Back to letterboxing

A brief description on how you were bitten by the letterbox bug

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Bambam897
Drifter
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Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2013 7:15 pm
Location: Bath

Back to letterboxing

Post by Bambam897 »

I have known about letterboxing since the 90s when a family friend took us for a walk in the area around possibly Leather Tor. I remember spending a happy afternoon turning over rocks and finding around about 10 letterboxes. Back then there seemed to be a lot of other people all doing the same thing. It was a happy day (and the sun was shining)

My next encounter with a letterbox was by accident while geocaching I started finding them but the first few I found I didn't have a stamp kit on me nor a notebook however from about 2014 onwards I started carrying the letterboxing kit with me on the off chance that I might find some. In this way I managed to find just under 30 scattered in a wide area across the whole moor.

In 2015 I found out about the catalogue and tried to obtain a copy despite not having reached '100'. I was informed back then that I could have one but think my cheque was lost in the post, it was a busy year and then I forgot all about it.

In 2020 I managed to buy on Ebay a 2014 catalogue. We tried to find about 8 of them while on a wild camping walk found none. (Note to self - letterboxing and wild camping is difficult due to weight of bag)

Roll on to 2022 I am looking at facebook and see a load of charity walks advertised. Geocaching has faded a bit for me and if I am on the moor I would rather do letterboxes only as I think its more fun and everyone can have a go with taking compass bearings rather than using just a gps, so I send in a donation for 1 of them and receive the details for 11 or so boxes. However I contacted the 100 club catalogue person on the off chance that I could get a catalogue and they said yes - to my great surprise. And several days later a spring 2022 catalogue arrived with a thunk on the doormat.

Have now plotted on the map just under 40 boxes in the same area as the charity walk for a go at letterboxing with my Dad and girlfriend. Hopefully we have a good chance at finding some of them this time!
Dartymoor
Hiker
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Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2011 7:15 pm
Location: Hennock

Re: Back to letterboxing

Post by Dartymoor »

Sounds great, thanks for the history. Plotting the locations is half the fun for me, and I also try to be efficient by grouping them together with others, plus some geocaches too. Not been out too much lately though, but hoping to do more soon.
Moortrekkers
Ambler
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Location: Somerset

Re: Back to letterboxing

Post by Moortrekkers »

Good story Bambam.. sure I have seen you in some caches..
The best days on Dartmoor for me is about 50/50 caching / letterboxing.

Interesting info.. I'm Sure Simon will put me straight on caching numbers but I estimate approx 2000 caches on Dartmoor.. at the moment. As for letterboxing I have friends that have collected between 70 and 80000 letterboxes over the last 40 years. Many of these have disappeared over time either taken in, broken, lost, stolen.. but many remain long forgotten about - like time capsules- so you never know what you are going to come across when you do your random searching-- good luck anyway, and thank you Simon for getting this site back up.
Bambam897
Drifter
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Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2013 7:15 pm
Location: Bath

Re: Back to letterboxing

Post by Bambam897 »

So we had a rather successful weekend of letterboxing.

On Friday we found 2! Yes I know its low but we only searched for 4 in an area on the southern moor that didn't have many and we found the remains of a another letterbox but we weren't sure if it was the one we were searching for.

On Saturday we started out and found none for the first hour and then just before lunch we found Moor Cats 7. In the afternoon we found a lot more, some of them were charity ones and some were from a series called Little Myths with a few others. We met the owner of the Little Myths series while we were there plus bumped into a couple of other guys who were letterboxing and doing the charity series.

To round off the day I found an unlisted letterbox with a Canadian stamp in it. Total finds 14 :D

We used the OS Locate app to put us in the right grid 100m square and then used compass bearings and clues to zero in on the letterbox.

Glad we found some both my Dad and girlfriend want to find more as well!
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