Why Dartmoor?

One of the wanderers recently asked why I had chosen Dartmoor for the wandering wild retreats, it was such a simple question yet I did not have a simple answer, in fact, it doesn’t feel like I chose it at all it might be the other way around in some unfathomable way.

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Sure I love large mountains and dramatic sea cliffs, but the moor calls to me in a very special way. The ancient beautiful forested areas on the edges of the moor with their mossy stones, lichen draped old crooked oak trees and meandering rivers are straight out of a childhood fairytale.

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The Tor’s which is the name given to the high places of the moor sprinkled with enormous granite rocks in curious balancing piles like massive stone sculptures are mesmerizing, when the weather is bad this is where we all go to seek shelter between the stones, wild horses, sheep’s and humans alike.

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The many Bronze Age stone row and circles connect me to an ancient history of human civilizations and sparks my imagination on how we along with the surrounding landscape has changed around those stones, still standing patiently tall. between earth and sky.

But it is the open moor that I love the most, it is an acquired taste and it doesn’t surrender itself as easily like a beautiful forest or a mountain view does, rather it carries a quality of silence, visual silence it is an oceanic land where the majestic sky meets soft grassy land as far as the eye can see.

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On a Wandering wild walk, we walk without speaking so we can begin to notice the greater “silence” which is what we all share animals, plants, stones, insects and humans alike.

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The open moor is a place for reflection and meditation, it’s a place that can feel oddly empty and lonely...but trust and walk with this landscape for days on end, and it will take you places words can’t describe.

inside out.