By: Blonde Two
“Whenever I walk in a London street,
I’m ever so careful to watch my feet;” (AA Milne)
I have been thinking about this for a long time now, I have a little issue and I think it is one that other walkers may share (especially Dartmoor ones).
Walking on Dartmoor is rarely an experience of solid paths; there are peat holes, tussocks, streams, bogs, rocks, sheep, ponies … all manner of things, in fact, to trip up an unwary Blonde. To be fair, I have never tripped over a pony, but I have come pretty close to bumping into one in the dark.
All of these ankle-traps mean that a Blonde has to spend a fair amount of her walking time looking at the floor (I estimate 99% for myself). Which is a shame, because unless it is misty, Dartmoor has amazing views 100% of the time. These views change constantly and there is a always a worry that one might miss something spectacular whilst choosing the next tussock on which to balance.
The only answer that I can see is to build in plenty of view-stops; impossible for Ten Tors training due to the required speed, but it could work the rest of the time. There should, of course, be a Blonde system for this. I will be discussing it with Blonde One at our next business meeting (aka coffee stop)!
I was having a similar conversation with a friend when up on Dartmoor the other day but went more along the lines of whether because of pacings and timings, if the kids take in all that is around them. This was all while taking in all the stone rows, menhirs, stone circles etc in the vicinity of where we were! Obviously some of them they use for navigational purposes, but if they aren’t taking it in now, at least they are developing the skills and desire to come up and appreciate I
All Dartmoor has to offer in the future x
Hmmm. Sort of knit ten, pearl two – where knit is the number of steps taken and pearl is the number of seconds paused for moor-gazing?
That would end up with a rather snazzy rib style walk – I like it!