Monday 1st April 2024
The night before this walk I was camped on the edge of Trendlebere Down and woke to a cold morning with clear skies overhead and stunning views across the Bovey Valley, but with a saturated tent from the rain earlier in the night and condensation from the cold. After breakfast I made my way back down the hill and soon I was back on the Dartmoor Way and walking on a road, which seems to be normal. When I came off the road I entered the National Trust’s Parke Estate, initially beside a lovely bit of woodland, but all too soon I was dumped into a very muddy field. Eventually the ground hardened and I was able to make my way across the estate and into the town of Bovey Tracey, which is technically outside of the Dartmoor National Park. When Abbie Barnes of Spend More Time In The Wild did this walk in 2021, as shown on YouTube, the town was bypassed, which can all be done too easily, but instead of following my inspiration I decided to stick rigidly to the route. While in Bovey Tracey I bought something for lunch and filled my water bottles before setting off along the path through Mill Marsh Park and beside the River Bovey while ahead of me I could see dark clouds looming ahead that soon covered the skies, removing the sunshine that I had woken to and when I joined the route of a disused railway line it started to rain.
The rain was intermittent at first and I was reluctant, as always, to put on my waterproof trousers until eventually I relented which ultimately proved to be necessary, though not immediately. After a pleasant walk on the course of the old railway line largely through woodland lined with celandines and primroses, the Dartmoor Way veered off the railway onto a road and across the valley, and as the rain began to fall in earnest I turned into Pullbrook Wood following a forestry track past many log stacks. With the rain pouring down I ploughed on along the byway until I reached Becka Brook where the track crossed the stream by a ford, but the stream was now a raging torrent and could not be easily crossed. There must be a bridge at this point, but I didn’t see it though I didn’t really look for it and it may have been a short distance downstream. Instead I could see a slender path beside the stream so I took that, but it soon became obvious that this was not the Dartmoor Way as the path became increasingly sketchy and difficult to follow. As I made slow progress through the dense vegetation the rain stopped and astonishingly the clouds broke to reveal blue skies. When I finally lost all trace of the path I climbed up the bank to get out of the valley and when I reached an opening I was afforded me with views in the sunshine across the valley.
Eventually I reached a road and followed this through a meandering course past the tourist attraction of Becky Falls to a footpath that goes around the falls without providing me with a view, since you have to pay for that privilege, and instead I passed many signs that kept me away from the paying areas until eventually, beyond the falls, I finally returned to the Dartmoor Way after my long diversion around Becky Falls. A short spell of road walking brought me to the hamlet of Water where I turned into woodland, which initially I thought was a welcome change from the road walking that I had so often encountered on the Dartmoor Way, but soon I longed to be back on roads as the path through the wood was horrendously muddy, which made walking extremely difficult and left my feet and legs covered in mud. When the path entered Neadon Cleave it seemed to be descending all the way down to the River Bovey but eventually I turned left to pass through woodland that looked promising for flowers, but frustratingly at this early date in the season all I could see was green plants. If the path had been firmer underfoot and I was there a month later, then I’m sure this would have been a fabulous walk through gorgeous woodland, but instead I was relieved when I finally reached the end which heralded the start of a prolonged spell of road walking.
That ended on the approach to Dickford Bridge when the road became an exceptionally muddy track that got my boots covered in mud and then soon after I had to wade through deep water which washed all the mud off my boots and soaked my feet. Eventually I came into the pretty little village of North Bovey and beyond I crossed many fields, including one that was heavily ploughed and difficult to cross, until the final challenge on the path up into Moretonhampstead, which was stupendously muddy. The walking on this day was extremely difficult with many very muddy paths that were very quickly wearing me out. After passing through Moretonhampstead the path took me through pleasant woodland to reach the edge of Butterdon Down until eventually, and with low energy levels, I finally reached Cranbrook Down and climbed up into the remains of an Iron Age hillfort where I put up my tent. Several showers had passed through during the afternoon interspersed with some lovely sunshine and occasionally views towards moors in the west, but I was not in the mood to appreciate it. It started to rain soon after I reached Cranbrook Down, which did not help my mood as I tried to put up my tent and moaned that it was poorly designed and eventually I came to the realisation that I don’t actually like camping. I camp under sufferance. It was necessary during Covid and to get me to places I wouldn’t otherwise be able to get to, but I don’t actually enjoy it. With this realisation I began to change my plans for the year which had involved a lot of camping.
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