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Dartmoor Way
After our great experience on the Coleridge Way last year, we decided to come back to South-West England to hike in and around the Dartmoor National Park.
We started in Buckfastleigh which was easy to reach from London, first a modern train to Totnes and from there the South Devon Steam Railway. A very nice option to slow down and enjoy the area.
Close to our pub was the impressive Buckfast Abbey, a still active monastery which goes back to 1018.
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| Buckfast Abbey |
The first day brought some technical trouble, with the GPS not displaying our route, fortunately our phones acted as a perfect back up. Compared to the Coleridge Way, the Dartmoor Way was very poorly signposted, so we were very glad for the digital maps and way points. After a short stretch along the main road we headed through back roads, small tracks and woodland. Enjoying beautiful views on the way.
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| Nice view |
We added an extra night at Bovey Tracey, which gave us the option to explore the High Tors. After being dropped off at Manaton we visited Hounds Tor, Bowerman's Nose and Haytor.
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| Bowerman's Nose |
This was a wonderful hike with beautiful views, many interesting stone formations and our first Dartmoor Ponies! Around Haytor we found an extensive network called the Granite Tramway. This was built in 1820 to transport the local granite from the quarries to the shore. The trams were pulled uphill by a team of horses and rolled downhill by gravity.
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| Track Switch of the Granite Railway |
Day three saw us on the road again with our full backpacks. Hiking along beautiful tracks we headed to North Bovey, where we encountered many thatched houses and stayed at the wonderfully renovated Ring of Bells Inn.
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| Thatched House in North Bovey |
Day four brought us deeper into the Moor, with beautiful views and quite a bit of up and down. Since we had time we made a detour to visit Castle Drogo, which looks like a real castle but was only built in 1911 and is now part of the National Trust and can be visited. It is very interesting to learn about its history and see what comforts were built in at the time.
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| Standing Stone at the top of the hill |
From Chagford we headed to Okehampton. This was the second most impressive stretch (after Haytor) and the most strenuous so far. We encountered many animals today: Dartmoor Ponies, Cows and dozens of Sheep (such as the little lamb that didn't quite know what to do with us). And yet after we reached Belstone we decided to use the nice weather and head further into the Moor, where we found a wide open space with stunning views all around. After a moderate descent we followed a picturesque track along the East Okement River into Okehampton. Unfortunately, after seven hours, my GPS ran out of battery, so we don't know how many kilometers we did that day, but it was definitely more than 20.
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| Little Lamb |
Crossing several meadows and open spaces where we spotted many sheep, we headed downhill again, where we encountered the Highwayman Inn, a very peculiar place with rooms chuck full of artifacts and lots of decoration. The owners are very friendly and happy to tell more about the place. Definitely worth a stop, even if just for a drink. Unfortunately, this is where the weather turned bad, after five days of sunshine and pleasant temperatures it started to rain. Not for long, but it was a precursor of what was to come. On the last stretch of the day we came across a Geocaching Power Trail and used this to log a couple of more Caches than on the other days :).
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| The Highwayman Inn |
Last year, we were pretty exhausted after six days of walking, so this time we planned a rest day in Lydford, which gave us the opportunity to wash some of our clothes. Since the weather was good in the morning we headed into the moor, where I couldn't resist finding a T5 swimming/diving Geocache. And the water was so cold! But definitely worth it. Afterward we climbed up to Widgery Cross. On the way down it started to rain again, so we headed back to the hotel to warm up. Later as it looked a bit better we headed to Lydford Gorge, a stunning valley with a waterfall.
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| Widgery Cross |
The next day, the weather looked so so. Nevertheless, we gave it a try and headed off. However, the steady rain with the heavy wind (so that the rain was coming at us horizontally!), really dampened us and our mood. We saw nothing of the promised views and decided to add a lunch stop in a pub. After being dry again and looking outside, we decided that was it for the day and took a cab into Tavistock.
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| Rainy Dartmoor |
The next morning the weather didn't look too good yet, so we explored Tavistock on foot before taking the bus to Princetown. From there we took a short walk to Kings Tor where we had a fantastic experience with upcoming fog, and we finally understood why everyone warns from entering the Moor during bad weather. Fortunately, Kings Tor was in the middle of a loop road and with our GPS devices we always knew where we were. At Kings Tor we encountered another large group of Dartmoor Ponies including a foal!
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| Dartmoor Ponies with Foal |
The last day fortunately brought better weather and we had a fantastic walk, with quite a bit of up and downs but again with many animals and wonderful landscape. After 9.5 hours of walking my GPS ran out of battery again, at this time we had already covered 27.5 kilometers and it took us another half hour to reach our final destination, where we devoured a large dinner.
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| Dart River |
Before heading back to London we had some time to explore Totnes which has a very nice town center with many old buildings.
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| Totnes Castle | | |
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We've grown very fond of the Dartmoor region during our time there, and we may return for another hiking vacation.
According to my GPS we covered 182 kilometers in 11 days. The gap in the top is due to GPS failure, the gap at the bottom is due to bus and cab during bad weather.
We arranged this trip with the help of Encounter Walking Holidays,
who were very friendly and did a great job in supplying us with all
needed information as well
as organizing all accommodation on the way.Labels: geocaching, hiking, pictures, traveling, vacation
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