After months of lurking on the forum, I thought I'd better post something. So as I've been organising the photos on my laptop, I thought I'd share my first wild camp from last year.
I discovered that you could wild camp on Dartmoor in January, but decided to wait until Easter so that my eldest son Josh (7) could come with me and the weather would have warmed up!!!
So April arrived and with the temperature not expected to rise above freezing we set off (against the wishes of SWMBO and an overly worried nan/mum) by train and bus to Okehampton.
We followed the Tarka trail to get to Halstock woods.
[/URL][/IMG]
Josh was most impressed with the viaduct as he loves anything to do with trains.
[/URL][/IMG]
Progress was slower than I'd hoped, but I'd promised Josh that we'd rest when he needed to and I didn't want to put him off before we'd even begun.
[/URL][/IMG]
View back down towards Halstock wood.
[/URL][/IMG]
We made our way towards Oke tor. My original plan was to head for Steeperton tor, but although the weather looks nice in the picture, the temperature was dropping fast and it was blowing a gale, so we stopped to make camp.
[/URL][/IMG]
My trusty 20 year old tent.
[/URL][/IMG]
The view from our tent.
We settled in for the night with boil in the bag beef stew and hot chocolate. I struggled with my gas stove though, it burnt well to start with but then dropped off and took an age to heat anything. I assume this is because of the cold, any suggestions for a better stove to use would be appreciated.
The next morning although we woke early we weren't in a hurry, so we had a breakfast of flapjacks and apples then packed up and started walking at about 10 o'clock.
We kept to the gravel tracks and headed for Rowtor, stopping at Black-a-ven brook to collect water. We stopped and sheltered at a firing range by Rowtor and had a lunch of slightly crispy noodles due to my stoves poor performance.
[/URL][/IMG]
Rowtor.
[/URL][/IMG]
West Mill Tor.
[/URL][/IMG]
Our first meeting with Dartmoor ponies, though we had to backtrack a hundred metres to see them, as we walked straight past them first time round.
We carried on to Meldon viaduct to have a look at the Dartmoor railway but found it was closed, so headed back down along Red-a-ven Brook to find somewhere to camp.
[/URL][/IMG]
The view up red-a-ven brook to our second camp.
[/URL][/IMG]
Red-a-ven Brook.
[/URL][/IMG]
We set up camp and had boil in in the bag curry for dinner. Then settled in for a much less windy but colder night, at least my toes thought it was.
[/URL][/IMG]
The next morning after a frosty start, the wind had stopped and it actually started to warm up. We packed up and made our way round to cross the Meldon reservoir dam.
[/URL][/IMG]
We then followed The Granite Way path back to Okehampton, for a well deserved fry-up before the journey home.
[/URL][/IMG]
[/URL][/IMG]
All together we walked about 15.5 miles and I was so proud of my boy who never complained about the cold or the walking.
This year we plan to walk across the moor from north to south, though we'll probably wait till it's warmer this time.
My five year old boy wants to come as well, so I'll have to find somewhere a bit closer with less walking whilst he's still keen.
I discovered that you could wild camp on Dartmoor in January, but decided to wait until Easter so that my eldest son Josh (7) could come with me and the weather would have warmed up!!!
So April arrived and with the temperature not expected to rise above freezing we set off (against the wishes of SWMBO and an overly worried nan/mum) by train and bus to Okehampton.
We followed the Tarka trail to get to Halstock woods.
Josh was most impressed with the viaduct as he loves anything to do with trains.
Progress was slower than I'd hoped, but I'd promised Josh that we'd rest when he needed to and I didn't want to put him off before we'd even begun.
View back down towards Halstock wood.
We made our way towards Oke tor. My original plan was to head for Steeperton tor, but although the weather looks nice in the picture, the temperature was dropping fast and it was blowing a gale, so we stopped to make camp.
My trusty 20 year old tent.
The view from our tent.
We settled in for the night with boil in the bag beef stew and hot chocolate. I struggled with my gas stove though, it burnt well to start with but then dropped off and took an age to heat anything. I assume this is because of the cold, any suggestions for a better stove to use would be appreciated.
The next morning although we woke early we weren't in a hurry, so we had a breakfast of flapjacks and apples then packed up and started walking at about 10 o'clock.
We kept to the gravel tracks and headed for Rowtor, stopping at Black-a-ven brook to collect water. We stopped and sheltered at a firing range by Rowtor and had a lunch of slightly crispy noodles due to my stoves poor performance.
Rowtor.
West Mill Tor.
Our first meeting with Dartmoor ponies, though we had to backtrack a hundred metres to see them, as we walked straight past them first time round.
We carried on to Meldon viaduct to have a look at the Dartmoor railway but found it was closed, so headed back down along Red-a-ven Brook to find somewhere to camp.
The view up red-a-ven brook to our second camp.
Red-a-ven Brook.
We set up camp and had boil in in the bag curry for dinner. Then settled in for a much less windy but colder night, at least my toes thought it was.
The next morning after a frosty start, the wind had stopped and it actually started to warm up. We packed up and made our way round to cross the Meldon reservoir dam.
We then followed The Granite Way path back to Okehampton, for a well deserved fry-up before the journey home.
All together we walked about 15.5 miles and I was so proud of my boy who never complained about the cold or the walking.
This year we plan to walk across the moor from north to south, though we'll probably wait till it's warmer this time.
My five year old boy wants to come as well, so I'll have to find somewhere a bit closer with less walking whilst he's still keen.
and welcome to the forum, both of you 
