Porlock Weir

After packing everything up we drove toe the small fishing village of Porlock Weir and had a wander around before having lunch sitting outside a hotel. Then, time for the journey home.

Porlock

The weather was again warm and very humid and set off for a short walk straight from a gate in the campsite a short distance from the tent. We started off walking through some woods above Hawk Combe and then near Bucket Hole Farm, a farm lane heading for Ley Hill and the open moor.
Unfortunately we were being pestered by flies if we attempted to stop so we pushed onwards. We reached a small bench and after a minute of waiting there weren't too many flies around so we had a sit down and a snack.
Soon we were joined by a small herd of young cows who followed along the same path as us. The problem was that each cow had a personal swarm of flies and the flies were beginning to show an interest in us as well!

So we packed up quickly and walked quickly off to leave the cows and their flies behind. Soon we were dropping down a wooded path on Halse Combe back to the camp site.

Move to Exmoor

After a leisurely breakfast we packed up our tent and camping gear and set off for Exmoor. On the way we stopped at South Molton for lunch where a livestock market was in full swing.
Later in the afternoon we had a quick trip to Lynmouth and parked at the small car park above Watersmeet before walking down to the National Trust café there for a snack and a short walk along the river.

We then made our way to Porlock on the coast near Exmoor where we booked in at a large campsite for the next two nights. This was busier than the site at Harford Bridge near Tavistock and was largely sloping but we managed to find a location away from the busy family large tents and with a gentle slope.

Grey Wethers Stone Circles from Postbridge

We drove to Postbridge and parked in the National Trust Information Centre car park which cost only £1 in an “honesty box” which was surprisingly cheap and followed a path along the East Dart River. The path was fairly busy until the river veered from a northerly direction to the west where everyone else continued on a path along the river heading for Sandy Hole Pass. Most seemed to be clutching some sort of walking guide so it was probably a popular route.
Our route continued along the valley northwards and after rising up the rough grassy valley head, we followed a wide path of shorter grass for a kilometre or so soon arriving at the twin stone circles called Grey Wethers.
It was cooler today, a welcome relief after the recent very warm weather and we both sat with our backs against a couple of the metre or so high stones to have convenient wind breaks as we ate our lunch.
We then continued onwards the junction of several drystone-walls at Sittaford Tor where we climbed over a stile to begin crossing a large open rough grassy area, heading south-westerly to arrive back at another section of the East Dart River where it poured over some rocky steps at Sandy Hole Pass.
From there we followed a path towards the south-east and we could hear the gun fire sounds on the nearby Merrivale Range. We had been planning to go straight back to the car park at Postbridge but near Archerton House the route became a bit vague and we ended up at a field gate leading to a small enclosed area and then a second gate leading onto the road. It was here I spotted a public footpath sign the other side of a bank forming the field boundary.
So, we returned a short way back to the first field gate and followed the footpath sign by a stile leading to a narrow strip of land the other side of the bank and soon the footpath sign by the road.

We followed the road for a short distance and then crossed a couple of fields with a couple of ponies following us closely in the first until we had passed through a gate into the second field. This brought us to bridleway which was close to the NT car park and then back to our starting point.

Wild Camp on Dartmoor

We woke up after a fitful sleep around 08:00 and saw that the mist had largely dispersed and we were joined a by a small herd of young cows not far away.
We had breakfast (I had some “Oat So Simple”) and once everything was packed away, we set off back towards Dinger Tor following a grassy track and then near the tor another land rover track.
We followed the land rover track with an overcast sky but still a warm day and eventually arrived back at a junction with the track we followed yesterday evening by West Mill Tor.
From here we followed yesterday's route back to where we had left the car and after dropping off our rucksacks at the car and changing from walking boots to sandals, we walked across to the railway station which had a sign advertising a café to get lunch as it was now past noon.
We found the café on the station platform but it wasn't open. Oh well. So, we returned to the car and drove to the town centre and after parking in a car park, found a café on the main shopping street to have lunch. Luckily it was next to an out door gear shop as we needed more gas for the stove.
We were planning to remain in the Dartmoor area for another couple of days so we found a couple of brochures with camp sites listed in the Tourist Information Centre and decided to try out one which was conveniently located at Harford Bridge by the river Tavy on the way south from Okehampton towards Tavistock by the A386.
This was a large organised site charging £17 for the two of us with a tent and a car each night.
It was nice and sunny now as I pitched our “base camp” tent: a Vango Force Ten MkV which I bought brand new via eBay a while ago and this was its first outing.
It was an excellent camp site with flat pitches and a well-stocked shop. There was no crowding and separate areas for tents and caravans: most pitches even had their own picnic table, which was very handy!
Once the tent was up and sleeping bags, etc. sorted, we layout the Mythos Duo flysheet to dry in the sun ans also draped sleeping bags on the Force Ten to air.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening reading and having a meal.

Wild Camp on Dartmoor

We both had the week booked off work as holiday for a walking trip in Dartmoor and Exmoor and originally were planning to travel down on Saturday but as luck would have it, I got a stinker of a cold on Friday!
So we had a restful weekend staying at home and today packed the car and drove down to Okehampton on the edges of Dartmoor.
We parked near the Okehampton Youth Hostel by the railway station and got our boots on and got our rucksacks on and started walking along the road for a short while before passing through a gate onto a short path through some woods.
This brought us to a concrete footbridge spanning the A30 dual carriageway. It was a very warm afternoon and soon we were sweating as we followed a route across a sloping open area to reach a narrow tarmacced road leading to the Okehampton army camp.
We passed the camp and a small shed which was the firing range centre – we had checked on the dates when the Okehampton firing range would be out of bounds and it was luckily clear for the remainder for the month and August as well.
Crossing a cattle grid and signs warning road users were only allowed further with permission we followed the still tarmacced road as it rose upwards along the moor and passed a group of soldiers performing some sort of exercise on the moorland nearby.
The tarmac eventually ran out and continued as a rough land rover track as it veered around the side of West Mill Tor to gain the top of Yes Tor at 619m.
After a quick look at the views, we followed a more level path across to the neighbouring summit of High Willhays which is slightly higher at 621m and is the highest point until you reach the Brecon Beacons further north in South Wales.
We sat on a boulder to cool down a bit and have a short snack before dropping down the south-east side of High Willhays and crossed the tussocky ground towards Dinger Tor where we could see others nearby.
We veered off from near Dinger Tor down towards a brook flowing into the West Okement River and started to keep an eye out for a place to stop for the night.
We found a small flat area next to the brook but the water seemed to have a lot of slimy growth so we kept on going down towards the river where me soon found a small flattish are not far from the water.
The sun would be out for a while longer as I started collecting water and filtering it through the “Travel Tap” purifier. I fired up the Primus Eta stove and 1 litre pot and then we placed two “Wayfarer” Sausage Casserole ready meal pouches into the 1 litre Trangia pot we which we had also brought along as it was shallower and wider than the Primus Eta pot.
As we waited for the water to boil the breeze died down and the midges attacked! I got my Mountain Equipment Ultrafeece jacket on and put a Buff over may face and quickly pitched the Robens Mythos Duo flysheet which we had brought along to sleep in. Of course the damn midges had collected under the flysheet as I pitched it so it didn't help to keep them off at all.
Once the food was ready, I ate mine while walking around to avoid the midges. Soon we realised that we would be better off moving elsewhere to avoid our tormentors and so Karen walked up the slope towards nearby Lints Tor to see how things were a little higher up. She was soon back to report that there was still a bit of a breeze up there and no midges. So we quickly packed everything away and headed to higher areas. We eventually arrived at a more than large enough flat grassy area among the lumpy grass tussocks prevalent around the area and near an old iron sign which appeared to be some sort of survey marker in the area marked on the map as Kneeset Nose.
Soon I re-pitched the flysheet and we had our sleeping mats (I had a an old Karrimat and a 3/4 length very old Thermarest Ultralite) and sleeping bags placed in Goretex bivvy bags and at around 21:40 were ready for the night's sleeping after a quick hot chocolate.

Karen was up early in the morning for a loo break and saw that it was very misty but there was a bright moon above.

Grindleford Station to Longshaw Estate

Another hot day was promised in the forecast so we chose a walk with an appreciable amount of shade.
We started off at the café at the old Grindleford train station, starting off with a brew of tea.
Then we left the café by the steep set of stone steps leading to the road from Grindleford to the A625 and after crossing the road, another st of rough steps up through the woods to the Longshaw Estate.
We made our way through the parkland on the estate to the old hunting lodge where we had a snack at the National Trust café.
Snack over, returned partway along our earlier route on the estate then veered off to the A625 at the top of the Padley Gorge where it was absolutely packed with picknickers and kids playing in the stream and there was a total of three ice cream vans parked at the roadside.

We bought and ice cream and then followed the gorge path back down to Grindleford café.

Kinder Scout via Fair Brook

There was an Orpheus CC trip to North Wales to do the Croesor – Rhosydd Mine through trip this weekend and I had bought a bouyancy aid in preparation for it but after some consideration, we decided it may be better to leave this for another time as Karen's shoulder injury would make it possibly tricky.
We have been having a heatwave (official according to the Met Office) for the past week and today was again very hot with temperatures in the very high twenties as we parked in a small layby on the Snake Road near the Snake Inn.
We got our boots on and set off carefully down the busy main road until we reached a stile a few hundred metres away and thankfully left the traffic behind as we followed a path through the woods to a foot bridge crossing the River Ashop.
As we started following the path on the side of the Fair Brook as it headed towards the Kinder Scout plateau we spotted a group of kids wearing helmets and dressed in caving oversuits who were taking part in an outdoor activity involving following the course of the brook in the shallow water, clambering up the occasional rocky steps and deeper pools of water. It was very tempting to jump in and join them to cool off!
We soon reached the head of the small valley and were clambering over gritstone boulders until we arrived on the plateau edge where we found a shady spot by one of the scattered large boulders to have a sit down and cool off.
Having cooled off, we set off following a path along the edge overlooking the Fair Brook below and along Seal Edge.
At another small rocky outcrop we sat down to eat our lunch and then again continued along Seal Edge as far as the Seal Stones where we dropped down from the edge and followed a path which was steep to start with and then joined a narrow land rover track at some shooting butts.
This track dropped down gradually back to where Fair Brook joins the River Ashop near to the footbridge.
We crossed the bridge and again followed the path through the wood to the road-side stile. At the stile another oversuit-clad and helmet-wearing group of kids were coming through the stile to head for Fair Brook and among them we recognised fellow club member Callum.

We walked back to the car and after changing from walking boots, drove to Hathersage for a snack at the café at Outside.

Backpacking in Edale

After a restless night's sleep mainly due to a stuffy and runny nose. I was awake and got up after Karen started getting dressed at nearly 08:00.
We packed up everything and set off for breakfast at the National Trust's “Penny Pot” café next to Edale train station just down the road.
Having finished our breakfasts, we retraced our steps back along the road to the National Park information centre and then back along the route we had taken yesterday to arrive once again at the path crossroads on the Great Ridge at Hollins Cross. Again there were several DOE groups making their way in various directions and we had a quick rest on the ridge at Hollins Cross.
After our rest, we followed the path leading down towards Castleton and after the path joined a small road by the Hollowford Outdoor Centre, we followed this and soon were at the village centre in Castleton.
We had a quick break at a café and gift shop which sold ice cream to have an ice cream cone each while sitting outside the shop.
After our short break, we left Castleton on the Hope road and then followed a public footpath leading across fields to a minor road leading to Hope's village centre near the church.
We walked back the short distance to where we had left the car and after chucking our rucksacks in the boot and getting our hot boots off, we headed for home after a pleasant, if hot, overnight trip in Edale.

Backpacking in Edale

With the planned backpacking trip to Dartmoor and Exmoor coming up in a fortnight, Karen and I decided on a quick “shakedown” trip to try out some unused gear such as a Robens Mythos Duo tent I bought some time ago but hadn't yet used.
We decided on a short walk starting in Hope, where we could leave the car fairly safely overnight, up Lose Hill then along part of the Great Ridge between the Hope and Edale valleys, then doen from Hollins Cross to Grindsbrook Booth where we had a choice of campsites to spend the night.
As it happened, we chose the warmest weather of the year so far so it was quite a warm day for walking as we left Winster to stop off on the way at Bakewell. We needed a couple of things such as a gas cartridge so we popped into Cotswold Outdoors to pick them up and also some sandwiches for lunch.
I wanted to see if I could get an inflatable pillow but there weren't any at Cotswold Outdoors so we stopped of at the Outside shop at Calver crossroads, again on the way to Hope. Much to our surprise, we found that although the café was continuing to trade under new management, the Outside shop had closed down last month – although signs on the doors said it had “relocated” to their other three shops in Hathersage.
So, we made a slight detour to Hathersage to stop at what was the main branch of Outside instead. No luck with inflatable pillows but I managed to buy a very light pair of flip-flops made by Teva which would be very welcome in the hot weather around the campsite later.
As we were in no great rush to start the walk as it was relatively short on and we would have the remaining part of the day to spend at the campsite, while we were there, we had a quick refreshment stop in the café upstairs and then headed off to Hope.
We parked up in a side road, got our walking boots on, grabbed our rucksacks and set off on the route to the summit of Lose Hill. We passed several groups of youths on their way with trademark large rucksacks with tents, bags and other items strapped on, who were participants in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme (or DOE).
On the way up Lose Hill in the hot sun we paused for a while in the cool shade of s a couple of large trees just past a lovely farmhouse and ate our sandwiches before continuing onwards the towards the summit. It seemed not as busy as we expected despite the relatively early time of 14:00 – maybe because of the warm temperatures?
After passing the topograph on the summit where there were some walkers resting in the sun and we had a short break sitting on a tiny outcrop of rock in order to cool down a bit.
We made our way afterwards along the path following the top of the Great Ridge passing Back Tor and after reaching the ancient path leading from the Edale valley to Castleton which was used in the long past to carry coffins from the churchless Edale valley across to Castleton's church, we followed the route along the path down to eventually arrive at the small village of Grindsbrook Booth.
We stopped off at the campsite by the National Park information centre, called “Filedhead” but found it was fully booked with a “no spaces” sign hanging up at the entrance. So we followed the road towards the village centre and found room at the large campsite opposite the Old Nags Head pub, called Coppers Farm.
We arranged and paid for an overnight stay at £11 which is quite reasonable and found a space to pitch the tent.
Soon we had the tent up and we sat nearby in a shady spot by a field wall and after a while got the gas stove out and boiled up some water to pour into our dehydrated meals. The result was edible but not fantastically tasty – at least they were quick and easy and there was no washing up except for a couple of spoons!

Afterwards we sat around in our patch of shade on the busy campsite until the sun dropped behind a ridge and temperatures cooled down. Eventually we got into our sleeping bags in the tent and went to sleep.