our splendid list of achievements

Now that we have finally finished this nine day long skipettydoohdah, it is time to look back upon what we have achieved...

hmmm....

we did raise quite a lot of money for diabetes research

walk across some devon..

get wet...


and had delicious breakfasts! (involving plenty bacon!)

from channel to glimmering channel

Here we are getting our feet wet one last time, this time in the Bristol Channel at Lynmouth.

Having had no major upsets and only a couple of hypoglycaemic hiccups (as it were) along the way, we head happily home. I do confess to having slightly tired feet.

Thank you for your attention and support.

Big Joy! Home Return!

Well, back home again. Oh joy, to massage our throbbing feet, to bathe in hot water, and to lie down in our own beds. Also- HEY! where've my walking boots gone? What, finished, you say? Perish the thought! We British never stop! What-ho, toodle pip and all that blither (hehe-blither)
but I definitely think I'm going to miss the walking every day thing. Ah well- Even more foot/leg torturing walks to do...

Why not next year?

No- even better- TOMMOROW!

Oh Damn...

By Wilf

All in one piece

We are back home now. All in one piece; tired but mercifully free of blisters, sprains, strains and other nasties.
It has been a great experience, notwithstanding the weather, and we would like to thank everybody for their support, whether financial, moral or practical.
We would also like to thank our hosts along the way, who without exception were charming and hospitable beyond the call of duty.
Last thoughts and final totals for sponsorship will be added here over the next few days.
It still isn't too late to sponsor. Nag your friends!!

As the end draws near...

Today was a very alarming day. It was composed of several thing that we were unacustomed to, such as sun, other people, and being able to wear something lighter than a suit of chain mail without getting ones flesh ripped to pieces by bits of rain, moving, horizontally, at mach 3. This was extremely surprising to several members of our party, especially at the appearence of the sun, at which they decided to build a monolithic temple to this flaming ball of gas, and sacrafice wilf so that it would rise again the next day.

We walked along the banks of the river Barle, in which both wilf and I paddled (cannot be bothered to enclose a photo), and all in all made a somewhat uneventful trip (apart from events previously mentioned).

We are now at the rather luxurious hotel, preparing for our final night of this godforsaken walk.


From the nimbly dancing fingers of Oliver.

Day 8 -- and suncream is used in anger for the first time

By my reckoning we've not been rained on (or is that, 'at'?) to any serious degree for 3 days now!


Came into Exmoor National Park yesterday - and crossed the border into Somerset (oo-er; the badlands). Exmoor seems very different from Dartmoor, it consists mainly of little bits of moor - you can pretty much always see the edge. Managed our first attempt at an actual picnic on day 6 on the first outlying bit of moorland we crossed - also crossed by the A361, as it happens, so the herds of free roaming deer less evident than the heavy lorries pelting up the link road. Picnic didn't last long, as it started to rain..

Yesterday due either to confusion or incompetence, we found we'd managed to book ourselves intoB&Bs only 5 miles apart. Since at current rates of super-fitness this would have meant arriving just about in time for elevenses, we needed to find something to do to fill the day. What about - some more walking?! So we took a detour down the very pretty beechwood clad, babbling Exe to Dulverton. Hoorah for Sue who not only came and did some of this extra walking with us, but gave us a lift back to the 2 Moors Way (apart from Simon who, with a rather purist expression on his face, elected to walk the extra 5 miles - we will never hear the end of it doubtless.)

Our B&B turned out to include the extra attractions of hare and red deer watching, not to mention newts and the great dormouse escape - but that's another story.

And today we followed the river Barle through more dappled woods, spotting dippers (that's a bird) and bearded tits (so is that. yes it is) - and then up onto the moor and here we are in the SUN




Only hoping the weather will be as good tomorrow - haven't dared look at the forecast yet!

Barely alive blogging from the edge of a black hole

Now don't get me wrong. I have nothing but praise for the quality of North Devon's landscapes, the beauty of its rambling moors and majestic brooks, the charm of its snuggly little villages, and the friendliness of its people. But, hello! Any idea what century this is folks? No wi-fi anywhere, barely even any mobile phone signal (the posts headed 'live blog' have been sent on the hoof from my mobile), running water and electricity (other than that coming out of thunder clouds) exceptionally rare.
This is why blog posts have been somewhat lacking.
Yesterday our lovely friend Sue came up to join us for a spot of light walking before lunch and offered to post some updates if we let her have the password. But there was an evil glint in her eye when she made the offer, and I feared that we'd find unsuitable accounts of us getting up to no good.
Anyway, we have a broadband link now, and by golly we are going to use it! Expect a full catch up service and the frequent use of the word 'rain' over the next couple of hours.

day 5 - still wet

Having left Dartmoor behind us (day 3 - in the teeth of strong wind and stinging rain) we descended to the muddy green lanes, sloping fields and wooded, stream-divided valleys of mid Devon. Along bits of the (rushing) Teign. Some fine views from beneath Castle Drogo (and the sun came out for a bit then too! Good to see that after 10 miles in the rain, O & W still had energy and inclination to skip.)



Day 4: with misty low cloud, few views further than the next hillside or sometimes the end of this field; everywhere drips. Beginning to miss the moor’s grandeur and sense of scale…Once again the rain stops and sky clears as we approach the day’s destination. That’s all very well!
Day 5, more of the same. In this Devon of ours there are many, many waterlogged fields. Spirits high though feet wet! Through meadows filled with buttercups and flowering grasses – weighed down by rain. No, we won’t stop for a picnic. Little wooden footbridges over streams in the depths of woods – hard to say whether it’s wetter under the trees than out in the fields with the sodden-looking sheep. On we press, preferring to get food in the pub on arrival in Witheridge than eat our sandwiches, which would probably dissolve on exit from the rucksack.

What’s this paper on the pub table? the North Devon Gazette; haven’t we come far!

live blog from the B&B

breakfast was nice but it is raining again and hard to get up the enthusiasm for the walk ahead. Fortunately it is only a short 8-mile hop today. Btw if you are reading this please leave comments we need the encouragement.

live blog in a field

we are in a field. It is green and damp and muddy. They are all green and damp and muddy.

live blog on the A30

we are crossing the A30 who knows what lies beyond

Another Day and Yet More YUCKY Yuck...

Today, we set off from Lower Hookner Barn (near North Bovey) into, as the title tells you, yucky yuck and very low visibility. We tramped along various fields, and all the while the drizzle developed into rain, feet got wet, etc. And as we skipped joyfully up onto the moor, we all began thinking something along the lines of 'Oh, so rain is ALL we're going to get?' (Well, at least that was what I thought) and, now on a lower notch of merriment, trudged onwards-maybe upwards, but who knows, with the visibility we had? So, more general trudging, saying 'Ow. My face hurts'-because of the rain pelting horizontally at us, but all in all, I found the trudging quite enjoyable; although by now my feet were utterly soaked. The only life forms visible-not counting the plants- amounted to a few sheep, some herds of cows, and maybe some (Imaginary?) Horses.

We eventually get down off the moor and started tramping, joy of all joys, along lanes- green and otherwise. We get under the cover of a hedge long enough to enjoy some stimulating chocolate-We weren't exactly short of supplies- And carry on trudging, now through some fields. Eventually we reach a house, but there is a complaint that it is in the wrong place... This conundrum eventually solved, we started following the river Teign, got under cover of some woodland, and saw a sculpture that looked like a walnut looking like a brain(or was it a brain looking like a walnut?).

Now we are happily sitting by the fire in our third B+B, I am allowed to Blog, Oli is watching telly, and the parents are reading the papers (Yesterdays). There's only one problem. We're going to have to walk even further tomorrow, and it is DEFINITELY going to rain again...

By Wilf (youngest member of the Rake family)

Day one: sombre majesty and yucky yuck

Our first day of the walk proper took us from Ivybridge (thanks to Sue Hadow for the lift) quickly up onto open moor.
Though dry, it was overcast and we faced a strong headwind throughout.
The lowering sky set off the sombre majesty of the moor with an impressive sense of drama, and we ploughed into the wind in good spirits.
We were fairly familiar with the intial stretch of moorland, as it is one of the easiest to get to from home. Oliver knows it even better as it has been a regular starting point for Ten Tors training weekends.
For much of the day we followed the route of the tramway that used to serve the old Redlake China Clay works, turning off this route just before the volcano-like spoil pile that marks the site of the works itself.
Despite being such a wild place, Dartmoor bears the traces of man's work everywhere. Of course the fact that it is now a wilderness is due largely to the deforestation carried out by early man. Stripped of tree cover, the already poor soil could no longer support agriculture. The route took us past Pile's Copse one of only three remaining bits of the original forest (not to be confused with Cops' piles, which is an unfortunate condition brought on by all that sitting in police cars).
Having left the tramway, we picked our way back off the moor to Scorriton.
Once at the B&B a siesta seemed like a good idea and some of us were drifting off to sleep when Oliver finally succombed to the stomach bug that Simon and Kate had both been fighting off, throwing up fairly vigorously over the en-suite! Fortunately our lovely hosts, Pat and Andy Dinning, took this in their stride and didn't instantly throw us out.
And so to bed, hoping for another dry day on Sunday.


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Liveblogging the moor

We are on Hameldown and the sun has almost broken through. Miraculously dry so far. Lots of larks in both senses

wet wet wet

Although the rain forecast for today failed to show there's plenty more to come on the first few days of the walk. ugh

Under starters orders... and they're off!

Partly for logistical reasons, and partly because there is some dispute as to what exactly constitutes the Two Moors Walk, we decided to do the 17 mile leg from Wembury to Ivybridge a couple of weekends before our main walk.
This stretch turns the TMW from a stroll across a couple of moors into an epic journey from sea to shining sea (ish). It takes the walker up steep sided valleys, through bluebell-bedecked woods, along the meandering Erm and through the mighty Flete and Kitley estates.
We were lucky with the weather, and managed to polish off the miles double-quick-sharp. We stopped for lunch at the Rose & Crown in Yealmpton, where the food was as good as we remembered, but the service a little sluggish.
All in all, then, a good 'amuse bouche' for the main course to come.
Plenty of time still to sponsor us. Just click on the link on the right.

This is the way we walked. Click the map to zoom in on the route.



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High-altitude training

Now, we wouldn't want you to think that we're taking this all a wee bit seriously or anything, but here are some photos from our high-altitude training camp in Switzerland.
We don't expect to get quite as much snow on Dartmoor, and it's unlikely that we'll have climbs of 700m in a day as we did on the way up the Wildstrubel, but it's best to be prepared for all possibilities.

Here's a map showing where we went -- the routes are approximate, you'd be well advised to take a guide rather than just following these blue lines:

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