Thursday

Many thanks to Trudy who got up to give me breakfast at 6.30. Andrew and Trudy at Warren Farm could not have been more helpful and welcoming during my stay.

I left at 7.35 contouring above the Exe before crossing Ellmsworth, Almsworth and Exford Commons. I climbed onto the ridge, which forms the main watershed of Exmoor, at Rowbarrows before ascending to Dunkery Beacon 519m, the highest point I reach until the Black Mountains in Wales.

The route then descends to Dunkery Gate and on to Wheddon Cross.  I managed to get some tea and lunch at the village shop before climbing up onto White Moor and Lype Hill.  I left the proposed route to follow a quicker, but supposedly “inferior”, trail to cross the Washford River at Kingbridge and reached the the Royal Oak at 2.00pm.  As this trail was on a good track down a beautiful valley and the “superior route” would have meant beating out a trail in knee high vegetation I maintain that it was the right decision!

The one excitement of the day was when I put up a doe about 20m from the path to Roebarrow. We were both quite surprised.  My one regret from my days on Exmoor is that I did not see the large herd of stags that live near Warren Farm. Andrew showed my photos of around 50 stags he had seen a week earlier.