Birthdays on Dartmoor

It's hardly the place to be seen. Unless you need to be seen, which is always a possibility. Alternatively, if you're out hunting or you're on the army range, you might wish not to be seen. Yesterday it was misty, so the ability to be seen was paramount, but unless someone was looking it was unlikely that you'd be seen in any case.

Dartmoor can be confusing. A bit like my writing.

The intention was to walk from Norsworthy Bridge to Cuckoo Rock climb up to Combshead Tor, skirt the ridge beyond towards Down Tor Stone Row, before returning back to Norsworthy on the sheltered side of Downs Tor. All of which would have been easily achieved if it weren't for the driving rain and the fact that my new all-weather jacket - The Andy Pandy Jacket - didn't quite match up to its description. The all-weather part of the description.

But it kept me warm, which was one thing at least..

Keeping me company on my Birthday were Clover and Jack, both without Mums, one of which was working at home and the other who was back at work after an enforced lay-off. Neither dog was particularly put off by the conditions and there were no complaints about their coats.

Apart from walking on Dartmoor, the purpose was to root around Down Tor Stone Row in preparation for an article. I'll save any snippets for that of course and besides, we never got to the stone row; the weather and the lack of proper water-proofing leading to a decision at Cuckoo Rock to head straight for the sheltered side of Downs Tor.

As often happens in these situations, it's only on the return journey that the wind and rain start to make their presence really felt. The sheltered side of Downs Tor wasn't all that sheltered and every so often we were hit by a vicious side wind that drove the rain exactly where, if you'd believe the hype, the Andy Pandy Jacket shouldn't have let it.

The worst spot was the valley between Combshead Tor and Downs Tor, the topography acting as a funnel. Added to that, the mist had closed in enough to blank out any view of the surrounding hills. It's at this point when a good sense of direction and, perhaps more importantly, an awareness of the gradients are required. Fortunate then that Clover and Jack were around!

Coming down from Combshead Tor ...

You need to know that a Tor is, technically, the outcrop that crowns a hill. It does not denote the hill itself. Some hills on Dartmoor have their own names but are crowned by Tors of a different name. Combshead Tor is not one of those.

The descent - more of a slanting walk from Cuckoo Rock, bypassing the Tor itself - led to an inverted S-shaped route part way along the valley between the Tors, a short climb over a shoulder of Down Tor and then what a climber might call a traverse, but what your everyday walker would call a path across a slope.

Fortunately, the only noteworthy instance was Clover's discovery of what were more than likely the bones of a cow. That's a guess of course, on the basis that there are no elephants, bison, wildebeest or elk living on the moor. But then it could have been a horse or more likely a pony - a Dartmoor Pony, to capitalise the possibility.

They certainly weren't sheep bones, for which reason Clover thought them quite exciting. Jack wasn't that impressed but by then his mullet was in a state of disrepair.

From there it was but a short ten minute stretch back to Norsworthy.

Down Tor Stone Row won't be going anywhere soon and with everyone else working or absent from the country, character introductions will have to wait a while longer.