Sunday, February 13, 2011

Tors at Belstone 2



And now we wind our way slowly back across the hill to descend at Belstone, stopping to have a look at some more of the unusual tors on the way.

I have been busy looking up other interesting tors on the internet and have found a real beauty which I am intending to walk to as soon as I am able to find the right combination of time and weather conditions. This particular tor is a long way out and I have not yet decided whether I will be able to walk all the way there and back in one day, so this particular trip might involve a bit of overnight camping.

As you can see, Dartmoor is not really the easiest of places to yomp across, as it seems designed to twist the ankle with pretty much every step and it's too far to hop back across all these hills on one leg.

There are such things as mires around here on the lower ground, which should be avoided unless you are very confident about jumping from tussock to tussock. The river cleaves are treacherously rocky and almost every step has to be fully considered. The hilltops, though covered with clitter are ok to walk on, though you get the full force of the weather on top and it is easy to end up walking inside a cloud. All in all none of the distances covered here are that easy and a good stout walking stick is recommended as well as a map and compass. I have walked out here on my own today which is also not really that good an idea, as plenty can go wrong in these short days.

Well that's all for another time and plenty to look forward to. In the meantime we will get back down to Belstone and off to Sticklepath and the bus. The light here is already becoming somewhat lunar, the hills will settle into darkness again soon and this really isn't the place to be out walking at night.