Henrikdoc

The day began with an enormous Continental breakfast of cereal, fruit, toast and honey, more fruit and yogurt, fabulous coffee and a croissant.

Thank you to Margaret and Michael at the Higher Venton farmhouse BnB for hosting us. Highly recommend !

Then came the first hill!

In total a whole hour of just ‘Up’! Worth it though.

So… many have wondered about the in depth conversations that go on during the day…

Here is a flavour:

D1- …..nothing at all… oh, about 6 miles from end point Carol says ‘I think I’ll have the lasagna tonight’. …..about 1 mile from the end Henrik says, ‘It’s good that the transport company pick up the cases at 9 rather than 8:30 am. Gives us an extra half hour. (It only took him 15 miles to realise this / bit slow / Carol’s always been the brains…but Henrik the good looking one 🤣🤣🤣🤣😜)

D2… a bit of general chat beginning… stuff about calendars, holidays, coaching, crochet, … still a lot of silence

D3… spent a bit of time trying to order from best to least good all the BnB establishments visited during our Long distance walks over the last 5 years….forgot a few…need to refer back to photos and blogs …

Not much else

D4 (today) … started to become more philosophical …

“I wonder if there is a Costa Coffee at the top of that Tor?”

“How is your ‘sheep’ fluency coming along?”

“What is the point of Dartmoor ponies? What are they there for?”

Hope you get the picture.🥳

List of Tors from Hamel Down ridge looking east : Honeybag, Chinkwell, Bel, Bonehill Rocks, Hayworth, Top Tor, Pil Tor, Rippon Tor (who ever thought of those? )

Definitely could not make out Bowerman’s Nose, a stack of granite of 12.25 m allegedly made by a coven of witches encasing a 11 th century hunter called Bowerman when he disturbed them (ref Sue Vicaars)

Onward… to the Bronze Age settlement of Grimspound dating from around 1300BC. A knowledgeable local walker gave us a bit of low down on it as we were gazing at the layout. Apparently the stone huts had two layers of wall filled in with moss and earth (good insulation), and porches or entrance corridors that kept the wind out. You could easily make these out.

There then followed some steps to a higher Tor, Hookery Tor, which may have been a site of worship and sacrifices

Moving swiftly on.

Met some more local residents.

More views…

Then it went slowly downhill to the river Teign and some shady, cool river side paths.

Past a stone row…definitely arranged as a path to and from an altar?

UP a very steep hill – GPS said 30 m climb in 20 m walk!

Turkey farm?

We did need the proper OS map at one point to work out where to go as neither the book nor the watch made it clear (to us anyway).

The River Teign

….Helped a lady rescue her dog that had got itself into the river at a place where it could not get out… dogs, eh what ! 🤭

..and then our home for the evening.

…and maybe another Whisky?

…Oh.. before I forget… can anyone lend me/ I mean ‘give’ me £1.1Million ?….PLEASE….

Supper at the Globe Inn… once they got their ovens burning again…apparently had power cuts all day.

Carol – steak and ale pie, glass of Sauvignon Blanca (NZ)

Henrik – Venison pie, glass of Merlot

NO PUDDING!!!

….thought for today⬇️