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Published: June 29th 2008
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June 23, 2008
Okehampton to Dartmoor National Park, England
Up early to shop before we leave for our hike. I have learned shopping at Marks and Spenser is an expensive deal, so we look for Tesco, or Somerfield for food shopping.
Dartmoor National Park is England's greatest expanse of wilderness, some 365 square miles of raw granite and heather-growth moor. The hike today meets at Shapley Common a Parking Area in the park and is scheduled to leave at 11:30. The cost for the guided hike is 6.50 pounds unless you arrive by public transportation, then just present you bus ticket. However buses are few and far between, we would have loved to avoid the horrors of driving the two way paths, called roads, but there was no choice. After a harrowing drive, we arrived at the parking area and we meet Peter our hike leader and seven other folks ready to hike. This is a nice way to meet Brits and chat. Today Maureen learned about "Clotted cream tea", while hiking. It is not a cup of tea with cream, it is a pot of tea, with two scones -- jam and "clotted cream". I believe it
is the cream just before it turns to butter. One day she will tell you about this tea, when she samples it.
We begin hiking up into the moors, and up and up; as we walk there are sheep all around us grazing. We observe heather, a rather hardy plant and other forms of vegetation not familiar to us. In England there are free access footpaths everywhere, which allow people to walk on private lands. Royalty in Great Britain owns a large percentage of the land in Dartmoor, but people are always permitted to walk on them. We came across bogs which is where folks used to cut peat, to use as fuel. There are stone walls everywhere. The view from the top is magnificent. Much of the land is farmed and used for grazing.
Peter our guide lead us to Grimpound, an ancient Bronze Age Settlement dating from 3,000+ years ago. The outer circle was probably to protect the people from animals. The remains of houses contained hearths and other indications of humans.
On the return part of the hike we came upon wild horses and a group were running toward us. It included a colt
its Mom and two males. Obviously the two males were fighting and biting each other. We guess it was two males fighting over the female, like a "pub fight". They put on such a show for us, then returned to the herd.
After our "good-byes" with our new hiker friends, we began the long careful drive getting out of Dartmoor. We have been on narrow roads... but OH MY!! The road has side rock walls or hedges and tractor trucks use it, it is almost the size of our one way streets at home. There is a photo of a huge "Lorry" (truck) waiting for people to back down and allow it to pass. I promise not to talk about the narrow roads again!
Venton Woodland Springs is home for the night.
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/andyspatch/grimspound.htm
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