A Sunny Stroll

After all the fun in zumerzet, yesterday I did another thing I've not done for a while - had a day out on't Moor with the Folks [and of course Tilly the Wonder Dog*]. Weather, work, and a Patch Yearlist have been getting in the way, but as it was sunny [[and there was no way I'd be up early enough to bash the Nose before the hordes descended {as they surely would}]] I thought 'Yes, let's go!'

[[*As in, 'It is a wonder how she can go so bonkers so often without losing her not-so-little voice...']]

We parked at Belstone and went south along the ridge in blasting sunshine and a brisk wind. Once upon a time, not so many years ago, when we did the same thing on a similar day at a similar time of year, 2 Red Kites flew over us. Not this time, alas. Indeed the only birds of note we saw all day were Wheatears and a few passing passerines [nothing spectacular, though I've not seen Greenfinches on {Ok, flying over} the High Moor before]. Red Admirals were passing southwest in a similar number to the day before [and indeed could have been some of the same individuals, I suppose!]. Mipits and Skylarks were plentiful, though whether there was any passage going on or not I couldn't tell.

Belstone is a lovely village, a proper village, not just a collection of houses along a road or by a bridge. Its eclectic, with stone homes of all shapes and sizes, seemingly put down at random, with the roads filling in the gaps between them [its fun to drive through]. So many styles of building, and none of the horrific estates of little boxes you see all over the place. If not for the weather in the winter and the grockles in the summer it'd be a wonderful place to live.

The Belstone ridge runs between the valleys of the Taw and East Okement, its very much an anti-valley, weaving sinuously along its course, studded with tors as a moorland river is with rapids and falls. Its northern end, containing Belstone Tor itself, is a wild and rocky place, one long outcrop after another rise from steep slopes full of clitter. There are tracks at those slopes' feet, but only one path along the top, a small tricky thing that weaves around the rocks and through the clitter, delighting in sprouting dead ends. The southern part, though, is grassier and friendlier place, with muddy bits the chief hazard [though Oke Tor has a clitter slope, too].

After lunch at Oke Tor, we took the way down into Steeperton Gorge [which is well-named] crossing the ford and carrying on towards Hangingstone Hill, though not with the intent of climbing it, but instead paying a visit to Ted Hughes' Memorial. The grass has really grown up this year, and the old path is mostly hidden, so getting to Ted's stone was a little more interesting than we expected, as we had to wade through waist high tussocks. Looping back, we took the East Okement valley track rather than the ridgetop path and met a Common Hawker patrolling the sheltered runnels. Eventually some high cloud took the edge off the sunshine [only the wind had made walking practical, it was much more like August than October] but all in all it had been a glorious day.