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." 

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!

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!

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.

Tents galore!

We had a mad tent day today! Lynn and I are beginning to enjoy the delights of wild camping, something that Dartmoor is particularly noted for in the camping world. Anyway, our trusted and faithful Vango Force 10 Mk 5, although inseparable from us after 25 years, is just too heavy to backpack with. My little esquina is a superb 2 man tent that only has one vice, that it is overly boastful regarding its capacity. Lynn and I have been researching and viewing the market and discovered the shear brilliance of the Hilleberg tents - 4 season but extremely light weight. It comes at a price though, thus our mad pitching sortie today as we prepare for possible ebay sales to pay for our extravagance! Our final task was to get Lynn to pitch Julia's Eurohike tent on her own in readiness for her week at the Christian Youth Camps in August.

Avon Dam walk

Today the chaps from church, and Debbie (Colin's fiance) trundled up to Shipley Bridge to have a walk, circumnavigating the Avon Dam. The walk up to the Dam was as always pleasant, and we met numerous Duke of Edinburgh teams just finishing their expeditions. Once at the Dam we traversed its Northern shore, meeting up with the Abbots Way footpath. This took us to our lunch break at the old clapper bridge on the River Avon. We then left marked paths and braved the tussock grass on a bearing directly to Eastern White Barrow. Picking up a disused rail track we had an easy descent back to the car park, espying a hairy caterpillar on the way.

Surfing at Bantham

Summer 2012 came and went last Tuesday. Fortunately, the offspring had suggested we take Dan's surf board to Bantham beach to have a go at surfing - ha! Suitably donned in wet suits, we braved the sub-zero waters and fought the waves into submission. Despite the danger, we felt safe because the watchful eye of Lynn was on us, and if we became engulfed by the raging spume, we just know that she would have kicked off her crocs and proceeded as quickly as her best breast-stoke would allow, to drag us spluttering from the deep. A fine day indeed!