CROSSING DARTMOOR

Foiled!

by Caitlin, 28 June 2015

Dartmoor is famous for a number of things: beautiful bleak landscapes, the Hound of the Baskervilles, a very imposing prison… and its highly changeable weather. Today we experienced the last of these – and to such an extent that we were totally unable to experience either 1 or 3 and had we encountered 2 we’d never have seen our doom approaching. Today was a day of FOG. Lots and lots of fog. Also enough significant drizzle that standing a camera out in it to video stuff seemed like a seriously stupid idea.

So Wistman’s Wood was off, although I did go a little way down the start of the path to capture this proof:

Nice effect, rubbish for working

and met two extremely sodden walkers returning from the wood with dripping wet-weather gear and muddy boots and looks of determination that said clearly “there’s a warm pub just over there” which just confirmed our decision to not go there at all today. The rain likewise made recording sounds challenging what with the drippings out of the sky and general dampness, so we decided to show the parents the very imposing prison instead and headed off towards Princetown.

Normally the very imposing prison looms at you from the skyline from quite a distance away. Today though we saw… fog. No landscape, no prison, and then “oh, is this Princetown??” and we were there. But we could barely even see the buildings by the side of the road, so gave up and went for a Sunday roast at a pub instead.

Of course, being Dartmoor, in the afternoon all the fog lifted just too late to be useful, yielding this:

Church tower

Tomorrow, though, they’re saying will be spectacular blue skies. Fingers crossed, please?