Boxing Buddy to sue Travel Agent!

My new Boxing Buddy — Britannia Bear has arrived. With a name like Britannia she thought she should come to absorb all things British, and in particular British Letterboxing, before she continues her travels elsewhere.

On Monday we had the worst floods I have ever seen. A large proportion of the East Riding, and 96% of Kingston Upon Hull is below sea level. In addition the city is built on both the Humber Estuary and the River Hull, therefore you might think it is not surprising that we have had floods. This flooding however was not caused by rivers overflowing, but by rainfall. We had two months worth of rain all in one day. It was torrential, and never eased in the entire 24hrs.It was the continued ferocity which was so unexpected. I often think news reporters find the only bit of flooding for miles around and stand in it to make the news worth broadcasting. This was not the case on Monday, the floods were all over the city, trains in and out of the city came to a stop and I have friends whose houses and cars are still, 5 days later, standing in 4 foot of water. Thankfully all that happened to my own home was about 4 inches of water flooding the garden and garage, just missing the tumble dryer that is on blocks in the garage.

Prior to setting off Britannia had seen photo's of the high life Boxing Buddy : Goldie was living and so it came as something of a shock to find herself sat in an old margarine tub, wearing a newspaper hat to protect herself from the rain, rescuing scrappy bits of PZ Kut from the debris in the flood water around her :-( Just wait until she gets home to sue her travel agent. FlyGirl409 had better get herself a good lawyer!

So what do all good letterboxers do when it is wet?

Go letterboxing of course! Britannia and I decided to stay local in view of all the recent rain and at the earliest opportunity we set off to find some letterboxes. Unfortunately, we had only just got out of the city when we encountered a diversion on the road due to flooding, cutting off access to the areas we wanted. Knowing my way around very well I thought I would just wriggle around the back roads to where we wanted to be. This worked very well until we came out further along the main road, this time to find the police diverting the traffic again. Sat in my nice dry house I hadn't appreciated that almost a week after the floods the main roads are still affected, and it was at this point we decided give up trying to do any letterboxing in the wild.

Nevertheless there is more than one way to skin a rabbit and hardened letterboxers like myself and Britannia easily found other ways to letterbox. First we ventured out into the garden where, as mentioned before, there are some 'Other' letterboxes. Next Britannia asked me to get out my Personal Traveller — "please". She had heard that English Personal Travellers mostly only had to be asked for and was relieved that she didn't have to learn a poem, sing a song, or worse still do a dance in order to obtain it.

Once all the logbooks and pens had been put away Britannia thought we should switch the computer on and have a look at Atlas Quest for some clues to letterboxes which we would hopefully be able to search for soon. Britannia found an empty Coke can to sit on. The can was empty as the contents had been spluttered over the keyboard whilst reading some funny remark made by one of many witty Atlas Quest members. Spluttering coke is a common occurrence on AQ by all accounts. How can you have laughter on a virtual message board I hear you ask? I have no idea, but one thing I do know and that is loads of laughter and great friendship can be found on AQ, which totally justifies it being called a community.

Looking at the computer, Britannia found a clue to a letterbox called Atlas Quest, which is hidden up on the moors. Writing the clue down for future use, the time had come to teach Britannia how to read Ordnance Survey Maps. (Click on the photo to enlarge it if you wish) These are topographical maps and without them, and a compass, it would not be safe to go walking on the moors. Britannia opened out the map, which was huge! How she would cope if it was windy she didn't know. The red and yellow lines for the major and minor roads were obvious and she noticed at once that there was a sharp bend in the main road. Blue lines indicated becks and rivers and the black dashed line is the railway line. Brown lines were contour lines, and the closer together the brown lines are the steeper the hills. The groups of tiny black dashes everywhere were symbols which indicated heathland. I instructed Britannia that she should be careful to watch out for areas where this symbol changed to a blue colour as this indicated marshland and was to be avoided at all costs. She didn't like the sound of that and even worse — she had found an area between her paws, marked in red, which said DANGER AREA. I explained that this was Military land, often with unexploded ordnance on it, although there were still a few footpaths across it that we could walk on as they were rights of way. However I reassured her that I had no intention of taking her to that area, in any case it would be a waste of time as there are no letterboxes on Military land here in Yorkshire.

Goodbye Mini-Bug

This account of Mini-Bug's last adventure is rather late as I did not have time to post it before my weeks holiday in Ireland. I expect Mini-Bug is already home in America, with her owner Trouble Bug, but never the less here is the story of her last excursion.

Mini-Bug had hoped her last letterboxing expedition, before returning home to America, would be to the seaside. She had heard the sea was nearby but alas her hopes were to be dashed. The seaside is indeed only 20 minutes away but there are, as yet, no letterboxes hidden there. To console her I offered to take her to the next best place, the Humber Estuary, on which this city is built.

The nearest fishing village on the estuary used to have a big shrimping industry working out of it, and it was here beside the old lighthouse and fishermens cottages that we parked. The day was rather dull but the lighthouse and cottages still stood out with their whitewashed walls. It is a rather stumpy little lighthouse, but I am sure many sailors have been glad of the warning light that came from it. Both the lighthouse and the cottages are now converted into private residences and a light no longer shines out from the lamproom.

Walking beside the estuary Mini-Bug came across some strange rusted iron hoops that were protruding from the concrete breakwater. These were all that remained of the piers where the fishing boats had tied up in days gone by. It is a very apt place to have a letterbox about trawlermen. Hull was once the greatest Deep-Sea Trawling port in the world and the crews who sailed from here were given a nickname of 'Yorkies' by the fishermen on the other trawlers. Now all that has gone and the last time I heard we were down to only two trawlers sailing out of the Port of Hull.

Mini-Bug was busy reading the clue, and giving me directions - as if I didn't know where to go (it was one of my boxes I wanted to do maintenance on)! We followed the path along the flood barriers and she got so engrossed in stepping out the paces that she failed to notice the barbed wire fence until *Wham* she was caught on a barb! I managed to extract her and as the letterbox was at the base of the post she was soon far too busy stamping up to worry anymore about it. As we returned to the car two boats sailed by down the estuary, causing quite a wash in their wake.

The time had now come to say goodbye to Mini-Bug. She was looking forward to her journey back home as this time she would have a companion - Yorkshire Tyke. Yorkshire Tyke was venturing out on her first travels to America and Mini-Bug was going to introduce Yorkshire Tyke to Trouble Bug and help her to feel at home before setting out on further travels herself.

Goodbye Mini-Bug, I hope you had a good journey home and thank you for being such a fun Boxing Buddy to take with me on my letterboxing trips this month.

Abandoned

A lovely day dawned, the moors beckoned and Mini-Bug had no idea of the traumatic experience she would have today. We were excited because we had a new letterbox ready to replace an old 1990's one which had gone missing. The old box had been called Holiday Hill (it had been made from an 1 x 1.5 inch eraser and the image can be seen here).

First we had to take the footpath towards a moorland cross, it is the tallest cross on the moors, but I think rather ugly, as it is a nineteenth century replacement for the original cross which fell down. This photo shows how the ancient moorland crosses dominated the skyline and why they were such a good guide for travellers on the moor.

For now our path headed away from the cross, down a hill and Mini-Bug was determined she would find a very good spot for the new box. On her previous journeys she had noticed several stone cairns and thought they would make a great place to hide a box. I had to explain that cairns were not a good choice as two things tended to happen to them. Firstly people passing by tended to add further stones to them, which could completely engulf a letterbox. Secondly other people liked to knock them down and this would expose our letterbox. We pressed on and eventually found a hiding spot that both of us thought was suitable to hide the letterbox. Minibug sat down on a nearby boulder to check the box over one last time, getting out her compass, paper and pen ready to write the clues.

Once finished, we headed back and as we neared the cross once again, Mini-Bug decided she ought to have her photograph taken with it. When we reached it Mini-Bug posed against the shaft of the cross. Before I could take the photograph my mobile phone rang. Quickly taking off my rucksack I was able to extract and answer it just before the ringing stopped. I don't normally turn my mobile phone on when I am walking, just carry it with me for emergencies. Today I had left it turned on because I knew my friends were going to be letterboxing on the moor and might try to phone me. Sure enough that was who it was. They were having a good day too and wondered if they could meet Mini-Bug. We made arrangements for later in the day and then I packed the phone back in my rucksack, slung it on my back and headed off down the hill.

At the bottom of the hill I suddenly thought 'Were is Mini-Bug?' ''BLOOMIN' 'ECK!'' I had left Mini-Bug lent against the cross waiting to have her photo taken! Quickly I dashed back - as fast as I was able with a rucksack of letterboxing gear on my back - and got there just as some walkers were approaching. Mini-Bug was still lent against the cross, abandoned and in the middle of having a panic attack. I quickly scooped her up out of the sight of the walkers and, once well away from discovery, laid her down on a rock to recover from the shock! Eventually she came round enough to notice that she was laid next to some rather pretty heather that was just beginning to flower. There were only a few small pockets of heather flowering at the moment, but soon the whole moor would be covered in purple.

Quickly trying to think of something to take Mini-Bug's mind off her ordeal I offered to show her the first letterbox ever planted in this area. Mini-Bug immediately brightened up, and we set off to find it. It is a fairly easy box to find and has remained more or less dry all these years. The original visitors book did get a little damp at one time, as can be seen by a few of the wrinkled pages but it has long since dried off and all the signature stamps can be seen and comments read. The stamp is just a simple one, as it had been drawn by me — and I am no artist! A new, second visitors book was placed in the box last year alongside the old one. This is a rather more superior visitors book this time, as the box now has a place in our letterboxing heritage. Mind you the book is not a handmade one such as our creative American letterboxing cousins would have made for such a special box. Having read the books from cover to cover, Mini-Bug stamped in — very proud she was! We carefully packed everything back into the box and replaced it, taking care not to call attention to what we were doing, as this is near a high traffic tourist spot. Of course when I placed it all those years ago, I wanted to show off one of our most beautiful spots, but now I never cease to be amazed that it has not been muggled. Thank you to all those visitors who have rehidden it so carefully.

It was time to meet up with my friends. Mini-Bug was excited because she had a special American surprise for them stowed away in her carrying case. We arrived at the allotted place, and they joined us shortly afterwards. Immediately they wanted to meet Mini-Bug and when her case was opened, out she jumped — and so did a Flea! They had never seen a Flea Letterbox before (as this a totally American type of letterbox) and I don't know if they were more fascinated with Mini-Bug or the Flea! The Flea had been made by a young gentleman in America and sent all the way over to me. The stamp for this flea had even been drawn by the young man. I could never draw anything that well! It had a darling little logbook which closes with a tiny clasp. I had infested my mother with it, who had then infested Mini-Bug with it because she said it was exactly the right size for Mini-Bug. Now it was Mini-Bug's turn to infest my friends.

Once things had settled down Mini-Bug asked them if they had a Personal Traveller, and as they carried one in their rucksack she was able to stamp into that. Stamping into a proper English Personal Traveller, what excitement — although *whispering* truth to tell, exactly the same as Personal Travellers at home in America :-)

A Very British Letterbox!

Setting out for the moor once again, Mini-Bug was surprised to find that we were in fact going to be letterboxing in some woodland. Whilst the Moor is the largest area of continuous heathland in the country, there are plenty of forests and woods as well.

Bluebells in the woodlands are a wonderful sight, unfortunately the time for a whole carpet of Bluebells on the woodland floor is over, but I was pleased to be able to show Mini-Bug a few which where still in bloom along our route today. Bluebell woods are usually 'old' woodland and typically British and this area of woodland was no exception.

Mini-Bug was interested to see the topographical maps (Ordnance Survey Sheets) which we use for letterboxing. There were symbols for the different types of tree growing in an area of woodland. Coniferous trees, non-coniferous and coppice were three common symbols. She was amazed that you could tell what sort of trees we would see without even setting foot in the area.

Anyway studying our map closely, and combining it with the compass and clue directions we managed to find our first letterbox. Mini Bug sat down on a nearby log and was rather startled and horrified to find herself absolutely surrounded by ants (unfortunately they are so well camouflaged against this log you need very good eyesight to see them in this photo). These were wood ants and Mini Bug had unfortunately sat on a log right next to a thigh high ant hill!

Jumping up very quickly she kicked over the visitors book, which fell open to the last page. That was when she noticed another clue written there. It was a clue to a bonus box - Hurrah! This box was hidden just a few paces away and under a fallen tree branch. The stamp was a double sided one - yellow on one side and deep blue on the other. It was very tricky to line up correctly. We inked up the yellow side first, it is always easier to do the light colour first and also helps to keep the markers clean. Then we did the deep blue side. It was totally impossible to stamp it without getting ink all over ourselves — talk about inky fingers, however once achieved it was a lovely image.

Packing everything away and replacing the boxes (plenty of fallen leaves to use as camouflage) we started to move on to the next position. The clue told us to walk down towards a glade. A glade is an open area in a woodland and looking down the track we could see a lovely sunny area in front. Surely that would be where the glade was. We found the box, tucked into a hole at the side of an ancient tree trunk and here you can see Mini Bug with all her letterboxing paraphernalia ready to stamp in.

As we were driving home through a rather pretty village I suddenly heard a rather squeaky voice shouting ''Stop, stop, stop''. I immediately stamped my foot on the brake and squeeched to a halt only to find Mini-Bug — ever the tourist — had spotted a bright red BRITISH COUNTRY LETTERBOX and wanted her photograph taken next to it! I supposed I was going to have to get used to this if I was going to have American letterboxing visitors staying with me *sigh*, and dutifully got out my camera and took a few snaps :-)

From Freezing to Boiling!

This is ridiculous! In my last blog I was complaining of how suddenly cold it was, and today - only a week later - it is suddenly hot. I am sure some mad scientist is experimenting with the weather. By 9.30am Mini-Bug and I had reached the starting point for today's ramble, already it was 22ºC and I was setting off in a tee-shirt.

No sooner had we started out than Mini-Bug, ever watchful for friendly Yorkshire bugs, met up with a local Millipede. When she had finished chatting we were amazed to find the track was absolutely covered with them. Mini-bug, with her thin legs, had no trouble walking between them, but she was very concerned about my giants feet as every time I took a step it was impossible not to crush one or two.

When she stopped looking out for Millipedes on the track, Mini-bug looked up and nearly had a heart attack when she saw the length of the bridlepath we were going to hike. There was even more of it that couldn't yet be seen too. Today we were in search of the remains of an ancient cross which would eventually be beside this track.

Glad that she was inside her air-conditioned red carrying case, Mini-Bug refused to come out until we had reached our first destination. All that remains of this ancient cross, is the base and a stump. There are many reasons why crosses were erected but the majority, particularly here on the moor, were built to act as guides or waymarkers for old roads. This bridlepath had once upon a time, been a highway between the local market towns and other villages. These days, people motoring over the moors read County Council road signs to find where to go. For hundreds of years before the motor car people had been crossing the moors on business and using the crosses to tell them when to turn off onto another track, or where to avoid crags and bogs. I love to imagine all the people in the past who must have used this same highway that I was now walking on, to get to the market - perhaps they travelled on a pony and trap - everyone stopping to chat to those on foot and pass the time of day.

As usual Mini-Bug climbed out of her case to have her photograph taken. On the Atlas Quest UK board we had recently been discussing trig. points and bench marks. Here is a photo of Mini-Bug sat above such a bench mark which has been carved on the base of the cross. You can see how, for a while, I thought it might be some pagan sign etched onto the ancient cross, instead of which it is all to do with land surveyors and establishing the vertical height above sea level. Very complicated, but obviously they had no regard for causing damage to an ancient artefact. You can see bench marks carved into all sorts of boundary stones, walls and other buildings. If something ancient was close at hand they chiselled into it!

Anyway, finally we got down to the business of hunting for two of the letterboxes we were hoping to find. Plodding on we found our first one which was, of course, about Moorland Crosses. Opening it up we were delighted to find it completely dry. It had been planted in 1992 and had obviously remained dry all that time because the visitor book was in perfect condition. It was thrilling to see all the signature stamps of the people who had visited it over the years. Mini-Bug added her signature stamp to the others in the book. It was amazing to think that when the box was planted Boxing Buddies were unheard of, indeed it was unthought of that letterboxing might travel to other parts of the world. Mini-Bug was very proud to stand beside the first entries in the book for her photograph.

Next we were on the hunt for a Mushroom, Mini-Bug was already familiar with this series, as she had found one on her first letterboxing expedition on the Moors. The one we wanted today was a Yellow Staining Mushroom. Again we found it, exactly where it had been hidden all those years ago. Sadly however this one was waterlogged and the book unreadable. Nevertheless we dried it out, gave it a new visitor book, and stamped in. When this box was made erasers were the only things available to carve on. This was quite restricting sizewise, but larger stamps were made by mounting several erasers on a piece of wood using double sided carpet tape to hold them in position. Despite all the years of being wet, the stamp had survived and was still capable of providing a good image in Mini-Bug's logbook. Many Americans seem to have got hold of the idea that we only have bought stamps in our letterboxes in England. This photograph should
hopefully right that impression, showing that even in the 1980's and 1990's we were carving stamps ourselves :-)