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Walking England - Elementary my dear Watson
Transport carried us from the White Hart Hotel to Devil's Bridge, where we began what Ken called "a fairly wild moorland walk." Some of the grund was indeed rougher than any we had previously encountered. Toward the end where we followed the trackway of a former quarry railway it was indeed an easy two miles. We passed an 800-year-old bridge. We saw the remains of a gun powder plant, with its chimney still standing. En route we were driven past the building in which sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote The Hound of Baskerville; it was then a hotel and is now the High Moorland Visitors Centre. OUr walk took us though a World WAr II firing range with stone markers showing the distance a shot had traveled. A lot of American troops were here in bothe warld wars. There were numerous martar holes, and Ken demonstrated how the troops could calculate the source fo mortar fire by the natrue of the holes.
Dartmoor consists of 368 Square miles. It is said to be one of the world's most important archeological sites. There are 18 small rivers. Our walk ended in the small village of Princetown at about 1:20 p.m. We had soup, salad and sandwich lunch at the Fox Tor Cafe before touring the High Moorland Visitor centre. Ken and Margaret had been up to their usual trek-end tricks. Sherlock Holmes himself was there to greet us, pose for pictrues with us and distribute our completionof trek certificates. I briefly donned a Hound of Baskersville (which probably improved my looks!). We ended our indoor visit to the centre by watching a film about dartmoor. It included scenes from the local livestock competition at the Widicombe Fair, which reminded us of our time there the previous day. The end-of-trek festivities were no over, however. As we exited from the Visitor centre, a horse and wangon rounded the corner and pulled up in fron of the building. It contained Dr. John H. Watson , to whom Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts and a large segment of the public attribute the authorship of all but four of the Serlock Holmes stories. It took some time to perceive that it was actually Steve Hindsman dressed and posing as Dr. Watson, mustache and all. Some merriment followed this discovery. A bus then transported us to the coastal city of Plymouth. We arrived at our Duke of Cornwall Hotel at 4:05 p.m. After a cool, rainy, at times windy walk on the moors, we were quite ready for time to clean up and rest. The evening was quiet. My dinner consisted of tomato and lentil soup, haddock and ice cream(vanilla and chocolate) for dessert.
Distance walked:7.07 miles.
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