5 walks – Easy/Moderate and Moderate 8, 10 and 11 miles
The club’s May Weekend this year was based in a beautiful old farmhouse near Dawlish. It was a long weekend of varied walks in the foothills of Dartmoor, along the South Devon coast path, and socialising.
The walks on the Saturday were 11 and 8 miles long and xplored the characteristic granite landscape of the Haytor area on the eastern side of the Dartmoor National Park. We walked across open and wild moorlands, past wonderful iconic gran ite tors and rushing streams and through woodlands carpeted with spring flowers.
There were also two walks of 9 and 11 miles on the Sunday. On e was a marvellous walk which enjoyed a glorious range of beautiful scenery, including a lovely wooded section along the River Dart (one of the best canoeing rivers in South West England), as well as superb panoramic views over the Dart gorge and three more tors to delight the tor baggers amongst us. The second walk started & ended at the village of Manaton and followed the beautiful valley of the River Bovey into Lustleigh Cleeve of fering splendid wooded scenery and then to Lustleigh itself.
On the Bank Holiday Monday, we did a walk along a wonderful stretch of the South Devon coastline with red sandstone cliffs, rolling green fields and coastal woodland. We started from the little town of Shaldon and followed the coast to Maidencombe where we had lunch. We returned along a higher path with fine views over the sea and cliffs. We ended the weekend with refreshments at an ancient inn overlooking the Teign estuary before we headed off home.