Day 12: Dartmoor

Distance: 9.2 miles
Maidens: 10 (including Dawn)

The wind eased up today, and the alternating sun and clouds of the last few days stayed with us, giving us a very nice day for walking. We made the most of it, making a slow nine mile rambling walk along some streams, through a couple of villages, and out onto the high moor of Dartmoor. We've read accounts of this section of the walk that make it sound like a horror show, with slippery rocks, knee deep mire, and difficult pathfinding. And maybe it's like that with some rain and wind. But in nice weather, this is a really memorable walk. Made for a super Tuesday.

We started by heading back out of Okehampton the way we came. Yesterday, when we arrived, we asked a local which way to turn. "That way", he pointed, "goes into town. That one", he said ominously, "goes to the high moor". Yesterday, we took the town path. Today, we would be headed the other way.

But we started by taking a third path, a lovely walk through the woods along the East Okement river, burbling its way down off of the moor.


We were on the Tarka trail, named after some otter that I've never heard of. There were a few tricky bits clambering over wet rocks and through a little mud, but overall this was a fine and really pleasant walk. After a couple of miles, Tarka led us over a footbridge, out of the wood, and up a track into the moor.

Dartmoor is a 368 square mile hunk of granite that rises up on the north coast of Devon. We could see it really clearly from a distance because the surrounding countryside is green and lush, and Dartmoor rises up, brownish and rocky, with granite tors sticking up here and there. Here's Dawn, on the moor, with three tors in the background. The tors stick up pretty high, and I know from the magazine in our room that they get used for rock climbing.


We know from watching An American Werewolf in London that it's important to stay on the path, and not go wandering off onto the moor. That's because of two things. One is werewolves. We know a bit about them because of this book that we found during breakfast at Lewtrenchard two days back.


It's written by Sabine Baring-Gould, the Onward Christian Soldiers guy who rebuilt Lewtrenchard, and, even more cool, according to the note on the inside (on the right in the picture), it was owned by Harlan Ellison.

The second reason to stay off the moors is that much of the moor is a wet, peaty bog. It looks pretty solid, but it's not. Stories range from people getting lost and covered in muck, to animals disappearing into the mire, to people sinking under, never to be seen again. Our man Sabine B-G wrote a story about someone who came upon a top-hat brim down on the surface of the mire. He kicked it, whereupon a voice called out: "What be you a-doin' to my 'at?" The man replied, "Be there now a chap under'n?" "Ees, I reckon," was the reply, "and a hoss under me likewise."


It was such a nice day that we threw caution to the wind and went off the track, onto the open moor, to do some exploring. If you can stay out of the mire, the moor pleasant surface to walk on, spongy and soft. During nice weather, it's a wonderful place to be. Just off of our path, we found a circle of stones that were put up more than a thousand years before the Romans came.


They are called the nine maidens. Local legend holds that they were nine ladies out dancing on the sabbath, and they were turned to stone as punishment. Of course, this is a legend that came thousands of years after the stones were put there; no ones knows the motivations of the builders.

Dartmoor acts like this big spongy filter, releasing beautiful clear streams down to the Devon countryside. We came down off the moor, and followed another one of these to the village of Sticklepath, where we had a cup of tea at the Taw River pub. We liked the pub so much we got a ride back there in the evening for dinner.

Our B&B was just a few miles down the lane. We dropped our packs and had some more tea, then followed the directions of our host onto the little section of moor in their backyard to check out another stream flowing down. The pool you can see here is used by the locals for swimming.


Tomorrow, we stop with the meandering slow progress of the past few days. The next few days are straightforward longer days pushing us towards Glastonbury, and then Bath.

Location:near South Zeal