I left about 5:15 Saturday morning and breezed over to Devon. Best time yet at just over 3 hrs. I guess no one was on the roads yet. Wonderful time to be driving - early morning - especially after the clock change as it was so light out by 6am. My favorite part of the drive is going by Stonehenge. You go by about 500yds from it. Amazing view. Although I HATE driving by here at night. It is DARK. I mean not a house light or street light anywhere - other than the cars, complete utter darkness. Anyway, I had my plan of attack to do a charity walk when I got there, which would take the rest of the day and then head over to the hotel after, so the early start was required.
Let me stop here to go over how I went about determining where to go. . .
First time I went to Dartmoor, I was lost. I didn't have good bearings on where I was, how to read the OS map, how to read my compass properly, etc. When I drove out there this past September, I did a lot better. It really helped with my bearings as I studied my map, and driving around let me see various tors and their relation to various towns. Very helpful. So, what I decided to do this time was to find a good hotel with a good location and get on an organized walk. I tried scavenging first time I was there, and I came to the conclusion that it works best for locals. If I lived close by and walked there all the time, I would probably enjoy just scavenging around. However, when you're just visiting and don't have a day to waste just wandering around, boxes with known locations is the way to go. I sent my money in for one of the walks last Monday and got it back the Friday before I left (nothing like waiting until the last second!) A long walk but 21 boxes. Yippee! What really sold me on the boxes was the fact that they had 10 digit grid references. Perfect. So, I quickly spend some time on Friday night inputting all the box grid references into my gps.
I mapped out my route so that I would go to the correct tor for the walk, and then continue down the road to my hotel afterwards. Great.
Weather was nice on the drive over - until I got to Exeter. Suddenly it was cloudy and dark. Oh no, I thought, not rain. Yep. A light rain started and from that east side of Dartmoor. When I got to the car park, it was still raining but only very lightly. I hopped out and got outfitted - rain pants, boots, fleece, raincoat, hat, gloves, backpack, everything in backpack in baggies, backpack rain cover, food, drinks, and walking stick. (Actually I forgot the walking stick and had to walk back about 1/4 mile to retrieve it. I only remembered when I passed an ewe with her lamb and I released that if she ran me, I had no protection!) I felt like I was going into the mountains in the middle of winter with all these clothes and gear. It was about 45F outside which isn't too bad - not until you're wet.
And wet I got. I'm pretty sure I haven't been this miserable outside ever. It all started out okay. Hardly anyone around - just me and the sheep and an odd person or two off in the distance. The hard rain started about the time of the 2nd or 3rd box. My logbook was getting wet so I pulled out a little umbrella I carry to try to keep the rain off as I stamped and it got nearly torn away. Did I mention the wind? Not just a breeze - GUSTS. Big serious wind gusts. Blow you over if you're feet aren't firmly planted wind. So, see what I mean about a miserable day - 45F, raining, continual heavy wind which turned the rain into ice pellets smacking me in the face, every rock wet with easy to slip on mossy surfaces, and slowly getting soaked through all clothing.
I got to about the 8th box which was on the back side of the tor and in the middle of a firing range when I called it quits. My feet weren't cold, but I could feel the water sloshing around in my boots. My hands and face were freezing. My gloves - not waterproof - had to be wrung out every 10 mins or so. I hadn't seen a soul in the last hour and was feeling a bit uncomfortable with being on my own. I headed in. As soon as I got to the front of the tor, I came across a couple out letterboxing. Relief. The rain was letting up slightly, but I was so soaked (and my backpack was soaked even with a rain cover) and my electronic goodies like camera and phone were wet, not soaked, but wet. Not good. I continued to the car. (Okay, I just happened to be passing by where a geocache was located so I had to stop and look. No luck. Boo.) I felt like a drowned rat as I walked down the path to where the car park was located. Then I heard a noise behind me. A guy on a horse. Brother, I thought. Poor horse out in this mess. He went by. Then I heard another noise. I turned around to see the riders and hounds. It was a hunt group coming in. Here they all came soaking wet trotting by me in their nice red jackets and gear. At least I wasn't the only insane one.
I checked into the hotel in my wet clothes and wet hair looking like some mad wanderer. Dry at last! Ah. Later when I talked to Mr. TeamKing, he said he heard where they had to rescue someone at Dartmoor out in the nasty weather. Oh my. Well, I could only hope Sunday was better. . .
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