A return to letterboxing

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

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Thor
Drifter
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Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2010 6:44 pm
Location: East Budleigh

A return to letterboxing

Post by Thor »

Hi everyone!

Well, I started letterboxing in the early 80's. My Dad was a Marine and loved yomping for miles on the Moor, and as soon as I was old enough I joined him.

Between us we managed to collect our first 100 and became members of the 100 club. I can remember the meets in Princetown, although not very well as I was quite young then. More so I can remember the miles of Moor walked, every stone being looked under in anticipation and the triumph of finding a box. I used to love nothing more than being out in the open air and the feeling of freedom that came with it. For years me and my Dad scoured the Moor, clue book in hand and added to our collection.

And then time marches on. My Dad passed away and with him my love for the Moor. I grew up, got a job and forgot all about letterboxing.
Sometime last year I found myself going through an old box of his possessions and amongst them was a photo album. When I opened it there were no photos, but pieces of card with letterbox stamps on them, most dating from 1986! Looking at them I could remember almost every little adventure out to collect them. Now my memory had been jogged, along with it came a want to go and visit the Moor to have a look for some more boxes. But, as usual, things get in the way and it was mostly forgotten about.

So, along came a new dog and the need for a big area to walk him in. Once again, the love for Dartmoor was rekindled and along with it, the longing to go letterboxing.

My girlfriend joined us and after finding a few boxes around Saddle Tor, she too was bitten by the bug. However, most of these were childrens boxes and I really wanted to start looking in earnest for some of the really good quality stamps that I new would be around somewhere.

I recently obtained a 2008 clue book and we have managed to get a few days of searching under our belts. The book is much bigger and the amount of boxes much higher than I can remember, but I suppose thats to be expected. We have found many childrens boxes, but also some of the boxes in the book. Some are missing, some are damaged and some...we just can't b****y find, no matter how long and hard we look. :roll:

Anyway, thats it. The bug has bitten again, we are going to attend the meet and work towards our first hundred. We just have to think of an alias, get a stamp made and maybe put some boxes out ourselves. I am so glad I have re-discovered this wonderful hobby :)
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