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!