Vagabonds of the Heart
Vagabonds of the Heart 2025/2026
A Year-Long Journey into Deep Connection
The world feels unsteady. Old ways are unravelling. And in the midst of it all, there’s a quiet knowing inside us—a pull toward something deeper, something wilder, something true.
Vagabonds of the Heart is an invitation to follow that pull. Over the course of six weekends across a year, you’ll step into nature—not as an observer, but as part of it. Through a blend of practical skills and spiritual connection, you’ll learn how to make fire, navigate the land, and journey by canoe, but also how to listen to the wisdom of the wild, rediscover your belonging, and find meaning in the more-than-human world.
This is for those who feel the ache of separation from the living world.
For those seeking a path back to something real and the skills to be able to do that with confidence.
Join us for a single retreat, or walk the full path with us. The journey is yours.
“Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving. It doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times.” – Rumi
First Retreat: Pathways of the Sacred – A Mythic Journey into the Wild
Saturday, 10th May 2025 – Sunday, 11th May 2025
You don’t have to be an expert in nature. You don’t need to know how to pitch a tent or light a fire. This isn’t about survival. It’s about coming alive. It’s about finding confidence in yourself to step into the wild—alone or with others—and feel at home there. It’s about breaking free from the noise of modern life and rediscovering a sense of place, of purpose, of connection.
Over one weekend on Dartmoor’s ancient lands, you will step into a world of myth, ritual, and reconnection. Through sacred storytelling, forest bathing, fire-making, and deep listening, you’ll not only learn how to be in nature—you’ll discover what it means to truly belong to it.
No experience needed. No expectations. Just an open heart and a willingness to wander.
Accommodation, Travel and Meals
This retreat will take place on southwest Dartmoor between 10AM Saturday morning and 4PM Sunday afternoon.
This is a camping retreat. We have camping kit available for hire. We will be wild camping on Dartmoor for the night and supporting everyone to be able to do this with confidence – from advice pitching a tent to how to create your own facilities.
For those without a car, we’re happy to transport you from Totnes station to Dartmoor.
We ask everyone to bring your own food: a picnic lunch for Saturday and Sunday, and dinner for Saturday night. We will have camping hobs available and a fire.
What to expect
If you’ve ever longed to feel at home venturing out into nature but weren’t sure where to start, this weekend will guide you step by step.
🌿 Day One begins with a welcome circle and intention-setting, grounding us in the themes of the retreat. You’ll step into sacred storytelling and forest bathing, where the myth of The White Hart invites you to explore the wild both outside and within. The afternoon brings hands-on camp skills—learning how to build a fire, pitch a tent, and create ritual objects that deepen your relationship with the land. As night falls, we gather around the fire to hear the tale of Old Crockern, offering our reflections and intentions to the flames beneath the stars.
🔥 Day Two starts in stillness, with gentle breathwork and a silent walk at dawn. As the day unfolds, you’ll engage in interactive practices inspired by the hidden networks of the forest, before we gather for a shared meal and a closing ritual—creating seasonal symbols to carry the wisdom of the weekend into daily life.
Throughout the retreat, there will be space for reflection, conversation, and simply being in nature – allowing a feeling of awe and connection without the illusion of separation which is our natural state. You’ll leave with practical skills and the confidence to step into the wild—alone or with others.
Cost
£185
£50 deposit and payment plan available on request.
Who is Facilitating?
Stefan Batorijs believes that everything is alive, animate and in connection. As director of Nature and Therapy, Stefan specialises in nature-based therapeutic interventions, dedicated to fostering a deep loving connection between people, Nature and Spirit. His work of over 30 years centres around encouraging a heightened awareness of both our inner and outer environments through Ecotherapy and by normalising and making accessible the principles and practice of Forest Medicine (shinrin-yoku). Stefan is particularly interested in Mystical experience in Nature and wilderness, and re-enacting mythic dramas in the landscape as a way of healing.
Harry Hilser, as an environmental social scientist, has conducted extensive research on human-nature relationships and led community engagement initiatives promoting ecological awareness. Harry carries a deep passion and curiosity for exploring the cognitive, behavioural and psycho-spiritual underpinnings of what makes us human and a part of all. Harry has spent much of his life in Indonesia, immersed in rural communities and learning about connectedness to nature, indigenous wisdom and the socio-cultural drivers and mediators of the values and practices that create, sustain or challenge societal norms. A member of the kincentric leadership community, he is particularly interested in the associations between pro-social and pro-environmental behaviours and pathways to fostering ecocentrism and continues to explore this through his diverse work, particularly through his UK based environmental education consultancy, Lestari.
Second Retreat: The Song of the River – an Elemental Journey with Fire and Water
Friday, 20th June 2025 – Sunday, 22nd June 2025
Water and fire—two ancient forces, both essential, both transformative. Over the Summer Solstice weekend, join us for an immersive journey into these elements, combining Canadian canoeing and sacred fire practices to deepen your connection with the natural world.
You will learn to paddle and manoeuvre a canoe with ease, gliding through the beautiful Dart Estuary toward a secluded creek where we’ll make camp. Alongside this, we’ll explore the art and spirit of fire, from practical fire-making skills to myths, rituals, and the deep wisdom fire has carried through human history.
This is not a bushcraft weekend—it’s an invitation to experience nature through your senses, to move with the rhythms of the river, and to sit by the fire as stories, silence, and ritual weave together.
No experience needed. Just an openness to water, fire, and the journey in between.
Accommodation, Travel and Meals
This retreat will take place on the Dart Estuary, beginning at 5 PM on Friday evening and ending on Sunday morning.
We will be wild camping for two nights at a secluded creek, carrying all our camping gear in Canadian canoes as we paddle downriver. If you need camping equipment, we have kit available for hire.
🌿 Meals:
- We will provide two communal evening meals—on Friday and Saturday night.
- Please bring your own breakfasts (Saturday & Sunday), picnic lunch (Saturday), and any additional snacks.
- We’ll have a fire and basic cooking facilities available at camp.
For those travelling without a car, we’re happy to arrange transport from Totnes station to our meeting point at Longmarsh car park.
What to Expect
During the the Summer Solstice, nature supports us to to step out of routine and into something timeless. On the water and around the fire, we can pause and realign, finding “our place in the family of things.”
🌊 Day One – Into the Flow
We begin at Longmarsh Car Park, Totnes at 5:00 PM on Friday, where we’ll meet our canoes and learn how to paddle with ease and confidence. Once packed and ready, we’ll push off onto the Dart Estuary, letting the river guide us downstream toward our secluded creek-side campsite. As night falls, we’ll cook supper together and gather around the fire for storytelling, setting the tone for our Solstice journey.
🔥 Day Two – Fire & Flow
The morning starts slowly, with coffee by the fire, before we move into the art of fire-making—not just as a survival skill, but as a practice of connection and reverence. Step by step, you’ll learn how to build and sustain a fire, as well as explore the myths, rituals, and wisdom of fire.
After a personal fire journey, where you’ll have space to reflect and work with fire in your own way, we come together for a collective fire ritual, welcoming the Solstice with intention. As the afternoon opens up, you’ll have time to explore—whether that means paddling back onto the river, staying by the fire, or simply soaking in the beauty of the wild around you.
🚣 Day Three – Returning with the Tide
We wake with the rhythm of the river, packing up camp and preparing for our journey back upstream. Whenever the tide permits, we’ll launch our canoes once more, moving with the water as we make our way back to Longmarsh Car Park in Totnes.
🌊 On the Water
Canoeing is not just about movement—it’s about presence. Unlike most canoe trips, we’ll teach you how to paddle efficiently and effortlessly, using four key strokes to navigate the water with skill and ease. Whether you’re a beginner or looking to refine your technique, you’ll leave feeling confident on the water.
🔥 With the Fire
We will explore together the essential parts of lighting a successful fire and how to welcome the spirit of fire into your lives and into your circle. We will teach you the basic steps to confident fire-making, alongside the fireside stories and myths of fire, fire tools, sacred fires and healing fires.
Throughout the weekend, there will be space for reflection, movement, and quiet moments in nature. You’ll leave not just with new skills, but with a deeper trust in yourself and your place within the wild.
Cost
£185
£50 deposit and payment plan available on request.
Who is Leading?
Stefan Batorijs is a qualified Canadian Canoe Instructor with over 25 years experience leading groups on multi-day river trips and also organising long distance Canoe expeditions to remote places, most recently Canoeing through the wild Knoydart Peninsula in Scotland. Stefan grew up lighting fires since the age of 5, and has developed a deep respect and love of fire, and the rituals that surround it.
Third Retreat: Kissing the Earth with your Feet – A Walking Pilgrimage Across Dartmoor
To undertake a walking pilgrimage is an embodied expression of the human wish to walk towards wholeness. Step by step, a pilgrimage brings together spirit and matter, offering structure to the inner search for what lies beyond self. Humans all around the world and across times have left the boundaries of the home to connect with special places and pay respect in reciprocity to the land and the divine that manifests in the world.
On this weekend, we invite you to walk with us across the ancient wild landscape of Dartmoor, to follow the winding path of the Mary and Michael Pilgrims Way. We will walk both together and alone – spending time in silence, exploring walking meditative practices, connecting with the land, the stone circles, and sacred sites of Dartmoor. We will welcome whatever we encounter along the way, with space and time for reflection and inspiration.
Walking meditation has been practiced in many religious traditions as a way of coming back to the body, to calm the mind and find our centre in the midst of impermanence. Walking meditation is not just an individual practice but one that honours our interconnectedness with the world and the Earth that sustains us.
As we walk together we will gently and curiously investigate our relationship with the ground, the body, the breath, every step bring us home to the here and now or as Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us “Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.”
Accommodation, Travel and Meals
Details coming soon
What to expect
Details coming soon
Cost
£185
£50 deposit and payment plan available on request.
Who is Facilitating?
Elena De Paz
Elena has been practicing meditation and learning about the Buddha’s teachings for the last 15 years. She has worked as retreat coordinator at the Barn retreat at Sharpham and is currently Communications Manager at Gaia House Insight Meditation Centre where she is undertaking the Community Dharma Leader training. She loves silence, time in nature, exploring creative expression and movement and has studied with Anna Halprin and Tamalpa Uk, a therapeutic art and movement based practice. In 2016 she walked from Gaia House to Santiago de Compostela (via ferry from Plymouth to Santander) on the Camino. She continues to look for opportunities to walk alone or with others as a form of prayer and coming back to source.
Stefan Batorijs
Stefan has spent his life wandering around in the wild places of this country and abroad, and he is a qualified Ecologist and Mountain walking Leader. His love and passion for the wilderness of Dartmoor informs his life and work. He has also pursued a fiercely independent spiritual path in Nature, learning whatever the land, plants and animals can teach him about life, being and belonging and how to live in an animate Universe. Stefan has traversed the moor many times over the last 30 years and still finds new places, new feelings, new revelations within the ever changing, moody landscapes and skies here.