Oh go on then I'll write about the retreat. Part 1

A few people have asked me for details, so I agreed to blog about it.  Look at me, caving into peer pressure.  I'll try to give you enough information to let you decide if it's something you fancy doing yourself.  I'll also do it in a series of posts, to avoid you getting teal deer syndrome.

Off we go then.

Location 

...is gorgeous.  It's a converted barn sitting high on a hill (like a lonely goatherd), overlooking the river Dart.  Here's a view from just behind the main building:

Pretty nice, huh?  I nicked this photo from the retreat centre's website, which is here.  So if you are tempted to indulge in a spot of retreating after you've read my accounts, surf over and take a gander.

The nearest town is Totnes.  For those of you who don't know, Totnes is where crystals go to retire and the plug sockets emit not electricity but reiki.   The townspeople even successfully managed to prevent Costa Coffee from opening a branch there, so they are Powerful People Indeed.  (That said, I can tell you from personal experience that it's quite hard to track down a fluoride-containing toothpaste in the local shops, so I'm not sure how powerful their teeth are.)

If you're turned off by that kind of thing, don't worry: the retreat centre is a good ten-minute drive out of town.  If, on the other hand, you love that sort of thing, you can bookend your non-materialistic retreat with some serious consumerism.

I went into Totnes with a friend at the end of the retreat and managed to emerge with nothing more than a pumpkin seed-coated sourdough spelt.  Go me!