Show Some Love for the Humble Harbour Porpoise

If you can learn to sail in The Solent then you can sail anywhere in the world”, claimed Jason our sailing instructor as we tucked into chips and veggie burgers overlooking the busy Portsmouth harbour. Too tired and exhilarated after our first day aboard sailboat Karic, owned by vegan sailing cooperative The Sailboat Project, to want to cook in the galley we had left her moored at Gosport marina and headed out to find some food and a beer to discuss the day’s events.

Upland Dartmoor has always been one of my ‘happy places’; somewhere that closets me from the outside, a seemingly ‘out of this world’ landscape steeped in history and folklore. Some refer to it as England’s last great wilderness. But whilst it can certainly be wild, calling it a wilderness often feels a little disingenuous considering the long history of human habitation and our ongoing role in shaping the moorland landscape. Nevertheless, the feel of the rugged, granite crusted land creates a feeling of separation from everyday life for me. It is a land that I grew to love, having spent much of my middle childhood, adolescent, and early adult years living on the moor. And the river Tavy itself (one of the great rivers of Dartmoor) has played a large part in my own sense of identity.