Wild Camping on Dartmoor

Join Rich for a thoroughly interesting chat with Sarah Matthews of DolphinZone. If you've attended our Imagination Stations at Parkfield House or came to Berry Head for our project with Life on the Edge, you might have met Sarah already! She is a behavioural ecologist who specialises in common dolphins, and she founded DolphinZone to research and conserve these beautiful marine mammals. We talked about a whole range of subjects and Sarah's passion and enthusiasm was incredibly inspiring. If you want to know more about marine conservation and want to learn about how you can help, this is going to push a lot of your buttons! Thank you to Sarah for making time to chat and for the use of the DolphinZone logo and images which are of course (c) DolphinZone, and as ever to Sam Semple for the fantastic theme tune that bookends the pod.

This week Rich has been in Lappeenranta in SE Finland, representing the English Riviera UNESCO Global Geopark at the European Geoparks Conference. This is an international conference where representatives from Europe's 94 UNESCO geoparks attend and share practice and ideas. It was a fascinating and inspiring few days with over 400 delegates from 28 countries in attendance. Listen to Rich's reflections on the trip, a little bit about the history of the town and some thoughts about the potential that a Geopark can bring to an area. Apologies for the poor sound quality in places; a lot of the footage was recorded outside and on the move and I hope it doesn't detract form your enjoyment. Thank you to the TerraFirma project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, who funded Rich's place at the conference.

One of the great things about being based at People's Parkfield is being among so many other great social enterprises. The context we work in is different for each organisation and we all have our individual passions, but we are all working to make Torbay a better place for young people. In this episode of our podcast we talk to Jon Oliverio, the man behind Cycle Torbay CIC, a man who is passionate about getting people out on their bikes and learning how to maintain them. It was a great morning getting to know Jon better and discovering more about what Cycle Torbay get up to.

Rich visits our monthly community conservation session, Earthworks, on a beautiful spring morning. Everyone is planting trees and enjoying the sunshine. He talks to Louise about the project and has a chat with a few of the group to find out what they're doing, what they enjoy and what keeps them coming back. But will he ever find the milk?

Our podcast makes a return with a great new sound, courtesy of original music by Sam Semple. This episode takes in a New Years Eve walk on Dartmoor with Rich and the family as they stroll around Fox Tor, Blacklane Mire and Plym Ford. But will they find Crossing's Memorial?

In this episode Rich and his son Freddie head to Dartmoor for Freddie’s first wild camping experience. Follow our adventure onto the north moor as we dodge cows, review outdoor food and give you our top tips for a successful wild camp.

Hannah and Vik from Creative Cullompton are our guests today as we find out more about the history and stories of this fascinating, ancient town. This podcast was recorded in the Walronds, a beautiful Tudor building that is now at the heart of Cullompton’s heritage.

Just in time for Hallowe’en, we present a Gory Story from Cullompton – the Terrible Tale of Tom Austin. This is a fairly gruesome tale and may not be suitable for young children.

To celebrate National Poetry Day, Kev treats us to a reading of a 19th century poem by Robert Southey, ‘The Inchcape Rock’, in which a scheming pirate finally gets his what he deserves.

We welcome our first guest to the podcast as Kents Cavern’s Nick Powe joins us to talk about geologist, archaeologist and educator William Pengelly. Pengelly was a leading Victorian scientist who spent 15 years excavating at the caves and was a leading scientist in Victorian Torbay. This was a really interesting podcast to make and we are grateful to Nick for helping to bring Pengelly’s story to life with such eloquence.