Dartmoor Trip.

A special coach had been booked for this trip. The list on the notice board had filled up very rapidly and 35 people turned out in the end. The driver Mr.McMartin arrived at Paul Street bus station with a large red bus at 10:20 a m. He told us that he had brought a different coloured one this week. Diane brought Susan the Old English sheep dog who sat down quite contentedly. Occasionally she would wonder up to the front windows of the coach to look at what was happening ahead or go to the back to make sure that she had greeted everyone on board. We set out in beautiful sunshine and in high spirits and took the road south over Exe bridge. I asked if any of the party were planning to take their own route once we reached Dartmoor. All but three decided to come with the main party. After half an hour we reached Chudleigh and here we decided to stop for 20 minutes. Some of us looked around the church there. Continuing down to Chudleigh Knighton we turned off onto the narrow road to Bovey Tracey. We caught glimpses of the moor with Haytor and Rippon Tor bathed in sunshine. Bovey Tracey is a pretty town with very narrow streets and a picturesque church on an elevated site. The coach took us to the far side of the town to the cafe near the railway crossing. Here we stopped and went in to have a cup of tea. Several people took photos of Susan and Diane. We then returned to the coach and began the steep climb up the narrow road to Hay Tor. There were marvellous views back down to Bovey Tracey on the left as we climbed. We emerged on to the summit and most of the party obtained their first glimpse of Haytor. We parked near the road and then I announced that the plan was to have lunch on the rocks. Only three persons decided not to accompany the main group and they set out to walk to Widecombe.
The fine granite rocks were bathed in sunshine and while everyone found a place for lunch, I went round taking some more photos. Some of the party had highly coloured clothing. Unfortunately, I was using a black and white film. Tony, however, had his colour camera and took some good shots. It was very pleasant having lunch in the shelter of the rocks and admiring the splendid view towards Bovey, Rippon Tor and Buckland Beacon. Afterwards, we decided to climb to the top of the higher rocks. There are rough cut steps in the granite but at places there are difficult gullies. Most of the party wanted to go to the top and with a little help and encouragement from each other made it all right. The view was extraordinarily good and a lot of photos were taken. Diane had left Susan at the bottom in charge of one of the other girls. Climbing down gain we returned to the coach and dumped our rucksacks etc. Leaving driver McMartin to read his copy of John Bull magazine, we set out along the road in beautiful weather. One of the party had found a long ash stick at Haytor and this acted as a fine walking stick
I remembered the difficulty we had climbing Rippon Tor the last time we were here. We had left the road too early. So I kept on until we almost reached the Hemsworthy Gate, then we started up the long slope.