Trip Overview

A car-based trip down to Dartmoor to join my friend Paul (@paulgbuck, http://www.moorlandwalks.co.uk) for a bit of New Year tor-bagging. Unfortunately, I managed to break him on the very first afternoon, leaving me doing the bulk of the trip by myself, and switching my base to Princetown a day earlier than intended.

Links to each day’s blog post and the Social Hiking map are included below for each day.

The Walks

Day 1 (Friday 2 January 2015): An afternoon’s circular walk from Belstone via East Mill Tor, Okement Hill, Oke Tor and Belstone Tor. 12 tors, 10.63 miles, 515m ascent, 4h 47 mins. Map

Day 2 (Saturday 3 January 2015): A wet day in which I transferred my base to Princetown, visiting some outlying tors to the west of the A386 in 3 separate walks:

• Walk 1: Was Tor and Wastor Hill. 1 tor, 1 hill, 2.60 miles, 122m ascent, 1h 11 mins. Map
• Walk 2: Brent Tor from the car park. 1 tor, 0.52 miles, 142m ascent, 22mins. Map
• Walk 3: Gibbet Hill. 1 hill/tor, 2.55 miles, 146m ascent, 1h 9 mins. Map

Day 3 (Sunday 4 January 2015): A circuit of the tors around the West Dart. A foggy and boggy day testing navigation skills. 16 tors, 13.27 miles, 633m ascent, 6h 44 mins. Map

Day 4 (Monday 5 January 2015): Exploring Walkhampton common in a circuit from Princetown. 11 tors, 9.82 miles, 423m ascent, 6h 24 mins. Map

Day 5 (Tuesday 6 January 2015): Wanting to increase my tor count, I went for the circuit of Burrator reservoir. 18 tors, 9.41 miles, 770m ascent, 6h 24 mins. Map

Day 5-6 (Tue/Wed 6/7 January 2015): Desperate to have the first wild camp of the year, I rushed out to King’s Tor to do just that, enduring a really cold camp, but rewarded by great sunset and sunrise. 2 tors, 5.54 miles, 139m ascent, 1h 56 mins. Map

Accommodation

Night 1: Paul’s parents’ house

Nights 2-4: Fox Tor Café bunkhouse

Night 5: wildcamp on King’s Tor

Trip Stats

Number of walks: 8

Distance walked: 54.34 miles

Ascent: 2,890m

Walk duration:  28 h 57 mins

Average speed: 1.88 mph

Number of tors & hills visited: 62 (+1 repeated)

Number of camps: 1