Walking the moor

Last time I visited, we went to Black-a-tor Wood, near Meldon Reservoir. But I had been to the stones at Scorhill on the way.

This time, Gary and Elise wanted to see the stones, so we did a walk (just the first part on this link) that took us past Scorhill.

It started out passing Round Pound - an impressive site itself. This one was a dwelling, it seems, rather than of some kind of spiritual importance.

We headed down a steep track where a lot of trees had been felled - conifers, I think, which had been planted maybe a hundred years earlier. On the way, I saw an impressive beech. There are so many more beech trees than I had thought in this part of Dartmoor.

The track took us into a wooded valley and we crossed the River Teign via a scenic bridge. I scampered up the river on the rocks - managing not to fall in.

The path led through the other side of the conifer plantation to the lanes, where we met a man walking a Bernese Mountain Dog called Floki. Like me, he's a fan of the series Vikings. We then met a man called Dick who makes walking sticks. He was originally from Melbourne and was in the Australian Navy. His wife is an artist. I bought one of Dick's Sticks.

Next stop, Scorhill.

Here we met a mother and daughter. We told them the route and the mother said, "Ah, so you met Dick?" And was astonished that I had bought a stick.

The daughter does make-up for films so we chatted about Pinewood Studios and she said I wasn't alone in killing my car in that ford.

The route took us across two rivers, using lovely clapper bridges - one of them with a gorgeous hawthorn growing next to it.

And finally, back to the van via the bottom of Kestor.

It was a perfect day for it and a great walk. We were absolutely starving when we got home.