Short take: a gorgeous day, a gorgeous walk.
Dinner last night in the Rugglestone Inn was a disappointment. Not because the food was bad (it was actually quite good), but rather because I just wasn't hungry enough. 3.5 hours of hiking after a full English breakfast is not enough to work up an appetite for dinner, even if one eats next to nothing during the day. Of course, the deep fried Brie I had as an appetizer before the Beef and Stilton pie may have had something to do with my being unable to finish the latter or even contemplate dessert. Who was it who said that his only regret was that he had but one stomach to sacrifice for his dinner?
At breakfast this morning Russell announced that due to an overly long catalogue of aches and pains, he would be taking today off, so we were five who set out at around 9:30 (after a full English breakfast :-).
We hiked up out of Widecombe onto the open moor, rapidly climbing to over 520m, which is high for the moors. The weather was cool with a little wind and quite a few clouds at first, but soon the wind died down, the clouds thinned out, the air warmed up, and the hike turned into an unalloyed pleasure.
We walked for a while along a ridge, passing ancient barrows and tors, then descended to a neolithic village (I think), whose large ruined ring of cyclopaean walls bore testament to a powerful tribe. Then we climbed up what seemed to be contemporary stairs made of massive pieces of granite to a nearby tor... probably a religious site, we thought... from which there were superb views in all directions.
From there more moor walking until we came down and out into the lovely valley of the RIver Teign. Devon farmland walking at its best, from the low end (a farmyard through which we walked that looked as if it was an advertisement for poor husbandry, in which two quintessentially porcine individuals were lazing... which perhaps shouldn't be too surprising as they were pigs), to the high rent district of grand houses and estates as we descended towards the evidently affluent village of Chagford.
And lastly, around 3:30, after a gentle walk through fields and woodland along the Teign, we arrived at our spa-quality accommodation for the night, where we found a rather satisfied looking Russell. All pretty idyllic, really.
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