Not much of a weather window and to be honest I wasn’t exactly leaping out of bed and rushing around to coerce the boys to be up and at ’em. So by the time we left, the half reasonable weather window was passing. At least driving out of Plymouth meant that it stopped drizzling and although we spent 2/3rds of this walk in the clouds, we yapped and laughed our way around. The only issue was the way down, now I’d been this way once in the opposite direction and easily found White Tor, but in the clag heading down I wasn’t overly convinced I was heading the right way, even though we were on the path the whole way from Stephen’s Grave. Luckily a lady and her dog came the other way to assure us we were heading to Cudlipptown, we then hit Smith Hill Tor just after to confirm we were indeed correct. It was good to be out for a short time and considering the current day situation, we are never sure from day to day, what may happen.

However I’m always a person that looks at things with perspective and I’m pretty analytical at the same time, so being in a high risk category (type 1 diabetic and very mild asthma) and also wary of my past history with depression, I need to stay active and outdoors every now and then (once or twice a fortnight). Now I’ll be sensible to stay within my limits, but that is always my walking philosophy, I’ll be isolated as I rarely walk with anyone anyway, the odd exception is my boys. So I’m in a quandary about what the next 4 months holds, for me I will head out, I need the space in my head. I’ve looked at the stats and 2500 people each day commit suicide worldwide (WHO stats for 2018), that’s more than this virus has got near, yet we are so blase about things that have been around for a while now and that the media don’t give a crap about. I can walk from my door as well which is good. We need to be mindful about others and ensure they stay well and not just worrying about being in possession of enough pasta to feed 100 Italian weddings.

Start – Peter Tavy parking

Route – Smearn Down Tors – Boulters Tor – Setters Rocks – Stephen’s Grave – Smith Hill Clapper – Smith Hill Tor – Cudlipptown – Peter Tavy

Distance – 3 miles    Start time – 2.15pm    Time taken – 1hr 45mins    Highest Point – Stephen’s Grave 375metres

Weather – Cloudy and then in the clag up higher!!