Exmoor ramblings… and Dartmoor deliveries

I seem to have been all over the place this week. On Monday I drove 170 miles in all: starting with Horner Wood on Exmoor where I had to work out a walk for next summer’s issue of Exmoor: the country magazine. A good route but muggy, damp and sticky… the sun wasn’t out for long and I got very wet under dripping trees in the valley of the Horner Water. Still, a lovely day out in all, followed by a drive along the beautiful coast road west to Lynmouth before dropping down to Barnstaple for an interview on ‘The Voice’, North Devon’s local radio station, about my new Two Moors Way/Devon Coast to Coast book.

Lane below Stoke Pero church

Porlock Vale from Cloutsham

Much of the week has been taken up with editing features for the autumn issue, and on Wednesday I loaded about 4o pages’ worth of words and images into Dropbox for Emily to start the layout. A great relief, but I still have about the same amount to sort out!

Yesterday saw me on the road again. First to Manaton to pick up some printed DM indexes from Darren at Moor Print: quick, efficient and friendly service just a few miles from the DM office. Bit of a grey morning, but cottages on the Green, and the church, looking as lovely as ever.

Manaton’s church was much restored after storm damage in 1779.

Cottages on the Green at Manaton

Then it was off the the Highwayman Inn at Sourton (photo needed for an ad in the upcoming issue: the pub is also covered in Robert Hesketh’s next feature on Dartmoor’s inn signs and names), and top-ups of stock of the summer issue at Lydford Farm Shop and Mary Tavy PO, two of our much-appreciated 60+ sales outlets in the area.

Next port of call was the Royal Standard at Mary Tavy, base for the autumn Walk & Eat feature (see photo below); then I called in to see Lisa Jenkins, owner of Dartmoor Accommodation. My day ended with a wonderful drive back home across the moor (was supposed to picking up the books that John Earle near Widecombe has reviewed for the autumn issue, but ran out of time!). Today I’ve been keeping out of the rain, hard at it editing features and news items.

And so ends another busy week in the DM office…

View east towards the moor from Gibbet Hill: on the ‘Walk & Eat’ route in the upcoming autumn issue of DM