Cranmere Pool and Plymouth

The main reason I wanted to make this trip to Dartmoor was to visit Cranmere Pool. At the beginning of the week it looked as though we wouldn't make it because it was a pretty far walk since the military road is now closed. But then things worked out and we got special permission to take the road and park closer to Cranmere Pool - this would make the walk about three miles roundtrip. So needless to say when I woke up this morning I was very excited. I was up really early, around 6:30am and I got everything ready for the day and then went and made our lunches. Then I put our things in the van and went back into the cottages for breakfast. We had the usual eggs, beans, toast, sausage and bacon. Finally around 9:30am we were all in the vans and headed out to Okehampton. On the way to the parking area for Cranmere Pool we stopped to pick up Noddy then drove a little further and met up with Stephanie Paul. She gave us papers that showed permission for us to park on the military road and then directed us to the parking area. In the end it took us about two hours to get to the parking area.

We parked and everyone got their things ready for the roughly one and a half miles to the letterbox. Diane and Andy stayed with the vans - neither of them felt up to making the walk. So the rest of us headed down a graveled path/road for a short distance and then veered off to a smaller path for another little while. So far the walk hadn't been bad. The smaller path eventually became only a faint trail and there were some areas of wet and boggy ground but we were able to maneuver past them without getting too wet. Noddy and Stephanie had us walking in single file and following the steps of the person in front of us - that seemed to work incredibly well. After about a 45 minute walk we crested a small hill and the Cranmere Pool structure came into view. I have to admit that I was a little emotional and was extremely happy to be at this point. Arriving at the box we met up with a group of men who were sitting around talking. I think our large, rowdy group may have interrupted their relaxing time out on the moor. They were very cordial and graciously took our group picture around the stone box. Not long after we arrived they set out on their return trip.

 

There was a small discussion about who would actually open the door to the box and in the end they picked Thomas - kind of a little thank you for his driving all week. As he approached the door he made the following comment - "Seems a little weird that the non-boxer is opening the door.". Once the door was open we took the stamp and logbook out and a stamping frenzy ensued. I ended up stamping several images just to have some extras and I stamped my personal signature stamp into the logbook. I wanted a record of me being there. (Note: We had been using a group signature stamp for the trip.) I made sure to go to Mark P. and thank him for arranging the trip and for making the walk to Cranmere Pool come to fruition. I also took lots of picture. After everyone had the stamp image we sat around and had our lunch. Once we had all eaten we started looking for other letterboxes in the area. Noddy and Stephanie had clues to the boxes and they shared them with us. We found a few other boxes in the near vicinity of the structure then we started our walk back and found a few more along the way. Arriving back at the vans was a very happy group to have gotten this very special stamp into our logbooks and once we were all settled we headed out. We dropped Stephanie back at her car and thanked her profusely for guiding us out to Cranmere Pool.

Next we headed to Plymouth. We arrived into town and Noddy directed us to the train station - we were dropping Diane and John off here so they could make their way to Salisbury. They got out of the vans in a hurry so that they could make the next train and then we headed for a parking garage so that we could go get something to eat. We parked and then Toni noticed that Diane had forgotten her purse hanging on the back of the seat. She told Mark P. and he, Amy, Lisa and Noddy got back in a van and drove back to the train station to find Diane and give her the purse. While they were gone the rest of the group walked into Plymouth to the Mayflower Steps to wait for their return. It didn't take them too long since Diane was actually standing outside the train station where we had dropped them off. Not sure if she was just hoping we would return or if she was trying to figure out what to do. In the end it all worked out. With us all back together we walked down the street to The Barbican Fish Bar for some fish and chips. This was a place that Noddy recommended and it was delicious. After dinner some folks wanted ice cream but all the places were closed so we just walked back to the vans to begin the drive back to the cottages. Before we left Plymouth we had to drop Noddy off at his home. We said our goodbyes to Noddy and thanked for everything he did for us this week - he was a joy to letterbox with. Then we made our way to a store as some people needed a few things before we got back to the cottages.

We arrived at the cottages to find that Jackie and Mark had left us cupcakes and apple cake for a snack. A few of us visited for a short time but in the end we were all tired and tomorrow we have drive back to London.