Holiday - Dartmoor - Day 4 - Blackingstone Rock, Heltor Rock and Home

Dartmoor Holiday

Tuesday 26th February 2019

Today we decided that we would go to a couple Tors where there are some climbs as have a look around to see if it is going to be worth going back on another occasion.  We had to be out of the cottage by 10 this morning so we got up and packed up and handed the keys back in.  We made a quick stop to the local cafe for a spot of breakfast before heading towards the first Tor.

The first Tor we stopped at was Blackingstone Rock.

We parked in the carpark opposite and got the climbing book out.  We set off round the Tor and identified the climbs and which would be suitable for us to have a go at.  We also found our way up onto the top.

Back at the car we made our way to Heltor Rock.

Once again we parked up and walked to the Tor to look at the climbs that were in the book as well as scramble to the top!

On our way home we called at Portland to collect Doughnut and have some dinner with Netty before going home to sort everything out!  Doughnut had a lovely holiday but is now worn out!

Tomorrows task is to deal with the washing!  We have had a nice few days away and we will certainly be returning to where we stayed.

Holiday - Dartmoor - Day 3 - Postbridge Walk

Dartmoor Holiday

Monday 25th February 2019

We decided to do another walk today rather than climbing.  Tim had found a walk from Postbridge that is about 10 miles.

We made some sandwiches and packed our rucksack and headded out.  We parked up at Postbridge and set off walking about 11am.  We set off up though some Forestry Commission woodland and up onto Bellevere Tor.

Off the Tor we followed the path round Laughter Tor and back into Forestry land heading down towards the East River Dart.  Thankfully there were some stepping stones to cross the sizeable river!  On the other side we found an appropriate place to stop for some lunch.

From here we continued up the other side of the valley and over into the next valley to cross Walla Brook.  Back up the other side the rest of the walk continued with little up and down through farm land and back onto open access land.  As we got back to Postbridge we went down to the river to look at the old Clapper Bridge that is there.

Holiday - Dartmoor - Day 2 - Bennett's Cross Walk

Dartmoor Holiday

Sunday 24th February 2019

We decided to go for a walk today as the Tors we were going to climb on were likely to have a lot of people around as it was a nice sunny Sunday.  We started the day by going to a local cafe for a cooked breakfast!  

We drove out to Bennett's Cross and parked up and set off round Birch Tor towards Challacombe.  Challacombe is an abandoned Medievil village.  We continued round the hill till we found an appropriate place to cross the stream to go up onto Hameldown Tor.  On the top we had a rest by the trigpoint and looked at the map to decide where to walk to next!

From the top we set off for Grimspound a large Bronze Age Settlement.  We continued over the hill between Hameldown Tor and King Tor to join a section of the Two Moors Way.  Once we got to West Coombe we too the way up over onto the open access land again past some old mines.  We followed this route right over the edge of Birch Tor and back to Bennett's Cross.

This evening back at the cottage we cleaned up and then decided what to do for dinner. We went to the local pub we tried last night The Union Inn.  We both had a very nice roast and got back feeling very full to watch a random film!

Holiday - Dartmoor - Day 1 - Journey to Moretonhampstead

Dartmoor Holiday

Saturday 23rd February 2019

We had packed everything we wanted to take with us last night so this morning we just needed to get up and pack the car.  Doughnut is going to Portland for a little holiday of his own so Netty met us in Dorchester to collect him from us.  As we continued to to Moretonhampstead I received a message to say that Doughnut was making himself at home!

We pulled off the A30 towards Moretonhampstead and stopped to get the map out to plan a short walk.  We decided to head towards Castle Drogo and go for a walk down by the river.  Tim planned a 4 1/2 mile route that followed the river to Fingle Bridge and then up onto the top of the hill to Hunters Path back to the car.

Tim thought the best place to take some photos from was in the holly bush!

Fingle Bridge

I wonder if there is an owl who likes to visit this tree?

It was a nice walk that took us just under a couple of hours. We were still a bit early for meeting at where we are staying so we had another look at the map and decided to do a short walk near to where we are staying up to Giants Grave and a stone circle.

We did find them but they were not overly spectacular compared to some stone features on Dartmoor.  We next went to the cottage to check in.  It is a nice little cottage right in the centre of Moretonhampstead. After unloading the car we walked to the church to see about service ringing for tomorrow morning and go to coop for some shopping.  We also checked out a cafe for having breakfast in the morning!

This evening we tried to go to the Union Pub for some dinner but it was full up due to the rugby game! We went back to the cottage and had a pizza and decided to go to the pub another evening!

Tomorrow we are planning to go for a walk near Postbridge.