Saturday 21 July 2012

Elementary my dear Watson!


With the sun properly shining for seemingly the first time this year, we rejoiced because it clashed with our latest Dartmouth Baptist Church walk on Dartmoor.  The chosen route took in the highly popular Haytor a remarkably well preserved Medieval village and the famous Hound Tor, the inspiration for 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' where Sherlock Holmes will no doubt have uttered his well-known line "Elementary my dear Watson." 






Friday 20 July 2012

Isaac's antics

The visit of Hannah and our two grandchildren Sophia and Isaac has been a hoot, with never a dull (or quiet) moment. Isaac at 6 months is very inquisitive and wriggly, and can't wait to be walking. He is a mean maracas player, as you can see!

Saturday 14 July 2012

The climbing competition

A visit from the Durdin clan saw us dodging showers (unsuccessfully) as we took the squoinks to the park for a play. The sight of a climbing wall was too much for the competitive spirits of Lyds and Han. What ensued was a heart-stopping, death-defying combat between these sisters. I'll leave you to decide the victor!

Saturday 7 July 2012

Camping with Colin

A planned two-day walk around Dartmoor with Ten Tors champion walker daughter Julia was scuppered when she landed herself a summer job! However Colin, a friend from church who is as mad as I am, despite the terrible forecast, agreed to walk with me. The Dartmoor perambulation became restricted to the south moors when I discovered that the Army, bless them, had decided to use the north moors to hone their shooting skills. So south moors it was! A slightly later start than expected saw us, after a coffee in the Fox Tor cafe, setting out from Princetown under overcast but pleasant and more importantly dry conditions. However, the wettest June in recorded history, followed by a wet first week in July ensured the usually damp ground did not disappoint, and before long boots and lower legs were decidedly damp. After 7 hours walking we found a nice camp site near Red Lake Ford and here the new Hilleberg Nallo GT 2 tent was erected in anger for the first time. Day 2 started fair and we followed the Abbot's Way at first before going 'off piste' to visit old favorite Tors aplenty. At Lower Hartor Tor, we came across a veritable village of mushrooms growing healthily on a pile of dung. Crazy Well Pool sorely tempted me for a swim to cool down, but I resisted and we followed the Devonport Leat around to the aqueduct under Black Tor. Our last Tor - Hart Tor saw us scrabbling for waterproofs when a large thunderstorm rained the biggest raindrops I have ever seen, soaking us in an instance. The last leg was in heavy rain, giving us the excuse for a celebratory cuppa in the Fox Tor Cafe once again.