Three Days in South Dartmoor

After many delays over the summer, we finally managed to get away at a short notice to Dartmoor. The weather forecast looked promising so I booked a first night stay at Brimpts Farm camping site. Brimpts is a small farm with shared barn bunk beds, barrel huts and tent camping. The owner couple was very friendly and let us leave the car there for the 2 nights we'd be wild camping.

We headed out passing Hexworthy.

Climbed up to Combstone Tor which had a few people around as it's right next to a road with parking.

We took a turn and headed towards Ryders Hill which was pretty exposed, so had a break laying low. From there we 'summited' Snowdon and Puper's Hill.

It has been mostly sunny day and temperatures well over +20 despite pretty constant winds. We headed down towards River Avon thinking about finding a place to camp for the night.

We reached Two Moors Way which would be start for the day 2 and camped by the river. This seemed to be a popular place, as there were tents along the river to either direction of our site and couple of mountain bikers went by and a lone hiker.

Despite hot day the day before and ground being very dry, the night brought heavy condensation due being close to river over night. Tent was pitched high and vents open, but inside of the fly got pretty wet. The solid inner kept us dry though. It was a gloomy morning, so I packed the wet tent in its stuff sack. While we were breaking the camp, couple of bike packers went past. We started on the Two Moors Way. We almost caught them later on, as it wasn't great biking terrain. It was bumpy enough to walk, let alone bike. I was happy I didn't have to haul a bike with me.

Camp site behind below and the opposite hill there are two settlements in shape of rings.

Passed a ‘bothy’ (an old industrial ruin related to the china clayworks) on the Two Moors Way.

Two Moors Way gradually improved.

Off the Two Moor Way we took a path to Abbots Way and walked through Erme Pits' unusual geography.

We were desperately trying follow Abbots way, but despite being right on top of it on many occasions on the OS Maps app, there was not trail to be seen. We ended up walking in (luckily) dry bog and abandon the attempts to follow it and started heading directly Higher Hartor Tor. After Evil Combe, below the Lower Hartor Tor was a nice flat spot and sun came out briefly, so we dried up the tent by a stream.

We walked up both of the tors and headed towards Drizzle Combe where were all sorts of ruins in a one long row.

Looking down to Drizzle Combe.

Moss Man of Drizzle Combe?

Headed up another hill past Whittenknowles Rocks and ended up in another dry, but boggy route. Tried to reach a nearby tor, but with the lack of visible paths in the maps, we followed the paths on the ground and set up camp on a narrow spot in the midst of bracken. Stream a 100m away and higher up, hoping that the condensation wouldn't be as bad as the night before. Finishing up a meal around 5pm and it started raining despite no rain in the forecast. We retreated in the tent and called it a night. At around 8pm after the rain had died, we suddenly heard lots of chatter. There was a queue of mountain bikers going uphill. Luckily they were on the opposite (right in the photo) bank of the gorge from us.

Day 3 started with a climb to Combshead Tor.

Combshead Tor from the other side.

Then followed the amazing Stones Row all the way to its visible end. Forecast had changed and there was hail and thunderstorms around 3-4pm. We had to start making moves to get to the car before the storm would hit.

Stones Row to Nun's Cross and from there we found good, fast trails onwards.

From Nun's Cross.

Even got a bit of tarmac before reaching a bridleway through the moor. Came across a group of youths from London and recognised them from the Brimpts farm campsite on the first night. Turned out they were doing 3 nights of Duke of Edinburgh award. Despite blasting Lady Gaga's Pokerface loud on the phone, it was great to see these people out in the wild gaining experience.

Came across some aggressive cows (due to young calves) at a ford, but luckily managed to navigate through the heard without issues. Did have some hissing and loud protests when we passed them.

Bridleway led through a beautiful Sherberton's farm with about 20 wild ponies around to a foot bridge and stepping stones.

Footbridge is visible in the middle if you zoom in.

Walked the bridleway all the way to Hexworthy and back to Brimpts farm where our car was.

Great weather pretty much all of the time. Due to dry season, there was no wet bog, just a bit soft underground and streams were low, so no wet feet at any point. This was my first time in Dartmoor and H's first time hiking & wild camping with all the kit in the UK. She's done loads of walks all over England and Scotland, but day walks from basecamp or car camp only.  Managed to squeezy her base weight to 3.6kg because I was carrying the shelter and cooking kit, so she was happy. Mine pack was 8.9kg all in with 3 days of food & consumables and without water. X-mid Solid performed well, even though the conditions weren't really challenging. H was impressed about the design.

Thanks to everyone at Trek-lite.com forum for sharing their wisdom, it certainly made this trip much more enjoyable.