An eco-friendly treasure hunt through some of North East Wales most beautiful woodlands will be guided by a satellite circling the Earth.
New EarthCaching trails are being held for the first time in Wales this summer in the woods of the Clwydian Range.
These high tech treasure hunts will take youngsters and their families on guided geological tours of two lovely forests to discover the landscape and heritage by solving puzzles and playing games along the way.
They are the brainchild of Clwydian Range Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Geodiversity Officer Dr Jacqui Malpas who said: “EarthCaching is a great way to learn more about our wonderful world. It can take you to many places that you would not normally visit and teach you about why those places are special or unique.
“It’s similar but more eco-friendly than the better known Geocaching which uses GPS – global positioning satellites – to guide ‘treasure hunters’ to a series of buried caches of items.
But with EarthCaching the hand-held GPS sets will lead visitors to Coed Nercwys and Coed Moel Famau along a mystery tour through the ages and events which have shaped the landscape.
The GPS handsets and accompanying backpack and map will unlock the secrets of the past from the Ice Age to the recent past as nature and man have shaped these areas of countryside.
The project has been set up with Denbighshire Countryside Services in the Clwydian Range Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and by rural development agency Cadwyn Clwyd’s Rural Tourism Project with £30,000 from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development through the Welsh Assembly Government’s Rural Development Plan 2007-2013 and is part of a three-year plan to revitalise communities and their economies in rural Flintshire and Denbighshire.
Other major funders are the Welsh Assembly Government Aggregates Levy Fund for Wales and the Association of Welsh RIGS Groups.
The person commissioned to set up the trails is Nigel McDonald, of No-Nonsense Interpretation who created the UK’s first Geocaching trail at the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre at Craven Arms.
He said: “Families who visit the AONB can hire one of these GPS devices and a backpack with a map from Loggerheads and enjoy a whole day exploring the area and learning about it as well, all for free.
“And when they have completed the trail and puzzles they can dip into the treasure chest and take home a fossil such as an ammonite or a piece of fool’s gold.
“It’s something which has proved very successful in Craven Arms. It is first of all a very good tourism product but it is also educational and it’s fun.
“We have carried out evaluations and the satisfaction rates for it have been over 90 per cent and that includes over 90 per cent who said they’d do it again.”
Cadwyn Clwyd’s funding has helped to provide provided 15 GPS handsets plus a supply of the special maps which help visitors ‘Unearth the secrets of the Forests’.
Cadwyn Clwyd Project Officer Ceri Hughes said: “This is something we have been delighted to be involved with introducing to Wales.
“It’s a first for the country and I’m sure it’s going to be hugely popular – it provides an exciting mix of maps and treasure, it has minimal impact on the environment, it gets families involved together and it’s educational. It ticks all the boxes.”
Dr Jacqui Malpas said that the trails which take visitors through the woods explain what they can see at a number of different spots, including features such as ‘kettle’ holes from the last Ice Age, ancient beaches and archeological evidence of lead mining and farming.
She said: “It’s a fantastic way of learning about the geology and history and heritage of the area without even realising you’re doing it.
“And EarthCaching means there isn’t even a little box of things being left in a specific spot which can cause some damage by people trying to find it.
“Instead the GPS device works out where you are and points you in the right direction to find the next puzzle point on the trail. Included with it will be a comic which will give extra information including the map, puzzles and games.
“And the GPS devices are simple, sturdy, easy to use and free of charge subject to a deposit. Staff from Denbighshire Countryside Services have been trained to help our visitors to use them.”
Countryside Officer for the Clwydian Range AONB David Shiel added: “Coed Nercwys is a fantastic place for families to explore which you can do on foot, by bike or even on horseback.
“The forest has a fascinating story to tell from the geological forces that shaped the area to the human influences that followed, including ancient burial sites over 4000 years old, old lead mines from the 18th and 19th century and an abandoned farmstead hidden within the trees that cloaked the open mountain when they were planted in the early 1960s.
“It is an ideal location for an EarthCaching trail because the story it has to tell lies under the trees and so it lends itself really well to this form of interpretation.”
Among the first to experience the EarthCaching trail were tourism and rural regeneration agency representatives from all over Wales who attended a day-long conference hosted by Cadwyn Clwyd at Loggerheads Country Park.
They were equipped with maps and GPS handsets and Cadwyn Clwyd’s Keira Derbyshire said: “We had excellent feedback from them and they were very interested in the project.
“They could see the possibilities and were keen to follow its progress so that it could possibly be used elsewhere throughout Wales in the future.”
Anyone interested in Cadwyn Clwyd’s Rural Tourism Project can contact Project Officer Ceri Hughes on 01824 705802 or e-mail [email protected]
