By: Blonde Two
I did once have an invitation to go actual, proper fishing on Dartmoor – from a champion fishist no less. I haven’t been yet. On Tuesday, however, Not-at-all-Blonde and I went to find some fishes of a different kind.
My Dartmoor 365 book tells me that around the Heathercombe Estate, there are three tall stones with three fishes carved on them. They look beautiful in photos and exactly the sort of thing required by a Blonde treasure hunt. Sadly (and I am ashamed to admit this because I think they are quite easy to find), neither Not-at-all-Blonde or I caught any fishes at all.
It would probably have helped if I had taken the book with me rather than rely on grid references. Did you know that a six-figure grid reference gives you an area of 100 square metres? Plenty of space in which to lose a few fishes.
Looking at some pictures now, I can see that we walked straight past at least one (at the time we were concentrating on counting our paces!) Oh well, it was a lovely place for a Bimble and I will have no objections to going back again!
Here is a photo of a stone that had no fishes on it whatsoever!
The photo at the top of this post is not mine (obviously) but was taken by a much cleverer finder than me http://sarahsmartiemartin.blogspot.co.uk/2007/07/24365-heathercombe-fishes-i16-28707.html
I found these a few years ago after dropping littlest Farley at heatree. Parked just up above the centre. Two are easy to find because they’re on the road. I gave up on the third when I met a great ravine and found it a week or two later attacking it from a different direction. Still slightly harder to find! If you get stuck, give me a shout and I’ll show you!!!!! Great stones though!!!