A day on the moor

Dartmoor, stuff of legend

On the 21st of May 2014 we were off again through the country lanes.  This time we headed for Devon, more specifically for Dartmoor National Park.  Now a national park in England has people living there on farms and even in towns.  Finding large tracts of relatively uninhabited land is not realistic, everybody has walking rights in these parks and on these farms though.

Country lanes

A forest in Dartmoor

Farmland as seen from a rocky hilltop (called a tor)

We stopped near one of the granite hilltops on the moor.  Hiking across the moor is a popular pastime; there are unmarked hiking trails from tor to tor. We didn't see any hikers, but encountered groups of aspiring, young mountaineers undergoing training.  On this day both these activities sounded like very pleasant outings. Where was the forbidding landscape mentioned in the novel by Nevil Shute or the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie? Our friends assured us that the area was prone to bad weather and did not look inviting when it was foggy or rained. It also gets very cold out on the moor.

Pieter and Kevin on the rocks.

The four of us.

We travelled on to a popular picnic spot next to the river Dart. On our way we encountered a number of sheep.

Kevin decided a bit of paddling was in order, so of course we joined him. The water was really cold but quite refreshing in the midday heat.

There used to be an old rock bridge here but it has either fallen or been dismantled.

Even the bridge in use at this stage is already quite old.

On our way to Princetown we saw some Dartmoor hill ponies.  One can see that they, like the sheep, have adapted for the cold because they all have heavy coats of wool.

Princetown is the home of Dartmoor Prison, completed in 1809.  Its high granite walls are impossible to miss, but getting a picture proved difficult.  There is just nowhere to stop near the prison.

The prison gates

Princetown

Once again we enjoyed the English sense of humour.