The Moor Tori-ists enjoyed our first made-to-order breakfast on the moor. There was a pretty unique system that Mark implemented. He had a chart with all of the items he offered for a traditional English breakfast. Next to our names, all we did was put a check mark under the item(s) that we wanted including scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, baked beans, tomato, fried bread, etc. There were also containers of 3 different kinds of cereal that we could help ourselves to besides the daily hot porridge.Once we ate, we went across the courtyard to the kitchen of the other cottage where Jacky had set up luncheon items. There was always 2 kinds of bread and rolls, either egg salad or tuna salad (which we grew to enjoy with corn in it!) luncheon meat, cheeses, tomato,
English cucumbers and condiments. On the side bench was a plastic basket that had several types of fresh fruit and the flavored potato chips (chrisps, as they say) in exotic flavors like ox tail, barbequed chicken, shrimp, etc. It was always discussed while we made our sandwiches which flavor we would choose that day! To round out the bagged lunch were several types of cookies (biscuits) like Twix and some individually-wrapped. chocolate-covered chocolate cookies called Penquins that had a little graphic of a perky little penquin on it. (Sue snuck on of these little guys in my lunch my first day back to work after our trip and I felt very homesick for Dartmoor!)
After breakfast and the lunch-making, most of the Moor Tor-ists headed out to Ducks Pool in questionable weather - very cloudy and overcast with the hint of rain. Needless to say, we brought rain gear for the trek to one of Dartmoor's oldest boxes which serves as a memorial to William Crossing - renowned author and authority of all things Dartmoor.Jennifer, of TeamKing, joined us that morning as the group assembled for breakfast. Formerly of Texas, Jennifer had just relocated to the Surrey/Hampshire area with her husband and children several weeks before our arrival. She still hadn't finished unpacking yet. In an email before we left, I asked if she had some time to meet with the group when we landed and her replay came back with a resounding "yes." Jennifer, like so many other UK boxers, had driven quite far to join us and she seemed quite excited to join us on the hike to Ducks Pool on her second trip to the moor.
Raincoats and rain gear were the fashion of the day as we met Spannerman and Ali at the Princetown car park at our appointed time. Steve (Spannerman) had found a place where we could park our vehicles and cut down the hike to 5 miles roundtrip instead of the 8 miles that it should take. As we arrived at the spot to leave our cars, the clouds moved in and the mist made its way through the valley.As we hiked, Spannerman told me that while some stay home during the mist, he likes it. The mist "shows a different Dartmoor" and that "it helped add atmosphere to the moor" was how he described it. I spoke about being disappointed in our pictures of the last trip and we decided that you had to be there in person to sense the smells and the other sensory identifiers that made Dartmoor so unique. The mist, he believes, is just another of those sensory delights. Ali had never been to Ducks Pool so this would be a special day for her as well. Those from the group that didn't bring their own hiking sticks used the thumb sticks that Spannerman and his family had provided for us. For those of you that might visit Mark & Jacky at Blackadon, they are still there for those of you that would like to borrow them. Just as one of your hosts about them.
After passing an abandoned house, where we would later enjoy lunch resting on its stone wall, we headed past a small dam and marveled at the early technology of the mechanics involved in both opening and closing this early farm aid. As we set out, Steve said, we would be on a nice path on which to walk for about the first half of the 2.5 miles to stone monument that housed the box. The second half of the walk would be very uneven - walking over tufts of grass with high and low points and some holes until we reached our final destination.
Early on, we made a stop at the Hand Hill cross, which is Dartmoor's smallest cross. RustyPuff stood near the cross to give some perspective as to how diminutive this metal artifact really is. As the group set out again, we came upon an area that Steve pointed out that was now called Fox Tor Mire (a mire being another name for a bog or a wet soggy area.) The area's older name was Great Grimpen Mire - made famous in the Sherlock Holmes tale of the "Hounds of Baskerville."
The mist really began to move in on us - so much so that several times I would call out to the faster part of our group to hold up and wait for us. The last thing we wanted was to have one or two of the group go missing! Visibility was down to about 100 feet and I wanted to be sure that all of us were in view. The group didn't call me "the Daddy" for no reason. This name started on our last trip and was chosen by Alexis (Talking Turtle of NY) or Deanne, the Lazy Letterboxer. Whomever began the moniker, it stuck! Dave & Deanne even bought me a pin that says "I'm the Daddy" that we noticed in Tavistock later in the week.Walking was difficult as we encountered uneven moorland of tufts of grass, small holes and ditches where the spring and summers record precipitation had softened and changed the contour of the ground. After some time on this uneven surface, our legs and ankles grew quite tired.
GPS units helped identify that we were close to the box. As we got closer, the skies opened up and a driving rain began. Even rain on the moor is different than usual as it comes at you at an angle. Half of our faces were soaking wet; dripping with water while the other half remained dry. Those of us with glasses needed frequent "wiping stops" to ensure that we could see!
The group had previously decided that Butterfly would get the honor of opening the box which she did with the enthusiasm in which she approaches life. We all took turns stamping the box into our logbooks and leaving our own individual sig stamp images in the boxes hardbound logbook. We also stamped our team stamp, The Moor Tor-ists image.
Pictures were taken of many of us holding the metal box with its inscription as we had done at Cranmere Pool. After a brief and soggy lunch in the rain, the group set out for our return trip to the car. The sun came out as we headed back which enabled us to get a glimpse of the beautiful countryside that we had missed in the mist on our way in. As we arrived at the cars, we bid farewell to Jennifer of TeamKing who headed off home to her family.
Back to our surprise guests . . . Our guest turned out to be Malcolm and Angela Allderidge. But first, like always, there is a story to be told! In the beginning of August, I received an email from Malcolm, completely out of the blue, advising us that while reading our Dartmoor trip account from our last trip he noticed that I didn't mention anything about the boxes that were located in the Princetown gift shop at the prison there. I answered him that yes, we had found them and this correspondence developed into not only a friendship but the offer of help and the arrangement of plans beyond our wildest dreams.You see, our conduit to the wonderful meeting with Godfrey and Anne Swinscow last visit was through a series of emails with Sylvia and Tony Moore that originated with the request to purchase the Dartmoor Catalog of Clues. A friendship ensued and while we made arrangements to meet Sylvia and Tony that magical night at the Railway Inn that we've documented in our last trip diary, it was a last minute email just days before our departure when Sylvia began her email with "Do you mind if we bring Godfrey Swinscow with us to the Railway Inn?" After verifying it was the "God" that we all knew, plans were made. It seems that our visits to Dartmoor are touched by fate's hands!
Well this time we wouldn't be meeting with the Moore's due to Tony's bout with cancer. Several times during the year when he was doing better, I sent emails to them inquiring about his health and wishing them both our best. Those emails went unanswered so our hopes of meeting with them and Godfrey were dashed and something we had put up on a shelf for a future visit - this group would not meet Godfrey and that was all there was to it.
Enter Malcolm and our ongoing email correspondence. During one email, he mentioned that he had told Godfrey that we were returning and Godfrey asked if the group would mind meeting with him again for dinner at a mutually convenient location? Mind!? Of course, all of this was kept under our pinecone hats since only Sue & I knew about our special guest. Also, Malcolm went on to say, Anne said she would like to join us as well which really surprised Malcolm as he said Anne didn't participate in letterboxing events and mostly stayed at home. "You must have impressed her during your last visit" he said. I remember the group being a little wild and all I could think of was that she was looking forward to visiting with more crazy Americans. More about their visit with us later but I had to lay the groundwork for who Malcolm was and why his surprise visit really made our day.
Malcolm and Angela had just celebrated the birth of their newest grandchild and despite my inquiries, said he didn't think they could make it to meet with us. But - they had and here they were! They drove more than several hours to spend some time with us and Malcolm told me that it was all worth it when he saw the look on my face when he identified themselves! It was truly a special moment to meet this stranger who had helped us with some of the arrangements of this trip. The kindness of letterboxers was at work again!
While I made a cup of tea for Malcolm and Angela, who had already eaten on their 3 hour drive to meet us, we gave them some of the boxes I had brought from our last Dartmoor trip and some of our personal boxes. They told us to enjoy our meal and that they would be fine. On the floor of the living room were containers filled with letterboxes that caught my eye but more on that later.The group finished dinner while I told them the story of our introduction to Malcolm and the great surprise of their visit that evening. I couldn't tell them then that Malcolm had been instrumental in arranging our coming visit with God but would tell them later that week! Much had been written and we've been told that the Brits do not travel like we do in the US. They limit their travel, except when they holiday, to about an hour's drive tops - anything more than an hour's drive is considered excessive. But over the past several nights, various letterboxers had traveled many hours one way to meet our group - a most humbling experience that demonstrated the brotherhood of this hobby that extends past national borders.
After we sang "Happy Birthday" to Joe (Connie's husband) who celebrated his birthday that day and cut the surprise birthday cake that Jacky had baked for the occasion, the group made their way into the living room (lounge) and introduced themselves to the Allderidges.
"I brought you some stamps" he said. And that he did! About 85 of their special 1 day or limited series stamps - all beautifully designed by Angela with exceptional detail. While the group enjoyed stamping them in their logbooks and the kindness offered by Malcolm and Angela and by Ian and Caroline the previous night, we did not use these images in our boxing counts for our Dartmoor patches. Like in the US, our finds on Dartmoor were actual boxes that we found on the moor. We so appreciated all these locals did in offering us their images as Sue & I look at ourselves as "collectors of images." Since we don't count our boxes any longer - it really didn't matter. And we loved the intricate images that Angela had designed. One image was nicer than the next! After a delightful evening, we said goodbye with the hope that they might make the Plymouth letterboxing meeting that Wednesday in Plymouth.Once again, I was one of the last to go to bed as was RTRW. The excitement of the Ducks Pool trip and the surprise visit by Malcolm and Angela made for a well rounded dose of fun. And tomorrow, the complete group was headed to a scavenging area that Malcolm and Andy had discussed. Plans were made for Monday when the weather forecast promised sunny skies and our own forecast held for plenty of boxes.
Mark & Sue at Ducks PoolWet; but Happy!
