Saturday 12 May 2012

Stone in Focus



Having a few hours spare while waiting for my son to finish with his helping out with the Jubilee Challenge I thought I'd go for a long-ish one and soak up a bit of the Ten Tors atmosphere. Starting at High Down it wasn't long before the first arctic-camo Sea King chopped overhead with the odd Gazelle taking top brass for a jolly. Heading for Kitty Tor more and more teams became visible, traversing the moor from their bomb-burst start at Okehampton Camp.

I had a brief chat with a couple of blokes in a landy from Devon and Cornwall 4x4 Response at Rattlebrook Peat Works to see if it was one of them who got themselves stuck last year. No sense of humour these 4x4 types........but the lads from Tavistock DSRT who were camped nearby still laugh about it.

On up to Kitty Tor where Spook made friends with a couple of squaddies and checked their tent for sarnies.

We headed down to Sandy Ford with words of encouragement for teams who were struggling up the slope, splashed through the West Okement and started the climb up to Fordsland's Ledge and High Willhays. On the way to Dinger Tor I bumped into teachers and students from a school I'm working at and took a shot on my way down towards Lints Tor. All in good spirits despite a 4:30 wake-up call.




We plodged through Amicombe Hole, crossed the Black Ridge Brook and headed up to Fur Tor.



We plodged down to Sandy Ford (not the same one as before) and followed the Tavy to Rattlebrook Foot, chatting to some DSRT Tavistock folk and bumping into some Hasty chums (the  running section of Dartmoor Rescue)

From here it was the slog up to Chat Tor (more sarnie seeking from Spook, who never gets fed) before a brief visit to Brat Tor down to the Lyd and back to the car. As luck would have it, my lad was about ready to be picked up, so after a drive round to Okehampton Camp it was back in time for tea and cake. Huzzah!

3 comments:

  1. kitty tor and spook in the same sentance gets the cream for me..or am mixing too many metaphors?

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  2. He'll think there's squaddies with sarnies every time we go up there now.

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