The staple tors are within easy reach from Cox Tor car Park on the Tavistock – Princetown road near Merrivale and are extremely photogenic.
We climbed up and continued to Roos Tor, which was probably the most enjoyable part of the walk, From Roos Tor we could have a glimpse of the Northern Moor, which we visited earlier today.
Clear and frosty December morning, and we’re climbing to the top of Dartmoor once again.
The deserty feeling of this part of Dartmoor is tantalising and reminds me of other, much warmer deserts … It was very cold at the summit which was battered with a northwesterly wind and we soon made our way down.
From Cadover Bridge on the River Plym towards Trowlesworthy. Lots and lots of archeological remains and stone rows. Spanish Lake area is still boggy even after the ‘driest Sep. on record’. and the sight of the ‘largest Clay works on earth’ dominate the area pretty much.
There are at least two impressive stone rows and circles southwest of Great Trowlesworthy Tor, which I could not find much about.
A walk down the Meavy river and up Devonport Leat up to Crazy Well Pool and across Newleycombe lake to the very impressive Down Tor stone circle and row. Dartmoor is dry there are no bogs and walking is easy.
On Sunday we went again to the Bovey hunting for some more autumn colours. It was a clear sunny day and the tunnel of trees at near Bovey Tracey did not disappoint
The tree canopy near Bovey Tracey (Exeter express and echo).
From Holne, we started a short walk, down and across Hisley Bridge, just downstream of Lustleigh, then follow the river to Drakeford Bridge.
We then drove upstream to the Clapper Bridge near Neadon (no clapper bridge to be found ).
When visitors come from sunny abroad we always go to Dartmoor, whatever the weather.
This time the elements graced us with nearly no temperatures and a wind that added a sharp chill effect. The sun… was not.
We did make the most of it though, by a walking from Hay tor to Hound tor. It seems like the colours have vanished from Dartmoor’s landscape but at least it was not crowded and we had the place for ourselves.
memories from Hound tor, March, 2013 (top) and Dec 2005 (bottom): where did all the green go??
Saturday March,23 will be remembered as atrocious, violent, back to winter freezing day, with two air masses battling over England and the cold mass won… spreading some 40 cm of snow in parts of N. England and heavy rain on saturated ground everywhere else. All newspapers headlines and most of the radio news were weather related: snow blizzards, blocked roads and power disruption in the North and East England, while here, in the Southwest we were protected from the worst of the weather and those easterly winds just caused a bitterly cold wind-chill effect and enough rain to cause landslides and walls to fall (???) . Last Easter England had a heat wave and drought warnings but since then it basically rained non-stop for a year …
Amidst all off that we are heading to Dartmoor. A’ had a Moor challenge weekend were they were planning to camp on the moors on Friday and Saturday, and navigate their way (with no teachers this time) carrying all their gear across the moor.
The weather was not too bad, to be honest on those lovely roads around Dartmoor, but a thick cloud covered the higher ground, and once I’ve start climbing I found myself driving through in-penetrable fog.
The teams were walking from about 7am, and I set up to meet the guys at mid-day some 3km from the car. However, with visibility of about 50m this was not trivial. I decided to cling to this wall and follow it around, and basically did not let the wall out of my sight. Got quite attached to this wall actually and took many pictures of it.
The first one was just few hundreds meters from the car, I just wanted to make sure I can find my way back:
Find the wall:
Eventually met the brave bunch, condition got slightly worse, its colder, visibility down to 15m max and four of us are heading back to the car. Still clinging to the wall:
All are back safe, and the guys are trying their best putting up tents with their gloves on … in this lovely Dartmoor setting:
The Journal has been maintained since March 2005 to promote awareness and the conservation of the incomparable but often-threatened heritage sites of Britain, Ireland and beyond.
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