A Dartmoor Traverse, part one

Sunday 4th May 2008

After the cold, wet weather we have had for the last couple of months it was a relief for spring to finally arrive with this wonderful day's walk from Oakhampton to Bellever. Dartmoor is an eerily atmospheric place with rocks on top of the many hills that are dotted around the moorland, which add a spooky air to the surroundings, but it can be a very inhospitable place especially in bad weather such as I had last year when I was there. I had been looking forward to seeing the moor in better weather, and fortunately I got my wish, but the weather wasn't great to start and I was feeling rather gloomy about my prospects as I passed Oakhampton camp and climbed up onto the moor. Soon I reached my first hill or tor of the day: West Mill Tor and after a scramble to the top and back down again I crossed over to the highest points in Dartmoor: Yes Tor and High Willhays. I went up these two hills last year, but it was almost obligatory for me to include them again on this traverse. There seems to be some difference of opinion on which of these is the actual highest point, as I have heard some say one and some the other. As they are right next to each other with very little drop between I don’t think it makes much of a difference, but Yes Tor is the more prominent as it stands on the edge of the escarpment, clearly visible for miles around.

From there I ventured off-path across rough, tussocky ground that was basically dead grass that hadn’t started growing again since the winter. Last year I came to the conclusion that the best thing to do in this part of Dartmoor was to stick to the Army tracks and other paths along the ridge tops as much as possible (and I had a great walk doing this despite terrible weather), but here I was not doing that and I paid the consequences. Eventually, I managed to reach Okement Hill where I met a track and the hard work, for now, was over as I followed the track over the infant River Taw and onto Hangingstone Hill, where the path abandoned me and I had to fend for myself, bog-hopping over to Whitehorse Hill. Looking at the map it would appear that there is a path to the east that by-passes the bogs, but of course I never took it, I just went straight across. The ground improved once I passed the top of Whitehorse Hill and this took me across to Quintin's Man, a cairn, where I had lunch in a shelter. This marks the edge of Okehampton Range, the Army training ground that I had been walking in since passing the Okehampton camp. Fortunately the Army wasn’t using the range this month so I had free access, but the other two (smaller) ranges were restricted (but were actually open on the day I was walking because it was a Sunday).

With now excellent weather I crossed the young North Teign River and climbed up to Sittaford Tor, which provided the name for Agatha Christie's “The Sittaford Mystery”. For this reason, and for a long time, I have wanted to go up there, even though it is really just a hill. My original plan had been to go from Sittaford Tor down to the East Dart River and walk along the eastern bank all the way to Bellever, however, since it was only lunch time I had plenty of time left to enjoy myself further in the lovely weather. So I descended gradually down Sittaford Tor’s southern ridge to the East Dart River and crossing the river I climbed up over Broad Down and walked alongside a wall until eventually I reached Lower White Tor. There was a family of Dartmoor Ponies on this hill that didn’t seem too bothered by my appearance though I seem to have rather startled the stallion at first for he neighed loudly when he first saw me, though soon he calmed down enough for me to take a picture of his family. I hadn’t actually been taking many pictures during the day, possibly for two reasons: firstly the distant views were rather hazy which obscured anything near the horizon, and secondly because I was simply finding the moorland views rather dull. The landscape was never-ending and it didn’t vary much whatever direction I was looking and so didn’t seem to me worthy of a picture.

Subsequently I crossed over to Higher White Tor, which proved to be a popular place, perhaps due to the proximity of a road. Not far from there was the enormous Longford Tor which provided me with great scrambling opportunities so I was really disappointed to soon leave even though it was rather popular. I really noticed the large number of people on the moor that day as it was in sharp contrast to the almost empty moors that I had to myself last year when the weather was much worse; it’s amazing what a little sun will do. From there I followed a bridlepath down to a disused mine, complete with chimney, and across to a road. Crossing the road I entered a wood and followed the paths to Bellever Tor on the other side. This was my final tor of the day and provided me with more scrambling work and made me long for more of the same, but I doubted the southern half of Dartmoor would have such grand rocks. Last year I didn't go far south but now I had gone much further and I went even further the next day, all the way to Ivybridge.