West Anstey Common 12th March 2016

Well the weather has been a bit better of late, so we decided to be a bit more adventurous and go walking near some water. A mistake? We’ll see. Today’s walk encompassed the area of West Anstey Common, the village of Hawkridge and the valley carved into the landscape by the River Barle. The walk began from the very middle of the common. There is a car park up there big enough for about 6 or 7 cars, if parked properly. 

The route. Clockwise this week.

When there is a hunt on it can get remarkably busy on the common as we were to discover later on. Oddly the car park isn’t marked on my usually very reliable 1:25000 map of Exmoor. It was however on my usually 'chocolate fireplace grade' satnav, which is odd. But trust me it is there, it’s free and it has a 360^o panorama that is quite breath-taking. Be careful if you have your four legged friend with you, although it looks quiet people absolutely fly along the road and don’t appear to stop for anything.

The car park before it filled up.

We headed off North East across the moor towards Hawkridge. There are plenty of wide sweeping tracks which look like cattle or pony runs. Some of these are marked on the map, others are not. It doesn’t really matter. You can see where you are heading for miles in every direction. As happens so often when you are not concentrating we veered further downhill than we meant to and had to head back uphill to pass quite a steep re-entrant (a re-entrant for the uninitiated is a small gorge carved by water usually. The opposite of a ridge). 

Deer stalking.

As a lucky consequence we crept up on a number of deer which hadn’t noticed us in the dead ground. Bea used her best stalking skills and managed to get a photo of them before they bolted.

The Deer Hunter

As we came to the edge of the common we dropped downhill via the Two Moors Way, a long distance path between Ivybridge and Lynmouth. After a climb back up the road and across a field of sheep we arrived in Hawkridge. 

Chuck modelling a bench.

It’s a very small village and has no pub so we left quickly. Not before noticing however that someone in the village was selling antler dog chews for a fraction of the commercial price. Large chews were £6 and small chews were £3. Pets at home sell these for £13.99. Chuck can destroy one of these in about six weeks. He loves them. They are a great example of recycling nature’s leftovers as they are excellent for your dog’s teeth. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much cash on me but we will definitely go back if we are in the area again.

This is a local shop for local people.

We continued down a prominent track out of Hawkridge through some farmland, so it was lead time for Chuck, he doesn’t like it but it is good training. Putting the lead on your dog and taking it off again during a walk is a good thing as it shows them that the lead doesn’t always mean the end of a walk. This in turn makes them more compliant when it comes time to put the lead on.

The River Barle.

As we dropped into the valley between the River Barle and Dane’s Brook the scenery was quite spectacular. At the bottom Chuck had a play in Dane’s Brook which we had crossed further upstream the previous week. 

We took the bridge. Chuck took the brook.

The two waterways meet here and from hereon it becomes just the River Barle, subsuming the lesser Dane’s Brook. The water was so crisp and clear even though it was quite fast flowing.  I could have stayed here all day but we had to press on. We took a track that climbed out of the valley and we had lunch on a bank at the side of a quite road.

Crystal clear water.

Walking through a field we spotted some birds circling over the valley. A quick look through the binoculars confirmed we know nothing about birds and were still none the wiser as to what they were. Having referred to my trusty bird book (we’re cool!) I think they were probably buzzards. But we're not here to be ornithologists. I think it’s enough to just appreciate these things for what they are. A rose by any other name…

Poor animal recognition by this farmer.

The next few miles of the walk were by road which is never the most fun but it did allow us to cover the ground quite quickly. What I hadn't realised before is that Dartmoor is visible from here. At first we thought it was cloud but through binoculars we could see where we walked a weeks before.

Walking down the lanes.

As we came back onto West Anstey Common we came across large rock cut in half with lots of holes in it. I remember seeing it before and meaning to check out what it was but I was tired and I forgot. Thanks to The Exmoor Runner for informing us it is a sculpture by Peter Randall Page. The other half of the boulder is in Drewsteignton on Dartmoor. They are there to celebrate the vision of Joe Turner who created the Two Moors Way. I think he was also the singer with Rainbow for a bit, or maybe I’m confusing him with someone else?

Holy rock Batman!

It was during this part of the walk that we first came across the hunt followers. Hunting is quite common on Exmoor and it apparently has quite a large following, literally. For the next hour we were having to dive out the way of 4x4s and quad bikes following the hunt totally oblivious to anyone else who was using the moor. They seem to think they have a total monopoly on the place. It didn’t make for the most relaxed of walks knowing there were large numbers of people belting over the moor with loaded weapons oblivious to all around them. I have since been told that the followers of the hunt are as much a bugbear to the hunters as everyone else but they all seemed pretty chummy as far as I could see. I’d love to hear someone else’s opinion on this. I only say what I see.

Staring longingly towards the London Inn in Molland just over the hill.

We had fully intended to go to the London Inn in Molland as part of this walk but time was pressing on. We had a dinner booked that night as we were going to see the rather excellent Wild Strawberries afterwards. They are a local covers band that perform songs in a sort of Johnny Cash/Tarantino style. Not to be confused with the Canadian pop/rock outfit of the same name. As such we had to cut our walk short and it ended up being totally dry in both senses of the word. Except for Chuck of course.

No picture of the hunt so here's a picture of a wet dog instead.

On the way home we met the hunt again. This time they hard all abandoned their vehicles on a road about five feet wide. They really have not endeared themselves to us. After about half an hour of coming and going of the long queue of traffic that had built up on a road that probably usually gets about three cars a day and we were heading for home. Overall this was a good walk that was only slightly spoilt by the actions of others. Hopefully next week normal service will be resumed and there’ll be more walking, less ranting and a pub review. Until then.

Withypool 5th March 2016

You’d think with the Met Office being less than 40 miles away they’d be able to get the weather right? And yet those perpetual peddlers of meteorological fabrication got it wrong again this Saturday. At least it didn’t rain, much. It was not however the beaming sunshine promised. It was bitingly cold in the wind and thick grey cloud prevailed most of the day. There were a few snatches of sunshine, which allowed us take a few nice photos but also makes it look like I’m lying about the inclement whether. You’ll just have to take my word for it.

The Route. The dotted line depicts the non-footpathed section. We went anti-clockwise.

Today’s route started out from Landacre Bridge just to the west of Withypool. This is a great place to park as you can set off for several different walks here and it's free! There is a car park in Withypool but it fills up very quickly. Get there early to avoid disappointment. 

The initial slog uphill. It was much worse than it looks in the photo. Honest.

The walk encompassed most of the moorland to the south west of Withypool and was about half moorland, half country lanes. The ground is still very wet but the moor tends to soak it up very well as there’s about 3 feet of roots under the grass. Even the muddy bits aren’t really sticky. The initial view from leaving the car was quite stunning, a large gorge cutting through the landscape. Starting next to water almost always involves setting out uphill. The initial going was quite tough with a strong wind and difficult terrain underfoot. We could have just walked up the road but where's the fun in that?

Looking for the footpath.

Part of the route I had chosen was not a designated footpath but as the moor is common land you are free to roam. If you are going to do this, you need to have a backup plan in case the land isn’t quite as accessible as you thought. I did a quick Google Maps recce and saw there was an obvious track across where we needed to go. If we couldn’t get through there was an option of walking around along a road. This would have added about a mile and meant Chuck would have to go on the lead as it’s a fairly busy road. As it was, we managed to get through quite easily. I also had this part near the beginning of the walk so if it was impassable we wouldn’t have to do the full walk in reverse to get around. This has happened to me before.

Not much to aid navigation around here.

The moor can be quite a difficult place to navigate with no obvious features and many more paths than are detailed on the map. One such navigational challenge appeared fairly early on. With the aid of a fairly obvious hedge line, a re-entrant and a prominent curve in the road that we had to cross we found the track we were looking for. Using tick off features in this way is a helpful aid to navigation. It’s also advisable to know how to use a compass as this can help with path selection if there are more tracks than you were expecting. A more detailed post on this particular piece of navigation will follow in the coming weeks.

Tudball's Splats. Answers on a postcard (or a comment below) please.

Next along the walk was the fantastically named Tudball’s Splats. I have no idea who Tudball was or what his Splat was for and a Google search yields no answers. It appears to be an old field system. It is two square fields with a plantation of trees growing around the outside. It looked very damp inside so we didn’t explore it. Plus, it was nearly lunch time and it was in far too an exposed area to eat. A quick walk up the hill we passed Porchester post which historically marks the boundary between Hawkridge and Withypool parishes, in case you were wondering. This led to a beautiful tree lined avenue where we lunched. Down here I saw something I'd never seen before, a horse on a bridleway. I've seen plenty on the B3223 though.

Nice pink fork.

The remainder of the walk to Withypool was on the road. Most of it quite quiet. There is a great view of West Anstey Common to the south and a pretty stone bridge across Dane’s Brook. Chuck couldn’t resist a quick paddle. Along the road we met two farm dogs who came out and said hello to Chuck. They were fairly adventurous and followed us quite a long way before they realised they better head for home.

The bridge across Dane's Brook.

Withypool is at the bottom of a long hill, so it can be seen from up on high during the descent. It’s a wonderful little village which is surprisingly well facilitated. There is a well-stocked shop with a post office, a tea rooms and a pub. Having nothing to post, we chose the latter. The Old Oak Inn is a great old fashioned pub and a full review will be available soon. A large group was in there and they brought all their dogs in to meet Chuck. Thankfully Chuck was quite calm as he was pooped, otherwise it could have been a crazy puppy party as these dogs seemed very excitable.

Withypool petrol station. Closed.

The final leg was up hill out the North of Withypool back onto the moor. This is where we got the aforementioned rain that wasn’t meant to happen. Still, it didn’t last long. The road here gradually turns into a track which turns into a footpath. It’s like walking further into nature with each step. I loved it.

Landacre bridge.

The last stretch was downhill back to the car over Landacre bridge. It’s a lovely little spot (I have a limited number of adjectives I can come up with so excuse excessive use of ‘lovely’. It’s a good descriptor for Exmoor. I'll invest in a thesaurus) where we could wash Chuck before putting him back in the car. It’s the age old lesser of two evils, wet dog or muddy dog in the car? As Chuck has a towel in the car we chose wet dog. This was a challenging walk, for the first half especially. It’s a another great walk if it’s been raining recently and you don’t want to be knee deep in mud. It was about eleven miles and it took about five hours with pub stop. Withypool is also where a lot of people start when going to the Tarr Steps, another Exmoor beauty spot. As this is in the opposite direction it’s ideal for the more misanthropic among you. Have you ever been to Withypool? Let us know what you think in the comments below. Until next time.

The Tors Inn Review

The outside makes it look tiny.

What a time capsule this place is. It’s like walking into your Grandma’s living room. If your Grandma is well stocked with whisky that is. It’s a charming little stone building on the outside that goes back much further than you’re expecting when you walk in. There’s a ramp for wheelchair access which is probably the only modern thing in there. It’s dog friendly which is great for us. There were two lovely dogs already inside who I’m guessing belonged to the bar.

Check the decor.

We were served at the bar by a polite young girl. We had a pint of Sam’s Poundhouse Crisp which was a very reasonable £.3.25 per pint. There was something wrong with the barrel and it took ages to pour. I think it’s customary to offer to bring the drinks over in this situation, especially when it’s not busy but maybe this is being picky? Anyway the cider tasted fine.

Quite a good drink selection.

The place started to fill up once we’d been in there a while (we usually have the opposite effect). There are about five or six tables so it doesn’t take much to fill but the locals all seem to line the bar. Everyone was friendly enough. We didn’t get the regulars giving us the hard stare and going quiet when we walked in.

The menu.

The drink selection was pretty large considering the size of the place. It was all quite possibly bought from Tesco as there didn’t seem to be any sign of any brewery affiliation. The food selection looked pretty good too and the food we saw being brought out looked nice, although we didn’t eat. The meals ranged from about £8 for simple meals to £15 for a steak. There was also a Sunday afternoon carvery for £8.50. We didn’t see it though as it was Saturday.

Fliers on the tables.

There was an advert on the table for the upcoming entertainment. Featured was the excellently monikered ‘Walter Shortage and the Hosepipe Banned’. Other entertainment abounded. This would make a cracking local if we lived closer. This seemed to be very much a community hub. Although it wasn’t particularly fancy it has a very homely feel. If I was in the neighbourhood I’d certainly like to check out their meals. Have you ever been? If so let us know your experience in the comments below. Cheers.

The Fountain Inn Review

A traditional coaching inn, this is typical of a North Devon town pub, it is tastefully decorated outside looking clean and well kept. The coach entrance has had glass doors across it making a great feature. The bar is cosily warm whilst having the appearance of the door being open to the elements. Nice touch. The interior decoration is a touch sparser. It has wooden floors and mixed furniture but is clean and tidy. The bar is very small but has a good selection. Their speciality seems is bottles of flavoured vodka displayed across the back shelf. They also have quite an extensive cocktail menu but this seems to be more for fuelling Friday nights than sophisticated sipping. There’s a happy hour 6.30 – 9.30 with two cocktails for £8.

The outside.

 The bar staff were all young and seemed fairly apathetic to their jobs but were at least polite. Our German shepherd ‘Chuck’ was welcome inside and seemed quite a hit with one local. We had two pints of Thatcher’s which came to £6.80 which is about average. Apparently this is one of the more expensive places in Okehampton. The table we were at had quite a comfy leather sofa and was next to the bar. This brought about conversation from ‘local bar prop #1’ who was quite friendly and very interested in Chuck. He didn’t outstay his welcome and left us to our conversation.

Looks like it should be cold but it isn't. Clever.

 After he had gone ‘local bar prop #2’ arrived. He complimented Chuck and went to sit in the corner whereupon he proceeded to have an argument with who I assume was probably his ex wife. This would have been fine if she was actually there and not just in his imagination. Thankfully it was not loud enough to distract too much from our own conversation. The other people in the room didn’t seem to notice much either so I guess they were used it.

Sooty propping up the bar. Flavoured vodka just out of shot.

There is quite a large restaurant in the back but we didn’t eat. I didn’t manage to clock the food prices either, apologies. Must try harder. It was mid afternoon so there was no one eating in there anyway. The toilets were clean which is always a good sign. A few people were checking out from their rooms whilst we were there and all seemed to be fairly contented guests from what I could gather from their mannerisms. This would be an ideal base for walks on north Dartmoor. Not having been into any other of the Okehampton pubs I can’t make comparisons but having been in pubs in similar sized towns across mid Devon this is one of the better ones I’ve been in. It’s clean, reasonably priced and has a good mix of locals and visitors.

Cider, Chuck and Noel Edmonds on a fruit machine.

 Have you been to The Fountain Inn? Did you eat there? Please add your own impressions to the comments below if you can.

The external picture of the pub is from https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/08/df/1c/4f/the-fountain-inn.jpg

Okehampton 27th February 2016

As you've probably noticed, there's been a lot of sky juice of late. Whilst we have braved the outdoors a little when it's not been raining, the water tends to pool. As a result all our recent walks have been ankle deep in mud. It's not nice to walk in, gets all over the dog (although he loves that) and consequently all over the car. It also means extra admin when cleaning everything (yes kit care is important!).

As a result we needed somewhere we could walk and stay clean yet remain detached from civilization. Okehampton fitted the bill perfectly. Due to it being a military training area it is criss-crossed with roads and tracks. Although as we found this doesn't guarantee you'll stay dry. The walk contained two pub stops both very enjoyable. The route is shown below. The distance was approximately 10 miles.

The route. We went anti-clockwise

We started off in the train station car park. We liked this car park as it is free. I'm not sure if the train station is still operating. The station seemed pretty dead but then Okehampton is not particularly metropolis like. The walk went immediately uphill from here onto the moor. There was a brief period of sticky mud but it didn't last long and we were soon onto a nice mettled road. Don't get me wrong, I much prefer walking cross country but it's just so boggy everywhere right now. Roll on summer.

The bridge just outside Okehampton camp. Annoyingly mobile sheep in the background.

Having been here before I remember there being no sheep, which is great for Chuck. However, sheep it seems are not static objects and had returned since my previous visit. Chuck is a good lad but and generally leaves sheep alone. However, from experience if a sheep bolts he will try and 'herd' it. He is a shepherd after all. Not wanting to test the farmer's marksmanship with a shotgun we decided to keep him safely on the lead until we got away from the herd.

Chuck happy that the sheep have gone. West Mill Tor is the farthest of the two.

Our first little excursion was up West Mill Tor. The view from the top was pretty spectacular and the photos don’t really do it justice. It was however blowing a proper hoolie up there and it was Baltic. So we managed to get a few photos in the wind shadow behind some rocks. On a moor like this a pile of rocks can be invaluable. If you do get caught out in the wind and rain (the un-godliest of combinations) this is a great place to shelter. It’s a great place to lunch as well if it is windy.

Unfair race up West MIll Tor.

It was too early for lunch though so we headed onwards. We passed several parking places actually up on the moor during this next section meaning that if you don’t want to do a long walk and want to avoid the initial hill climb this is still an ideal place to go. One such parking place was where we eventually had lunch sheltering behind an earth mound. During this time two youths approached in a state of befuddlement. They were looking for Scarey Tor (sounds like something out of Scooby Doo). I proceeded to blow their minds by showing them where they were on the map and how to get where they needed to be. It was witchcraft as far as they were concerned. They thanked me and were on their way.

Crossing a small ford. Chuck is unimpressed.

A little further down the track we came to a ford in the track. The previous rains had made this very deep (we thought) and we had to head up stream and do a series of leaps across some quite wide streams. Chuck was happy to bound through however. Just as we made it to the other side a bloke with his dog was happily strolling through the middle of the ford. He either had some good local knowledge or more likely he was actually Jesus. He did have a beard.

Chuck waiting patiently to get wet.

Anyway, we headed down the hill in Belstone with the sun finally starting to emerge. Meeting a lovely whippet along the way. She apparently loves to be chased and Chuck loves to chase. They were made for each other. She was just too fast for poor Chuck though. Belstone is a delightful little village about two miles out of Okehampton. We decided to pop into The Tors Inn for a quick pint. A full review can be found HERE. The place was charming in a very old fashioned kind of way. We had a very reasonably priced pint of cider and moved on.

Behind the scenes footage

We decided to move off along the road back to Okehampton as the footpath was looking very boggy. Along the way we met a gang of three beautiful dogs one of which was a rescue that had been abandoned in London. How anyone could have left such a beautiful puppy is beyond me. Anyway she looked very happy with her new family.

Chuck admiring the beautiful carpet.

There wasn’t a great deal to see in Okehampton with the time we had left (there is a castle apparently but we didn’t go) so we decided another pint would be the best thing. We went into The Fountain Inn, an old fashioned (there’s not much new fashioned stuff around here) coaching inn. Again a full review can be found HERE. It’s good having so many dog friendly pubs about. After another pint of cider and listening to a local having a full blown argument with himself we set off back to the car. The walk was about five hours with stops and about ten miles. A thoroughly good time was had by all but it was nice to be back in the warm.

Welcome to the World On Your Doorstep

Welcome all to our very first post. However you have found us it’s likely you are here because of a mutual love of the outdoors and this is certainly the place for you if that is so. But this site is for all outdoor lovers. It is not just for die-hards in £400 gore-tex jackets trekking between the poles. This is for the likes of you and me, who are just happy to be outside, preferably in the sun. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good tech jacket, but as long as I’m outdoors with my other half and my dog I’m a happy bloke.

Bea and Dave

There is a good reason being outside makes you feel good, because it is good for you, especially if you are walking. Take a look here to hear it from the doctor’s mouth. The problem is the same old walk every week in the same country park can get a little tedious. That’s why we’re here to help. This blog is going to feature all our walks, the successful and less so, how we go about planning them, the equipment we take and how we navigate the route. A lot of people are held back from really exploring because they don’t understand how to read a map and are scared of getting lost. If you are after back bearings and triangulation there are many good technical sites out there for you to geek out on. We however will provide you with the basics to get you out into the Great British countryside.

Chuck.

A lot of it comes down to good planning and basic knowledge e.g. the blue on a map is water. Don’t plan your route across blue lines or you’ll get wet, unless there’s a bridge. See, invaluable advice already. But then you’ll need to know the map symbol for a bridge. And the grid lines are blue too, so you’ll need to know the difference. The confidence to know where you are (ish) all (ish) of the time will give you that more adventurous spirit and allow you to see places not many people have seen surprisingly close to your home.

Have you ever been driving down a road in the country and seen a sign with ‘Public Footpath’ written on it? Don’t you want to know where it goes? Where it comes out? What you’ll see down there? Wouldn’t you love to stand on a hill commanding views of your whole county? A weekend spent walking, instead of lazing in front of the TV (that’s for week nights) will provide you with all this for almost zero outlay. Your initial costs will be boots and a small bag. Something you may already own. As you get more adventurous you can look at getting waterproofs (essential in the UK) and some more comfortable walking attire (it’s far more comfy than sexy). Also once you’ve exhausted your local area you’ll need to drive further afield.

Where does it lead?

So what can you expect to see on this blog? Well as mentioned there will be easy to follow planning and map reading advice. But also there will be stories of our own walks to hopefully inspire you to get out there. A walk is not a walk without a pint (cider, not beer) or a G&T so there will be pub reviews and also reviews of other attractions along the way. There will also be some kit reviews and not the nicey nicey I’m reviewing your product for a cut type reviews either. It’ll be kit I’ve been using for some time and with no brand loyalty, although I do own an inordinate amount of Berghaus kit.

"These are a few of my favourite things" Julie Andrews - The Sound of Music

Expect to see a post about once a week. I’m a busy bloke but I’ll do my best, because let’s be honest, I’d rather be outside than sat typing this. What sort of articles are you interested in seeing here? What walks do you like? Please share them so others can enjoy them or maybe we could even try them out. Please suggest your routes and if we're in your neck of the woods we'll give it a go. Until next time.