Hello All -
A few weeks ago, we traveled to the "Mecca" of letterboxing,
Dartmoor, England. It was the first time in that country for us, and the
trip was awesome. For the past few months we have been
corresponding with Graham Howard (aka "The Moorland Wizard") who was
incredibly helpful in suggesting lodgings, proper maps, and helped
secure the letterbox catalogue for us as well as some lists of
uncatalogued boxes.
This Autumn was one of the wettest on record in England. There had
been 100 days of rainy weather which stopped on the day that we arrived.
(I think it had something to do with our having spent far too much money
on good rain gear). Driving in the mirror image of all of our previous
experience was a bit unnerving, especially after being awake all night
on the plane. We stayed on a farm near the town of Ashburton, which was
situated off the side of a 10 ft wide side road that had 12 ft hedges
along either edge. I felt like I was traveling through a labyrinth, and
a huge monster truck might come barreling in my direction at any moment.

We arrived at our chosen search area, to find two gentlemen getting
ready to walk the moor as we got out of our car. I asked them if they
were letterboxers. They replied that they were and we set about
exchanging stamps. These guys had fancy wooden boxes in which they kept
their stamps. They each had a personal stamp, a stamp for their dog, a
stamp for their wife, and a stamp for themselves as letterboxing
buddies. In addition, there were a few miscellaneous stamps. I felt
pretty deficient as I only had two to give them in exchange. I know that
they were very pleased to collect a print of our stamp. They gave us a
bit of advice, and then were off on their own search.
Even though it wasnt raining, it certainly was foggy and windy,
creating a very eerie atmosphere. As it turns out, most of the clues
depended taking a sighting of a landmark at some distance away. Arrrgh!
We had to guess where the landmarks were from the map, and our relative
position. Visibility was about 40 feet! Even so, we actually found three
boxes in spite of the fog. It helped that the area we chose to search
had dozens of boxes per sq kilometer!
Of course I couldnt leave Dartmoor without hiding a box of my own.
Placed on the Winter Solstice, shes the Goddess at Grimspound, and is
located near the remains of this ancient settlement in the heart of the
moorland. She can be found 70 paces from the Southeast gate, bearing 150
degrees, under a rocky nose just above a large flat stone. It was one of
the oldest places Id ever visited. Surely those who once lived there
would have worshiped one like her.
In addition to all the boxes on the Moor, there were boxes to be had in
many of the Pubs, shops, and even one in the Princetown garage. I carved
a special stamp for the occasion of our trip, and folks were pretty
curious about the Americans mucking about looking for the boxes. The
other interesting thing was that there were a number of people from
Dartmoor who didnt know about letterboxing.
It was a pity that we only had about two days to devote to finding
boxes, but this only whetted my appetite to return and look for more.

SpaceTraveler P11F12