Their story, in their words…
Thanks to the Mark Evison Foundation, we were given the funding to challenge ourselves. After some consideration we thought that we would be challenged in an environment we were completely unused to. Which, for 4 girls who have lived in london their whole lives, was the countryside. We were recommended Dartmoor national park by a member of the foundation, so we decided to book a coach.
Our journey to Dartmoor started early – as we made our way to the victoria coach station. It was then that we found our first biggest struggle , the bags! The day of travelling was hard, with a five hour coach journey , delayed trains and near misses. We soon made it to Exeter, where we enjoyed our last venture to a corner shop for the foreseeable future. One train later and we were in Okehampton , where we luckily found the bus that lead to our hostel.Once we arrived in our hostel ,we chatted to the locals who recommended we visit the river just up the hill. This river became our go-to spot for the rest of the trip, and is where we cooked our food on the Trangia (which was certainly challenging on the first day), laughed, chatted, and had fun. it was somewhat similar to back home, except we were surrounded by gorgeous scenery ad starry skies, which would never be seen back in London
On day two we set off early , with a scenic walk to Princetown. We quickly found hiking to be tiring , especially as we had very little eat the day before , and had very little water. Despite the difficulty , we made it. We faced the difficult terrain of the moorland firsthand , as Aniqa fell waist deep into a marsh! The fall left them wet , cold and muddy , with wet socks to boot. After a small break to dry, we continued on our hike, finding ourselves quickly stuck with no footpaths and resorting to trekking on the highway. It was at this point that faith was at its lowest with shola particularly being afraid of the country roads. After two hours on roads, we made it to the long awaited footpath that lead to Wistmans wood , encountering a local that was moor than happy to be included in an interview for our documentary. Finally, we made it to Wistman’s wood , where we got to rest and film some more. Then it was time to start the long way back to our lodgings , walking the road once again and heading to Princeton , visiting the visitor centre and getting another interview from a staff member. Hot , hungry and dehydrated , we began the long trail back to our hostel. A mysterious illness overtook Shola on return , with all of us falling asleep almost immediately after returning home.
On the third day we stayed a little more local, but it was still quire a long walk! We visited Lydford gorge, and the local sites around the area, including the church and castle of Lydford. The area was beautiful, and every person was so kind. Inside the church there was a trust-based shop, which none of us had ever seen in the city, and was refreshing to find!
The third day was the most exciting, as we booked an Alpaca experience at a local business, run by a woman who escaped her 9-5 job in the city and followed her passion of raising Alpacas. There were so many lovely alpacas who each had their own names and personalities, and many were super friendly. It was the first time any of us had ever seen one, and to be this close to them was rare so we felt very privileged. This day we got the final footage we needed to complete our documentary, which made us feel very accomplished! The evening was extremely enjoyable, as we laughed the most we had for months, and we became unexpectedly attached to the place.
On the final morning we were sad to go, plus dreading the treacherous 11 hour journey home. We were also barred by train strikes we were unaware of, but luckily overcame this challenge too, as we were used to it by that point ! We are really thankful to the Mark Evison Foundation for this enriching experience!
