We left our accommodation in Tavistock, a 600 year old converted priory called, The Priory B&B, early in the morning for the 45 kilometre journey which skirted Dartmoor National Park along the western edge.
We were fuelled on one of the best breakfasts we'd had, and excitement. We were off to Castle Drogo which lies just within the borders of Dartmoor National Park, at the northern edge near Exeter. We had a planned stop at Lydford to see the 1000+ year-old Norman castle ruins there and had a few hours set aside to tour around Castle Drogo, something I'll write about in another post.
It was a nice drive, mainly A-roads which are a little wider than the narrow country-lane B-roads, and our hire car was a pleasure to drive, comfortable, powerful and well-appointed. Of course, all I really needed was my shotgun-rider Faith, it doesn't matter what car I drive as long as she's with me.
The moorlands of Dartmoor
From Drogo we were heading to Boscastle on the west coast but rather than take the A30 west, the fastest route, we decided to head south through Dartmoor National Park; It was a 90 kilometres route instead of 75 kilometres, and it went back through Tavistock, however would give us a chance to head through Dartmoor where we hoped we'd see some Dartmoor pony's along the way.
This post touches briefly on that journey through Dartmoor National Park, UK. I'm sorry the photos aren't great...I blame the camera (operator).
These two characters are not Dartmoor pony's...They're sheep, called Scotch blackface sheep, the most common found on Dartmoor.
There's other breeds of sheep there also and it is said that the native breeds actually descend from the Iron age 'soay sheep'. I think this is speculation more than fact though.
We pulled into a parking bay to take some shots of the screensaver vistas around us and the sheep were just wandering about, as sheep do, all over the road and in the fields. After a little while we saddled back up and headed further south.
Here's the view from the car park we stopped at. Those are not sheep in the foreground though, they're rocks and not as fun to pat.
Dartmoor National Park has a lot of different animals within it but perhaps the most notable is the Dartmoor Pony. Here you see Faith making friends with one that was impervious to her charms.
The pony's have inhabited Dartmoor for many thousands of years and over that time have been used for various purposes by humans. They are an extremely hardy animal, essential due to the extreme weather found in Dartmoor, and have been used as a working and pack animals in mines and quarries. They are also known to have a very nice temperament being gentle and calm of nature and very reliable.
Faith is the horse-whisperer of the family; If there is a horse within ten kilometres of her she knows and will find it, and they love her. She was very excited to see the Dartmoor Pony's and still remembers the experience fondly. It's kind of cute to see her around horses, she really loves them.
Faith leaning on a Dartmoor pony cross which are dotted across the moorlands.
These crosses were often placed as navigational aids; This was important due to the often poor weather conditions, low cloud, fog and rain that is prevalent on Dartmoor. Of course, there was no sigh of that the day we were there; Blue skies and cool...Just perfect.
These moorland way markers often marked medieval routes from abbey to abbey and some are simply memorials and boundary markers. Most are very old, like the one Faith is leaning on above, some 1000 years old, and others are only hundreds of years old. You can also see a tor in the distance to the right of the hill.
A tor is a rocky outcrop which rises abruptly from the surrounding smooth, gentle slopes of a rounded hill, ridge-crest or summit. Essentially, a pile of rocks.
Here in Dartmoor the granite deposited 280 million years ago was exposed through erosion and then exposed to chemical and weathering processes. That allowed the large crystals found in the granite to disintegrate leaving what looks like a stack of rocks placed one on top of the other. This takes millions of years of course.
We would have liked to do some hiking in the moorlands and visit some of the tors up close although time wasn't on our side on this trip.
Top right, Faith stalking a poor unsuspecting little foal.It's ok to pat them but visitors feeding them is against the law.
The Dartmoor pony's roam free on the moorlands and one must be cautious when driving as they are often found on the roads. We stopped many times so Faith could say hello and have a pat and especially when there were little foals wandering about. Above you can see some, and Faith stalking one. They weren't as trusting as the adults but sure were cute.
Dartmoor pony's are in decline and only hundreds remain where once there were some 5,000 of them. That decline has occurred over only about 120 years and is quite sad. We felt quite privileged to have an experience with them in the place of their origin and whilst they can be found elsewhere, even in Australia, to see them here in Dartmoor where they have been for many thousands of years was pretty special.
The clapper bridge of over 700 years in age, located at Postbridge.
Right in the centre of Dartmoor is a pretty cool little feature called a clapper bridge right near a little blink-and-you-miss-it place called Postbridge. A clapper bridge is a made by placing huge flat stones like granite on top of stone piers and are used to bridge rivers, streams and creeks. Sometimes they are simply a single massive stone spanning bank to bank and sometimes they are quite long constructions.
The bridge at Postbridge is suspected to be some 700 years old and is constructed of slabs of granite over four metres long, or 13 feet in the old measurement. They are about two metres wide, so there's ample room for small carts to cross. This bridge was used to transport tin from Dartmoor to Tavistock by pack horse, the Dartmoor pony of course. Each of the stones on this bridge weigh eight tons, all moved by hand. It was cool to wander about and think about all the things this bridge has seen in its history.
From Postbridge we headed south to Two Bridges, not a town, just a pub really, and then west to Tavistock and finally Boscastle on the west coast.
As I said above, we would have loved to have spent more time in Dartmoor, hiking and camping overnight, however it wasn't possible. We had a nice few hours though and enjoyed every moment.
The roads, whilst quite narrow B-roads, are in good condition and we were in no hurry to get through; We just took our time, pulled over a lot, and soaked it all in. Will we ever get back for that hiking? I'd like to think we will.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
Be well
Discord: galenkp#9209
Mehn! I love that ride.
First time I am hearing of pony. I had to make research for the difference between a horse and a pony. I found out they are the same, exactly from the same specie but the difference is pony is below 14.2 hands high in size and they grow faster than horses.
Learnt something reading through your blog. Beautiful pictures, most have been a very nice hangout with faith. Looks like she was enjoying her time and was happy patting the pony.
Hey mate, thanks for stopping by my post and I'm glad it inspired you to look something up and gaining a little more knowledge. We had a great time and would really love to go back!
!ENGAGE 25
It's my pleasure 🤗🤭🤭. Thanks for sharing them as well.
ENGAGEtokens.Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍
Did you know every user has their own profile map?
And so does every post as well!
Want to have your post on the map too?
Rocks can be fun to pet!
Seriously though, looks beautiful. Insane to think about how old some of the structures there are!
It's a great spot and we're really glad we took the detour to go there. Will go back someday for sure.
Also, maybe I petted and hugged some rocks, maybe I didn't. The truth shall remain enshrouded in mystery. 🥴
Rocks need love too!
Yes, that is true, they don't have hearts of stone after all.
(Bad dad joke there.) 🤣
😂
I don't think there are bad dad jokes. Just dad jokes
Well, I'm not a dad but being dad-aged I feel qualified to roll out a few nuggets of dad-joke gold.
A beautiful day and Faith looks like she is loving the ponies being able to pat them.
Yeah it was really nice...The drive, the pony's and scenery...It didn't end there in Dartmoor either, Boscastle has some amazing scenery too, but that's for a different post.
Cool looking forward to the next part.
looks like you had good weather. The UK countryside is amazing when the weather is great. So if you manage to time it right for those 2 and a half days a year then happy days
Haha, yeah it looks like I got the timing right. I know it can get quite bad on the moorlands from a weather perspective so we were fortunate. As it turns out our entire trip in the UK was spent with good weather,.mostly around 27-28 in the day, blue skies. There were slightly cooler days, but no rain. Was good.
the force is strong with you
Good afternoon. Beautiful nature and great photos. Thank you for sharing the quality photos. Thank you. Have a nice day.
I hope you have a nice day also, and thank you for taking a look at my post.
hello dear friend @galenkp good day
his trips and walks are enviable, what a beautiful place full of beautiful nature.
I really like these places full of stories, that despite the years aberrate beautiful structures. The bridge and the cross-shaped structure is beautiful
It's a shame that the ponies are dying out, and what a privilege it is to share a pleasant moment with them.
I appreciate very much that you let us know these beautiful photographs
Enjoy your weekend very much
It's a scenic place and has a lot to offer visitors. I would have liked to do some hiking but we feel happy to have been able to visit so will content ourselves with that.
If I read that you would have loved to do a little more hiking but time was limited, in those beautiful places, time is never enough, it always requires more as you discover the place, I appreciate very much dear friend @galenkp that you let us know this beautiful place
that you enjoy the weekend a lot
I know your having tough time at the moment matey - watch out for my hive news network - you're a story! (might bring you giggle).
...uploading in this next 30 mins -ish.
Looks like a great trip, such beautiful countryside.
Love those little ponies.
I enjoyed your little history lesson also, nice to have the experience through your travels.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Thanks for taking a look and commenting and I hope y'all have a great weekend too.
Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Top 3 in Daily Travel Digest #990.
Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!
Become part of our travel community:
That's, that's great to know...A bit special considering all the great posts around the place.
Ah, always that awesome sport, and charmer that is Faith. The animals seem to love having her around, too! This looks like an awesome place to spend time at, to soak in the sights and the wildlife. I've always held the opinion that northern Britain is the most beautiful place on Earth, but seeing the south, I'm not so sure now. Props on the awesome choice of car, though a part of me expected a 4x4 :-D
I think animals can feel if a person is friendly or not and they all seem to like Faith, especially cats and horses. She doesn't mind because she likes them back.
I'm not sure about England north of London as we didn't go however I think you're right, it's beautiful. I can tell you though, that so is the south. I've been there. It's a very beautiful country all over I think Zack, fairly diverse and interesting no matter where one goes.
I actually hired a smaller car, a Toyota Corolla type vehicle as the B-roads in England can be very narrow, literally only a car-width wide a lot of the time, and that's a two way road. So I wanted a smaller car. When I got to the car company they had this proudly telling me they upgraded me. I could have waited a few hours for a smaller one but we wanted to get on our way. It was a nice car though, plenty of power, had all the buttons and stuff.
It was an Open Insignia, sold under the Vauxhall brand in the UK. When Holden in Australia stopped production they were badges as the Holden Commodore and Calais. Of course GM closed Holden down not long after so there's no more Holden's at all now.
If I was a sedan-buyer this is something that wold be on my list for sure.
I guess my personality is so-so at best, since there have been cats that loved crawling over me, and then there's the bastards that bit my hand. I guess you can't win them all, though perhaps I'd win an Insignia one day. I loved the look of it back when it was first announced, just the simple lines and understated looks.
Nice of the rental company to upgrade you from a Corolla, though those are pretty neat, too. I'm guessing then that you're a Toyota kind of lad, eh? I've never been to Old Blighty before, but based on videos of car reviews that I've seen so far, it does look like the country lanes are pretty tiny there.
When one hires a vehicle it's rare that one can specify. It's more of a Micro, small, medium, suv, people mover, large, prestige sort of choice. I didn't give a shit what car I got, just wanted a smaller one. Oh well, didn't work out, and we were happy with the Insignia anyway. Nice cars.
It's a car that unfortunately I've never gotten to see beyond my screen. I've spotted a few Opels here in Malaysia, not Vauxhalls. Though they're mostly commercial vehicles like vans, and not the sexy stuff like the Insignia. We never get a lot of good stuff here, I guess 🙃
Awwww Faith is a horse whisperer, so so cute!I loved the baby pony, they are adorable. I can imagine them leading a very happy life in that area, so much space and freedom. The picture of you pointing out to Tor... So funny, it looks like you had a fantastic time with Faith!
We rarely have a bad tome, I think because we don't put to great an expectation on things. We also like being together, unlike some couples, and so things tend to go well no matter where we go. It's a great spot, Dartmoor, and we really enjoyed our time there, although would have liked some more. I hate that photo of me and my melon-head pointing at that Tor, but I figured what the hell not many will see it and no one knows me anyway. :)
It's a great picture, I loved it, it showed the funny side of you