Boxing with a Buddy

2,752 miles !

2007-10-09T10:25:00.000+01:00

Farley is fed up with travelling around Great Britain! It has been most unproductive on the letterboxing front. First he went to Dartmoor, where he only had time to find one letterbox — and even that was a pub one :-(
Then he travelled around Scotland, from Loch Lomond at one end to Dunnet Head at the other. Whilst Farley longed to find Scottish Letterboxes, the people driving the car didn't seem to understand the necessity of going out of their way to get to the clue starting points, and sadly he had to content himself with admiring the scenery.
So.... it was something of a relief when Farley found himself back in Yorkshire! Hurrah, he knew he would find letterboxes here. The very next day he packed his bag and set off for the moors. Farley liked to find letterboxes about the moorland crosses as they usually contained some interesting history. The first one he was searching for was named after Ernaldus de Percy, a local landowner in ancient times. The cross used to stand on top of a howe, but was moved to it's present site in 1961 when the howe was excavated. The cross at that time did have a shaft, but sadly all that remains now is the base socket stone.
Farley dug out his clue which began at the cross. It led him to the exact spot and the box was safe in it's hiding place. Hurray a letterbox at last! Then within a few minutes he found two other letterboxes nearby. Fantastic, Farley was so pleased with himself, it was a wonderful feeling to find so many after such a famine. He sat down to take his time with them, reading all the information where it was readable, looking at each stamp and adding them to his own logbook, whilst also admiring the countryside around him. Farley could even see the sea in the distance from where he sat. The first of the letterboxes had been planted here in 1992. Sadly everything was very wet and the visitors book unreadable, but the stamp was still there with no wear and tear - just a little grubby. We had supplies with us including a nice new Lock n'Lock, so we were able to completely refurbish it. The other two letterboxes were dry and their visitor books had quite a few signatures in them.

Packing away his felt-tips (yes, Farley is learning to speak English too! Felt-tips = markers) into his bag he decided he wanted one more Cross letterbox before he went home. We set off to find White Cross. This is a rather different type of cross, squat, fat and without the usual long shaft. Once again, following the clue, Farley eventually found his letterbox. In the front of the visitors book it told of old legends about the cross and how it got its local nickname. A name which comes from the stone's considerable girth and probably would not be considered politically correct nowadays! One legend is that there was a boundary dispute between Baysdale Abbey and Rosedale Abbey. Old Ralph was the guide who took Sister Betty up to Rosedale Head to meet Sister Marjory. They were all lost in a dense sea roak, so Old Ralph left Sister Betty at the White Cross and set off to find Sister Margery. When the mist cleared Sister Betty climbed onto the top of the cross and was able to see Ralph and Margery standing at 2 separate stones only a few hundred yards away. Ralph is reputed to have marked the position of the stones and given them their names.

That was the end of Farley's letterboxing day this time, but he is already looking forward to finding more at the weekend.

Farley attends a Meet.

2007-09-04T11:38:00.001+01:00

Farley was very excited to hear that we were going to stay with some friends of mine for the weekend of THE MEET. I was all packed. My walking rucksack contained clues, compass, stamping in the wild gear and spare visitors books/plastic bags for repairs. My Meet rucksack had good pens, inks, personal travellers, spare index cards and swap boxes. My boots, walking socks, fleece, waterproof and walking stick were all gathered together. Farley just sat in amazement watching me put it all into the car. Farley got in too, and just as I was about to set off I suddenly remembered - I was going to need a toothbrush, toothpaste and pyjama's. Oh heck, I hadn't thought about that! I had to unlock the house, rush in and quickly toss some overnight gear into a carrier bag.

Finally we set off for the drive over to the other side of Yorkshire. When we arrived the first to greet us was Lily the Labrador. Lily took Farley indoors and they sat together whilst we had a cup of tea and cake. Farley was so pleased to meet another dog. Lily immediately became Farley's hero when he spotted Lily's Dartmoor 100 dog tag on her collar. Lily is a registered Dartmoor letterboxing dog, — number 510! They sat and talked for ages about letterboxing and Lily was astounded to hear that Farley was a Boxing Buddy all the way from West Virginia, USA. We finally took them for a walk onto the moor to practice British letterbox hunting. Farley was so relieved to discover that they weren't inside those big red British letterboxes standing on the side of pavements. They were much too visible and sure to be muggled. Once all the boxes had been found, stamped into and hidden again properly Farley asked for a photograph to be taken with me, which we did. So those of you who wish to know what I look like — here you are :-D

The next morning was THE MEET. We all got up early as we had to get there in time to plant the letterboxes we had prepared especially for the day. We had decided that in order to save time later, Lily and Farley would go and plant their boxes, then swop clues to go and find them before the gathering at lunch time. That would leave the field clear for everyone else to find them in the afternoon. Farley and I set off first because Lily wanted time to tidy up her basket before leaving.

When we arrived on the Moors we set off to plant our box. In the time we had allowed ourselves we couldn't find a spot we really liked (it is always the way when you think it will be easy), but we managed to find a hiding place that would do for the Meet, we could change the clues later. Farley had brought a Cuckoo with her to plant in my box too. You can see the cuckoo through the lid, and you can see Farley planting the box. (I mention this because of what happened later). We got back to the car and had hardly started to write the clues out properly when Lily arrived saying she had finished planting hers. Gosh, that was quick, she was obviously very well prepared and all that letterboxing experience was paying off. We swopped clues and set off to find Lily's boxes.

As we walked along Farley loved the signs on the gates along the footpath and wanted his photograph taken to prove where he had been. He worked out one of the clues and found it without too much trouble. There was no-one around so he retrieved it and took it to stamp up on the trunk of a fallen tree that made a very handy table. He was really able to spread himself out.

Packing everything up we moved on to the next box. Once again no-one was around and Farley retrieved it without trouble. When he opened the box up Farley couldn't believe his eyes — there was the Little Lost Lamb Cuckoo — you can see it tucked into the corner of the letterbox. What?...... Our first thought was that we had not planted it in our own box, but had somehow picked it up on our clothes or something and now dropped it in the box. No, no, no.... we had definitely left it planted in our letterbox and we had the photo on the camera to prove it. Then we realised that Lily must have found our box, and come back to plant it here somehow, but how had she got past us? We hadn't seen anyone! Perhaps Lily had come down the footpath from the opposite direction, but that was an awfully long way. How had Lily managed to do everything so quickly? We knew she was a Dartmoor Letterboxing Dog, but this was amazing!

Anyway we had to get back, it was nearly lunch time and we wanted to meet everyone. The gathering place was at a pub nearby. It was lucky an indoor venue had been chosen, because whilst the weather was great for letterboxing, it would have been a bit grey and cold to sit outdoors and chat. We were the first to arrive. Marjorie, the AtlasQuest spring chick, came next and she stood on the table in case anyone was unsure about who we were. Ukusa, the organizer of the meet, was the next and what a marvellous job she had done. Amongst other things she had lists for us to check our finds against and a wonderful AQ gathering stamp. Gradually everyone trickled in from their morning's letterboxing. The table became covered in stamps, inks, and logbooks. It was great fun learning from Ukusa the American way with things such as exchanges, we taught her the British way with things such as Parasites. It was a real mixture of American/English letterboxing, totally different from any other Meet and it was great to feel we were all AtlasQuest folk, and experience a little of the things we read about on the AQ message boards. We hardly had time to stop and eat there was such a stamping frenzy!

At last we got a moment to ask Lily how the cuckoo had managed to move. Apparently they had been so quick that Lily had indeed found it in our box, and had come back to put it in Lily's box before we found it. She had been so quick that she had sneaked past us as we were stamping into the first box we found, then away again. We were so busy inking up that we hadn't seen her at all. We were never going to live this down, what slow letterboxers we were!

One letterboxer had come all the way from Scotland, just for the Meet and everyone was thrilled with his Personal Traveller, Cow Pie — hmmm......Yum. We also met some letterboxers who have been letterboxing on the moor almost since it began here 17 years ago. It was great to talk to them because I had only met them once before, at last years 101 Meet, all because of the internet. It has certainly enabled communication.

Finally we all swapped the clues to the letterboxes that we had planted that morning and also swapped some boxes to plant when we got home. Of course, once the clues were swapped everyone wanted to head out to find them so that was the end to the Meet :-)

Introducing Farley.

2007-09-03T07:43:00.000+01:00

Farley has arrived just in time to attend The Great British AtlasQuest Meet. For those of you who haven't already read about his first attempts at British Letterboxing you can find the story here:-

Farley's Blogsite

Farley's adventures at the meet will be appearing on my blogsite here shortly — just as soon as I have had time to return to normality. That is, if you call making up stories about soft toys finding plastic boxes normal !

A Magical Mystery Tour

2007-08-05T16:14:00.001+01:00

Harry Potter is a very British Wizard. With all the talk of his new book Britannia Bear thought we really ought to go in search of the series of letterboxes which was named after him and had been hidden here on the moors. If she was to return to America with tales of Britain to tell her future hosts, then she must certainly know all about those British magical places.

The village railway station had been used in the film as Hogsmeade Station, and the surrounding countryside for scenes of The Hogwarts Express travelling along the railway. As Hogsmeade Station is the closest stop to Hogwarts then it stands to reason we must be letterboxing in Hogwarts countryside!!! After all letterboxes can't be seen they just appear, like magic — if you have a clue :-)

Britannia was very excited to be visiting the station. First we took a photo of the station itself, then we walked into the ticket office to buy a platform ticket. We loved the sign over the door out to the platform. It was from a time much more innocent than ours, when people making signs just spelt words how they pronounced them, and there were no spelling police to point their mistakes out to them.

Whilst out on the platform Britannia would not let me put the camera away and wanted her photo taking everywhere. She sat on the platform bench for one photo, as the name of the station was on the back of it. Then she insisted on sitting precariously above the railway line because the bridge was the one which could be seen in the film, a photo of which can be found by clicking here

Finally I persuaded Britannia to come and look for the letterboxes. These are not placed near the station as the area is much too touristy and the boxes would be muggled in a second. First we went to find the letterbox that is named after the station. It took some looking for but eventually Britannia spied it and had a terrific struggle to pull it out.

After stamping into Hogsmeade Station, the next one we looked for was 'Post Office'. Whilst up in the village Britannia had her photo taken in front of the Village Post Office, — yes there she is — tucked into the postcards to one side of the red letterbox! She thought it was wonderful that the window should be so full of bears, even though the inside of the post office was full of Owls.

Britannia was running out of the correct coloured inks for the stamps and the last thing she wanted to do was use the wrong colour. Sometimes you don't have exactly the colour that is needed, but when that happens you can always huff on the stamp. It will usually have enough ink left from the last person to make an impression. Of course it is also OK to use a similar colour, but never black or dark colours that are nothing like the right colour. This makes it so hard for the next person to get rid of and is very inconsiderate, unless of course you clean it up thoroughly afterwards. Britannia thought they would have just what she needed at Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, which is the stationary shop in the High Street.

Inside Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop Britannia found there were ink pads and pens in every colour you could think of, and they had just the colour she needed. The inside of our own Webfoot's Stampeaz , which is a letterboxers paradise, must be a bit like Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop.

Next Britannia had to fight her way through heather, which was almost taller than herself, to reach the last letterbox. If you look hard enough - or click on the photo to enlarge it - you will eventually find Britannia ploughing through the heather (this weeks Where's Wally photo) This letterbox is about Honeyduke's Sweet Shop

Looking in the window of the shop in the High Street is quite a mouthwatering experience. There is everything anyone could possibly want here, including Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

That was the last of the boxes to be found, but what we haven't told you is that Britannia found a clue to a Bonus Box in the back of one of the letterboxes. This Bonus Box can be found in a Dragons cave, and Britannia was very brave looking for it. Once she found it she had to make an enormous effort to lift the pen in order to colour it in properly. Then she had to pluck up her courage once more, to replace it back in the dragons lair. Her fur did get a little singed as she insisted on tucking the box it right away out of sight, under the dragons mouth!

More Lessons for Britannia

2007-07-15T16:03:00.000+01:00

We were going to set off today for a part of the moors that I think is the most like Dartmoor Letterboxing you can get around here. Some of the letterboxes have been planted by Dartmoor letterboxers, so the clues are in true Dartmoor style. Although our moors, and the moors on Dartmoor, are similar in that they are both heathland, the majority of our roads are ridge roads (which means they run along long stretches of the highest ridges of the land). On Dartmoor the roads tend to be lower and you then have to walk to the higher points, which are the Tors.

Britannia and I had been preparing ourselves by studying the clues. I think Dartmoor clues are rather like clues to that other high tech 'Copycat' game, — the name of which I shall not sully this blog. Dartmoor clues use numbers from a compass bearing to find the destination, and the 'Copycat' game uses satellite positioning numbers. Dartmoor style clues, in the main, use three compass bearings and, if you are lucky, an Ordnance Survey Grid Reference Number. The clues are pretty minimal and frequently do not even mention what the box is hidden under when you get there, hence a lot of searching goes on when you reach your destination — just as in that game which shall remain nameless. It was not until letterboxes moved off Dartmoor in the 1980's that the clues began to change. Off Dartmoor it was not always possible to take sightings as the ground tended to be lower and often wooded, and so the clues started to become more descriptive of the route which had to be taken. Nowadays, the accepted good practise is you can make the beginning of the clue as vague and mysterious as you like, but be very explicit about where the box is when you reach the destination, as this minimises and hopefully avoids any destruction to the surrounding vegetation.

One of the clues we were going to look for did have a Grid Ref and also said:- "tallest building of WWW Farm 156º, roof of YYY Farm 290º and electricity pylon 98º", but that is all. We got the map and compass out and first looked for the grid square on the map which was mentioned in the clue. Next we had to position the map so that it would be pointing in the same direction as the real land when you get there. This is done by first turning the compass housing until the orienting arrow is pointing to the direction of travel arrow at the top. Next put the compass down on the map, moving the baseplate so that the direction of travel arrow runs along one of the North/South blue grid lines which run up and down the map. Now turn the entire map and compass until the red point of the needle is over the orienting arrow. Good, now the map and the countryside are in unison. Ok, so we need to find WWW farm and YYY farm in the grid square. Once they are found, without moving the map, pick up the compass and turn the degree dial until 290º is at the point of travel. Place the compass on YYY farm and mark a line across in the direction of travel. Now repeat with 156º for WWW farm. Where the two lines cross is where the box is situated. The third compass bearing is more of a triple check, and yes, there on 98º is a little symbol representing an electricity pylon - so we must be right. There were no instructions about how we should reach this spot, but we could see that there was a footpath crossing the moor from a road. The footpath would pass a sheepfold, which I suddenly realized was mentioned in one of the other clues, and this would take us to the spot we needed to search for the letterbox.

Britannia was pretty bored with theory now, as I expect you are too, so I will get on with the story of the hunt. In the morning, before we set out I made Britannia eat two whole weetabix for breakfast as I knew she would need all her strength later to lift a huge stamp which is hidden in one of the letterboxes. We parked the car alongside the road and the moorland rose steadily on the opposite side, just like on Dartmoor as I mentioned earlier. Oh dear, I do much prefer it when you can park at the top to start your walk instead of having to climb a hill first! We followed the track up over the moor to a very rocky area which seemed about right, near an electricity pylon. Looking across at the view we could see the farms mentioned in the clue and getting out our compass we tested out the bearings. WWW Farm was indeed on 156º but YYY Farm was on 298º so, with our compass in hand, we had to move a little further along to bring the second bearing into the correct position. When everything matched up and we were in the right spot Britannia sat down on some nearby rocks as she was exhausted from the climb. She spotted a likely looking hole underneath a boulder. Well done Britannia, there inside was the letterbox, and lots of nice boulders nearby to use as a table to stamp up on.

The moor here is covered in bilberry and heather. Britannia noticed that only a small part of the heather was in flower. There are two types of heather covering the moor, one is Bell Heather (top) and the other is Ling (bottom). Bell heather flowers in June, and that is what she had noticed. Ling doesn't flower until September but as it is the largest amount of heather here it totally changes the landscape covering the whole area in a cloak of purple. For now the flowering Bell heather gives pretty patches of purple dotted here and there as you wander around. The bilberry is also in fruit at the moment, and occasionally you see people bent over double, plucking at the ground picking the berries to take home and make jam. Personally I think it is much too hard bending over for so long and not worth the trouble, but Britannia was much nearer the ground and picked several to eat.

Packing up the pens and books we moved on to the next letterbox. We had to pass a huge cairn on the top of the hill. This photograph of Britannia is rather like those Where's Wally pictures. She can be found, with her foot wedged under a small rock to prevent her being blown away in the wind up here — she wasn't best pleased about the rock on her foot!

Finally we reached the area where our last letterbox was. Once again a very rocky area amongst the heather, but this time we had an extra bit to the clue, — 8 paces from the gate. Sure enough, there in the sheepfold wall, was a gate and we found the boulder exactly where the clue said, 800 of Britannia's paces away from the gate :-)

I lifted out the box for Britannia as it was very big. The stamp was enormous, it was as big as Britannia, and she had lots of trouble inking it up and stamping it into her logbook. By the time she was finished she had ink all over the rocks, the logbooks and my rucksack. The rain would soon wash the ink from the rocks, but I wasn't so sure about my rucksack. The letterbox visitors book was interesting, with lots of people stamped into it. At the front, it explained that the stamp was only one half of the picture. The stamp image included half a rainbow and the other half of the rainbow stamp could be found hidden down on Dartmoor. The clue to the Dartmoor half was in the back of this visitor book, and down on Dartmoor the clue to our letterbox was in the back of that visitor book. It had been planted in 1994 to tie the two letterboxing areas together. It was the only box that I had ever heard of planted to join two letterboxing areas together until I joined AQ. There I found letterboxers who frequently shared ideas, stamps and whole letterboxes from one area to another. Hurrah for worldwide letterboxing!

Britannia had been busy reading the back of the visitors book and found a clue to a bonus stamp, just a few paces away from the rainbow. Yes, you've guessed it — it is called 'Pot of Gold', very clever!

Following in the Drovers Footsteps

2007-07-08T20:30:00.000+01:00

Today we set off for the moors at last. Britannia was really excited about doing some proper British moorland letterboxing. We choose one of my favourite routes, an old drovers road. This is a very ancient road going north to south through the country and about 15 miles of it is in this area. Part of it is still used today by modern transport but several miles are unsurfaced and much like the drovers would have known it when they herded their cattle, sheep, and pigs down it to market in the 18th and 19th century. They drove geese to the market too and the geese used to be fitted with cloth 'boots' to protect their feet from the walk!

It was this unsurfaced bit that we were starting out on, full of potholes and puddles from the rain. The first part of the track is edged with stone walls and surrounded by farmland, but this starts to change when you reach a farm called High Paradise. The name of this farm has always fascinated me - High Paradise - it must be a marvellous place to live :-)

Here the land on the right hand side of the track becomes moorland, and today we disturbed some sheep, who looked rather startled to see Britannia riding high on rucksack. I wonder if any of them are descendants of the sheep driven by The Drovers so long ago.

Next the old road becomes more grassy as we enter a forest, walking through it and coming out the other side into open moorland beside Steeple Cross. Steeple Cross is not the remains of a moorland cross as it's name suggests, but rather a rough boulder standing on what was once an important crossroads. Strangely enough this point has also been marked in modern times, by a wooden signpost pointing out The Cleveland Way. The Cleveland Way is a national long distance footpath and all long distance footpaths are marked with this white acorn on a black background.

Britannia was fed up with being perched on objects for photographs, she had hopped down and was busy searching for a nearby letterbox about the cross. She found it easily enough, and was delighted to also find what she called a Hitchhiker inside it. I explained that in Great Britain we called them Cuckoo Boxes, as she would find out when we returned to the car park. We were very busy for a few moments stamping everything up correctly, before returning the box to it's hidey hole. Then we set off back to the car.

Before getting into the car I suggested we visit the Cuckoos Nest nearby. Britannia was most puzzled as to what a Cuckoos Nest could be. Following the clues we found it carefully camouflaged and when we opened it up Britannia immediately realised it was what she knew as a Hitchhiker Hostel! This was the first Cuckoo Nest in Yorkshire, and probably in all of Great Britain, although I can't vouch for Dartmoor. I had seen all about Hitchhiker Hostels on Atlas Quest and thought they were such a good idea that I planted one to try out over here. Of course as our moving boxes have always been called Cuckoos, I had to change the name to something to reflect that, and after discussing it with the local letterboxers we decided Cuckoo Nest was the most obvious name. A great deal of stamping up had to be done then, and we were able to swap the Cuckoo we had already found for one in the box. We just got everything stamped up and wrapped back up in the proper bags when the rain started to pour down. It had been looking very black for a while so we were lucky to be so close to the car.

Boxing Buddy to sue Travel Agent!

2007-06-30T16:59:00.000+01:00

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

2007-06-26T20:43:00.000+01:00

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

2007-06-12T20:04:00.000+01:00

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!

2007-06-08T16:23:00.000+01:00

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!

2007-06-03T08:33:00.000+01:00

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 :-)

A Bank Holiday expedition.

2007-05-28T18:07:00.000+01:00

Today is Whit Bank Holiday and the weather this weekend has been typical British Holiday weather - cold, windy and very wet! Yesterday it rained so much that there was no chance of going letterboxing, which is very disappointing when you have visitors, but today promised to be just showers. Mini-Bug and I were determined to dodge the rain spots come what may! As it was so windy and cold, the temperature having dropped from 16ºC on Friday to 8ºC today, we decided to stay close to home and just visit a couple of the local letterboxes.

The first letterbox we were headed for is planted close to the Greenwich Meridian Line. Most people, when the Greenwich Meridian Line is mentioned, think of London and The Royal Observatory in Greenwich. The Greenwich Meridian Line however does run through a few other parts of England, and in fact the most northerly land on the Prime Meridian Line is close to my home town. The next landfall after that point is the North Pole (and it certainly felt like we were close to the North Pole today)!

When we arrived at the point were the Prime Meridian Line crossed the road, there was a big sign stating exactly where it was. Mini-Bug, like a true tourist, wanted a photograph taken astride the line, with one leg in the East and one leg in the West. If you cannot quite make out what Mini-Bug is doing (she is dangling just below the 0º) just click on the photograph to enlarge it.

After Mini-Bug climbed down from the sign we set off to find the letterbox. It was a short walk, and we found the box well hidden under a brick. Opening the container and stepping into the box she was able to get a good image in her logbook, and stamp in to the visitors book. It was whilst she was flicking through the visitors book that she noticed the day it had been planted — on a Clock Change Day! Very significant, as Greenwich Mean Time and the time zones of the world are all based on the Greenwich Meridian Line. Even more significant is that the Dartmoor Meets are always held on the two Clock Change Days of the year.

It was starting to spot with rain again, so we quickly returned to the car and set off for the next area hoping it would have cleared by the time we got there. We were wanting to plant a letterbox and this time we were headed for a dismantled railway. I had previously scouted out the area before I knew Mini-Bug would be visiting, so it was just a case of finding an ideal hidey hole for it.

There are two main dismantled railways near my home, both of which carried goods wagons and holiday makers out to the local seaside resorts about 15 miles away — before Beeching wrecked everything in the 1960s. Nevertheless these two old railway lines have now become good walking, and letterboxing, areas. The branch we were heading for today is now a permitted bridlepath all the way to the seaside, although we didn't have the energy to walk there today.

We began the walk near an old forgotten, and overgrown, level crossing gate. As we walked along we noticed many apple trees lining the route of the track. These are reputed to have grown from the seeds of apple cores day-trippers had thrown out of the train windows as the it slowed down at the level crossing. We found an excellent spot to plant the box and Mini-Bug became busy stamping up her logbook.

Finally, on the way back to the car Mini-Bug jumped up and sat, rather precariously, on the branch of a nearby apple tree to have her photograph taken. The trees behind Mini-Bug were rather pretty. Although the apple tree was not in bloom, the white and pink blossom on the hawthorn trees more than made up for it. Once again, if you cannot quite see Mini-Bug click on the photo to enlarge it and you will spot her near the front on the apple leaves.

So that was it for today, we headed home for the comforts of a nice warm house and to record the names of the letterboxes we had visited in Mini-Bugs logbook, — and to add a post to this blog!

My First Boxing Buddy Arrives

2007-05-25T18:11:00.001+01:00

Tuesday 22nd May

My first Boxing Buddy was sent to me by Trouble Bug and came all the way from Idaho, USA. Her name is Mini-Bug and she loves flying kites and the colour red. She was extremely pleased to arrive in England and be out of the parcel she had been shipped in. She arrived just in time for International Plant a Letterbox Day too. We immediately rushed out into the garden to take some photographs. Mini-Bug made friends with an old gentleman down at the bottom of the garden who whispered that there might be a letterbox nearby. With that hint we easily found Hull Fair, not a real letterbox, but one listed as an Other Box. Mini-Bug was so excited to find her first English letterbox, it was a beautiful red - her most favourite colour in the whole world - and because of this she didn't mind that it was an Other Box. After all, Mini-Bug was listed as an Other too!

Thursday 24th May

International Plant a Letterbox Day arrived at last. There was a lot to do today as not only were we hoping to find several boxes, but we must find time to plant a box too. Mini-Bug is a lovely little wire and bead constructed person, so first of all we needed to find a container that would prevent her being squashed in my pocket during our travels. I found an old hard spectacle case which Mini-Bug was delighted with and off we set for the moors.
First we headed for an ancient track cut across the heather moorland which is now part of the Coast to Coast Walk. Mini-Bug spotted what looked like a dung beetle (though no doubt someone will correct me), and rather unkindly she kicked it over. I have to say that we had to admire the beautiful iridescent blue of it's undercarriage before it managed to right itself. The first letterbox we were heading for had been planted way back in May 1992, so we were rather uncertain that it would even be there. The old signpost to a local shooting lodge, which was the start of the clue, had unfortunately been replaced with a new wooden post indicating that the bridlepath is part of the Coast to Coast long distance path. It is such a shame when the old signs are taken down, especially when the shooting lodge is still in existence. At least the rest of the clue went smoothly and we easily found the box we were looking for. The box was in a reasonable condition, although the interior of the box and the visitors book was damp. The stamp itself had survived and we were able to obtain some good images from it for Mini-Bugs own Logbook.
After replacing the visitors book with a nice new one we packed everything up and went in search of the next box. This one was rather more difficult, and the sky was starting to look rather black. In spite of this we plodded onwards, ever hopeful, but the surroundings did not seem to fit with the clue. We sat down to study the map, and when we looked up there was a small group of rocks tucked under a boulder. Not really expecting to find the box there, we nevertheless gave it a poke and out tumbled a letterbox! Hurrah we had found it. Moving away from the spot we found a nice soft mossy area to sit down on. When we opened the box we realised straight away that it was not the one we were seeking. Instead this one was of a spaceship and had been planted to celebrate 25 years since man first walked on the moon, and also the day the largest bit of a comet hit Jupiter. This time Mini-Bug wanted to have her photograph taken with her nice red carrying case, so we stood it against an ancient boundary stone and she stepped into it.
So, we were still left searching for the elusive letterbox. That black sky was looking much worse and we decided that we must head back. Returning down the track again we suddenly spied what looked like two gullies. Two gullies just what we were looking for! Was there an inverted triangle boulder? Yes, hurrah we had found it, another one for Mini-Bugs logbook! We were doing well, although Mini-Bug was not used to tramping across heather and bilberry, and was finding it hard on her delicate wire frame. Thank goodness for that comfy red case. Now it was time to go planting. We moved onward to a new area. Fortunately the sky had cleared without raining on us and we headed off to a likely looking spot. Once again this meant striding across moorland and in doing so came to a dry stone wall with a gate in it. Mini-Bug helped to open the gate, and after passing through, we found an excellent place to hide our International Plant a Letterbox Day stamp.