Henrikdoc

There was a quiz night in aid of the Plymouth Pipers last night. We declined to take part as would have gone on for half the evening / night and a bit fatigued. We did, however, buy a raffle ticket , and were pleasantly informed in the morning by our hostess that we had won a manicure set !

The Sportsman has a long history including being the Soldier’ s mess during WWII for the Bedford Boys of Virginia. The landlady at the time, Vera, called them ‘her boys’ and was awarded the freedom of Bedford Virginia after the war. She lived to 103. Most of the ‘boys’ died in the war. A sobering thought to start the day.

(One of the American units at the forefront of the invasion was a National Guard infantry unit based out of the small town of Bedford, Virginia —Company A of the 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division. When the company assaulted Omaha Beach that morning, there were 35 Soldiers from the town assigned to the unit. By the end of the day, 19 of the Guard Soldiers would be dead with four more dying before the end of the campaign. On that day, the town of Bedford, located just below the Blue Ridge Mountains, suffered the greatest proportion of losses of any town in the United States, and the men were forever immortalized as the Bedford Boys. Ref. Wikipedia)

Needed a hearty breakfast after that.

Onward .

So we decided last night, given the current uncertain weather, the general moorland warnings ‘only go onto the moor if you are competent with a map and compass’, the inability to find a website that gave us cloud level for the day (probably our ‘world wide web’ incompetence), that we would take the low route around the Moor. We didn’t fancy the headlines; ‘Aged amateur walkers lose their way on Dartmoor’. At least we would not be wearing flip flops.

So we got to where the paths diverged….

AND TOTALLY CHANGED OUR MINDS!!!!

…and soooo glad we did.

This is more like it. This is what we came here for. This is the walking we love.

There then followed a considerable number of miles of putting on our ponchos, taking them off, putting them on again … you get the picture… as a few squally showers crossed the Devon countryside.

None the less, the full waterproofs were not required as it would have been far too hot most of the time.

Lunch was had at the ‘Miles stone’ that marked the end of the 6+ mile walk along the Red Lake Railway route. The RLR was completed in 1910 to help mine remote china clay deposits around Red Lake and Left Lake Mires around the area.

Then across a fairly unmarked bit of petty soggy moor. Easily to get lost in without a compass and map – if the weather is in the least bit dodgy. Apparently that bit is called the Abbots Way, a route that various monks took from one place to another.

And a 16th century cross that marked the boundary of the Forest of Dartmoor in times gone past.

A bit of flora and fauna for the day …

A very old tree

A number of very low rainbows

..and of course a mushroom

All in all a glorious walk across the Moor

…and I resisted AGAIN taking a photo of the sizeable fish pie Carol had for supper and the even more sizeable chicken ham and leek pie Henrik had with the apple rhubarb and ginger upside down cake and lashings of custard as dessert 🤣🤣🤣🤭

…but could not avoid the whiskey taster pre meal 😜