It all started a long time ago...

[John]

In the early 80's I started walking on the moors, now that I had a car. I had already lived in Plymouth for 3 or 4 years. Around 1986 I found "Fenton's Find" at the back end of Down Tor. No idea what it was, but the book in the box gave a hint about letterboxing. So I found out more, and then thought I'd see about finding other letterboxes.

So, back to Down Tor, now with my own book to collect the stamps. Could I find Fenton's Find again? Could I heck! A look at the O/S map, and I saw the Duck's Pool box named, so off I went. My first actual stamp is of Duck's Pool. According to my book, it was not until 1987 (21 years ago) that I found Fenton's Find again. Almost 18 months after I originally found it.

As was the original way, I worked towards my 100 badge simply by looking for boxes, or, as was the practice in those days, using the extra clues at the back of the book in the box. Some books had one or more extra clues, others had none. (These are not like the current 'bonus' stamp clues sometimes found in the book, but clues to boxes in a completely different area of the moor.)

I'm still working towards that 500 badge (currently have about 330 stamps). Given that I've been a boxer for 20+ years, I guess I must be one of the slowest!



John.

[Moortrekkers]

I remember Fentons Find, on the ridge behind Down tor, but do you remember the Navigators Nightmare box?
What was your personal ID stamp back then?

Dave Moortrekkers.

[Station Master]

You have made my day I started back in 1999 and I only have 410, over two hundred of them I have had in the last six months.

[John]

I remember Fentons Find, on the ridge behind Down tor, but do you remember the Navigators Nightmare box?

No, was that nearby? I see that there is a Navigators Nightmare box in the current catalogue, but it is not near Down Tor.

What was your personal ID stamp back then?
Dave Moortrekkers.

I didn't have a personal stamp back then, didn't get one till many years later. I did, however, date and sign the book (with my name), and perhaps add a comment.

[John]

You have made my day I started back in 1999 and I only have 410, over two hundred of them I have had in the last six months.

Ah, for me I am afraid things are going the other way. I have collected about one stamp in the past year! Unfortunately my dog cannot walk anywhere near as far as we used to go, so I have to remain close to the moors edge. I'm not keen on the 'honeypot' sites where loads of stamps have appeared, so I only actually go letterboxing rarely now. Having said that I have this coming week off work, and have thought of a couple of places we should walk, so I'll take my letterboxing stuff along just in case



John.

[Moortrekkers]

This was the first box I came across where you had to do some serious compass work, accurate , over a long distance.
From a cairn upstream of Shavercombe falls there was a bearing up the hill to the left for something like 750 yards. This led to a barren area where the box was buried in the ground. We took several attempts to find. Back then we were more used to looking for a sandwich box behind some obvious stones etc the early box locations were really quite obvious to find by todays standards. I think the emphasis was more on walking and navigating to the box location.

[strevaskus]

Navigators Nightmare is still on site ,it was checked recently by a friend of mine .

[Moortrekkers]

[quote="strevaskus"]Navigators Nightmare is still on site ,it was checked recently by a friend of mine .[

Blimey I cant believe its still there, it must of been between 82 and 85 when we first went there, although I can remember we didnt get it first time.

Steve did you realise this was me? DJ? look at your wall on facebook]