Transition Tavistock: Let's just check where we're heading

A sunny mid-September morning: a couple of tourists boarded the 118 bus at a rural stop outside Tavistock. When most other passengers got off in Okehampton town centre, they stayed on.

A few minutes later, worried as the bus passed a drab housing estate, they pressed the bell. Stepping out, one said: “We thought this goes to the station.” The driver, puzzled, confirmed that it did.

As remaining passengers nervously checked their watches, the misunderstanding was sorted. Bus 118 had recently started going to the new Okehampton Interchange Station, but no longer goes up Station Road to Okehampton Station. (Still following?)

Sensibly, the tourists stayed on until the bus reached its green-roofed shelter beside the new station, in time to meet the train from Exeter. But their plan, remembering a previous holiday, had been to take the scenic walk through the park down from the original station to the town centre. Advised by other passengers, they got back on track, joining the train for the final three minutes of its trip.

We’re sharing this story partly to spread awareness of the route change, which got rather lost in news coverage of the station opening. But it also serves to underline the importance of correct, current, information, and of face-to-face conversation.

Both those feature in Transition Tavistock’s next book group session, on the evening of Tuesday, November 24. The book ‘Clearing the Air’, covers, in short chapters and straightforward language, ‘50 big climate questions and the solutions we have for a better future’.

Author Hannah Ritchie offers it as “a guide to help you sort fact from fiction when it comes to the solutions we urgently need”. Through her role at Oxford University’s ‘Our World in Data’ project, she’s well-placed to navigate the ‘minefield of information’ that’s slowing progress.

Our book group has met online every couple of months since that became easy to do from a kitchen or living room, so our backlist of climate or nature themed titles is now in dozens (https://transitiontavistock.org.uk/book-group/). However, this time, we’ve opted for an in-person meeting, sensing that meaningful face-to-face conversations are particularly important in uncertain times. It will be in an accessible side room in a central Tavistock hostelry – check our website and posters.

Connection in person is also a valued part of the Climate, Cake and Conversation series of events Transition Tavistock runs with Tavistock Library, including the recent, packed, People’s Emergency Briefing showing. (To find future ones hosted by other groups, see www.nebriefing.org.) That formed part of nationwide Green Libraries week, for which this year’s theme was ‘Climate Facts for a Greener Future’, subtitled ‘Navigating mis- and disinformation in libraries’.

The next Climate, Cake and Conversation event, 7.30pm on Wednesday, November 4 at Tavistock Library, shares inspiration from a Dartmoor winner of a Green Tourism Gold Award. Hear co-owner Michelle explain how Wray Valley campsite uses hospitality as a tool for nature recovery. Good direction!