After a good breakfast, we walked from the pub up to Haytor.
It had just stopped raining and the air was damp and still, and the peaty ground wet underfoot. Glassy pools of water reflected shapes of the granite outcrops. We passed the old mine workings on the way up to the tor, and followed parts of the old granite tramway, built in 1820 to carry mined stone to the coast.
From the top of the tor we could see as far as Teignmouth, where there was a bright strip of sky between the dark ground and the clouds overhead. A distant tanker in the channel seemed to float on a sea of light.
We carried on past the tor and dropped into a valley, then climbed up past Greator to Hound Tor, passing the relics of a medieval settlement on the way.
In the valleys the trees were covered in emerald moss and draped with lichen hanging like old mens’ beards. Many of the footpaths were flooded after the recent rain and we were walking through running streams.
We had lunch and a pint and a half of Dartmoor brewery Legend (R) in the Kestor Inn near Manaton, and then followed the river Bovey, in full spate, down the valley through Houndtor wood. One glimpse of a dipper.
Took a short cut from the valley, which proved to be a very steep ascent followed by a slippery scramble through thick gorse until we emerged onto the moor.
Then we walked back, past Dartmoor ponies and the edge of Yarner wood.
Saw greater-spotted and green woodpeckers, but no lesser-spotted.
A very fine walk, about 12.5 miles, followed by another good meal.
