By: Blonde Two
Mr B2 and I went out collecting a few more Dartmoor 365 squares on Sunday. I feel very proud when I look at my Dartmoor 365 book. For those of you not in ‘the know’, Dartmoor 365 is absolutely the best book for aiding an exploration of Dartmoor. Written by John Hayward, it breaks Dartmoor down into its 365 square miles and gives you something interesting to find in each square. To date, I have ‘collected’ 191 Dartmoor squares. I started counting at some point before February 2011 (by which date I had a score of 75).
Dartmoor 365 gives you two grids, one is for colouring in (a most exciting task upon return from a Dartmoor walk) and the other for looking at. I decided a while ago to use the second grid to record places on Dartmoor where I had done some form of wild camping. I have now coloured in 13 of these squares (13 places but I have lost count of the number of nights), across a fairly wide area of the moor.
I’ve had some interesting 365 moments, most of them with B1 but some with Mr B2. Here are some of my Dartmoor 365 high scorers:
Favourite: Three Barrows U12
Most visited: Rippon Tor M18
Best (only) helicopter rescue: Red Lake R11
Spookiest: Nun’s Cross P9
Wettest feet: Brown’s House J9
Hardest gained: Cranmere Pool G9
Coldest camp: Anthony Stile (B8)
Wettest camp: River Lyd (G4)
It’s going to take me a while yet to complete the whole 365 squares, I wonder which will be my last one. I imagine I will never complete all Dartmoor 365 squares wild camping. Some squares are not in permissible areas on the Dartmoor wild camping map and others are not really safe (for example Stowford Bridge)!
We are, of course, glad that you have no plans to wild camp on Stowford Bridge. You might, possibly, find a certain famous establishment at Princeton more suitable?
I will take your excellent advice!