15th February
From a poor start, today finished on a much better note! We’d dropped off the car at the garage this morning for repair and, matching my mood, the skies were heavy and rather bad tempered. It was a delight to learn the problem has been solved, at least for the time-being, by a new set of spark plugs. With half the day gone we chose a local walk and parked up by the ford just outside Meavy.
The steep climb up onto Ringmoor Down leaves us our of breath. We don’t have the lanes to ourselves, they’re surprisingly busy. Lots of people are out for a half-term drive over the Moors, taking advantage of the fact the skies have cleared and the sun is now shining. Once up on the Downs the walking is easy and the views beautiful. We walk as far as Gutter Tor, passing Ringmoor Cottage and Nattor, before heading out across the moors towards Ditsworthy Warren House. Hidden away in the middle of the moor, according to Wikipedia it was used as a location for the film version of War Horse. The clouds and light make for an evocative scene.
Walking back, we follow the path beside the River Plym until the going gets just too boggy and we decide to cross the river. Hindsight is always 20-20 and, on reflection, we should have stayed on that bank but we seize the opportunity to re-enact some Bear Grylls and totter across the stepping stones with the aid of a locally sourced fence post. Once on the other side I discover our mistake has added a further 2 miles to our walk. I try to hide the bad news from Sue for a while and instead extol the benefit of our Garmin GPS for getting us out of our self-inflicted sticky situation.
We return to the car by way of the lanes. An 8 mile walk and the weather made this all the more enjoyable.
Ringmoor Down picture gallery (more pictures on Flickr):
Distance: 8 miles ; Difficulty: Strenuous
Coordinates for Satnav: N50° 28.908′ W4° 02.018′
Where Angells Tread! 
Love the photo of Legistor Warren. This is one of my favourite kinds of light – with a broody grey clouds in the background and honey-gold light in the foreground!
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Thank you. We got lucky with the weather and the light…in spite of getting a bit lost 🙂
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Great photos, looks like a lovely walk, despite your detour! It’s not an area I know well so looking forward tom reading more of your walks for some inspiration.
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Thank you. It was a half term holiday trip. I think we’ll be back. I’m sure the weather helps but it was a lot of fun. We’re back walking the Chilterns for the time being. Love your website. You have a lot of variety and it’s very professional. Well done!
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