Paul Rendell
‘Every day is different’ says the Dartmoor walker
Life is a bit of a jigsaw for Okehampton’s Paul Rendell. Not only does this busy man edit a bi-monthly magazine, he writes books, gives talks and guided walks, clocking up around 2,500 miles a year – from walking in the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall and Devon including Dartmoor and Exmoor. As he admits, he needs to be very organized; covering such a broad area, life would soon become quite awkward if he had a walk in Combe Martin and a talk in Saltash all on the same day!
However, it wasn’t always this way. Paul was born in Plymouth and started his working life as a chef, before a period working as a roofer and then a gardener at Devonport Dockyard. His love of walking on Dartmoor sprang from family treks with his mum and dad. ‘I started walking on the moor when I was seven or eight. We didn’t have a car so we’d travel out to the moor on the bus; my love of walking really came from my parents. I’ve been leading guided walks since I was 16!’
Redundancy from the dockyard was the spur that led to self employment for Paul. He developed his programme of guided walks further afield and then moved to Okehampton, which provided an ideal central point for his walking ‘patch’.
Paul started producing his magazine Dartmoor News in 1991. ‘People were always phoning me up asking what was happening here and there on the moor and if I didn’t know the answer, I would know someone who did. So I thought, why can’t I produce something and make a bit of money at the same time?’
His talks programme now includes around 200 dates each year. The talks range in subject matter from industrial archaeology and wildlife, to waterways and folklore. Each is illustrated, many with his own photographs. He clearly loves the life he has carved out for himself. ‘Someone once said to me: “The problem with you Paul, you don’t like taking orders”. I do like being my own boss and I can’t imagine doing anything else now.
‘Often I will get up, do my emails, go out and lead a walk. I have a regular Tuesday walk every week. I may then do another walk in the afternoon and during the summer months I may even do one in the evening as well. On another day I might do three talks in one day or I might do a 12-mile walk and then a talk in the evening. Every day is different!’
Paul’s walking customers range from local people, to visitors and tourists or school groups. He sometimes does themed walks, with the likes of Sherlock Holmes and his Dartmoor connection proving very popular. His knowledge of Dartmoor is extraordinarily broad and he has a love for many specific areas of the moor, but a particular favourite is around Burrator, the subject of one of the many books he has written, another is Cut Hill - right in the heart of the moor. ‘You need to know what you are doing to get to Cut Hill - but it’s great. You rarely see anyone, and are left purely with the sounds of birds and other wildlife. If I want to be on my own that’s where I’d go.’
One area he is not so sure about is Scorhill stone circle, near Gidleigh. ‘I’ve fainted up there, I’ve been sick, the hairs on my hands go up. There have just been too many strange happenings and weird sensations for me, so I now don’t go there. I don’t know what it is and I know other people love it, but it’s an area I now try and avoid!’
He is sympathetic to the supernatural. As an eight-year-old child he felt ‘absolutely compelled’ to rush home in the middle of a school day, only to find his mum had fallen down the stairs. He is convinced he saw a ghost on Blackdown near Mary Tavy. He is currently writing a new book about unexplained happenings on the moor, to include well known legends, some not so well known, and a few of his own experiences.
Asked to explain just what makes Dartmoor so special for him: ‘I suppose it’s a mix of the history, its wildlife, its remoteness - you can just get away from every day life. Lots of people say to me I’m not working, I am just on holiday all of the time!’
Jane Honey