By: Blonde Two
Happy Christmas everyone. We hope that by now you are well into your own Christmas party. If not, perhaps you would like to hear about this year’s Two Blondes Christmas party. We had carols, mince pies, and even multiple Christmas trees, all on beautiful Dartmoor of course. In fact, our Christmas party was so good that it turned into an all-nighter. Read on to find out more.
Breakfast at Dartmoor’s Ullacombe Farm
If you haven’t tried the Devon breakfasts at Ullacombe Farm, you are missing out on something special. We enjoyed ours so much we left them a Christmas present underneath their Christmas tree.
A morning stroll to check out a wild camping location
In the winter, when the nights draw in quickly, the best way to find your perfect Dartmoor wild camping location is to go and have a look for it in the daylight first. We enjoyed exploring, learned even more about an area of Dartmoor we know really well and, once we had found our spot, marked it with our own secret tracking code.
Time to decorate the Dartmoor Christmas Tree
No Christmas party is complete without decorations so it was off up yet another hill for us to tie some ribbons onto our favourite tree. The Dartmoor Christmas Tree has grown so well this year that we nearly couldn’t get his angel on his tallest branch. We just about managed but are considering recruiting some of our taller offspring next year. Despite the wind (everyone loves Christmas wind), we lingered long enough for a cuppa and mince pie each.
Proper Christmas at the Rugglestone Inn
If you imagine a quintessential English pub at Christmas time, you will almost certainly have Dartmoor’s Rugglestone Inn in your head. Tucked away down a tiny lane, this diminutive stone pub has everything any Christmas-lover would want. a trickling stream, a pretty tree, and hints of log fires and Christmas cheer through tiny windows were all waiting to greet us. We ate well on such delights as pies and mashed potato and washed it all down with Dartmoor ale.
Tent pitching and a bit of Christmas weather
With a wind chill forecast of minus seven and gusts of up to 55 mph, we had chosen a camping spot much lower down the hill than originally planned. This, as it turns out, was just as well because my rucksack waist strap and pie intake turned out to be a tad mutually incompatible. We negotiated a very dark lane, a mysterious lake, a river, lots of mud and a hill before we found our previously-marked (and now checked on the Dartmoor wild camping map) spot.
We were pleased to find that, despite the roaring of the wind around the hills above us, we were comparatively sheltered and able to pitch our tent without it blowing away. We did, however, get a bit wet in the process, and it was a fairly damp pair of Blondes that pitched themselves, almost head first into the tent amidst a cloud of giggles.
Christmas carols around the Christmas tree
Blonde One has always been good at packing but she surpassed herself at this point by pulling out of her rucksack a sheet of carol words and a mini Christmas tree (complete with lights). I am sure anyone passing by would have wondered what on earth was wrong with the cows but we had a lovely time singing our way through Oh Come All Ye Faithful, Hark the Herald and a few other favourites.
The Christmas moon
We didn’t get round to preparing for bed as the carols were closely followed by a sip or two of port and then some remarkably early falling asleep. We awoke at midnight to appreciate the Christmas moon and take advantage of the facilities (also known as grass) and then slept until around seven in the morning. It had been a far warmer night than either of us had been expecting and the sunrise was still tinging the sky pink as we emerged in the morning. We both agreed we had had a fantastic Christmas party.
Merry Christmas… and don’t forget to get outside at some point today. Your turkey tummy will thank you!
Wild camping courses on Dartmoor
If you fancy a bit of winter wild camping yourself, we have just the Dartmoor experience for you. Check out our summer and winter wild camping courses below…
