Giving our American visitors an excursion to remember

When I first started out as an actor in London, it was very much a case of attending as many auditions as possible, then waiting for the phone to ring, hoping it would be someone with a job offer. Well now I’m self employed, trying to get my Moors Tours business off the ground, offering my services as a storyteller any which way I can. Life is very much like that again, waiting for the phone to ring, or an email to drop...

My partner, Sarah, is often nagging me to put myself out there more, that I need to do better marketing for my business, but I’ve already got my picture in every car park on Dartmoor this summer, I’m featured in several magazines and many hotels are aware of me should their guests require my services. I feature on a radio show once a week and I have my column here...there are only so many places you can go these days that are willing to take your leaflets. Sometimes it is just a case of putting the thought out there, into the universe, asking for what you want or need, and waiting to see what comes back at you. Two examples of this happened just the other day...

It was after another nagging session that my thoughts turned to the Autumn months, usually my busiest time of year. Who doesn’t like a spooky story or two as the nights start to draw in, and our plans for the Halloween weekend. Usually we are down in Boscastle, attending The Dark Gathering, staying at The Wellington Hotel, our home from home, in our favourite room that we book as we are about to leave the previous year. Usually the women who organise it are all over social media, plugging it, counting down the months and weeks...but so far this year nothing, so I decided to investigate. Imagine my disappointment when I read that the whole event had been moved along the coast to Tintagel! It has outgrown its roots, is now ticketed, and is already sold out. Besides my own disappointment, I felt sorry for the people and businesses of Boscastle, who normally benefit financially from this busy weekend. My immediate reaction was to offer my services as a storyteller to help plug the gap that the lack of singers and musicians might leave during the evening session in the bar of The Welly. We know Tamsyn, one of the duty managers, very well, and as soon as we mentioned it to her both she and her boss practically bit my hand off. So now I’m signed up, not only for an evening session, but also for a child friendly version in the afternoon...roll on Halloween!

The other business opportunity came via my friend, Kathy, whom I met when she worked as a tour guide at Berry Pomeroy and Totnes castles for English Heritage. She is now the landlady at the Bay Horse Inn in Totnes, but she does keep her hand in as a local tour guide, particularly with passengers off cruise ships that visit the area and wish to see the sights. She got in touch to ask me if I would be interested in leading a group from one such visiting ship, who had signed up for a walk in the Haytor area, taking in the medieval village below Hound Tor. My normal business is vehicle based, but I do love spending my spare time letterboxing on the moors and I do lead a monthly group walk for my friends and acquaintances off Facebook, so I saw this as an opportunity to add another string to my bow and hopefully get asked to host similar trips in the future...so I said yes.

As I write, the walk is this coming Saturday, so, as the weather was good at the time, I headed up to check out my intended route to hopefully give the group the best experience. Starting at Haytor visitors centre, which they can have a quick look around, I set off along the obvious track towards the quarry and its ponds where I can tell them about the history and hopefully avoid being bowled over by eager dogs desperate to jump in the water as I nearly was yesterday! Out of the quarry, we head over open moor, crossing the granite tramway en route towards Smallacombe Rocks where there is an obvious, but fairly steep, track that leads all the way down to the clapper bridge over the Becka Brook. From here, it is another steep climb that takes us to the ruins of the abandoned medieval village in the shadow of Greator Rocks where we will stop for a storytelling session.

I want our visitors to have a taste of my favourite pastime, letterboxing. So yesterday I found a fairly easy one, near my proposed route, that we can find together and they can see the nice message I’ve left for them. It references the Black Death at Hound Tor, the outbreak of which was probably the cause of the village becoming abandoned all those years ago.

After that trek, I think we deserve a break, so as there is a new refreshment truck in the car park below Hound Tor, it would be a shame not to make use of the facilities. To reach it, we will have to pass the tor itself, allowing for more storytelling opportunities.

The original brief for the walk, was to head back to Haytor, but as I don’t know the age, or ability of my charges, I feel it’s a bit unfair to take them back over the same strenuous terrain unnecessarily, especially as the allocated time for this tour is a bit pressing. So I’m proposing, if possible, that the coach picks us up from Hound Tor car park instead. This plan might give me chance to take them up the lane to Jay’s Grave, where I can share one of the most famous Dartmoor legends before we have to hop back on the coach and return to Torquay harbour. Hopefully, everything will go to plan, and I can give our American visitors an excursion to remember...