April 23: Dartmoor Nataional Park

What didn't we see today?  We saw a monastery, a historic village, tors, rivers, and even a castle.  We drove, we hiked, we strolled.  The sunshine was lovely, and so is this beautiful and unique part of the world.

Today we started off with the “Full English” (breakfast):  a poached duck egg, sausages, bacon, beans, potatoes, and grilled tomatoes.  While we ate, Kathleen chatted with the other guest, who lived for several years only a few miles from Kathleen, about Washington State; with our host, about kayaking and animal adventures; and with Hannah, our hostess, about a lot of things.  As a result, Hannah cleared the plates before she had time to eat much more than her duck egg, which was her first.  Later she said, “You eat so much faster than I do!” and I laughed at her.  She got her turn to laugh at me, because I told her last night I “have a routine” for recharging everything and she should do the same.  Was my face red when I found out that my camera charger was unplugged all night, and the only battery HI had was the half-used one in my camera.  As a result, I tried (unsuccessfully) to ration my picture taking today, and it is a good thing Kathleen’s camera was ready to go.

One of the Clydesdales, saddled and ready to go, at our B&B.

Breakfast over, we returned to our car, which seems to have grown about three feet wider overnight, to begin our adventures.  And they really were adventures!

The day was overcast and chilly, but we began our day back at the Dart River that gives Dartmoor its name.  The atmosphere was different in the rather grey day, but equally beautiful.  We went for a half hour walk along the banks of the tea-coloured river, that moves very quickly, and tried to figure out if the square blocks of granite found along the banks were natural or man-made.  

We drove along to the Newbridge Bridge, which crosses the Dart, and despite its name has done so for 500 years.  This was another excuse to get out and go for a hike and take some pictures.  Under the heading of “things we wish we didn’t know” is a sign we found under the bridge we had already driven over several times:  “Danger – Unstable Masonry on downstream side of bridge.  The bridges tend to be only wide enough for a single car, and Kathleen and I learned what happens when a car passes a pedestrian on the bridge:  the pedestrian (or in this case two pedestrians) makes a leap for the little turrets on the side.

Our next stop was Buckfast Abbey, which was a very interesting Benedictine Abbey.  There was a Cistercian Abbey on the site from the Thirteenth Century to the Sixteenth Century, when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries.  IN the 1880s, a very small group of monks returned to the site and rebuilt the abbey.  There were four monks, only one of whom was a trained stonemason, and they did a lot of the work.  The adjoining church was consecrated in 1932, but not finished until the end of the War.  I know all this because we watched a video.  We also learned about the daily life of the monks today, and how the Rule of Benedict means that the monks need to work to earn their keep.  In this case they have done so by making a mini tourist destination and conference centre on the edge of the National Forest.  It really was a lovely site, with herb gardens and beautiful landscaping, and evocative bits of the original abbey left standing here and there in the garden, or incorporated into modern buildings.  The soaring Gothic ceilings are clean, and all of the art is new and modern.  After visiting so many monasteries and churches in Italy, it was interesting to see that the order is alive and still working, and to get a sense of what the ancient and sometimes crumbling churches had looked like when they were fresh and new.  

We left the peaceful church and drove to the Haytor Visitor Centre, where we began a serious hike:  as the lady at the centre said, it’s about 1 hour up, and anywhere from 3 minutes to an hour back down.  The walk is a bit trickier than it looks, since the grass is quite slippery and the angle is steep.  We began to look for horse hoof prints, as they acted a bit like stairs.  The view from the top makes it all worth it.  We could see tors on surrounding hills, wild ponies, villages and fields, search-and-rescue groups on a training exercise, but most of all the moors.  Pictures don’t really do them justice, with their vivid colours and great wide open expansive vistas.  The view was breathtaking – as were the wind and the steep climb!

We were getting a bit hungry, but decided to visit the small village of Bovey Tracey.  We went into the local history society’s museum in the now defunct railway station, and at first thought it was worth only a glance or two.  We were perhaps more interested in a small business that made large models, and had a triceratops, a dragon, and Santa in the yard.  Then “Ginger” as he was called by a friend, in spite of his snow white hair, took us in hand and told us all about granite mining, and the history of the town, and was so enthusiastic about his home town that we were drawn in to the enthusiasm as well.  It was like spending a half hour with Uncle Jim.   

Ginger also recommended the Rugglestone Pub in Widecombe-in-the-moor, which had also been recommended by Hannah, so off we went.

Widecombe-in-the-moor is a perfect little town in Devon, barely touched by the passing of the years, and Kathleen and I promised to give it a good going over after we had made it to the pub.  We parked for £1.30, and then hurried the quarter mile to the pub down the hill, only to discover that it had a free parking lot, and that it had closed for the afternoon 5 minutes before.  We lumbered back up the hill and visited the historic church and graveyard, and then found another little pub that was open.  We enjoyed sitting in the garden, with exotic chickens and ducks running around, while well-behaved dogs and cute children ran around.  Kathleen had fish pie, and I had a chicken and stilton bun, and she stole a few of my fries, and I stole all of her beans and carrots.  She had a cider, and I had water, as I was driving.  It felt very different from a pub at home.

We travelled along on our way past a historic old bridge, very old stone walls, and saw the gates and the imposing granite walls of Dartmoor Prison in “Hound of the Baskervilles” country. 

We took our last journey of the day up to the evocative Okehampton Castle.   We knew it would be closed when we arrived at nearly 7:00, but the keeper was still there, and we spent about 20 minutes with him, chatting about the castle and our travels.

Since I had been driving all day, Kathleen decided to drive, home, a decision which she came to regret.  We had picked up a slightly better map of the park, but had been unable to find a map that was not a topographical map or for walking trails.  The map which we got at the visitors centre divided the roads into four categories:  green = highway, suitable for anyone; black = mostly two lanes, and suitable for most; blue = stretches of one lane, and not suitable for trucks or coaches; brown = only suitable for small cars.  We had been warned that “Sat Nav” was not a good idea, and thought it might be because of poor mapping or reception.  However, it is really a problem because the Garmin doesn’t distinguish between them.  We now categorize black and blue as “bruise you a little” and brown as the colour of what they scare out of you.

As a result, I worked out how to get from place to place on the biggest roads possible by navigating to the last village on the road, and then adding the next one.  I got us to within ten minutes of home in the twilight, when we made the mistake of using a “recently found” postal code to guide us the rest of the way, and it took us to Haytor instead of home!  In fact, it caused us to drive down a terrible rad in the dark for an hour.  We were both pretty frazzled by the time we got here, but we figure we have made pretty good use of this park – the Garmin is criss-crossed by the blue lines of our journeys.

We have a big day planned tomorrow, and Kathleen is snoring, so I think I will turn in now too!