By: Blonde Two
You know how it has been raining, and raining, and raining? Well it has been doing it even more on Dartmoor than everywhere else. Everything is wet, the rivers are running faster, the bogs are boggier and the mud is much muddier. Venturing out without at least three layers of waterproofing has been a no-no for weeks.
Which is probably why the Two Blondes (many layers discarded into over loaded rucksacks) were rather surprised to see a friendly looking bonfire as they approached Long Barrow from Ball Gate on Saturday. The day was all wrong but so very right. No rain, blue skies, birds singing, a real hint of Spring. My buffalo jacket had been weighing my pack down since five minutes into the walk and Blonde One was regretting her merino base layer.
We weren’t sure what to think as we arrived at Long Barrow for our coffee stop. Surely Dartmoor was too wet to burn (I suspect a bit of help from Norm’s favourite – the diesel soaked rag). As we took silly photos, perused our maps and enjoyed our cheesecake (heavier in the stomach than in the pack), it became clear that these happy looking bonfire people were scrub clearing. We said hello as we walked on past and it turns out that they were a party from the National Park Authority. They invited us to join in (had they heard how much I love bonfires?) but we had a hill to climb and a view to see so we carried on.
We think of it as a wild place, but in England there are scarcely any truly wild, unmanaged places and the tiny remnants we do have are continually under threat from tidy people, and infinitely precious. I know of only two, and one is in Devon while the other is in Northamptonshire. But the Devon one is being cut up by use of a grant system which ought rather to protect it. The Northants one has been left wild as a scientific control experiment.
It is a sad country that has no wilderness.
sorry, another – my garden beckons – the very paradigm of a wilderness
but too true in general – parts of the far northern Pennines qualify, but not much of the Lakes, despite – or often, one feels, because of – the efforts of the Park authority and other bodies – but the real villains are ourselves, of course: discussed here and on other blogs, the cosmic principle, codified by Heisenburg, cited frequently in popularised (but unscientific) form, can be said to apply to all human activity and actions as well as to electrons! Shakespeare had a couple of lines about it too.
missed the name button – all mine
I have given you a name. I hope you don’t mind the capital letter. Lovely to hear from you down here on the Devonshire blog!
There are possibly not that many of us who crave actual, real wilderness although I think we should be grateful to those who preserve it. I do know that if some of the clearing work on Dartmoor was not done, we would eventually lose some amazing archeological remains. Hopefully Dartmoor has a bit of everything for everyone.
Quite right – your words were music to my ears so to speak. For example, After a lot of hard work by many people the fabulous settlement at Raddick Hill is emerging from the gorse. It was totally swamped.
Our heritage needs preserving.
I laughed too much at the mention of a diesel-soaked rag even though I’m yet to learn who Norm is. Loving this blog of yours =)
This is Norm – I spend most of my summers with him in New Zealand. http://wp.me/s2OiIR-tribute