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By Rowena Wiscombe
Sturdily planted on all fours with my head down a rock cavity, my feet struggle manically as they slip backwards on the muddy bog otherwise known as a footpath. I reach for the little Tupperware box that makes it all worthwhile. Some might muster what activity could possibly cause me to end up in this position, but I was letterboxing.
Letterboxing is a combination of orienteering, rubber stamp collecting and solving cryptic clues. It began in 1854 when James Perrott left a glass jar at a remote spot on North Dartmoor. Inside the jar was a message from James and a collection of blank visitors cards for anyone who also reached the point to leave a message for future visitors or indeed for James himself. Since then letterboxing has developed into a fun filled activity where walkers hide their homemade boxes right across Dartmoor containing a rubber ink stamp, a notebook and anything else they wish. The idea is that people who want to go letterboxing follow clues to find the boxes and once there, take an imprint of the stamp in the box while also leaving a print of their own stamp in the boxes notebook. Understand? No, I didn't either the first time it was explained to me but read it again, it's a simple idea, which starts to sound much more complicated when it is explained. It certainly had to be repeated to me a few times before I understood.
I chose to enlist the skills of my friends, John, Greg and Brendon on a tremendously rainy November Saturday to try out this age-old treasure trail across Dartmoor. The only real rule to letterboxing is to leave boxes as you find them, so while there are occasionally organised letterboxing walks we thought it might be more fun to navigate by ourselves.
One of the key skills to letterboxing has to be organisation, I do not suggest the method we enlisted; leaping out of the car like dogs at the first picturesque spot on Dartmoor and galloping excitedly into the autumnal woods with little idea of where we were headed or how to get there. Unless you're extremely lucky, this will end in a roundabout trek that will tire you out and probably result in you finding no letterboxes. After this enjoyable albeit pointless jaunt, we decided to get back to the car and actually plan a sensible and hopefully fruitful route.
Reading an Ordnance Survey map is another essential skill to a successful letterboxing trip, luckily the distant voices of my past recalled the geography teacher explaining all about the X and Y axes. The map must then be cross-referenced to the catalogue of Dartmoor letterboxes, a fastidiously hard book to get hold of, you must give yourself plenty of notice as it is only available from one man who lives in the depths of Dartmoor who you must write to and request it from. It can also only be paid for by posting him a cheque, it is all quite private and steadfastly organised. The book contains the cryptic clues from all the people who have planted their own letterboxes, from this you can decipher the puzzles and go in search of them for yourself.
We chose a grid reference that the book showed us should have contained eight letterboxes, from now I thought this would be easy. It did not occur to me that pathways prominent enough to be featured on an ordnance survey map might not be very clear to find. After half an hour of trekking back and forth along the same stretch of road we discovered the barely recognisable break in trees, up a rain savaged slope that showed the beginning of the pathway we needed. We decided that one of Dartmoor's famous tors would be a great place to go in search of the letterboxes.
It was called Buckland Beacon but to me, it was better known as Everest. It's just a shame that on reaching the peak of my Everest, I found a letterbox left there by a nine year old girl. Perhaps the struggle up to the beacon was not quite as treacherous as I might have people believe. Despite any humiliation and after almost an hour of intense hiking, I squealed like it was Christmas upon finding our first letterbox sneakily wedged beneath a large boulder.
There is a strange sense of comradeship when you find a letterbox, nine-year-old Polly Smith had written a little message in the front of her notebook for all the people who found it. While I can't tell you what it said (you'll have to go in search of it yourself for that), I can say that it is quite bizarre that I felt a little like I knew this girl. It was possibly the most unexpected feeling of the entire day, just because you've both reached the same point, it makes you feel a special connection, like you share something with this absolute stranger.
After the immense excitement of finding our first letterbox, we realised that if you choose a popular spot like we did, it is not too difficult to find more. We found a whole host of letterboxes simply by searching in and around the beacon, beware of the unofficial boxes though as we did find a half empty, half sodden packet of Silk Cuts in the bottom of one unexpected find. While a bit of a shock, it was sort of funny and this is one of the best things about letterboxing, anyone can plant a letterbox containing anything they like, absolutely wherever they like.
It is remote spots like these, on top of a tor, which help to make it feel like a private members club, a well kept secret. There is no official organisation that monitors letterboxing on Dartmoor, but it is maintained primarily through age-old knowledge and word of mouth. There is a letterboxing 100 club which, true to its name, may only be joined when imprints of at least 100 stamps have been collected.
While the premise of joining this club may be a good few years away for me, I can fully understand the motivations behind anyone who pursues this country-walking pastime. Luckily, one of our letterbox searches took us into The Warren House Inn, where the fire has been burning since 1845 and the letterbox was snuggly hidden between two chimneys. This obligatory stop at one of Dartmoor's many exquisite pubs, is a necessary excursion to rewind and recharge after a busy days walking. The letterboxes at the pub and on the moors are just a little extra excitement to an already fantastic walking expedition across one of the most beautiful natural arenas in the country.
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