Northern Experience Wildlife Tours – COVID19 statement 08/03/2021

This statement sets out changes that Northern Experience Wildlife Tours Limited (NEWT) will make to the tours and services that we offer to mitigate against the risk of COVID19 transmission, and to comply with legislative requirements and best practice guidance.  We hope that these provisions will help you to have a great tour with us and enjoy the beautiful landscapes and wildlife of Northumberland in a COVID secure way. If you have any queries then please do not hesitate to contact us.

General

What we say here will apply to all of our tours and services.

• Following the recent announcement of the UK government ‘Spring 2021 Roadmap out of lockdown’, and conditional on the roadmap being implemented on schedule, we will resume land-based and pelagic tours from May 1st 2021 as detailed below.
• We shall require payment to be made in advance in respect of all tours and services offered.We shall not accept cash or cheque payments on the day of a tour.Payment in advance can be made directly to our bank account (please ask us to supply details of you require) or payment in full can be made via our online shop using PayPal.
• We shall comply with the government’s guidelines on social distancing.That means that we shall maintain a distance of at least 2 metres from you and we shall require you to maintain a distance of at least 2 metres from people who are not in the same household or support bubble as you are.We shall not require you to wear a face covering, but you are of course free to wear one if you feel comfortable doing so.
• You must not come on a tour with us if you, anybody that you live with, or anybody in your support bubble has been diagnosed with or has symptoms of COVID19 (a high temperature, a new continuous cough and/or a loss or change to your senses of smell or taste) or you have been told to self-isolate by the NHS Track and Trace service.
• Please contact us if you are due to come or a tour with us and are currently shielding
• You must complete a booking form with us prior to the date of your tour, which will have (amongst other things) your name and contact details on.
• We shall not be providing any transport at the present time, except for our pelagic tours (see further below)
• We shall not be providing any food or drink at the present time and you are advised to bring your own with you
• Whilst we do have binoculars and a telescope for the use of our guests we would strongly encourage you to bring your own equipment with you if you have it.If you would like to make use of any equipment that belongs to us then please advise us.We shall clean equipment before your tour with us.
• Given the nature of our tours, handwashing facilities are very limited.We advise you to bring your own hand sanitiser with you.

Our land based tours and workshops

• We shall not provide food or transport on our tours at the present time.
• Our tours will be limited to people from no more than 3 households, and in any event a maximum of 6 people.
• Our tours will have a pre-arranged starting point where there are parking facilities.We shall not be responsible for any parking charges.Once the tour starts we shall spend the rest of the tour on foot.
• Our tours will not last for more than 3 hours.
• These restrictions may mean that the tour that we are able to offer you may be different in nature to the tour that you had originally booked.For example, if you had booked a safari day, we shall not be able to provide food or transport.We hope that you will understand the reasons for the restrictions that we have to put in place.If this causes you a difficulty then please contact us in order that we can discuss matters with you.

Our Pelagic Tours

• We have liaised closely with the skipper of the JFK Two in relation to the requirements that are necessary to make our pelagic tours as safe and enjoyable as possible.As always we shall follow his guidance and decision as to what is safe.
• Our sailings will be limited to 6 participants prior to May 17th, with a view to increasing to 12 participants from that date onwards.
• Access to the wheelhouse will not be permitted during a sailing. Please make sure that you bring all necessary clothing and other items to enable you to be out on deck for the duration of your sailing.
• Access to the toilet will be possible if absolutely necessary but you are requested to wipe the area down with the wipes provided after use
• The deck area of the boat will be marked out to ensure social distancing can be maintained.You are encouraged to remain in your own area and not to wander around on the deck.
• You are reminded that social distancing must be maintained on the sailing as well as at embarkation/disembarkation and whilst waiting for the sailing to start

Gift Vouchers

• If you have a gift voucher with an expiry date of between 1 March 2020 and 31 December 2021 then we shall extend the expiry date on your voucher by six months. Please contact us to arrange your tour.