What to take on your first walk.

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on how to plan your first walk. Now I’m sure you’re all sat at home thinking, ‘that’s all well and good, I’ve planned my walk but what on earth do I take with me?’ Well help is at hand. This week I will cover some of the things you need to make your walks more pleasurable. Fundamentally all you need to go walking is two legs. However, there is plenty of kit out there to enable you to go stay comfortable in increasing extremes of weather and terrain, depending on how much you are willing to pay. And that is what this is about really, cost vs comfort. You can go walking in any gear you have in your wardrobe but if it rains will it keep you dry? If it’s cold will it keep you warm?

Walking shoes for good weather.

Probably the single most important piece of kit is footwear. This is what keeps the world away from your feet. Footwear choice depends markedly upon the season. The fairer the weather and terrain you plan on walking in the more you can get away with. I usually use a sturdy pair of walking trainers in the summer and a full ankle support leather boot during the winter. A good walking trainer will be well ventilated, comfortable and have a grippy sole. A leather walking boot will be waterproof (if well looked after), warm and again will have good grip in the wet. Walking in ordinary trainers may be fine in the summer but at the first sign of inclement weather or rough terrain you will be quite uncomfortable. If you choose one piece of kit to spend a bit more money on it’s boots.

Walking boots for more inclement weather.

Your clothing again depends on the weather. If you are only ever going to walk when you are 100% it’s not going to rain you can get away without a waterproof. If you don’t live in the Atacama Desert however you’ll need something to keep you dry in unexpected downpours. The problem is not keeping water out, that’s easy. A bin bag with some arm and head holes will do the job. The difficult part is making it breathable. If it isn’t you’ll saturate from the inside through profuse sweating. If you’ve ever warn rubber gloves for any length of time, you’ll know what I mean. A full set of waterproof top and bottoms are becoming cheaper nowadays but it’s always worth spending that extra bit. Again this should be a purchase that lasts you many years as long as you take care for them.

Gore Tex works better when it's garishly bright. Fact.

For your top half you should layer accordingly. I find it’s best to combine a t-shirt with a thin warm top and a thick warm top. That way you can escalate in warmth depending on the weather. Don’t be tempted to put on everything as soon as you start. It’s actually best to be cold when you begin. You’ll be surprised how quickly you get warm. You really want to avoid getting sweaty as this will make you very cold if you stop and it’s windy. I wear a wicking t-shirt as my base. This draws sweat away from the body. Then I have a thin fleece and a thick fleece.

Jeans are bad m'kay.

Do not wear jeans! I cannot overstate this enough. Denim will give you bad rub after a very short period of time. If it gets wet, you may as well wear heavy sandpaper. Wave bye bye to the skin on your legs as it is replaced with a corned beef looking substance. A cheap option is tracksuit bottoms, the thin material, not the thick towel ones. But then you’re only an energy drink and baseball cap away from chavdom. The only other alternative is an actual pair of walking trousers. These are not flattering as you’ve probably seen from our photos but they are cheap and comfy. Make sure they are nice and baggy around the thighs for leaping over gates or you’ll get fresh ventilation between the legs. At the same time make sure they are not too loose around the waist all you’ll be forever pulling them up. It’s good if they come up quite high to keep your shirt tucked in. Again you’ll look as cool as your Mum trying to beatbox but it’ll stop your bag rubbing on your lower back.     

   

Bags. Great for carrying stuff.

Which leads me to back packs. Every extra layer of clothing over your basic level of decency should fit into the bag you are carrying. It may be cold after a frosty night at 8’ o’clock in the morning but after the sun’s come out and you’ve been walking uphill for half an hour you may regret those extra layers if you’ve got nothing to put them in. Conversely, just because it’s warm when you leave the car, it may be blowing a gale the other side of a hill. I find the best way to figure out what to take is to fill your bag with everything you may need to make sure it fits, then dress accordingly from the bag’s contents. The only real factors in deciding what bag to buy are, is it big enough and is it comfortable. It doesn’t really matter what it looks like when you’re cutting about with your t-shirt tucked into your frumpy walking trousers.

Caps. Not always chavvy.

Other items you should take are water, food and a map and compass. Even if you don’t know how to use a compass it’ll help you orientate your map. Take an emergency snack such as a choccy bar on top of your lunch. If you run out of energy this may help you get back. Be aware you’ll probably eat this regardless if there’s an emergency or not. As rule of thumb I’d say take a pint of water for each hour you are out. Energy drinks should only ever be used to supplement water intake and preferably never drank, anywhere, ever. Something I always wear is a cap. No, I’m not a chav. It is just very good for keeping the sun off your face and when it rains it stops the hood of your waterproof falling over your eyes, which trust me, does happen.

Please don’t rush out and buy all this kit at once and then decide you hate walking because it’s expensive. It almost better to avoid this advice initially. Go out in a pair of jeans and trainers with no bag and horrible cheap waterproofs. Then you will really appreciate the money you spent when you eventually do buy the right kit. Trust me, I’ve been there. Have you ever been caught out by bad equipment choices? If so let us know in the comments below. Until next time.


#walkinggear #walkingkit #hikinggear #hikingkit #whattotakewalking #whattotakehiking #learnaboutwalking

19th March 2016 Dulverton to Molland

Slightly different this week, it’s just me and my dawg. Bea hurt herself in college playing bouncy netball. I believe the Americans call it Bear-skit-bahl or something. Anyway, she went over on her ankle and so couldn’t come. She’s at home with her foot up on some ice. As a consequence of my not being able to take selfies, there will be lots of landscapes and Chuck pictures this week. On the plus side there was a pub stop. Some of this walk encompasses bits of the previous walk as I wanted to go to the pub we never got to the week before. I’ll try and gloss over those bits you’ve already seen.

Figure of eight. Follow the arrows.

“Planning is an unnatural process; it is much more fun to do something. And the nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.”
John Harvey Jones, businessman (1924–2008)

As I was on my own this week I thought I’d try something a bit different. Instead of planning an exact route I just pick a start point and a destination then navigated my way there on the ground. This walk starts from a small car park just North East of Dulverton. It’s a little awkwardly shaped and a bit of poor parking can seriously hamper the number of cars you can get in. There’s also a rather bad ground clearance as the underside of my car discovered. Don’t say anything, it’s on finance. But as usual, it is free to park there.

The car park. Note chassis scraping stones.

Our destination was the London Inn in Molland about six or seven miles away depending on which way we went. We set off along River Barle down a wide stone road. The path is quite upsy-downsy and sometimes strays some distance from the river but it gives lots of different perspective of the water. The water is beautifully clear and there are lots of mini waterfalls. This path leads to where the river meets Dane’s Brook where we crossed the previous week. This time however we took the lower path. Well, I did anyway. Chuck decided to take to the water for most of the way.

Not exactly Niagra Falls, but very pretty.

The map showed that we would have to cross a ford up ahead at some point. There is always the slight apprehension that the water will not be as shallow as you are expecting, especially as this was a bridleway for horses and not a footpath. A horse will happily wade through deeper water than a person. Well I assume at least never having ridden a horse. When I got there it was good news and bad. The bad news was the water was far deeper than my boots were tall. The good news was that there was a bridge right next to the ford which wasn’t marked on the map. Result. Remember, a map is only as accurate as when it was made. The ground changes, so change your maps regularly.

Bridges are better than fords.

Climbing out of the steep sided valley the ground began to transition from woods to open moorland. It was a lovely pale yellow and quite stark and bleak in a beautiful kind of way after being in the lush green wood. This was East Anstey Common. Seeing as we did West Anstey Common last week, I thought I’d try and collect the set. Unfortunately, there is no North and South Anstey Common. We headed along some of the road we went along last week but this time without a constant stream of racing 4x4s, which made for a much more relaxing walk. We headed south and went along a small road that turned into a footpath. This went through what used to be a wood according to the map but had recently been heavily logged. The bridleway had also been diverted but this actually made the route shorter. This time the two fords across the water were easily passable with a pair of sturdy walking boots or a good leap.

Transition from wood to moor.

Through the trees we came out on a rather lovely clearing which led up a hill. From here you could see quite the community of large houses dotted around the countryside. It certainly looked like an appealing place to live. The track bizarrely took us directly through someone’s garden. Then along a very long drive back to the road. There appeared to be quite an ancient looking farming system going on in this area with the earth showing signs of work from long ago. It was quite Wiltshire-esque.

Nice place to live.

Down the road another footpath took us across some fields and then we would be in Molland. Well that was the idea but someone had put some rather excitable horses in a field that the footpath goes through. I personally don’t mind horses but Chuck got kicked by a cow when he was a puppy and to him everything big with four legs is a dog. A big dog. So there was a bit of a standoff at the gate. The horses were happy to get their noses rubbed but Chuck was having none of it. He was barking, pulling on the lead and getting quite upset. So we backtracked across the field and got onto the road via a gate that was secured with a good old Devon latch. Some string in a bow.

Chuck in a rare moment of stasis.

Molland is a tiny little place. It’s a farmyard with a few houses and a church. I almost mistook the pub for one of these houses. It really doesn’t look very pub like from the outside, to the point where it looked like it may have closed a few years ago. I was quite disappointed until I saw the lights were on. Not only had it not closed down, it was open. Inside it looked a lot more like a pub. A very well stocked pub. It was possibly larger inside than the external dimensions really allowed. Spooky.

A memorial rock to rugby player Froude Hancock on West Anstey Common.

The landlady immediately fell head over heels in love with Chuck. She had her own German Shepherd and so began a long conversation stretching from dogs to gin. This was a good gin bar. I tried Wicked Wolf, an Exmoor gin I’d seen advertised recently. It was alright but it was a touch citrusy, like there was too much lemon squeezed in it. After a few drinks I realised we had spent far too long in the pub and really needed to start heading back to the car. Across a few field I found a nice place to stop for lunch, watching some lambs gambolling around. Chuck was fascinated. Then followed an hour of crossing the moor. Navigation was not really required as we could see for miles in every direction.

Chuck keeps watch of the sheep while I get my scran on.

Again the path back to Dulverton was blocked by more horses. This caused me to take a detour along a footpath which just crept off the bottom of the map. Of course the bit that was off the map was slightly more confusing than I expected. There were two footpaths in completely the wrong direction and a farmyard in the way of the right direction. With no sign of a path through the farmyard I decided to take the road, which I hoped would lead to Dulverton. Thankfully it did, although I still have no idea where the other footpath went.

So close to having a clean dog for the car.

I’d have loved to have stopped for one more in Dulverton, which has some great pubs but time was cracking on. We took a quick excursion to the top of the hill in Burridge Wood to see the hill fort. To be honest though, it’s not really worth the trip. Any remnants of the fort are long gone. There is a ditch which might possibly have been part of it but all in all I was fairly underwhelmed. This walk was an interesting exercise in orienteering from one point to another. It could possibly have ended in disaster but that’s half the fun.  Have you ever set off anywhere having no idea where you’re going? Let us know how it went. Until next time.

Planning Your First Walk

So now you’ve got the gist of what we do each week wouldn’t you like to have a go yourself? Thought so. Navigation is a subject matter that can be quite simple or can be horrendously complex. At its most basic it is the process of getting from A – B, or in our case from A – A via some nice scenery and a pub. Getting from A – A is in fact a great way to learn. If you start small enough you can navigate with A still in view. As your confidence grows you can get further away from your start location.

I'd say we're about here.

There are several considerations when choosing a route. The most important that will affect every other decision is; how long do you want to walk for? This is not the same as; how far do you want to walk? Five miles in the Lake District can take far longer than ten miles in Lincolnshire. I would suggest your first walk is about ninety minutes, that way if you underestimate your abilities you’ll still get a good hour and if you overestimate your abilities you won’t be back the next day some time. Naismith’s rule states that; you should cover 4km in every hour adding a minute for every contour line crossed. Great, but you’re not going to see much at that pace and what’s a contour line? And didn’t we defeat Napoleon so we didn't have to use a kilometre anyway? I would say allow for walking at around 2 miles an hour. Whilst this may sound slow, this is an average. Remember, you will stop to look at things, check your map, climb fences, and get lost etc.

Saying NO! to kilometres since 1815.

So with this in mind our first walk should be around three miles. After a few walks you’ll begin to get a good grasp of how quickly you cover certain types of ground. The easiest way to check distance is to use the edge of a piece paper to measure your route and then place it against the distance scale at the bottom of the map. Start with a corner of the paper at your starting point and place the edge along the route until it bends. Mark the paper here. Then move the paper round so it follows to the next bend and make another mark. Keep going all around the route until you get back to the beginning. Place the corner of the paper on the distance measure at the bottom of the map and hey presto, this is how far your route is. The video below explains it all. If this is too tedious just use Google Earth like I do. Eventually you’ll be able to do this by eye using the grid lines but that’s for another post.

So what are we looking for on our map? Depends on what map you’ve got. We’re quite lucky in the UK that we have Ordnance Survey. This means the whole country is covered by a standardised system of mapping. This is certainly not the case in many other countries. I tend to use 1:25000 scale maps. These are called the Explorer Map and come with an orange cover. The alternative is the Landranger Map. These are 1:50000 scale and have a pink cover. The Landranger has the advantage that it covers four times the area of the Explorer but this also means it’s four times less detailed. This is a great aid to getting lost. The Explorer shows individual fields which can be invaluable at times. The downside with the Explorer is that they come in many different shapes and sizes but all cost the same. The larger maps are also printed on both sides which is phenomenally annoying if your walk covers both sides. Try unfolding and refolding your map in a stiff breeze when it’s raining. I get all my maps from dash4it. Theirs are so much cheaper than everywhere else. I don’t know how they do it and don’t really care. Expect for an Explorer map to pay about £5 there and £8.99 everywhere else.

The Explorer Series 1:25000

Now we have our map we need to find a path. On the Explorer these are represented by green dashed lines. The smaller dashes are footpaths and the longer dashes denote a bridleway. Whilst both are perfectly permissive, a bridleway is primarily designed for horses and may feature some water features which are impassable to those on foot who don’t want waterlogged boots. But bridleways are generally more open and have better access to enable a horse to transit them. Some footpaths can be quite a fight to get through if the council hasn’t maintained them. So we are looking for somewhere on the map where the green dashed lines make a loop. Other routes we can transit are roads but you’ll need to be aware how each type of road is represented on the map. Check the key on the side of the map to see how each type of road is represented on the map. The smaller and quieter the road, the better.

The map, completely explained in one simple, easy to follow diagram.

Now we have our loop we need to check it is passable all the way around. The major showstopper here as already mentioned is water. This is represented as twisty blue lines on the map. I say twisty as they shouldn’t be confused with the grid lines which cover the whole map. Britain isn’t covered by one kilometre square islands. Again, I’ll cover these in another post. If there is water we need to check there is a crossing. This is either via footbridge or a ford. A ford for the uninitiated is a part of the waterway that’s shallow enough to walk through. Obviously this depends on what footwear you have on. If this is your first walk try and avoid water altogether or you may end up getting either frustrated or worse, wet and then you may not want to go walking again. You’re doing this to enjoy yourself, remember? The other big game changer on a walk is the contour of the land, how steep it is. A map is a flat representation of a three dimensional environment. Hills are represented by contour lines. These are very thin orange lines that cover the entire map (unless you live in Lincolnshire and then you’ll have no idea what a hill is). These lines are spaced at 10m intervals of elevation. This means the closer the lines, the steeper the hill. So for your first walk avoid close concentrations of these lines. This is something else that will be covered in more detail in future posts.

A possible walking route. Be aware of a short walk along a main road. Wear hi vis and a helmet. And tell someone where you're going. And wear knee pads too.

So now we have a route planned, we hope. We are going to walk about three miles in about ninety minutes without straying onto a dual carriageway, without getting wet and without climbing our local mountain by accident. So now you’re eager to get out there.  So next time I’ll cover what sort of kit and equipment you’ll need to take and then after that we’ll cover what to do out on the ground. By then you should well and truly have the explorer bug! Well anticipation is half the fun isn’t it? Until next time.

Napoleon picture from: http://a2.files.biography.com/image/upload/c_fit,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,h_1200,q_80,w_1200/MTIwNjA4NjMzMjIxNzExMzcy.jpg

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