A sunny slightly windy day in July and yours truly, having found and photo'd lovely Southern Damselflies [at a site classified on account of how endangered they are] relocated to a favourite and, more importantly, easy to get at tor.
This one;
Sourton Tor
If you take the scenic route up, you can pass some [not very old] archaeology;
Hmm, now what is this?
Answers on a comment. One of a series of ~10mx3m rectangular features, cut into the slope. Gap in the centre of downhill side.
Carrying on..
Once you get up to the top, you see the point.
Up on top
A fair decent view
Now, where's that stork...??
No storks, of course. 9+ soaring Buzzards and 2 Ravens.
Closer to..
Wheatear!
Ickle baby Wheatear.....
After more than an hour sat on my behind, watching the world go by, I decided I ought to stretch my legs. Said legs felt ok, so I followed a well-used way south along a handy track, thinking I'd just go for a bit until I felt it, then angle back up the hill to the Loaf. Which is actually what happened, but with a lot more distance than I'd expected..
So, an amble in pictures;
Great Links and Arms Tors
Nice lump of grannit
Great Links, closer to
Legs still fine, so I kept going. Lovely day and all. Rather than cut down and up the short but steep way, I went 'round the back to the Dunna Goats and approached Great Links from the East.
On Higher Dunna Goat
[yes, really]
Lots of tors off in the distance, including Fur, Great Mis, Cox and White.
Spot the path to Great Links
Looks simple, yes? But that's peat bog, rather cut in the past... [Note the horizontal lines, which are old cutting faces]. Still, onwards!
Looking back from Gt. Links
towards Sourton
You can see the sea three ways from Great Links, but the view doesn't photo that well, and I've put plenty of landscapes up already. Let's look closer-to;
English Stonecrop
Right, not going back the way I came, so 'go East, young[ish] man!'. Over the Rattlebrook is,
Bleak House
[no idea why it's called that.. Lovely spot! ]
Spear Thistle
and bumblebee sp.
Wheatear!
Dunna Goats and Great Links
from Green Tor
[Bleak House down in the dip]
Time for some bog-hopping, though the top of the fearsome Amicombe Hill is quite grassy [if you can get to it...].
Kitty Tor
Right on top of Amicombe Hill. Often seen, rarely visited.
View from the flagpole
Yes Tor and the Wilhay - which for once looks higher - and Exmoor waaay off thattaway.
Now, I perhaps ought to show you which path you take from Kitty Tor to get to Branscombe's Loaf [as opposed to several wildly different locations...] but that would take away all the fun of trying to follow my footsteps, now wouldn't it? :)
So,
Cairn on Amicombe Hill
A low mound covered in Bilberries, easy to miss.
Common Frog!
Another one!
Branscombe's Loaf
Yes Tor and Wilhays in the background.
I've told you the Branscombe's Loaf story before, so let us move on a touch to a nearby spot with a view.
Enjoying the view
Feet much happier once stopped, this time! Note Meldon Reservoir [a bit low] on right of picture.
Then it was just down down down, but we need something purdy to end with, so here's
Creeping Forget-me-not
I certainly went the long way around, but it was a good walk [one minor detour aside] and great conditions for it; dry enough to cross bogs fairly easily, but damp enough to keep some give in the ground.
Be Seeing You...
No comments:
Post a Comment