By: Blonde Two
Sittaford Tor SX633829 is by all accounts, unexciting, relatively flat and quite green. I don’t know because, despite attempting an approach from several different directions, I have never yet made it there. Apparently the views are wild and lovely, it is mid moor and having been temptingly close several times, I can believe that they are.
The North Dartmoor hills are a bit of a mystery to me, I have skirted around the edges but not really done a march across the middle. On Saturday, I was a mean friend and abandoned Blonde One to walk with kids (she did have other grown-ups to organise too) from Okehampton to Princetown. Blonde One walks faster than me and keeps up with the young ones better. The minibus needed to get to Princetown to meet the kids and I, being tempted by the call of a bacon sandwich at the lovely Fox Tor Cafe and feeling a pressing need for a flushing toilet decided to hop on board for a ride.
This strategy was not entirely successful as we had just joined the Tavistock road when a call from Blonde One had us returning to our camping spot to meet our 45 mile team who had a broken rucksack that needed swapping out. This little detour didn’t, in the end make the team (who had had to re-walk some ground) late but it did mean that my need for a flushing toilet became rather urgent by the time we reached Princetown.
Anyway, later in the morning, bacon sandwich and toilet needs happily met, we set off from Two Bridges to walk North and meet Blonde One’s party at Sittaford Tor. It was a lovely walk – sunny with a little breeze, up along the Littaford, Longaford, Higher and Lower White ridge. Once we were off the ridge, I did manage to step in an “over the knee” bog – the moment made soggier by my catapulting myself forwards at the same time to achieve wet boobs. Luckily the wind and sun dried me out quite quickly and I didn’t have to drip all the way home.
Either the kids were faster or I was slower than expected but they passed Sittaford Tor before we got there. We found them at Sandy Hole Pass where there is indeed a pass, lots of holes and some sand – there is also the lovely East Dart River. Once again my cunning plan had failed to get me to Sittaford. One day I will manage it and I hope that it is not too unexciting, the grass isn’t just a little bit too green and that the views are indeed lovely.
Pretty cool! Are there cosmetic and/or medical benefits from a Dartmoor mud wrap?
hehehehe
x
If there are cosmetic benefits then they don’t seem to be working on my wrinkles!!!
You are dipping the wrong bit of you in the mud!
Is that why my feet aren’t wrinkled then?!
You will have to ask Mr Blonde Two about that!
We may need to add some waterproofing to the handwarmer bra design then???!!!
I have never made it to Sittaford either. I have planned to many a time, setting off from Postbridge and taking in the East Dart, Grey Wethers etc but its one I feel requires a nice sunny clear day and somehow my walking plans and sunny clear days never seem to combine! Its an “on the backburner” walk at the moment – I imagine the terrain isn’t easy and am sticking to flatish “kind” walks at the moment!
Sittaford is indeed a lovely tor. It usually has some lovely people there too! Blonde Two would fit in well.
How far is a wrinkle too far?