Part 2It was a foggy morning when we awoke, so the GPS came in handy as we left camp and headed north east across a big, broad, featureless area laced with bogs to negotiate
Ruth does her unintended, impromptu impression of the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. “I would dance and be merry, life would be a ding-a-derry, if I only had a brain...”
Less merry on Greatest Kneeset.
There was a horrible carrier bag of rubbish here. We really wanted to remove it but it was all wet and filthy. It had clearly been left by a camper – no excuse for that! Mindful that this was our last day and we had a long way to go to get back to the car, we were trying to pick the line of least resistance across the land, following the natural lines of the valleys and hills (unlike yesterday's multiple valley/hill crossings). We wanted to see more tors though, next up Lints Tor
..which looks a bit like a camel or a monkey head from certain angles
We retraced our steps slightly, rounding the head of a valley to begin our ascent up to Dinger Tor, which we could see from the map had a track that we could use to cover some ground more quickly
Dinger Tor
We utilised the road/track from Dinger Tor to take us north, then east, then north again, to East Mill Tor, we which decided would make a good lunch spot.
I set about burning some noodles onto the base of my ti pan whilst Ruth had an explore around the tor.
Lunch consumed we decided to cross this valley and up to our final tor of the trip, Oke Tor. There were signs of brightness over there and things started to warm up on our descent.
We were hoping to fill up our water bladders down at the river in the valley, but it wasn't flowing that well and there was some livestock about so we decided to make do with what we had left, knowing that once over Oke Tor we'd be back at the river Taw were the supply was good.
Down in the valley there was little breeze and the sun was now out...the layers were stripped off in anticipation of the climb to come. We met a very friendly park ranger in the valley and had a nice chat about where we'd been. Then it was up to Oke Tor.
These little huts should be staffed and serving refreshments!
Then, all that was left to do was descent steeply down the east side of Oke Tor into the valley and head for the River Taw. We were both warm and had one thing on our minds...can you guess what it is?
Very near to our first night's camp, we had previously eyed this stretch of calm, reasonably deep water which had “swim me” written all over it.
If the sun had been on it for a day or two it would be lovely, but as it was it ball-achingly cold. Beautiful water though and even few fish swimming about in there, which is good to see. The fish might have got a shock when I got in though....fortunately no biters!
It was so nice to laze by the river for a bit in the sun, with the post-swim glow. All too soon time caught us up and we realised it was time to make a move to get back to the car (via a quick 1/2 pint of cider at the pub in Belstone!).
Goodbye Dartmoor, what a fantastic introduction to your charms!
Back in Belstone, Ruth was put back into her pen (and I was put into the stocks...hopefully Ruth will post some photos in due course)
GPS of complete walk attached (23 miles in all, nearly 1300m ascent)