DARTMOOR

A lovely, albeit wet, day spent on Dartmoor. I had so many nice pictures from today it was difficult to choose which one to post. I didn't want to do another collage as they need to be full size. I plumped for this, which is a bronze age settlement, but am going to add a few extras.

We took packed lunches - it really was like a day at guide camp - and all had to carry our own. We stopped at Widecombe on the Moor for coffee in a lovely cafe. It was sunny and we were expecting a lovely day. A bit further up on the moor we parked and gathered our bits for the planned walk; up Hameldown Tor passing through this settlement, a huge stone circle with the remains of the stone hut circles within it. Then back down and on up to the next tor. It rained steadily, but we thought we could handle it - but by the time we got to the top of Hook Tor it was steady driving rain, and we were very wet. (We had shorts and raincoats on) We discussed our options, but realistically we were too wet to continue so returned to the car to eat our lunch. It really did feel like a school trip - cheap soft white bread sandwiches, in a steamy car with 5 damp people. 5 damp SMILING people!

We drove back down to a small visitor centre where miraculously the sun came out. We parked up and everyone else walked up Hay Tor, but I sat by the car reading my book with the coats, bags etc laid out in the sun!

We had our first encounter with some Dartmoor ponies, and one tiny very friendly foal. So i think we have now ticked all the 'we have visited dartmoor' boxes! I bought a Dartmoor badge for my camp blanket.

Home to a chicken dupiaza which had been cooking in the slow cooker. Now lighting up the wood burner, to sit out this evening.