I’ve been involved in Ten Tors for years and years. I watched my brother complete it before me for 4 years and then I did it for myself for 5 years.
This year is the 10th year being there for it but it was a weird year... because I wasn’t walking. It was such a weird feeling hearing the cannons go off knowing that I wasn't going out there into the moor- it was actually really sad.
Surprisingly enough it’s not the early morning starts I miss (I deffo do not miss getting up at stupid hours in the morning), it’s my team I miss the most. We still meet up when we are back home from uni with a curry and a few drinks at spoons and I try and keep in touch with them but nothing quite beats the being isolated in the middle of Dartmoor with 5 other people just talking about anything and everything. We’ve had discussions ranging from who might get a Wikipedia page named after them, to laughing at whoever fell over (usually me). Not to sound too cheesy but we really have made some great stories and memories together.
I decided this year to not take part and instead start involving myself as a leader as I do not want to says goodbye to something that was such a huge part of my life.
And this last weekend (9th-13th May) I went down to watch the event and help set up.
Here's a little video of what happened over the weekend:
I’d watched as a sibling, been there as a participant, and Ten Tors 2018 I saw a totally different side to it all; I've now watched it as a helper.
So what now? : next year I plan to help out on as many of the training walks as I can (unfortunately this year I couldn't make them). In the coming summer, the team and I plan to spend a couple of days together of days together on Dartmoor to do some leisurely walking and camping (and probably pub crawling)- I’m SOOOO excited!
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