By: Blonde Two
Day one of our Blonde DofE Diamond Challenge was always going to be the most challenging. Starting at Rowtor which is fairly north on the North Moor, unless you walk into Okehampton, you are likely to be setting off into what can only be described as wilderness. Except for the army tracks that is, these are hard on the feet but make for what should be fairly easy navigation. There is a caveat here, it is easy to become ‘track-led’ here and find yourself at the wrong ford or on the wrong hill. It doesn’t matter really because as long as you keep heading south, sooner or later you will find yourself in what truly feels like the middle of nowhere.
Which was fine for us because Blonde One was navigating and doing a very good job of it. She was also doing a very good job of finding bogs for us to splodge/stagger/slide and most other verbs beginning with ‘s’ through. The proposed hail at Hangingstone Hill didn’t materialise but neither, for a while, did the Peat Pass. We found it eventually and the memorial commemorating its maker. We also found a lot of wind (in the sky!) it was tricky to find sheltered spots in which to stop so we didn’t much, and just kept plodding on through our bogs.
We went down from Hangingstone, past Quintin’s Man. Here one would expect a standing stone like Beardown Man or Loughtor Man, but there is only a lonely cairn and two rather box-like army huts. We huddled behind one of these for a quick lunch but it was chilly and once I had got the idea that there might be someone hiding inside one of them, I was keen to move on.
After a little Blonde scramble over two streams we reached Sittaford Tor, from which we set off across a particular bouncy bit of ground to find an East Dart crossing point at Sandy Hole Pass. We could see neither Sand, Hole nor below-gaiter-level crossing point there and ended up wandering down the East Dart and crossing (me rather inelegantly) at the waterfall. Crossing at the East Dart Waterfall is more sensible than it sounds as there are some big, bridge-shaped slabs there. Our river wander was also a chance to see a rather beautiful section of the East Dart (see our second children’s book ‘Dart the River’ if you want to find out more).
Once the river was safely crossed (and a celebratory cuppa drunk) it was a long slog up over Higher White Tor and down to the road near to Powder Mills.
For me it was one of those expedition days that you enjoy more after the event. My bag, although not much heavier than my day bag, seemed to affect my balance more than it should have done and the terrain took its toll. Still, I have heard big strong blokes say how tricky they find walking across North Dartmoor, and no matter how hard it seemed, the views and the wilderness were definitely worth it!
I’ve plotted the points you mention and even straightlining between them it is around eleven miles over pretty wilderness looking terrain. Well done. If you were carrying a tent and cooking stuff and food I would be interested to know how much your packs weighed.
Okay confession time. We were not carrying a tent or stoves and the packs both weighed around 14kg. Nowhere near as much kit as our youngsters carry, but it was plenty for me!
For long distance backpacking my pack with tent sleeping bag and Thermorest, some food and say a 500ml. bottle of water, but not including cooking stuff weighs about 20lbs or under 10kgs.
It seems a shame that the youngsters have to carry so much weight, but reducing it comes at a heavy cost these days with expensive lightweight equipment.
Used to get down to 28 lbs which included some dog food (k9s carried some of their own), tent, my food, cooking gear and a litre of water – but my sleeping bag was very, very light and included a foil layer. But oh, it was a weight to carry and my shoulders would not do it now! 14 kg is a tidy old weight – about 30 lbs unless I have the maths wrong (frequent occurrence) – you should be able to cut a bit of that!
We definitely need to work on cutting down the weight, my knees have only just recovered!!
On subject of balance, do you use a chest strap? Stops the pack slipping sideways and carrying you over on rough terrain. Your poor old knees! Pack weight-reduction can be fun, but it is a bit like throwing junk out – very hard to do. Friend Peter told me to put in everything I thought I might need, weigh the pack and then take out everything except those things I absolutely had to have for survival.
Yes to chest straps, although they are sometimes a bit dodgy looking around the chest! I have already been making pack lightening plans!