My walking year continued… June to September 2016

I’ve been stuck inside most of the time recently working on the spring issue of Dartmoor Magazine, so it’s a welcome relief to get back to looking at some of last year’s walk photos. Picking up where I left off at the end of the last blog post: this is Watern Tor on the north moor, looking north towards Cawsand, and visited on our Dartmoor Perambulation with Spirit of Adventure in June. It has to be one of the most photogenic tors on the whole moor! I love it.

In late June/July I had some more revision work for Crimson, publishers of the Pathfinder guides. A lovely bit of rewalking routes on the moor north of Ivybridge and here, around Burrator – photo taken from the slopes of Sheepstor, overlooking Burrator, with Leather Tor and Sharpitor beyond in the distance.

This was one of those ‘magic moments’: coming off Sheepstor en route to the lane that leads to Sheepstor village. Just beautiful (we’ve had some Dartmoor Magazine notelets made, using eight different photos – this is one of them).

July: I’m a member of the Dartmoor Access Forum, and we have an annual day out looking at various access issues and proposals around the moor. Last year we were based at Postbridge, looking into plans for a range of walking and multi-access routes under the ‘Moor than meets the eye’ landscape partnership scheme. I should have taken this from a different angle to ‘separate’ the bridges!

July: two or three walking commissions in North Devon were a good excuse for a weekend away, staying at Countisbury, high above Lynmouth. The Valley of Rocks came into a route I did for Exmoor Magazine back in January last year (for their winter 2016 issue), but which I had to go and do again because I didn’t understand my own notes!

July: Morte Point, seen from Mortehoe on the north Devon coast. Working out a walk for the summer 2017 issue of Exmoor Magazine (as you will have realised that magazine has a pretty broad geographical remit).

During July and August I did a lot of walking in the Chagford area, working on a walks leaflet for the Three Crowns Hotel. I found new footpaths and rights of way, and linked up lots of places I already knew with new (to me) routes. A really enjoyable commission (and some wonderful weather too).

August: and the rowans already laden with berries. This was taken on a lovely circular walk from South Brent, which I will write up for the summer 2017 Walk & Eat feature in Dartmoor Magazine. View from Brent Fore Hill towards Brent Hill.

In September I decided I should walk the Two Moors Way/Devon’s Coast to Coast again, but this time from north to south (for my Cicerone Press book I walked it south to north). So far I’ve got as far as Widecombe, so not much further to go – but this photo was taken on our first day, when we walked for 18 miles from Lynmouth to Withypool. This is the beautiful Barle valley south of Simonsbath, one of the loveliest places on the whole route.

And here’s the Barle valley again, looking downstream towards Birchcleave Wood and Simonsbath. This was the day the route was officially relaunched to National Park officials, press and guests with a presentation and cream tea at Simonsbath House Hotel, then a walk along the route to Wheal Eliza. If you want to know more about the route take a look at www.twomoorsway.org

And just to prove that I do other things too – this was taken on an evening visit to RHS Rosemoor at Torrington in September, for a private view. I love these colours!

So an update on progress: the spring issue of the magazine is nearly all at page proof stage, and I have today sent all the News items over to Emily to layout. The Diary is also ready to go. So now it’s proofreading, then Emily and I will spend two days making corrections and changes before we go to print in mid February. I also need to firm up what’s going to go in the summer issue, and start the flat plans for 2018’s magazines too. So that’s why I am having to trawl through ‘old’ photos for the occasional blog post – no time to get out and do much else at the moment!