Bank Holiday Weekend Wild Camp Part 2

The start to the morning was not that much better, poking the head out the door to see still more mist at 6 in the morning was a little downheartening having been fooled by the nice bright yellow glow coming through the tent flysheet making you think it's looking bright out, so crashing out till 8 was the choice of the day, by the time we had everything packed away the mist was just starting to lift and patches of blue sky were begining to be revealed.

Sundays walk was to be far more pleasant, being able to see where you were walking to was a rather novel compared to saturdays adventures.

Nine O'clock and we ready and making a move skirting round the hill side and the a short climb up to Cut hill and the peat pass before descending down to the west dart, looking down into Sandy hole pass, then heading on to the waterfall for a short break and a few photo's to be taken.

From the waterfall it was up past Broad Down and then following the wall along towards Lower White Tor and a view across to the Browns house ruin, next come the strenous 20 meters of ascent over a 780meter walk to reach Higher White stopping here to take in the views and point out the surrounding tors Longaford, Crow, Beardown, Rough, Lydford and Bellever Tor just to mention a few.

Longaford standing out in front of us looking a grand old Tor and one just begging to be scrambled up, the dartmoor ponies beside the track gave chance for a few photo oppertunites along the way, Louise with her camera at the ready to catch the odd snap of a pony or three.

Just two more places of interest for us to stop at before arriving back at the car, a leasurely stroll along to the base of Longaford followed by a scramble up the northside of the tor and a brief sit down on the top to once again take in the views and devour a few jelly babies in the process,from the tor we looked down onto Wistmans wood our last and final place of interest before heading back to the car, again on reaching the woods another chance to put the camera's into use to capture the stunted oak tree's in all their glory.

Now all that was left was the less than interesting track leading back to the car park, followed by a drive to princetown and a nice healthy late breakfast in the cafe.

Sundays camp spot was to have a few more modern ammenities than the saturdays, so the Plume of Feathers was to be the site, with the tent pitched up in the early afternoon it was decided that a short walk might be in order to keep us from getting in the pub too early, Nuns Cross and the nice stone row and circle out near Down Tor were are targets for the afternoon.

There is a little info on the Stone row and Circle in one if my previous posts, Siward's Cross to give Nuns Cross it's true name can be classed as a wayside marker and is possibly the oldest and certainly the largest wayside marker on dartmoor. It was mentioned in the 1240 Perambulation of the Forest of Dartmoor,The cross was probably erected during Edward the Confessor's reign (1042–1066), and stands at the junction of two main tracks across the moor: The Monks’ Path and the Abbots’ Way.

Having visited both these sites and made the most of the nice weather the next point of call for both of us was a good long hot shower to make ourselfs feel human again before the truma of finding a table in the Plume to sit at and have a meal and not to mention a drink or three, lasagna being tonight choice washed down with a pint of tribute. Having told Louise about the charectors you get in the pub, we were not dissapointed when a highly amusing couple joined us at the table due to lack of any other tables available, made for an interesting conversation about farming on the moors, as well as the entertaining night time runs one did to avoid being seen running. The entertainment didn't stop there no quicker had they left we were joined by Shamus and his mad spaniel.

A good fun night was had, and the beer helped drown out the other snoring campers.

Mondays entertainment comes back to people forgeting things, up at eight in the morn and Louise had to pack up and get back to her car early to go pick her dog up, so everything was gathered together quick check in the tent see nothing was left, and off we set to drop her back to her car, now your probabily thinking she left the car keys behind, but not this time just one dry bag with a purse camera and mobile phone.

Now just to plan the next trip.