Vajrasadhu and I spent a few days driving around the countryside recently. Though it’s amazing how much land and property searching can be done online these days. But there’s going to be more to finding this mythic land than scanning web page after page and zooming in with google earth! For one thing we learnt that a certain number of properties will exchange hands without ever being publicly advertised by the agents so it’s important that they have our details. And of course brochures never give the full picture. Just driving around parts of the country helped us get a sense of whether a particular landscape showed potential for the ‘elemental’ and ‘sublime’.

Apart from registering our details with a number of land agents we viewed a few properties that had at least some potential just to get a clearer sense of the issues we will be facing and, of course, what places cost these days.

Our search area stretches from North Yorkshire down to Gloucestershire. On this trip we covered some of Cheshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and a little beyond. Dhammarati recently said that if we find a place that both Vajrasadhu and I like it’ll probably be the perfect place! This reflects how different our starting points are as did the week’s search which began at a tudor mansion house set in 50 acres in Cambridgeshire and ended up at a grit quarry in the Potteries. Most land opportunities close to 300 acres will be farms but farmland is expensive – up to £10,000 per acre. We don’t intend to farm so rough land, pastureland or woodland would be better for us but even that costs around £3,000 per acre at the moment. Farms have an existing building footprint but it’s limited and can be tied to agricultural use.

So the search is on. Those few days helped us understand each other’s perspective, get a sense of current prices and just how much is on the market at the moment. This all helps inform the developing vision. At some point we’ll have to decide just how far we can compromise our wish list in order to get the project moving.

Last week I visited a lovely property in Snowdonia. It had a great elemental scenery, mountains, a river, a number of cottages and a great vibe thanks to the dedicated gradual development by it’s owners. But there wasn’t enough land, it was too hilly, road noise was there in the distance and it’s not great for public transport access. I spent ages mulling over it’s strengths and weaknesses before being able to let it go. I guess that’s the way the process is going to go.

Happily, others reading this blog have started sending me links to places they’ve come across. Surely if enough of us are looking both online, visiting agents and driving around we should soon find that piece of land that sits patiently waiting for us!

If you want to help and win the prize then just bear these criteria in mind:

• Located somewhere between North Yorkshire and Gloucestershire plus Wales.
• Accessible to visitors with a good hospital within half an hour drive.
• ‘Elemental’ land suitable for dividing into three distinct areas if retreat centres are to be relocated. Possibly three separate adjoining properties to allow a greater building footprint.
• Consider anything up to 3 million pounds!!
• Ideally 300 acres but consider anything over 70 if there is adjoining land that might be bought.