Dartmoor - Darmouth
Dartmoor
Thursday 23rd July 2009
A fantastic day out on Dartmoor, including walks around four tors (Combestone, King's, Hound and Hay) and three pubs - The Warren House Inn, The Rugglestone Inn and the Rock Inn. Followed by a boat trip over the water from Dartmouth to Kingswear in the evening.
Darmouth
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| 09:31:50 Shortly after arriving on the moor, we were greeted by this herd of ponies, near Venford reservoir. | 09:32:15 | 09:32:22 |
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| 09:33:08 | 09:33:16 Chie and some ponies. | 09:33:50 This one seemed particularly inquisitive. |
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| 09:33:56 | 09:34:18 | 09:43:49 Our next stop was Combestone Tor - a delightfully accessible tor, and a very nice introduction to the day. There's Chie wandering over from the car park. |
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| 09:44:02 One of the main outcrops of Combestone Tor. | 09:45:27 | 09:45:55 Nice views to be had from here. |
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| 09:46:37 | 09:47:10 Me and Chie - and you can just see our car behind my shouler. | 09:47:46 Very nice too. |
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| 10:28:49 For our next tor, I decided we should try something moderately more ambitious, so we headed over to King's Tor. | 10:31:42 Nice shot with a boundary stone in the foreground. | 10:35:04 Whilst it looks like a nice dry day it was very wet underfoot in places! |
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| 10:38:41 ...crossing the stream here was a little difficult too. | 10:46:08 It's going to be pretty hard to write comments for all of these pictures! | 10:47:20 Looking North towards Merrivale. |
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| 10:47:25 | 10:51:34 | 10:55:52 Looking over towards the television/radio mast near Princetown. |
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| 10:55:56 So I think we're pretty much at the top now... | 10:56:01 | 10:56:06 Quite like this one - I think it really says Dartmoor. |
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| 10:56:11 | 10:56:41 Chie on the top of the tor. | 10:56:47 ...and again. |
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| 11:53:06 We felt we'd earned our first pub visit by this point, and were very hungry, so without further ado we headed over to the famous Warren House Inn. | 12:04:42 A very nice pint of Dartmoor (of course!) in the Warren House Inn. | 12:10:49 Homity Pie for lunch - very hearty and satisftying, just the sort of thing you need after a morning's walking. |
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| 12:35:39 Me in front of the fire at the Warren House Inn, which never goes out (although it appears they no longer use peat - shame!). | 12:57:59 In front of the Warren House Inn - must be lovely to sit out here on a sunny day. | 12:58:05 One last shot of the Warren House Inn before heading off. |
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| 13:26:55 We thought it might be nice to visit Widdecombe on our way through to the Eastern part of the moor. I quite like this shot of the church spire and the very well seasoned sign post. | 13:27:54 The cottage beside the church, owned by the National Trust. | 14:01:08 I noticed a signpost in Widdecombe pointing down to the Rugglestone Inn, and couldn't resist following it. |
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| 14:09:38 Lovely little pub both inside and out - here's me standing in the doorway. | 14:09:40 ...and again. | 14:09:51 ....and there's the doorway without me standing in it. Erm. |
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| 14:13:33 Once the rain had stopped we went and sat out in the garden for a few minutes - doesn't the pub look really charming with the little leat in front of it? | 14:20:32 ...and there were assorted fowl running around the garden too. | 14:32:07 Heading back up the hill to Widdecombe. |
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| 15:15:52 Next stop, Hound Tor, and I was rather taken with the name of this mobile cafe in the car park. | 15:15:57 ...a close-up in case you couldn't read it - "Hound of the Basket Meals" - genius! | 15:24:30 As soon as the rain let up we (along with everyone else who had been waiting in the car park) strolled purposefully up to Hound Tor. |
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| 15:26:49 | 15:30:43 Chie atop Hound Tor. | 15:31:28 |
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| 15:31:39 | 16:12:06 Our final Tor for the day was Hay Tor, which seemed to bring with it a dramatic change in the weather! Lovely views from here, all the way out to sea. | 16:12:13 You wouldn't think it had been raining just 30 minutes or so earlier! |
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| 16:13:26 ...although looking back inland back towards Dartmoor the clouds were still a little threatening. | 16:13:48 ....but turn around again and it's all blue skies! | 16:15:12 Mixture of heather and gorse here. |
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| 16:16:04 Isn't that lovely? | 16:16:11 | 16:18:07 Plenty of nice views to be had from the top of Hay Tor - a very good return on investment for the very short walk up from the car park! |
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| 16:19:32 | 16:19:50 ...but the clouds over there still looking very ominous! | 16:20:24 Quite a large lump of rock atop Hay Tor. |
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| 16:22:25 ...although you don't get much of a sense of scale here! | 16:38:22 Before leaving the moor we thought we'd pop to one last pub - and this one was more of a hotel - The Rock Inn. | 16:41:28 Rather splendid interior... |
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| 16:43:29 ....on lots of different levels - particularly liked this little lounge where we sat. | 18:57:50 Back in Dartmouth once more, and out plan for the evening was to go over the water to Kingswear for dinner. | 19:04:16 So here we are on the little passenger ferry that runs a great service between Dartmouth and Kingswear. |
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| 19:05:10 I found the idea of going out for the evening by boat very appealing! | 19:05:26 Vera and Chie on the boat - we managed to persuade Vera to sit outside as it was only a short run. | 19:05:52 |
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| 19:06:49 Looking back over to Dartmouth. | 19:09:28 ...and here we are in Kingswear now - I really liked the frontage of the Royal Dart Hotel, which was to be our first port of call (almost a pun there) of the evening. | 19:16:01 The water was apparently unusually high today, and sitting in the lower bar of the Royal Dart felt like being on a boat. |
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| 19:17:46 Me looking a bit scruffy in the Royal Dart. | 19:36:30 Looking back down the hill to the little ferry terminal, and the station for the steam train on the right hand side. | 19:37:21 The Ship Inn, our second port of call - which suited us much better. |
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| 19:45:05 Vera and Chie enjoying an aperitif at the Ship Inn. | 20:33:51 ...and then dinner! | 21:09:31 Outside the Ship Inn as we were leaving. |
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| 21:12:38 There is a third pub in Kingswear - the Steam Packet Inn - but we decided to call it night and skip that one - so I thought I'd just take a picture of the outside for completeness' sake. | 21:13:10 Heading back to the ferry now. | 21:24:48 On the ferry, night time shot looking back to Kingswear. |
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| 21:24:56 ...and in the other direction, across to Dartmouth. | 21:25:23 A couple more ferry shots... | 21:25:38 |
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| 21:29:45 ...and back in Dartmouth once again. |
