Thursday 14 May 2009

My heart belongs to Dartmoor

Sunday 15 March. I left the Warren House Inn around 10pm and set off across the moor. You can't beat a night walk for a start to an adventure. I set the tent up just within the ruined walls of Grimspound, and reflected on the space around me. 24 hours previously I'd been jammed into the front of Wembley Arena with 10,000 other people all loving Elbow. Now I felt like the last man on earth.

This is where I woke up.
dghd





I followed the ridge south over Hamel Down and popped into Widdecombe for lunch. Then it was back up onto the moor and eventually down to the River Dart, where I found a flat pitch next to a fire ring.


fghf

I woke at dawn, the tent stiff with ice, and packed up briskly. The lichens, epiphytes and mosses reminded me of New Zealand.




I walked upstream to Dartmeet, spying wild swimming spots for warmer times, and then climbed over Huccaby Tor back onto the moor.


Bellever Tor looked like a good spot for lunch.


Beyond the tor, the dry grasslands and weathered trees could have been Californian, but the standing stones gave the game away a bit.




Wow.

1 comment:

Tom said...

I can't believe how spectacular the landscape looks and it's only a few hours out of London. It's too easy to forget how much natural resource is out there in our increasingly urban landscape.