25th October

A different walk today as we had just a short time window between rain showers and things going on at home.  We parked near Lee Moor, just beyond Whitehill Tor, where there's a P on the OS map.  There are three tors within the bounds of the China Clay works - not technically part of the moor, but still listed in Ken Ringwood's book.

We found two - Blackalder Tor (234m), which sits on the side of a ridge forming part of the edge of a clay pit.  Then close to the car on the way back was Whitehill Tor (210m).  

Both give views of the china clay works, and also the tungsten mine.  Most of what can be seen here is solar panels, but there are plans to reopen to mine for tungsten in 2021.  It made a different kind of walk, but good to get some fresh air in between the showers October has provided!

I'm really grateful to the churches of Saltash Methodist Circuit for their generosity towards my three charities this year - especially Christians Against Poverty.  I've hit my targets (once offline donations are included) for them and the Mbare-Saltash Partnership.  Just two more months to go, so it will be Shekinah in the spotlight from herein!

17th October

October is proving to be wet, but we managed a dry walk, sunny in parts.  Starting from Sourton Village Hall, we set off towards Sourton Tors, but branched off to make our way around them first, climbing steadily.  For a while we followed the Rattlebrook Railway [E5], joining at the reversing point, which you will see if you check out the link.

The first time we branched off to find our first tor, we did so on the wrong side of the Lyd, which was impossible to cross!  Coming back to the track, we then found the right path, which although still soggy, led us on to Gren Tor (516m).  

On the way there were lovely views of the Lake Viaduct [E4], which we cycled across some years ago.  Continuing on up Woodcock Hill, we found Hunt Tor (562m), from where we could see our next two destinations.

At some point here, wellies became a necessity again.  With no soil to drain into, the water simply sits on these high levels of the moor, often in the pathways, as these are slightly more worn down than the surrounding grassy tummocks.  We made our way to Kitty Tor 579m, which is on the edge of one of the firing ranges and has an army hut and flag pole.  The views are impressive too - we were looking towards High Willhays and the other top peaks once again.

Our next tor, Steng-a-tor (541m), was the most soggy.  I did think it looked a bit like a dinosaur, as the name might suggest!  

Then coming along Corn Ridge with varying pace as we tried to keep to a path, but kept finding we had to detour to avoid sinking too deep.  There are views here of Links Tor, which although not quite over 500m, will be one we try to visit at some point.  It sits on its own with deep valleys either side, so is not easily combined with other tors in a walk.  Eventually we made it to Branscombe's Loaf (538m), taking four more off the list of tors over 500m.

We did investigate Sourton Tors (440m) on the way back, although the hunt for East Tor (405m) meant we went down and up again - not ideal having walked 6.5 miles already.  Overall it was just over 8 miles, a little less than expected, as our template was this walk from treksandtors.

9th October

Last weekend was too wet and too work filled for walking, so today we were glad that at least the morning looked dry.  Aware that the sun might not hang around for long, another short walk was planned.  We drove via Ashburton to one of the car parks beneath Saddle Tor.

Saddle Tor (428m) does look like a saddle, and it's an easy walk to the summit, if wet underfoot at the moment.  From there we headed to Fitches Holt (413m), which is part of Emsworthy Rocks (399m).  The latter are famous for photos of one particular tree, but the tor itself stretches over a wide area.  Jonathan's website doesn't include one at the moment, so the link is from one of his photographer friends, Neil Porter.  For the benefit of keeping going on our walks, Jonathan sticks to the camera on his phone!

Just down the hill from there is also Little Emsworthy (357m), from where we made our way through the brown bracken to Little Holwell (389m).

You will see from this photo of part of  Holwell Tor (402m) that we should have known what was coming later!

Our last tor was the iconic Haytor Rocks (457m).  Two outcrops, one of which when approached from Saddle, Emsworthy or Holwell looks as though you would need to be a climber to climb it.  I did discover though, that from the other side, there are steps made in the rocks, so although I didn't quite make the very top, that's me waving in the middle!

We then sheltered from the wind beside the other outcrop to have a hot drink.  Unfortunately, in the time it took for me to climb and for us to have a drink, the weather drew in.  As we began to retrace our steps towards Saddle Tor and the car beyond, the rain began.  And it was proper rain.  And we'd left our waterproof trousers in the car.  Suffice to say, we became soggy very quickly!

27 September

As last week's walk was a bit mammoth, and weather/work put our walking day back to Sunday, a shorter walk was in order, and not too far away.  We drove onto the moor from Yelverton, and headed to the end of Burrator Reservoir.  I'd found a group of tors to the east of the water to hunt for.

At first, though, the hunting did not go well.  We set off into the Narrator Nature Reserve, in search of the Rough Tor at Burrator.  Unfortunately, we didn't make it into the right plantation, and ended up crossing Middleworth Plantation instead to a different track. Having lost time, Click Tor was also abandoned for another day.

Coming out of the trees, the next tor was in sight - Cuckoo Rock (328m) [Q7] - which is a massive granite boulder.  It sits on the side of Combshead Tor (371m), where we climbed next.  It was a clear afternoon, and the views were terrific, even able to see the sea.

Here's the stone row close to Combshead Tor, stretching from the circle into the far distance.  It's Down Tor Row [Q8].

Combshead was our highest point, but from there we walked downwards towards the lake, with more beautiful views.  Hingston Hill (367m), Down Tor (366m), Little Down Tor (312m), Snappers Tor (285m) and Middleworth Tor (290m) were all on the way.