Dartmoor
 Accommodation

Walking up to Rippon Tor from Hemsworthy Gate near to Widecombe in Devon.
Jill Pendleton's notes of a sunny walk taken on Sunday 9th January 2011.

 

We woke to glorious sunshine. Yippee! As we had had hard frost overnight we decided to set out late morning to tackle Rippon Tor, thinking that the roads would be clear of ice by after 11. John Hayward lists this walk in his "An hour's
stroll on Dartmoor" an excellent book that gives map references and what to look out for en-route.

Lanes around the Hound Tor area seemed ok until we reached a dip in the road with sheet ice still in place.
Ahead of us an unfortunate chap had skidded off the road and met with a chunk of non yielding granite.

Fortunately for him, a National Park Ranger, Simon Lee was on hand to pull him out of the gulley and he was soon on his way. I took some photos for the driver's insurance claim. What you can see on the first shot looks like a wet road, but in truth it was extremely slippery, Rob had trouble just standing upright. We took a route via Bovey on the way home.

And yes the grid reference in the book is correct SX 742 761. We parked the car at the small car park here.

And started off walking towards Ashburton for the first half mile, passing this pretty puddle. The one thing that you cannot see in the photos is the howling wind. We stopped almost at once for me to tuck my clothing in more securely.

The easiest walk to the top is via this southern approach over Halshanger Common. It was slow going in the cold wind.

Close by the granite wall this little flower caught my eye, looking for all the world like little blobs of sealing wax.
I took a look on the web when I got home and it might be lichen called British soldiers ...... If you know better
then please let me know. As we climbed the clouds came over, but then joy of joys, as we approached
the summit, which I must tell you does not look very impressive from below, the sun burst forth as if to order.

Following us up the last part of the footpath was this young couple from East Ogwell and their sheepdog.
Topsy and their dog made friends instantly, and I asked the couple to pose for me to add scale to the shot.

The view from the summit is one of the best and well worth the climb.

A 360° opportunity with this fine view as far afield as the estuary of the River Teign at Teignmouth and Shaldon.
From up here, at 1,560 feet above sea level Haytor and Saddle Tor appear to be much smaller than they actually are.

The wind was fierce and freezing at the top, as you can see by Rob's hunched wave.

At the summit is a triangulation pillar, or as Rob and others call it, a trig point, where we are shortly joined by this chap, the first of a friendly group of walkers approaching from the northwest. Climbing up the rocky path to a square chunk of rock that looks for all the world like a giant's granite sandwich. I asked if I could take a photo of them at the summit for my website and they all played along splendidly. Thank you guys. Do e-mail me if you would like me to send you the pics.

 

The next couple approached from the Bovey Tracey direction and the girl stooped down to take pictures of the rocks.

Rob went over to chat with them and the chaps were soon into a discussion about cutting the rocks.
The girl told me that that she was on a mission to photo rocks and tors all over Britian. We could have chatted on but they had miles to cover and Rob and I were now keen to have our picnic lunch and a warming flask of tea.

A big thanks go to the young woman who kindly took our photo. You did well despite the wind buffeting you.

Yummy sandwiches, locally made crisps and 2 special pickled onions from the Christmas batch I made with sherry and demerara sugar added. These sunny photos look like a very warm day, but as you see everyone was well wrapped up.
These two women wouldn't look out of place at the Everest base camp would they ?

We came down in a direct line back to Hemsworthy Gate, giving ourselves the benefit of a round tour. The roads were busy but this didn't stop the wild ponies from strolling around the roads licking the leftover salt from the recent gritting lorries. As we passed Haytor rocks we looked up to see lots of walkers on the top, and the visitor car parks were full to overflowing. Following the poor weather after Christmas folks were making the most of the glorious sunshine.

Believe it or not there was an ice cream van at the Haytor Visitor Centre car park.
But as my toes were just beginning to thaw out by then on the way home, we decided to leave it until warmer days.