A visit to the heart of Devonshire


Advertisement
United Kingdom's flag
Europe » United Kingdom » England » Devon » Dartmoor
March 25th 2011
Published: March 27th 2011
Edit Blog Post

This is not the first time I wanted to visit Dartmoor region in Devonshire. Last time it was when I had a short stay in Exeter, but I never had an opportunity due to limited time.
Having gone through all the options to get to Dartmoor, finally I stuck a deal with one of my good friend to drive all the way along to the Dartmoor for a pint of beer and trip to the nearest pub for a famous pub meal.

The weather was exceptionally good. The spring has kicked off early in the year. We drove along the country lanes, passing many private dwells and farmlands. The landscape was slowly changing as the vehicle roared pass empty lanes. Saturday early morning is too early for many Brits. We took the advantage of the deserted space.

By the time we reached Portsbridge, many walkers with their pets and children were changing gears to start expeditions.

Without maps, we bravely walked into the opposite direction to the field, enter into a private farmland and began our walk right up the hill along the calmly running less than four meters wide waterway - The famous Clapper Bridge straddles the East Dart River.

Abundant of sheep, wild ponies and their poo scattered all over, random farm house, pine forest and endless hills brought an idealistic snapshot of countryside. Pure fresh air was occasionally mixed with the smell of muck. At least was glad to be here and filled my lungs with fresh air (not muck air) rather than polluted air in the city.

By lunch time, I began to have illusive images of roasted lamb, mash potatoes, locally grown vegetable and a pint of locally brewed cider in my mind, crawling one after another disturbingly. We would laugh, get drunk and laugh endlessly....get mixed up with real farmers. Oh I was wrong. I have walked too far away from my day dream of pub lunch with the local farmers. The pub lunch might be over by 3pm. The ankles witnessed unorthodox walk.

I began to pull out of the expedition as the sky began to gather dark clouds above us, a bit nippy and the horizon begins to be murky with rain clouds. Which is the way back to main road? By standing at a crossed path, we realised how far we walked into the moor. We couldn't find our way back as easily as we walked in. We began walk through the pine forest and cut through private lands and jumped over wire fences in order to reach the main road. We might have taken another three four hours to find our way back to the car park. We began our journey back around 5pm, heading toward the big city where wild ponies & sheep are replaced with humans, where are more concrete buildings than trees in entire pine forest in the moor put together.

Returning back to where I' from, the big city, skyscrapers, shopping malls and plenty of noisy streets filled with cars and buses.



Additional photos below
Photos: 41, Displayed: 24


Advertisement



Tot: 0.211s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 20; qc: 102; dbt: 0.1455s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.3mb