When we first visited Butterdon Wood we knew immediately that it was the perfect place for Running Deer CIC. Admittedly the woodland hadn’t been touched for almost 25 years and we had to crawl through much of it on our hands and knees, but it felt right and we knew we could make it our home.
Egor our trusty Land Rover Defender 110, at 23 years old has been due a makeover for some time… but with ongoing maintenance and replacing tired parts finding the money to sort out the bodywork and a respray has been low on the priority of jobs to do.
For the last few years we have been using our trusty Land Rover Defender - Egor to transport people around, off road and on road. At 20 years old our ever faithful truck has let us down a few times, gearbox, clutch, transfer box... but being a Land Rover it has always been fixable. Even with regular servicing and maintenance a 4x4 isn't really built for the work that Egor has been doing.
Running Deer C.I.C was established in 2011 providing bushcraft activities for children with special educational needs and their families. The weekend bushcraft activities introduced them to fire lighting, den building, food foraging and camp fire cooking! It encouraged team work and group participation and parent/child bonding experiences.
We are delighted to have been awarded a Woodland Trust tree pack this year to help with the creation of our new broadleaf woodland to replace the larch that was felled last winter.
It was with a little trepidation we started our final plans for the challenge. The biggest concern for us was the weather; the forecasts were indicating that it was going to be hot and sunny, which is all very well for visitors to Dartmoor, but we wanted it cool so that the animals could travel without overheating.
