A group meeting in London on the night before we leave (Sept 9) starts us off. T-shirts, nametags, dog tags are handed out. Jsu keeps everyone laughing, providing a visual depiction of a hotel room key, and introduces the theme of the trip: Gratitude. Nicholas Brown beams and handles logistics.

Travel by train to Dartmoor National Park and Bovey Castle. We leave on Sept 10 for Bovey Castle, a bus to a train to a bus through the dazzlingly green English countryside, and join for dinner where John Morton calls in the Light. The next day is a free day before the Founders Dinner starts on Sept 12.

September 11 on the Founders trip is a free day at Bovey Castle. People take walks, hang out, participate in outdoor sports including falconry and archery. Slideshow includes shots of Bovey Castle and gardens, and a falconry demonstration on the front lawn.

A full day of sharing. Beautiful energy, J-R is looking great and spends a lot of the day with us.

Another day of sharing, starting off with J-R at breakfast and another bird talk, this time with an American bald eagle and the return of our little friend Archimedes the owl, who later takes his perch at the reception desk. A glorious sunny Devon day with tons of butterflies. Sharing with the crew from noon to midnight, interrupted by tea, scones and clotted cream, and, later on, dinner.

Founders Dinner Sharing. Group members enjoy the classic interiors of Bovey Castle hotel. 

The third and final day of the Founders Dinner sharings. J-R joins us at breakfast and for the morning eagle and falcon demo. Sharings during the rest of the day, and an evening birthday celebration for J-R with cake, belly dancers, a skit, and stories about J-R’s childhood from his brother Delile.

Once upon a time there was a wizard who lived in a big castle. A group of his friends decided to gather there to celebrate his birthday, and for three days they consulted with the wizard and ate and asked questions and meditated from morning ‘till night. They learned many things and freed up many areas of their consciousness so that they could more easily assimilate what the wizard had to teach them. Even though they met together in one big room in the castle, they went on many inner adventures and felt like they had been on a long journey.

After the three days they had a free day where they walked out into the sunlit green fields surrounding the castle. They were a bit dazed and disoriented from the long inner journey they had taken with the wizard, and infused with a kind of relaxed and carefree sweetness, and it took them quite a while to organize themselves for their walk. People arrived and disappeared at the castle’s exit, they got confused about directions and where they were going, but eventually they began.

They passed preparations for a wedding that was taking place at the castle which included a big pig being roasted on a spit. They got distracted by delicious blackberries that grew along the road, and stopped for long periods eating them. They walked through churchyards and farms, and reached a picturesque village called Moreton Hampstead. There they met many other friends from their celebration at the castle, who had also wandered into the village, who were equally disoriented, giggly and sweet, and they all ate sandwiches and ice cream and many other wonderful things.

They happened upon an old church, built in the 1400’s, with a graveyard and beautiful stonework and stained glass. They walked back through a forest with a meandering river, fields of white, pink, and light purple flowers, and green meadows where cows grazed. They came out of the forest and recognized the golf course that surrounded the castle, and knew they were back home. And they lived happily ever after. The End.

Bus trip to Stonehenge, starting at 5 am. Talks by John Morton and Michael Hayes as we explore Stonehenge. Then on to Wells Cathedral, starting out on a walk through city streets, ending at Glastonbury Abbey, built originally in 700 A.D., where we hear lots of lore including how Joseph of Arimathea brought the Marys at the time of Jesus. Also at Glastonbury is King Arthur’s burial site with his queen, found by monks when they were rebuilding the cathedral in the 1100’s after a fire.

A free day. A few of us went on an “eagle experience” where we got to handle hawks and eagles, including an American bald eagle, with falconry expert Martin Whitley at his farm where the birds are kept (in some shots you can see Bovey Castle in the distance). Wearing leather gloves, we are human take-off and landing strips for these amazing creatures.

On our last day at Bovey Castle I hike up to the moors (uncultivated grassland areas in England, sometimes marshy, usually at slightly higher altitude) to see the famous wild ponies of Dartmoor. They are not actually wild, but are owned by local farmers and allowed to graze on common land and move around freely in herds, much like our own Windermere horses used to do. I find that if I stand up or make sudden movements they get scared away but if I crouch down they come to me. For more info on them,  click here.

Photos show a few scenes on the hike, then the ponies, then the hike back, and then at 1pm we’re back on buses to the train back to London. At the end are some photos from the train ride and the countryside through the train windows. We’re back in London by dinnertime.