The Stars Are People-Gazing
FACT: A bull in a china shop (or, indeed, a bull in a china closet) doesn’t actually break anything
Happy Friday!
And greetings from Bournemouth, once again beachside, after a blustery few days on sunny Dartmoor.
But first I know you’re agog to hear how Jolly Rogers got on at Beach Nats last weekend.
Well, contrary to all expectations, I wasn’t a lumbering waste of space. It turns out that a bull in a china shop (or, indeed, a bull in a china closet) doesn’t actually break anything.
Although I wasn’t exactly a ballet dancer on the beach, I did somehow manage to score in the semi-finals.
Alas, the final was a throw too far. Despite being 8-7 up, we went down 9-8 to deserving champions Crèche The Zone.
As one of my wise teammates said:
This is why we play sport, for these moments. To learn how to overcome setbacks and roll with disappointment.
For those of new around these parts, welcome 👋 My name is David and I’m a writer, outdoor instructor and cyclist-at-large with Thighs of Steel. I write stories that help you and me understand the world (and ourselves) a little better.
Sometimes I lose things.
Welcome to edition 357.
In honour of the fact that I’ve spent only seven nights at home in the past month, this week’s is perforce a short one.
Days Of Adventure 2023: 18
🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢 What is this?
The Stars Are People-Gazing
It is a truth universally acknowledged that every time I visit Dartmoor, the sun will shine strongly.
That’s why I’ve picked the gloomiest photo I could find, from our wild camp on the leeward (ha!) side of Great Mis Tor on Tuesday night.
I wrote at length in January about the current court battle for the restoration of our right to wild camp on Dartmoor.
Last week, members of the Dartmoor National Park Authority, emboldened by a spring tide of public support, decided to appeal the High Court decision.
This action is encouraging and it’s good to remember that oodles of Dartmoor remains open to backpack camping, a sign that landowners too stand by our right to the night sky:
Camping is free in these areas by permission, rather than by right, with landowners receiving an annual fee of £300 in return (although some have indicated that they will donate the fee towards conservation).
You’ll see from the map that camping isn’t generally allowed off the main roads onto Dartmoor.
This is, I guess, to discourage ‘fly camping’: people piling out of cars, spilling onto the moor with paper cups and beer kegs.
But I’m afraid that it only serves to discourage (as I wrote in 2021) people ‘not like us’.
I was writing about proposed changes to the byelaws governing Dartmoor — changes now on hold until the High Court judgement has shaken itself out — but my words apply equally to any and all attempts to curtail popular access to the outdoors:
The outcome […] is that campers who are not white, wealthy and middle class enough will be discouraged from communing with one of our last expanses of wilderness.
We need education not litigation. We need more access, not more control.
Learning is what humans do best: we are (in the words of anthropologist Clifford Geertz) unfinished animals. Meanwhile, access to nature gives us somewhere to practice being what we are.
With education and access, our human footprint is lightened and distributed and generations will rise up, ready to take their place in nature, as one of nature.
Even with my experience and resources, I’m far from being an expert in the ways of the moor.
I still haven’t found the perfect campsite: the open moor is exposed to wind that bends the laws of meteorology, wraps itself around my ears, rattling the brain and shuddering me from sleep.
And, yes — this is a call out for recommendations!
I’ve been back home for less than a day and I’m already yearning to return for another night on the moor.
For, even in the long sleepless delirium, there is a moment, perhaps two a.m., when you brave the elements for a wild pee, look up at the fast clearing sky and see, returning your awed look, Gemini’s twins, Castor and Pollux.
A quiet strong voice rose beside me in the darkness:
While we’re stargazing, the stars are people-gazing.
~
Special thanks this week to the breath of Dartmoor and my companion beneath the stars.
Three Small Big Things At The End
This week’s small big things are brought to you by the irrepressible Kottke.org.
1. Space Elevator by Neal.Fun
I mean, have you ever thrown a paper aeroplane to an altitude of 35,000m?
2. Spreadsheet Art
This was made by a wizard Tatsuo Horiuchi in the magical Millennium edition of Microsoft Excel:
3. Massive Ponds Of Italian Volcano Bacteria (Might One Day) Make Bioplastics Out Of Atmospheric CO2
Say no more.
Wait, actually — say more?
That’s all for this week.
I feel very lucky that I get to sit here and write to all 575 of you, picking up these words from 52 countries around the world.
That includes 1 of you 👋 now reading from Denmark 🇩🇰, a country of 1,419 islands.
Only 78 of these islands are inhabited and the largest is called Zealand — nothing to do with New Zealand 👋, which was named for Zeeland, a province in The Netherlands.
While Zeeland translates, simply enough, as Sea-land, Zealand has a more intriguing etymology, perhaps: Soul-land.
Denmark itself was first named on the massive Jelling runestones, a sort of ‘baptismal document’ dating from the tenth century.
The largest of the two stones, celebrating his conquest of Denmark and Norway, was raised by King Harald Bluetooth.
Yep — the very same Bluetooth.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group is a not-for-profit made up of over 38,000 member companies, who hope to unite wireless technologies in the same way that Harald Bluetooth united the Danish people.
And that weird little Bluetooth logo? It’s a monogram of the medieval king’s initials: H (ᚼ) B (ᛒ).
So next time you ‘connect’ your headphones, remember those 38,000 member companies and tip your hat to old Bluetooth and the thousand years of history that have brought us to this moment, this very moment, where we’re all standing around, slackjawed with wonder, all thinking the same thing (as we hold up the queue at the train doors): 🤯 OMG WE ARE SO CONNECTED.
Thank you for reading and I hope you found something to take away with you.
Don’t forget that this newsletter is community supported. It’s easy for you to pay what you feel it’s worth:
There’s also a tier where you can pay £50 or more. Whatever you choose, thank you.
Big love,
dc: