Friday, 26 May 2017

On Holne moor

Various country snaps from our week on the edge of Dartmoor.


Navigational aid, taken from the OS premium site - for which I pay some £15 a year or so - although I now find that much the same thing seems to be available from bing maps for free (see reference 1), much better than gmaps which is better for town than country. OS really do add value and maybe what MS has done is buy into the local mapping agencies where they exist. Holne in the middle of this particular image, and Hexworthy off it, to the left. Not that bing maps would have worked out on the moor where there seemed to be no signal - whereas I had thought that with sight lines to masts, the signal would have been spiffing. So downloading the snapped image to the telephone proved convenient, more so than carrying a map about in the wind and the rain. Plus the trusty compass noticed at reference 2. I am sure that the telephone could be persuaded to do compass, but I have not got there yet, and there is the comfort of having something which does not depend on the telephone being in working order. With, for example, the rain giving rise to a few moments panic at one point when the image blurred over and I did not realise that it was just a question of wiping the smear of water off the lens at the front.

I have also learned, after many years, that Dartmoor is something of a dissected plateau with the various branches of the River Dart cutting deep into its interior.


On the road to Hexworthy. Gorse in fine flower although the smell of coconuts was not as strong as it is sometimes. Maybe one needs the full sun for that. And, to be fair, the mist usually cleared away once the sun got up. Fine views in all directions, if not quite 360° vision.


Looking east on the track above the road, at a bridge over the water supply to some nearby farm. Water supply for the four legged animals that is, rather than the two legged ones.


The curious fence around Venford Reservoir. Were the little balls stuck on the heritage spikes after a spat between the heritage people and the health and safety people? They do look to have been stuck on, but not that recently.


Reservoir with mist and waterdendrons.


Coombestone Tor, convenient car park behind.


The village reputed to be the home of lemon sherberts, although I think the factory has now moved to a shed on an industrial estate outside Newton Abbot. Better communications and facilities for the modern business. Luckily we were carrying a sherbert which we could include in this snap - a sweet which had been something of a favourite since childhood - although I am quite sure that modern confectioners cannot manage the sherbert bit as well as they could when I was young. Pale imitation.



The type of cattle grid used in and around Holne. Not universally, but commonly. We never did find out why it is a two tone grid, in this case with wide to the left and narrow to the right. 


More Coombestone.


What appeared to be huge sacks of wool in the barn next to where we parked our car at our converted cow shed near Holne. Not clear how long they had been there, or what happened next. Did the wool lorry come around once a month to pick up all the fleecings?



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