I know it’s a bit late but here is a report on our training walk on Dartmoor which took place on the Thursday before Easter. The plan was to start at Okehampton Camp, and walk via a 20 mile route to the campsite outside the Plume of Feathers pub. After camping overnight we were planning to carry on to Burrator Reservoir, a total of 30 miles.
Well, the thing about well laid plans is that they sometimes come undone. This time the infamous British weather had a hand in our fortunes.
Arriving at Okehampton the weather was very windy and driving rain made the start interesting, but at least we could see, as the Dartmoor mist was not down at the time.
A brisk walk up the side of West Mill Tor warmed us up a little, and in the mean time, the mist started to descend and when we got to the top, we could not see much at all, but we were on one of the army roads, so navigation was not a problem. The highest point on the walk (High Willhays at 621m above sea level) there was no visibility or shelter, this was a completely bleak and miserable place in these conditions.
And then the real fun started…
The next leg of the route, to Dinger Tor was 2.4km across country on a straight bearing. The visibility was so poor at this point, bearings had to be taken every 20 paces, and this section of the route took around 1 hour to achieve.
When we got to the objective, it was decided to abandon the walk and return to Okehampton, since we would have been short of time to get to our campsite before dark.
Of course, Murphy’s Law said that the weather started to clear, so I could get this picture
So instead of camping we ended up doing 12 miles instead of 30 and a warm bed instead of a tent, which was nice..
More walks later, hopefully better weather.
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