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Dartmoor Letterboxing...


rutson

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I'm confused...

 

Next month I'll be in the Dartmoor area for a week and thought it might be interesting to find a "traditional" letterbox or two. So, it seems that the "official" organisation publish a guide to the locations of the letterboxes. Excellent! How do you get one? Well... first you have to prove you've found 100 letterboxes. But..

  1. I won't have the time or inclination to find 100+
  2. How the hell can I find even one without a location?

PS. Any "must do" caches in the area?

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Yep, what she said... I've found a dozen or so by chance. Some caches mention people finding letterboxes regularly so these might be ones to try for.

 

As for which ones to recommend.... well... if you want remote moorland walks any caches in the middle will be fine (if you have Memory-Map it is easy to find these ones).

 

One I enjoyed for the view is called The Chair (GC19Q7W) with a great piece of artwork in the view.

 

If you fancy getting wet and cold (or using some chest waders) I can recommend To Make A Monster (GC10GY8).

 

Willo' the Wist (GC9DA8) takes you to some ancient oak woodland which is quite unique.

 

For a different Dartmoor experience you can follow one of the rivers through a wooded area and do River Island Cache (GCJ5YQ). It has been redone since I did it, but I'm sure the theme will be similar.

 

You can have a great walk around Meldon Reservoir picking up quite a few caches. If in that area you should go to Stand & Deliver. It's Highway Robbery (GCY6BV). This takes you near a pub which looks interesting from the outside, but you really must go inside, it's completely unique!

 

There are also hundreds more on the moor that I've not found, so hopefully someone else will come up with some other must do's.

 

Have fun!

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I'm confused...

 

Next month I'll be in the Dartmoor area for a week and thought it might be interesting to find a "traditional" letterbox or two. So, it seems that the "official" organisation publish a guide to the locations of the letterboxes. Excellent! How do you get one? Well... first you have to prove you've found 100 letterboxes. But..

  1. I won't have the time or inclination to find 100+
  2. How the hell can I find even one without a location?

PS. Any "must do" caches in the area?

 

From what I can gather you should only need to look any any group of rocks to stand a chance of finding one. I was staying at a campsite last summer and a couple of 'ladies' said that they just go walking on the moor with their dog and they reckon on just finding at least 3 a day.

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Just had a look at that site, there is a downloadable database that contains a lot of letterboxes.

 

Quite agree about the Meldon Reservoir and make sure you have a look at the Meldon Viaduct its quite spectacular. If you are near to Haytor there are a few around there and also one called the Essex ten sevens GC13KJ7 (British Grid: SX 77777 77777 ) is well worth a walk to just be careful how you get round the gorse.

Edited by DrDick&Vick
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I'm confused...

 

Next month I'll be in the Dartmoor area for a week and thought it might be interesting to find a "traditional" letterbox or two. So, it seems that the "official" organisation publish a guide to the locations of the letterboxes. Excellent! How do you get one? Well... first you have to prove you've found 100 letterboxes. But..

  1. I won't have the time or inclination to find 100+
  2. How the hell can I find even one without a location?

PS. Any "must do" caches in the area?

 

It used to be that you needed to find 100 letterboxes and join the 100 club before you could get the catalogue, but they have changed that, a couple of years ago I was able to buy the catalogue without even providing proof of the 30 odd letterboxes that we had found.

Follow the Link to get necessary phone number, email etc.

 

The first ever letterbox (set in 1856) is marked on the OS maps (as are a few others). Also ice cream vans and the snack waggon at Hound Tor (The Hound of the Basket Meals) have letterboxes if you ask for them. Of course the most interesting letterboxes are held behind the bar in a lot of Dartmoor pubs

Edited by The Bongtwashes
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the main camping pub in Princetown (Prince of Wales or somthing - I forget its name, I'm usually inebriated!) has a number of boxes behind the bar.

 

A good option if to ask in the local newsagents and post offices. I seem to remember that a number of boxes form circular walks, and you can buy a sheet that describes it for a nominal fee - usually for charity. I have a feeling that the post office in postbridge does this.

 

Third option is to ask to borrow someone's catalogue! Bit late now, but we have a somewhat out of sate catalogue at home somewhere!

 

Have fun!

 

As many have said, the easiest way by far is to just walk and find them - If you go to the popular Tors, you'll often find up to 20 boxes in a SINGLE OS1:25000 grid square. You really can't fail to find them!

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Cor you lot are harsh.

 

As a letterboxer of well over 25 years I have to say that a lot of your comments are unfair. I remember when one of the first geocaches arrived on Dartmoor it was left sticking out of a wall, and guess what that was in an ice cream tub. Letterboxers were horrified. I suspect that if you trip up over ice cream tubs on the way to a cache then they probably have been left there by novices and as we know, novices quite often get things wrong when placing caches as well. I for one, think that letterboxes as a whole are better hidden than many caches I have found. As for quantity over quality, well the letterboxes are usually in much better containers than any of you have described, quite often pill pots with the books inside being double potted ensuring that if put away properly then they are waterproof and inside you will find a stamp for you to take an impression of to record your visit and not a load of kids bits to swap. AS with geocaching, an awful lot of research/expense goes into some of these sets of stamps.

 

Oh yes, the best letterboxes will not be found in the catalogue but are "word of mouth" boxes and these ones don't tend to be found close to the road, you have to go looking for them.

 

So, rant over, but please remember there are two sides to every story

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Cor you lot are harsh.

 

As a letterboxer of well over 25 years I have to say that a lot of your comments are unfair. I remember when one of the first geocaches arrived on Dartmoor it was left sticking out of a wall, and guess what that was in an ice cream tub. Letterboxers were horrified. I suspect that if you trip up over ice cream tubs on the way to a cache then they probably have been left there by novices and as we know, novices quite often get things wrong when placing caches as well. I for one, think that letterboxes as a whole are better hidden than many caches I have found. As for quantity over quality, well the letterboxes are usually in much better containers than any of you have described, quite often pill pots with the books inside being double potted ensuring that if put away properly then they are waterproof and inside you will find a stamp for you to take an impression of to record your visit and not a load of kids bits to swap. AS with geocaching, an awful lot of research/expense goes into some of these sets of stamps.

 

Oh yes, the best letterboxes will not be found in the catalogue but are "word of mouth" boxes and these ones don't tend to be found close to the road, you have to go looking for them.

 

So, rant over, but please remember there are two sides to every story

 

I was actually going to post earlier in defence of the humble letterbox, to say that in our experience, letterboxes are generally bigger and better than a lot of caches on dartmoor - many of which seem to be micros in film cannisters (or were when we were last there...) :ninja:

 

On the other hand, I don't recall many particularly large letterboxes, and don't forget that ammo cans are stongly discouraged on dartmoor I believe...

 

The walk to Cranmer Pool is one of the most enjoyable walks we've done! Wear gaiters!

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  1. I won't have the time or inclination to find 100+

 

One of the reasons you originally had to find 100 was to show you were serious about letterboxing. If you didn't have the time or inclination to find them you didn't get a catalogue. :grin:

 

There is no restriction now though, if you send the money, you get the catalogue.

 

2. How the hell can I find even one without a location?

 

 

You will find it is harder to go for a walk on the moor and "not" find a letterbox. Look for a couple of pieces of white granite in front of a rock and there will be, more than likely, a letterbox behind them. Within a few hundred feet of any lone tree, cross, ancient monument or any other recognisable feature you will find quite a few letterboxes as well. The further you go into the moor, the better the quality of stamp, and as already mentioned, the better stamps are not in the catalogue.

 

 

PS. Any "must do" caches in the area?

 

Loads of them!!! :P

 

At present there are 371 active caches on Dartmoor (134 are micros) and cover everything from drive-by micros to 10 mile walks with no roads to be seen. If you want to email me and tell me what your idea of a "must do" cache is, I will try and match some up. My idea may be different to yours so it would be better to know what you like.

 

Have a great time whichever you do but going by todays weather, you'd better bring a mac'n'wellies. :ninja:

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Hiya people, new guy here ^^

 

And as it happens webmaster of the so called "offical" letterboxing site, ive just checked with them, and they no longer require this "you must find 100 boxes first" which does seem to make alot more sence tbh

 

Anyway im getting into this hobby, so may well be posting here for help later on

 

;)

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Fair point. Suggest your time will be better spent finding the cache at Lydford Castle. Well worth a visit, enjoy. JimR17

 

I'm confused...

 

Next month I'll be in the Dartmoor area for a week and thought it might be interesting to find a "traditional" letterbox or two. So, it seems that the "official" organisation publish a guide to the locations of the letterboxes. Excellent! How do you get one? Well... first you have to prove you've found 100 letterboxes. But..

  1. I won't have the time or inclination to find 100+
  2. How the hell can I find even one without a location?

PS. Any "must do" caches in the area?

Link to comment

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