Well hello there Dartmoor, I have finally made it back, at least to this little pocket of it anyway, sitting right on the South West edge of the moor. Parts of this walk aren’t actually within the moor boundary (marked by the yellow line on the map below), but for me this is a great…
Another walk from home but this one felt different to the previous weeks. Not sure why but I just didn’t enjoy it as much. The weather was good, the scenery was brilliant considering what some people are having to put up with. However I just wasn’t feeling it, maybe its this lockdown, another one. Maybe…
The title is a nod to the director of the 7up series of Tv programmes, Michael Apted who has died recently, he was also known for Gorillas in the Mist. The title is relevant as the website has hit a quarter of a million views (approaching 100,000 individual visitors). The numbers are mind-blowing for me…
So far this walkdown I’ve found myself improving on walks I did in Lockdown 1 or combining a couple of those walks together. Anything really to have some variety to things. It still makes me laugh (or is it groan) when people ask what you are doing at the weekend. The answer, well not much…
Those with children will know that to get them outside sometimes involves a bit of a white lie. Something like, it’s not that far, we’ll be back before that tv programme or I’ll buy you a cake on the way back. That sort of thing. Well we had festered in the house all morning, watched…
Well we are back, walking from home. With all the faff about driving 5 miles and getting a fine I decided that I would stay from the door at least for a bit and allow things to calm down a bit. The over zealous police have got things wrong, clearly but lets leave that there…
I’m writing this as a wave of deja vu appears to wash over the UK. Back in March 2020 I wrote about a walk around Holne before the lockdown and here we are again. No more than 5 miles further north I’m on my last proper Dartmoor walk before we are shutdown again. Looks like…
Where do you start with last year, best not to dwell on it wherever possible in my opinion. A pandemic and a response to it which has left us all shaking our heads, u turns, broken promises, a tier system which nicely protects big business and leaves the small business owners piling on debt to…
Between Christmas and New Year the whole country of England has a bit of a covering of snow. A fine time to share some times with your family. Unfortunately those in charge said that we should not play out, or in for that matter. The rules were fun, to say the least. To be exact,…
Well having worked up to, and including, Christmas Eve I decided that I would take a few days off and indulge a little. Alright then, it was a fair bit. Today was a walk day, well at least a bit of a walk day. I wanted to stay near to home and I chose my…
This is a great walk from Hope Cove to Bantham and completes a long section of the South Devon coastal path for me, this pretty much means that I have completed everything from Slapton Sands to Plymouth, except the short town walk of Salcombe and a mile or two at Mothercombe, which I am pretty…
After a week of heavy rain which threatened to strip off the tarmac from the roads, we had a weekend which promised plenty of sunny patches, lots of cloud and showers. That will do me nicely, take a coat and good footwear and you can walk anywhere in that. All around this walk we watched…
Another double weekend walk after the previous one at the start of November. I was still in a fine mood, having managed to get out for a pub lunch alongside a fine walk with the boys around Burrator reservoir, the day before. And to improve things further the weather was set for a cracking day.…
A walk with the boys, well to be honest not just a walk but a trip to a pub to have some food after a walk. It shows how bad this year has been, when I see a trip to a pub as something to look forward to. The great news for me was that…
Finally some sun in November. It feels like it has been years since I last had a good November walking day. This one was perfect, no wind, cold to start but warming as the day went on and a haze that only appears at the start or end of winter. The sky felt liquid, photos…
Another weekend in November and they seem to be going the way of every other November weather wise. More often than not they are wet with low cloud and high winds. Well this one had the wet and the low cloud, but very little wind. It was a truly dank day. North Devon and the…
The weather for the weekend wasn’t looking too good, I ummed and arred about going out. Looking closer at the weather there was a window, not too long but a few hours before 2pm on Sunday, where the odd passing shower was forecast but the main rain would be at 2pm. Well they got the…
The last time I wrote with this title it was to thank those that visited my site and helped me reach 100,000 views. That was mid 2019 and can be found here. Now I’m writing again, to thank for the next 100,000 which I’ve got to within 2020 alone (by November to be exact). I…
The second walk in two days, and walk 2 of Lockdown 2. I’m on to Dartmoor now, or at least the southern part. I’ve given myself 30 minutes from home for a walk, as that’s my interpretation of a short drive. I quite like this area of Dartmoor, there is a fair bit of moorland…
Today was my first proper walk after Lockdown 2 The Revenge had started, and as it turned out this was also the end of the blonde buffoon in the good old United States. For me, during this lockdown, I’ve kind of drawn a line from Tavistock across to Bovey Tracey and decided to stay south…
I had planned a week off and was trying to make the best of the week. The weather wasn’t really playing ball and I found myself trying to crowbar walks in between the heavy rain storms or days of rain. This turned out to be the only proper walk I did all week as after…
Another National Trust walk to go nicely with my last one a couple of days ago at Cotehele. The good part about a Trust walk is the grounds tend to be full of trees, and at this time of year they give good colour and help with the photos, even if they are taken on…
Another week where I should be in the Lake District, cancelled again. the rule of 6 and all that. Left to make up another week of things to do in the area I live and visit most weekends anyway. I wanted to make it different than the week in August and today was another National…
Another fantastic coastal path walk today. The weather was perfect, sunny and a bit of a breeze. Yes it was a little hazy but it didn’t detract at all. This walk is a brilliant one, the coastal path is rolling, more gently up and down, than other places. Only once you get past Hemmick Beach…
I had been watching the weather most of the week and unusually as we neared the weekend it was getting a little better. It was set for a dry Saturday with some sun and the same for Sunday. I thought a walk around the high points, of the north western corner of Dartmoor, would be…
A poor weather weekend was forecast by the Met Office and duly delivered by the weather gods. High winds and heavy rain for 3 days throughout the area meant a walk was out of the question. I instead had a look in the area for something similar to the tank museum that we went to…
2nd walk in 3 days and if I’m honest my legs were still aching from the previous days’ hike over Dartmoor. Once I got going though the aching went away as I made my way along the coastal path towards Branscombe. The day had started well, I was up early and parking in Sidmouth at…
Time for another walk on Dartmoor and an attempt to pick up a couple of tors not visited before. I’ve had Coombe Down Tor on my list for a while now but wasn’t able to put together a decent walk to pick it up. I also realised that I had never been to Hurston Stone…
It had been another decent weather week down here in Devon, the only slight downside was the breeze which picked up as we nearer the weekend. However by Thursday I had decided on a camp, got some food and picked an area for the tent. All this recent wildcamping by myself has come as a…
A walk in this area has been on the back burner for a while, when looking at the map I was struggling to put together a loop that got me where I wanted to go. The initial idea was to walk from around Porthpean down to Mevagissey from somewhere just inland which allowed me to…
This is a place that I walked through on fantastic coastal walk to Man Sands from Kingswear. This was a revisit to have a look at what was up the hill from the coastal path and keep using the National Trust card during these times. I was impressed at gardens and paths that criss-crossed the…
This was a bit of a last minute decision, a bit of a scrabble around, grabbing the sleeping bags, torches and a dash to get some food before we headed out for our first camp of the year. I looked at the time and realised I would need to not walk far from the car,…
I decided to get back on Dartmoor and repeat most of a walk I had done before (here), with a little bit of difference along Belstone Cleave. I’m a big fan of Cosdon, its on my list of favourite summits on the moor and if the weather is good up here, as it was today,…
Not Dartmoor and not the coast either. This is another venture to make the most of my national trust membership and make an early start on the bank holiday weekend. I’d booked the Friday off so I headed off up the A38 towards Exeter. Now I hadn’t been to Killerton before and I was too…
This was a proper Dad and lads day. Big boys toys. And if I’m honest the best day I’ve had this year, easily. I’d had a bit of a thought and decided that I’d have a look at the Tank Museum, my eldest spouts many facts about tanks, planes and other WW2 facts, he’s been…
I wasn’t sure where to walk today. North Cornwall, Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor and East Devon all were looked at. I decided to head to the latter for no reason more than the others. I’d been here once before, nearly 30 years ago and it was to play golf, rather than look along the coastal cliffs.…
This one was just a quick walk up to Brent Tor, over on the far west side of Dartmoor. It probably took us twice as long to drive here than it did to walk up, sit for a bit and walk back down. There is no distance to this one, but it is perfect for…
This was all about making the best of what we had. We’d already been on a walk around Slapton Sands and after a rest day we picked some locations, booked ourselves in and met up with some, and then all, of the family that would have been with us in The Lakes. We decided to…
A walk I should not have been here for. Instead I should have been driving north and walking up Glenridding Dodd and Sheffield Pike in the Lake District. However a simple, but huge, water leak in the property we should have stayed at, has stopped any hope of a week in Lakes. The phone call…
Back to the coast today and a walk I looked at when I was I was in Polruan on my walk from Polperro. This walk is from Fowey to Par Sands and gives you plenty to see, with the focal point being Gribbin Head. I will say that when you make these walks up on…
Time for a quick walk with the boys. We’d spent the morning trying on clothes for the boys to ensure that everything fitted after lockdown. After an hour we had one big bag of clothes for the charity shop, items passed from elder to younger sibling and a short list of clothes needed for the…
Back onto Dartmoor and a choice of where to head, initially I wanted to go to Belstone Cleave and maybe up onto Cosdon Beacon. But I decided to head to the north eastern corner of Dartmoor and the point which is nearest to Exeter on the map. This area is classic Devon, and if you…
Another in this years’ series of coastal walks, this one however is a lot harder than last weeks’ walk from Polperro to Polruan. Even though the distance last week was much further, the terrain here is a lot tougher, much more up and down. The start was again along country lanes, very little traffic but…
This one is a long coastal path walk, in fact the way I’m walking the coastal path they are all quite long walks. So far none of the walks have been linear, all being a loop and return back to the car. So this way if I actually get to doing the whole lot I’d…
This isn’t a walk but just an evening drive out to catch a sunset after a hot day, so if you like a sunset then this will be your thing. This is a popular spot, even at 9.30 at night. Tripods were out for the other few out here to catch the sun. Myself, well…
With the ticks that were involved in my last walk, I decided (and was told) to stay away from Dartmoor! The obvious choice is to therefore head to the coast. I’ve been to Start Point before however I haven’t walked the coast from there to Lannacombe Beach, so this walk sorts that out. The weather…
This was a walk to pick up some tors in the north eastern side of Dartmoor. I have been meaning to come here now for around 6 months but with the lockdown I haven’t ventured too far from home. This was as far as I have been now and a return to some sort of…
A walk a couple of days after my evening walk up to the Trowlesworthy Tors. This was a simple walk on paper, however I knew the part from Double Dart Rocks up to Aish Tor would be steep, and probably covered in gorse. Gorse seems to cling happily to the side of the Dart valley…
An evening walk this time and the boys joined me again, nothing too stretching but enough to make you feel as though you’d walked a bit of your tea off. This is a lovely simple area for me to get to and gives some great views into the centre of Dartmoor around Princetown. The two…
Recently it seems as though heading to a beach, national park, moorland, lake, reservoir or beauty spot for a walk/sit/picnic has been the thing that gets people’s blood boiling. The fact that it is now allowed in England after the lockdown lift a couple of weeks ago seems to have not changed some opinions. I…
Back to Dartmoor for me. And a walk were I saw no one, not a soul all day apart from in the car park which was very strange but then again I don’t mind it that way. This walk takes in a lovely tor with some amazing views, some of the best from what isn’t…
Well its been a while, but as they say Dartmoor is still here for me. I had waited a week and a bit after the official announcement that we could drive to places to walk. Unlike the Lake District fuhrer, Dartmoor National Park had said to come to the wild landscape and enjoy it responsibly,…
Well a bit of freedom, but only a bit. No sooner than lockdown was lifted and we were allowed to go as far as we wished as long as we returned home at the end of the day (in England anyway), than the National Parks and everywhere that people would visit, claimed they were still…
I’d had an idea to walk east of where I lived, ideally I wanted to walk to Warren Point, as I hadn’t been there for 7 or 8 years and its a lovely out and back, however I wasn’t sure how to get there. This walk was about 9 miles over 4 hours ish. I…
Another walk from the door, number 6 in this lockdown series!! This one is a bit of a mash of the others to be honest and I’ve saturated this area now, although another visit down to Wembury Woods and Cofflete Creek would be fantastic, this would be a mash together of two previous walks. The…
It had taken me a bit of time to get out again, the odd walk up to the local football field aside, I hadn’t been out for over a week. I’m not sure what it is, maybe I feel guilty for living close to open land, where walking is easy. As a result I’m not…
This one is a bit of a mix between walk 1 of the lockdown and walk 2, making for 7 1/2 miles. I wanted to get out and walk a bit further, see the rapeseed fields again and get down by the sea for a stretch. There were a few people out but I saw…
Different walk today and a different direction, as is the way when you are walking from the same starting point each time, you will get some crossover of walks and some repeated parts. This one was different right until Hollacombe, so only the final quarter was a repeat, which was nice. I also saw a…
Another day and another walk from home. This one was 6 days after the last and no change in the weather during that time, I went early and was back home by mid morning, still there were a few people around on the walk, particularly around the Bovisand area, where I met some police who…
If I’m honest it took me a while to get out the door and walk during lockdown week 1. This is one of a few nice walks that I can easily do from the house but I just didn’t have the want to walk straight away feeling. I stayed in and did my bit instead.…
This was a strange weekend, people knew this could be the last chance for a while to get out. Some despite the instructions went for a popular spot, a well known beach or area of a national park. Myself, I went quiet, more intent on a local pub that might be selling takeaway beer!! I…
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…
2020 has been the year, so far, of walking in different places where possible. That has meant plenty of woodland walks of eastern Dartmoor and some coastal walks to change the scenery a bit. This is partly due to the amount of rain we have had since October leaving the proper part of Dartmoor at…
It seemed, on this walk, that I would always be around, alongside or crossing the Becka Brook. Looking back at the photos, I started above it, crossed it in Leighon, found it again after Greator Rocks, followed it upstream to Cold Moor Tor and eventually ended up back above it at the car park. Apart…
Not much to this walk at all, a mile and a bit maybe if that. It’s on my doorstep though and when you need a quick fix, 5 minutes down the road and you are there. This was the leap year day and I’m not sure I’ve walked on the 29th Feb before. We started…
Back to the eastern side of Dartmoor again, and another late start after midday, after waiting for the last of the showers to pass through. This was another trip into Shaptor Wood to try and finish off the tors in there, well that was the plan. However I got a bit befuddled in there and…
This was day 2 of Storm Dennis, I was eagerly keeping an eye on the weather reports, which mostly said that the rain would stop about 2pm and the wind would be reasonable by midday. I don’t mind a wet start to a walk as long as I finish in the dry with time to…
Whenever I’ve walked in this area I’ve always tended to head straight to Lustleigh Cleave or the ridges above. Well today I thought I’d take in a few of the paths that wriggle their way to and from this lovely little village. The weather wasn’t too bad considering it was raining as I drove here,…
I’ve wanted to walk to this outcrop for quite a while now, probably about 17 or 18 years, since spying the rock from my many visits to Revelstoke caravan park. The only tricky part was trying to make a bit of a loop of it, being that I’m not a fan of the out and…
Slight change to my recent walks, which have mainly been in and around woodland, this time I wanted to get out on to Dartmoor proper and up to some more recognisable tors. I was still aware that the majority of the moor is still very wet so I kind of skimmed the edge on the…
The third walk of the year on only the 4th day and the first one with the boys in 2020. Its tricky with boys who are now 12 and 10, mine are typical boys of this age and their age, they love to stay indoors with some sort of tech in front of them. Mine…
As you may have noticed this winter I haven’t really been walking on Dartmoor proper, choosing to stay around the edges and head into woodlands for walks and to pick off some tors. Mainly, however, this has been to stay away from a sodden Dartmoor after months of rain down here in the south west…
Well 2019 has been a tumultuous year. I lost a job, spent 6 months unemployed, struggled with anxiety and depression during that time. Starting volunteering with the National Trust, then got a new job with the National Trust. Got huge pains throughout my arms and hands doing the ranger volunteering work that I was doing,…
My first walk of 2020 and I wanted to work my way back into walking. I hadn’t walked properly since the day before the general election (the 11th Dec), not for any protest reason, but because the weather was very poor in that time and I had been rota’d into far too many shifts for…
treksandtors 