust’s South West Outdoor Festival
This year the National Trust’s South West Outdoor Festival will be embracing the earlier winter evenings which autumn brings with a series of adventures when the sun goes down. From stargazing to night runs, evening events at the festival will show Devon in a whole new light.
The three-day festival – which takes place across the weekend 5-7 October at East Soar, near Salcombe on the South Devon coast – kicks off with a couple of night-run challenges, with two distances available for trails runners to don their head torches and take on: the explorer (3km) and the adventurer (9km).
Both the Friday and Saturday evenings will see raconteurs telling tall stories around the festival fire as kids (little and large) can listen with hot chocolate in hand. These spell-binding sessions will be followed by guided tours across the night sky, led by expert astronomers from Space Detectives and Plymouth Astronomical Society, armed with high-tech telescopes.
Free for festival-goers to peer through, these telescopes – including solar scopes for looking at the sun during daylight hours – will be located by the Yukon Territory Tipi, where adventurous travellers can be transported to one of the wildest regions on Earth before venturing into the cosmos beyond.
Explorers, wildlife lovers, sky gazers and fans of celestial phenomena are all drawn to the Yukon, a sensational destination in northern Canada, on the edge of the Arctic Circle, especially famous for the spectacular quality of its Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights).
“The Aurora Borealis is a result of the amazing connection between the Sun and Earth, encapsulating power, beauty and majesty all in the form of a breathtaking, delicate dance of light,“ explains Space Detectives’ Jo Richardson, an ESERO-UK Space Ambassador and Polar Ambassador. Jo will be delivering a talk about life onboard the International Space Station in the Yukon tipi on Friday evening at SWOF, and giving people the chance to experience what it feels like to travel in space with Virtual Reality headsets.
But a visit to the tipi will quickly reveal that ogling at the auroras boreales isn’t the only reason to visit the Yukon, which is bathed in the surreal light of the midnight sun for several months of the year. Roughly the same size as France, the Yukon has 70,000 moose, 7000 grizzly bears, 10,000 black bears, 250 species of birds, and only 34,000 human residents. A travel destination for those who like their adventures truly wild, it boasts incredible rivers for canoeing and kayaking, sensational trails for running, hiking and biking, plus rock climbing, rafting and wildlife spotting.
Besides adventure pursuits, stargazing, story telling and travel inspiration, the festival will feature famous speakers, fine food and drink from the South Devon area (with Salcombe Brewery, Yarde Cider, Riverford Kitchen, and Salcombe Gin among the many providers present on the pop-up site) and entertainment including live music and adventure films.
Located within an hour’s drive from both Plymouth and Exeter, access to the site is easy from the A38 / Devon Expressway. Parking is available on-site for day visitors and campers. Tickets are now on sale via the website: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/SWOF. Follow @NTSWOF on Facebook and Twitter for updates.
