You've no idea the trouble posting this has given me, jinxed from the start
It was our wedding anniversary on Saturday (27/3) so Sara and I decided to spend the day on Dartmoor. We set off at 6am on a drive that normally takes 2.5 hours, with two stops we arrived at 7.58, it was a cracking drive
.
As we passed the Okehampton camp we saw a huge number of minibuses, it transpired it was the RAF Ten Tors training weekend. Consequently we were to see lots of bedraggled youngsters sporting ill packed and ill fitting rucksacks.
The weather was low cloud with moderate winds, so with us at typically 1,500' we had lots of fog sweeping in and out. However given the height it was reasonably warm barring the windchill. We set off down Cullever Steps,
Passing a few weary looking Ten Tors campers emerging from their tents we made our way slightly South of Irishmans Wall on a steady climb that was complicated by copious amounts of clitter. This eventually brought us to Higher Tor, a name that had always baffled me as there are three Tors on this hill and it's the lowest of the three
. On top of Higher Tor I invoked a cunning plan. Many people claim to carry a GPS for "
just in case" in my experience they are entirerly self delusional and use it to do all their navigating leaving their compass resolutely redundant. I also tend to use a GPS for most of my navigation, buts that's why I bought it after years of counting paces and triangulating. I decided that as the love of my life and I were about to venture into an area in which I hadn't set foot for about 20 years, the terrain defies walking to track and it was foggy, I would put the GPS away and do the whole thing with just map and compass.
We set off with me using all sorts of clever tricks like "aiming off", this was fairly essential as we had to find the only sensible crossing point of the Taw River, which at this point is a bit beyond jumping across. The fog lifted just enough to prove my aiming off had worked and we were able to undertake the epic river crossing, it's worth mentioning that in places this raging torrent was nearly ankle deep!
However this was to end in tragedy, as we reached the safety of the far side I discovered that after 11 months and about 800 miles my left boot had sprung a leak in the goretex
We then headed up towards Cosden Hill; due to the convex nature of the slope even on the occasions when the fog lifted you couldn't see the top. At one point I saw a summit, it was the highest piece of ground ahead of us, so was surely Cosden Hill,
"Compass says no"
I checked the bearing to the summit, took a back bearing in Higher Tor, defied all of my instincts and went with the compass. Shortly after this another rise emerged from the fog, I took yet another back bearing which confirmed we were on track.
I was really pleased with the compass results, everything worked just as it should and we didn't put a foot wrong. With the use of back bearings and not falling into the trap of disbelieving the compass when everything else appears to be defying it we arrived at the Cosden Hill Trig point bang on the money!
I spent the rest of the day ignoring the GPS and boring Sara to death with explanations of the various navigational techniques I was employing.
We headed South to "Stone Circle"
Stonehenge it certainly was not, but at least it was all there. From here we had planned to contour around to Steeperton Tor, but decided instead we would visit Hound Tor and Wild Tor. The Wild Tor rock formations are really quite impressive.
Our diversion complete we headed for Steeperton, ther was a tricky little stream to cross and then on our way.
We arrived at Steeperton, hunkered down for lunch and discussed what we would have for dinner that evening. Theres nothing like a good walk to build an appetite. We dropped into the Taw valley again just to the west of Steeperton, crossed the Taw for the second time that day and then made our way up to Oke Tor. From here is a walk West to Eastmill Tor, if any of you try this walk KEEP TO THE TRACK when heading for Eastmill or vice versa, a good friend of mine tried the apparent direct route and was later found trying to dry his underpants on a Trangia stove
We took the steep climb up to Eastmill and then dropped over to Newbridge.
If this is a new bridge I'd be interested to see one of their really old ones
Here we joined the old Moor Road that is now dilapidated and closed, and took an easy stroll back to the car.
This was a great walk, if anything enhanced by the slightly adverse weather conditions. We covered just short of 11 miles and climbed about 2,000'. The Terrain however is extremely arduous, there are a couple of river crossings (impassable when in spate) and plenty of bogs lurking and waiting for the unwary. You also take yourself a little off of the beaten track, so I would suggest not one for the Moorland novice.
We were out for about 6.5 hours and walking for 4.25