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.