MARTIN’S MISSION IN PERU

Deepest Devon is not the usual spot to meet a llama, but that’s where Martin Wooller came across a sociable one called Scooby.

The next time Martin sees one of Scooby’s relatives may well be in Peru in October when he leads The Mission to Seafarers Machu Picchu Challenge 2002, a sponsored fundraising trek to “the lost city of the Incas.”

Martin, 62, the Mission’s volunteer support manager based in Exeter, made friends with Scooby at Roseland Llamas in Stockleigh Pomeroy.

“We got on quite well,” said Martin, “but Scooby didn’t seem very interested in joining my adventure in the Andes.”

The highlight of the two-week trip is a four-day, 24-mile walk at altitude to the Inca citadel. “It’s the altitude between 2,000 and 5,000 metres, not the distance, which will undoubtedly provide the challenge,” said Martin, who is based at the Church of England society’s office and shop in Topsham, Exeter.

Martin is married to Josephine and they have three children. He sings tenor in the choir at St Peter’s Church, Budleigh Salterton, where he lives. He joined the Mission ten years ago after retiring from his underwriting job in the City of London, and a varied careers as a master mariner, submariner and professional diver. He is one of 12 trekkers who have each pledged to raise £2,500 in sponsorship.

Martin said there has never been a greater need for funds to support the work of the society, which cares for the spiritual and practical welfare of seafarers of all  nationalities and faiths in 300 ports worldwide.  “When I was at sea in the days of the great liner companies,” said Martin, “the Mission’s flying angel centres were safe places for young seafarers in foreign ports. Nowadays, longer trips, shorter stays in port and smaller, multinational crews, mean that contact with home is the prime requirement for seafarers.” Mission centres provide telephones, email and internet links.

The trip also includes visits to the capital Lima and to Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world.

Further trek details are available from Gillian King at The Mission to Seafarers, 3 Arundel Road, Littlehampton, BN17 7BY  Tel: 01903 726969,
or email  m2ssr@fsmail.net 

 The Mission to Seafarers (formerly The Missions to Seamen) is a missionary society of the Anglican Church.

It cares for the practical and spiritual welfare of seafarers of all races and creeds in 300 ports throughout the world. Working through a network of chaplains and staff, on average each year it makes 91,000 ship visits, welcomes 849,000 seafarers to its centres, visits 1,300 seafarers in hospital and helps in more than 1,000 justice and welfare cases.