Simon Tranter PhotoBlog

A Cheeky One Nighter on Dartmoor

With all the great weather this spring, I decided to get out for a quick little backpack and grab some new photos. So on Saturday I packed up and joined everyone else in the south of England heading down the A303 to the West Country. After a late start and the traffic battle we arrived in Princetown around 3:30, shouldered packs and started off up North Hessary Tor.

North Hessary Tor to Great Mis Tor.

A nice easy start to the walk up the well worn track towards the TV station mast revealed a view back over Princetown, and a cracking view down to Plymouth and the Tamar estuary. I grabbed my camera to capture the scene, only to realise that in my hurry I had forgotten to charge the batteries on the camera! After some swearing I decided to run back to the car rather than lug the dead weight around. “Oh well, I will just have to enjoy the experience and snap a couple of shots on the iPhone” – what an idiot!

I rewarded myself with a quick break and snack once I had got back up North Hessary Tor. I can see why they use this hill for a TV mast, the views are stunning. We continued down to Rundlestone and followed the track up towards Great Mis Tor. A larger outcrop which has been called one of the grandest hills in Devon, it lies on the edge of the Merrivale Range. A shame really that it seemed to have become a campsite, littered with tents and youngsters, which I can only guess as part of DofE or Ten Tors training. Never mind, I took a bearing for Cocks Hill and headed out over Mistor Marsh. Found a pitch with a view over the River Walkham and watched the setting sun as the water boiled for the home-made dehydrated Chilli.

Camping in the Wilds of Dartmoor

Cocks Hill, Broad Hole and Beardown Tors.

In the morning the tarptent had a lot less condensation than the last trip, I think the light breeze helped to keep it ventilated. I gorged on home-made fruit cake given to me the day before, packed up and set off down to cross the River Walkham. Navigating over Cocks Hill to meet the footpath at White Barrow and then crossing the valley to the East and up on to Conies Down where we met some Dartmoor ponies enjoying the sunshine.

Conies Down looking back to North Hessary and Great Mis Tors, Dartmoor

A little further on and we crossed the next valley, Broad Hole, where two tributaries flow into the Cowsic River. By now the sun was beating down and the cool fresh water provided some nice refreshment.

Broad Hole, Dartmoor

After crossing the valley we entered the boundary wall and followed the path around the flanks of Lydford Tor. Then picked a way across some rough ground and up Beardown Tors with more grand views where we stopped for an early lunch. The plan was to then head around the head of the valley and down through Wistman’s Wood, but due to heat and lack of fitness we decided to take the path down through Beardown Farm and back to Two Bridges. All that was left was the long plod back along the B3212 to Princetown, which seemed to take forever in the early afternoon sun. A quick call in to visit some friends in Exmouth on the way home rounded off the weekend nicely.

The pictures above were all taken on my iPhone, but please don’t let that put you off, have a look at the Devon Gallery over on the main site.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 19th, 2011 at 20:29. It is filed under Backpacking, Backpacking Gear, Backpacking Trips, Trips and tagged with Backpacking, dartmoor, devon, Lunar Duo, National Park, Six Moon Designs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.