PEOPLE taking part in a night time challenge across the Quantock Hills will be following in the footsteps of Romantic poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

The annual contest sees teams of four to eight people hiking up to 15.5 miles by solving clues and orienteering between checkpoints.

This year's event starts and ends at Quantock Lodge, near Over Stowey, with participants raising at least £25 each for charity.

Awards are won by teams based on sponsorship money raised and questions answered correctly.

There are three routes - the long route, which is 15.5 miles; the short route of around 7.5 miles, both with an entry fee of £22 per entrant; and the family walk suitable for those with younger children, which starts in the afternoon, covers around 2.5 miles and costs £15 per team.

The entry fee covers costs, including an awards evening, and all sponsorship goes to charity, which this year will be shared between Somerset Counselling Centre and other Rotary charities.

Event co-ordinator Kathryn Robinson-Burge said: “It’s great fun, great exercise for both brain and body and a terrific way to raise money for very worthy causes.

"The first Taunton Vale Moonraker Challenge was held 37 years ago.

"Many teams are regular entrants and look forward to a new route challenge in the dark every year, but it’s quite possible for new or younger walkers to start early and complete most of the shorter course before it gets too dark if that’s what they want.”

The 2023 Moonraker Challenge will be held on Saturday, October 14, and entries are open HERE.

Ms Robinson-Burge added: "We are grateful to our sponsors Porter Dodson, David Collard and Co, Summerfield, Nexus and Berry’s coaches for their support of the event."

Coleridge and Worsworth lived in Nether Stowey for a year in 1798, walking up the combes and over the hills, which inspired them to create a new language of romanticism and some of the greatest poems ever written.