A nice day walk on Dartmoor they said. It'll be fun they said.
Well it was certainly interesting, as Dartmoor does as Dartmoor does and throws all weathers at us.
It'd been a while since being on Dartmoor and neither of us were feeling too fit so kept it to a well known area where navigation wouldn't be a problem.
We left Pork Hill car park mid morning to head up Cox Tor in the sunshine and a stiff breeze. It was looking like a pleasant day of walking. At the top of Cox Tor there were a group of folk flying their radio control gliders, they had flags laid out which appeared to mark out a target flying route.
As we headed over towards Roos Tor the rain arrived, with a mix of hail for good measure so the Rab Myriad got a good test. It held up well to the wet, but the velcro fastener on the sleeve end snapped of as I adjusted the fit. That's annoying and I doubt I have a receipt to try and get it swapped. It had only been out for a couple of trips at this point.
We sheltered for 10 behind the rocks of Roos Tor hoping the rainstorm would pass quickly, once it softened slightly we continued on our way across rough ground towards White Tor.
This area is covered in the rough grassiness that is synonymous with the northern end of Dartmoor. I didn't expect it so much here, never mind it keeps things interesting.
We bumped in this little guy around here too:
Shortly after a bit of thunder we were back in bright and hot sunshine, so a pause to lose the waterproofs again and on to White Tor and then towards Cock Hill.
Cocks Hill wasn't so much a target but a navigation point to use to skirt round the base of Great Mis Tor in order to avoid the biggest climb of what is without doubt an imposing lump of granite.
We drop down off the path to the valley below Great Mis Tor, with the exception of the people on top of Cox Tor (there are ALWAYS people there) these 2 were the only people we saw out on the moors away from the road so that was a good result. One of the reasons I enjoy the moors is to get away from everyone!
Crossing the river wasn't too problematic, now it's time to break out the poles to attack the flank of Great Mis Tor. As much as these climbs can feel like an effort, it's always worth it for the view once at the top.
We descended off the west side with the intention of heading over to Staple Tor. An easier route would have been to Little Mis Tor and onto the road, but where's the fun in that?! A fair bit of scrambling over granite and we get across to the lower reaches of Roos Tor/Staple Tor. This is when the rain started again - and didn't it just! The rain would stay with us most of the way back to Pork Hill car park from here.
The plan was to climb Staple Tor and head back to Pork Hill via Great, Middle and Lessor staple Tor. However as we approached the thunder kicked off again so we decided climbing one of the higher points in the area was probably a bad idea! We skirted around the Staple Tors, by which time the thunder seemed to have passed so we could happily finish out walk directly to the car park and home for warm drink!