Celebrating my 60th with a long walk, letterboxing and the odd lion or two!

Last week I shared the fact I’m about to turn 60, and that we are embarking on a family holiday to celebrate the occasion.
I chose the barns at Blackadon Farm Cottages for several reasons. I actually met the owners through the Visit Dartmoor marketing company that helps to promote my Moors & More Tours business, when we all attended some networking events they arranged.
Marcus was invited to give some presentations, as they are an award-winning establishment, particularly renowned for their Green policies. This piqued my interest, and, combined with the fact it’s situated in one of my favourite parts of Dartmoor, it became an obvious choice to invite my family to gather there to relax, soak up the country atmosphere, do some sky watching with reduced light pollution, and celebrate my big milestone.
I like walking in the Ivybridge/Harford Moor area, as it gives easy access to the heart of the southern moor, but in recent years this has been made difficult by the closing of some of the traditional parking areas, meaning the closest you can now park is on the edge of Ivybridge, adding miles to your walk. These restrictions were imposed by the same landowners who recently tried to ban Wild Camping on Dartmoor. Now those attempts have been thwarted, maybe it’s time to get the parking areas opened up again...
The barns are located on the edge of the moor, above the village of Moorhaven, the site of an old sanatorium and health spa, in the foothills of Western Beacon and Ugborough Beacon, both of which are home to several new letterboxes that I plan on searching for.
However, the main walk I plan on doing is a bit of a marathon, so I’ve invited members of my monthly walking group, as well as brave relatives, to come and join me for a six-hour trek to Red Lake Tip and back.
The Tip is actually a huge spoil heap from an old China Clay workings that dominates the skyline in the south moor, and, in Letterboxing folklore, became known as Mount Doom, when it featured as such in a Lord of the Rings set of stamps, many years ago. You can reach it by following an old tramway, out of Ivybridge, all the way there.
I’ve done this several times over the years, but the last time I attempted it with my walking group, as we rounded the bend in the track where you get your first glimpse of it, they said, “OK we’ve seen it now, time to get back to the pub!” We didn’t get to climb it and I was fuming! This time we are going all the way to the top...
Not far from where we are staying is Dartmoor Zoo, which is a fabulous place to visit, so I felt it had to be part of our itinerary for the week. They have an adoption scheme, so I thought it would be quite fun if everyone with us adopted an animal, and we could visit them during our holiday. Each adoption comes with two complimentary passes, so guess what each couple got as birthday gifts this year?
There is a wide variety of residents to see, but our personal charges range from the big cats, tigers and a lion for the Leo amongst us, wolves and goats, down to the smaller offerings of otters and meerkats. Hopefully this will prove to be one of the highlights of the week.
As it happens, I do have history with the Zoo. Many years ago, my friend Mark, now a resident of New Zealand, and I, set up a venture there in conjunction with the owner, Ben Mee and his brother, that we called Nocturnal Nightmares. The idea was to lead visitors around at night, by the light of a full moon, telling them spooky stories, and selected Dartmoor legends, in suitable outfits, in the hope we would witness the wolves howling and the other animals all reacting to the magical moonlight.
It was very well received, whilst it lasted, and I would very much like the opportunity to do it again, as I do get frequent requests from people who remember it fondly. My lasting memory is from one of our practice runs, when we were selecting the locations for each story. There is an old lookout tower in the middle of the park, and we thought it might be fun if I addressed our audience from on high.
Having checked it out, we were just climbing back down, when our chaperone told us to look behind us...there, in the darkness, sat a lion up against the wire of its enclosure, quietly eyeing up its next potential meal...I wonder if it’s the same one I’ve just adopted?
The week culminates back in Paignton, with a party at Stage Left, part of the newly revamped Palace Avenue Theatre complex, for an evening of eating, drinking and much dancing, where my life in Torbay started back in 1987. A most suitable venue to properly celebrate my 60th milestone. I hope everything goes to plan...