Britannia Leaves UK to come home

Well, Britannia's trip had come to an end. She was parcelled up comfortably in her padded envelope and sat to wait for her journey home (it was the weekend and the Post Office wouldn't be open until Monday). Imagine her surprise when she heard the tearing of parcel tape after only 24hours and she was dragged out to discover she was still in Yorkshire!! It was YT's birthday and a surprise picnic with her letterboxing friends had been arranged. It would have been a pity for Britannia to miss that.

Britannia was delighted to meet Wild Women and Lily and jumped straight in asking them if they had their traveller with them. It was called 'Lily' and was inside their lovely purple bag which had an AQ badge and NYM 101 letterboxing badge side by side on it.

When Britannia opened Lily's box she found a parasite called Busy Bee! A Parasite moves from Personal Traveller to Personal Traveller, so Britannia took it to leave in the next one she found. Lily was really a lovely black Labrador and was so well behaved she allowed a photograph to be taken of Britannia sat in front of her. Britannia was a little frightened, Lily was so huge compared to her, but Lily didn't even try to lick her so all was well.

When everyone has finished stamping into everything in sight, Britannia headed off to find two last letterboxes on the moor. One was called Box Hunting - Shoebox and when Britannia opened it she was amazed to discover about six different stamps inside it with all different types of shoes. There was even a letterboxers hiking boot!

So now, after all the excitement, Britannia really is parcelled up, sent on her way and probably mid Atlantic at this very moment. What a wonderful time we have had together.

Happy boxing

The Yorkshire Tortoise

Mudflats and Oil Tankers

Today Britannia set off to look for a letterbox that is sited near an oil refinery where the oil tankers unload their cargo. It doesn't sound a very nice place for a letterbox, but it is in keeping with the rest of the series which of course is about pollution in general. In fact the area does have it's own charm. It is beside the Humbar Estuary and the mudflats are home to many specialised birds. It is a wonder any birds survive with all the oil drippings polluting the water, but they seem to love these mudflats. From here it is possible to walk on the bank edge as far east as you like to go until you reach the sea. Thank goodness we didn't have to go that far today.

Eventually we found the box we were looking for, nice and dry despite the recent rain/floods — thank you Lock n'Locks! I have warned Britannia before not to jump up and down on top of stiles. They are not all built to take her weight, but she didn't head my words and look what happened!

Happy boxing,

The Yorkshire Tortoise