What was your most memorable day on the moor? - Dartmoor Letterboxing Archive

Nik - KOTM

2010-10-03 07:06:51

For me, my most memorable day has to have been after the last foot and mouth outbreak the day the moors reopened for public access. I got out there at 5.30 in the morning. A cool day, but beautiful day. I walked on ground that hadn't been trodden on for months by anything and it was like everything was new.

No worn out patches, no footprints and meeting no-one until 7:15 when I met a man out walking his dog, both of whom enjoying the new found freedom of the moor. I think I got 24 boxes for the day, but was happier that freedom was given back to us.

The Wandering Artist

2010-10-03 19:59:30

Sorry but cannot pin it down to one solitary day - quite a few but each for its own interest:

An very early morning walk around Bra Tor to Gt Links to Doe Tor late autumn when the frost was on the ground - seeing the tracks, wildlife and the changing scenery - an artists palet!

A quiet day near Browns House, sun shining, birds singing- but too quiet all of a sudden! Suddenly the sky behind turned a steel blue/ grey, dark and swirling - prelude to the horizontal fall of a snow blizzard that gave an instant 'white out' over the moor.

Mesmerised by the travels of a para glider over Sourton Tors for quite a while whilst I watched. Later read / and heard on the news that he had 'crashed' and gave all his details , injuries etc to the emergency services from his mobile phone. He was, it happens, a Doctor.

Many years ago at Nuns Cross Farm - looking for a 'Dragons' box embarrassedly 'met' a group of skinny dipping DOEA team young ladies in the leat.

Got a lot more but do not wish to bore you.

TWA

The Thinkers

2010-10-05 08:11:11

As stated by TWA - many of these are snippets of time which stay in the memory. Enjoyable, timeless and often accompanied by a touch of British humour!

Early days involved walks following guide books which often practised the art of understatement to classic lengths;

The walk begins with gentle incline (to describe the hike from Widecombe to Hameldon down! ). Or the weather forecast which predicts a light flurry of snow over high ground -which results in a white out at Cosden. My favourite; organised bands of light rain drifting in from the west Who is organising them ? and they certainly weren't light!

All of the above of course, along with those glorious sunny days give the moor that classic 'different place' feel which I'm sure most of us here have experienced - and find quite addictive.

K&A (The Thinkers)

The Nesty Crew

2010-10-15 21:02:41

Our most memorable day has to be our first day out boxing. We had no idea what we were looking for... we were clutching our book of clues and a rather naff compass, and we were wandering around aimlessly :?

The novilty was wearing rather thin, the girls were getting grumpy (me too if im honest!) and then the most amazing thing happened.... :o

My mother shrieked out loud that she had found something....She produced this tupperware container from under this huge rock and the remainder of The Nesty Crew just stood with mouths open. She said that our faces were a mixture of disbelief, horror & happiness. My mothers face was also full of disbelief, horror & happiness. :shock:

It felt like we had won the lottery or found hidden treasure. We handled the container so carefully and looked through the book as if it should be in a museum :D I knew then that we would become addicts and the story of our first "find" would never be forgotten. The photo of my mother clutching the "box" is the funniest and i can't help but laugh SO much when ever i look at it....shame we didn't get a photo of our faces, mouths open!! :lol:

Definately the best day on the moors closely followed by every other day since... come rain or shine, snow or sun... the moors are just the most amazing place :D

~~[img="~~http://i769.photobucket.com/albums/xx338/thenestycrew/IMG_0050.jpg" alt=""]

devon steamer

2010-10-16 17:58:18

wow three great stories,i love the skinny dipping one well funny,the only really funny thing that happened to me was on western beacon while talking to my daughter i asked what is that noise,she replied what noise,that swooshing noise it turned out to be the dog sprinting after my apple core who was on a extener lead well you can guess what happened next the dog ran out of lead and i became stretch armstrong,nearly took my arm off,well keep up the great stories,hears to the 31st cant wait

Thor

2010-11-05 22:57:48

Hi all,

Well, most memorable....first is from about 25 yrs ago. Being traipsed up to the Cowsic Head in the middle of winter to get a poxy stamp. I fell in a bog, got soaked and nearly froze. That was memorable, but for all the wrong reasons! :roll:

The second is from this year. My girlfriend, dog and I took a trip up to Haytor for the day. It was brilliantly sunny but cold. Ground was clear and not a patch of snow anywhere.

However, by the time we had walked around the back of Haytor we were in a whiteout. The sky had closed in and just thrown everthing it had at the moor. We were well prepared (I was trying out my new GPS that I had been given for Christmas) and not far from civilisation so we just enjoyed the event and had an awesome snowball fight, dog included (he likes to catch and eat them).

When it stopped snowing and the sky cleared a bit the landscape was just stunning. Very reminiscent of Narnia. That is why I love dartmoor so much :D

Gemma

2010-11-13 18:23:40

30/10/1997 our 5000 box which was owned by Tony & Sylvia.

The Sly Fox

2010-11-17 11:42:55

My most memorable day on Dartmoor has to be my first trip to Cranmere Pool.

We left from Princetown nice and early and visited Beardown Man, Crow Tor, Devil's Tor, Cut Hill, Fur Tor and numerous other places. We found over fifty boxes that day. Not bad considering we only wanted the Beardown Man and Cranmere Pool boxes.

The only downside was that it turned out to be the hottest day I can remember and we ran out of water. I still cannot forgive the weather forcasters.

We went to Duck's Pool the following day and found another fifty plus boxes. It was a memorable weekend all told.