I've just spent the last couple of days on my own on Dartmoor, prior to visiting the Exeter Knife Show. All in all a glorious time was had: the weather was brilliant, the scenery was invigorating and solitude was welcome; the food was quite good too.
Dartmoor has great lumps of basalt dumped all over it, this is Saddle Tor between Bovey Tracy and Widecombe-in-the-moor:
Driving away from that tor toward Widecombe-in-the-moor I spotted this newly born foal:
note how other ponies congregate around it to protect the little mite. It's two-thirds covered in its caul and the mother still has the rest of it so hasn't yet ejected the placenta.
It took me six minutes to figure out how to operate the zoom on my new camera by which time the mother had licked off most of the caul but the foal had not yet attempted to stand:
In about a days time that little foal will be up and about like this little sweety pie:
I stayed at Cockingford camp site which I believe many members may already know. It is completely unspoilt: a field with a river running through it, there's no shop, no fast food joint, just a washroom block and a couple of taps for drinking water. The farmer will sell you milk which you can keep cool in the stream but make sure the trolls don't steal it. They live here:
I didn't spot any but the river running through the woodland is gorgeous:
You can collect dead wood for your camp fire in the forest but some of the trees there just will not die:
So, after collecting firewood and catching wild sausages you can relax with a spot of lunch:
and show off your bushcrafty skills from the comfort of your armchair.
Dartmoor has great lumps of basalt dumped all over it, this is Saddle Tor between Bovey Tracy and Widecombe-in-the-moor:
Driving away from that tor toward Widecombe-in-the-moor I spotted this newly born foal:
note how other ponies congregate around it to protect the little mite. It's two-thirds covered in its caul and the mother still has the rest of it so hasn't yet ejected the placenta.
It took me six minutes to figure out how to operate the zoom on my new camera by which time the mother had licked off most of the caul but the foal had not yet attempted to stand:
In about a days time that little foal will be up and about like this little sweety pie:
I stayed at Cockingford camp site which I believe many members may already know. It is completely unspoilt: a field with a river running through it, there's no shop, no fast food joint, just a washroom block and a couple of taps for drinking water. The farmer will sell you milk which you can keep cool in the stream but make sure the trolls don't steal it. They live here:
I didn't spot any but the river running through the woodland is gorgeous:
You can collect dead wood for your camp fire in the forest but some of the trees there just will not die:
So, after collecting firewood and catching wild sausages you can relax with a spot of lunch:
and show off your bushcrafty skills from the comfort of your armchair.
