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.