More Lessons for Britannia

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!