Our First Day on the Moors

Last night I thought I would get lots of sleep since we were so tired and haven't slept much in over 50 hours but it didn't happen. Don't know what it was that kept me from just crashing but I was awake from 1:30am to 3:00am. So this morning I was groggy and not in the best mood. We had to be up around 7:00am so that we could get dressed, have breakfast, make our lunch for the day and be ready to leave at 9:00am. For breakfast I had yogurt, toast, scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon - and plenty of coffee. After eating Thomas and I made our way to the area where things were set out to make our lunches. We got our sandwich made, picked some chips and cookies and fruit and got them all in a bag and now we were ready to go.

Another thing that happened was that I found out we weren't going to go to Cranmere Pool. This was one of the main reasons why I wanted to come on this trip. I guess since you can no longer use the military road it is just too long of a hike and Mark P. felt that most of the group couldn't make the trip. This news didn't set well with me and put a damper on things. Anyway time to head out. Once we were all in the vans we headed out. A couple from Bristol are here with us for the weekend to take us out letterboxing and show us around - Andy and Jane Wilkes (Andy is the letterboxer and Jane just tags along sometimes - Andy's trail name is The Happy Wanderer.) The original plan for today was to go on a coastal walk with the owner of Blackadon (his name is Mark also - that makes three Marks at the cottages and it is very confusing) but he had something come up and couldn't make it today so the plans changed and Andy was taking us out. We didn't end up leaving until 10:00am and we first headed to Sharpitor to do a little scavenging. We didn't find any letterboxes although I found a geocache - I was really disappointed that my first find was a geocache, I really dislike these. So we left the area and headed to Princetown. Here we visited the Dartmoor National Park Visitor Center. I got a pin and some postcards and we were able to get some stamps. In Dartmoor lots of businesses and places have stamps you can get just by asking. So we found a few here and stamped in beginning our list of finds in Dartmoor. We then walked around the town and got stamps at Prince of Wales Pub, Lord's Café and Gift Shop, Fox Tor Café, Old Police Station Café, and the Princetown Post Office and Store. After about an hour and a half we were back in the vans and headed out. Most of us ate our lunches in the van on the way to our next stop. We got to a car park so that could make a walk out to Duck's Pool to get that letterbox. This letterbox is the second box placed on Dartmoor and is one of only two that have a permanent structure to house it - the other being Cranmere Pool. Nineteen of us started the walk but not far in two people decided they didn't want to do it so they headed back to the vans while the rest of continued on. We made our way to Nun's Cross Farm and saw the farm and Nun's Cross (also known as Siward's Cross). Andy led us on our search for the letterbox by using a compass and a map since there are no actual trails on the moor. The walk was not easy as you are going through natural landscape - tall grasses, clumps of grasses and lots of wet, boggy areas. There were time where you would step and thought you were on solid ground but your foot would end up being swallowed by a hole. It was almost like a vacuum where your foot would be sucked down and it felt like you would lost your shoe. Since we were a large group and we are all of various levels of fitness the walk took some time. When we got in the near vicinity of the box we all started looking for a large rock with a plaque on it. After trudging through the marshy landscape and going up and down some small hills we finally found the spot (actually Bell Motel found it after wading through ankle deep water). The box is hidden under a small rock where it is housed behind a door in a steel box. Behind that is a large rock with a plaque for William Crossing. So we all sat around and stamped in - it was a great feeling. Now it was time to head back to the vans. We took a slightly different route that wasn't quite as wet and eventually made it back. All in all it took us around three and a half hours to make the trip and at the end we were all exhausted.

The drive back to Blackadon was a quiet one since we were all spent. We arrived at the cottages between 7:30pm and 8:00pm and dinner was suppose to be at 7:00pm. So we just put our things in our rooms and got our wet shoes and socks off and then sat down to eat. Tonight we had fish (seafood) pie, cauliflower, carrots & green beans. Also a vegetable soup with a bacon flavored stock and for dessert a chocolate and rum ganache. Afterwards we did some exchanging and stamping before finally calling it a night around 10:30am. I am now showered and trying to get some blogging done but am very tired. So if this doesn't quite make sense that is why. Time for bed now so that we can be rested for whatever tomorrow brings.