I use the term "good old dartmoor" as over the years it has become like a friend. That is, it has many facets and moods,one day almost child like in its bright and cheerful vibe,but in a moment that disappears, replaced by a grey forboding fog with a chill wind that bites and within minutes you are damp and cold,only to find it turn again,and you can almost hear it laugh at you.

There are so many places on the moor all with their peculiar characteristics, but one of my favourites is tavy cleave.This is where,as the name suggests, the tavy drains through the peat bogs of Rattlebrook, Kneeset,Fur tor and Cut hill draining down through the cavanous cleave, on its way to Tavistock to join the Tamar and on further to Plymouth. this epitimises what i was saying earlier about the changing moods of the moor,on spring and summer days its beauty is breathtaking,you can see for miles as you are on one of the higher parts of the moor,and the only sounds are the ocasional sheep calling,and the gentle humming of the bees feeding on the bell heather and western gorse.Try the same in january time and it is a very different place, the water roars through the cleave,and it is deafening,the path is so wet or frozen it is all you can do to stop from falling,which at that height would be a disaster!It is so hard to imagine a few months earlier, you were dozing in the balmy warm afternoon sunshine.

So many emmits,a somewhat derogatory term to refer to non residents or holiday makers,(although there aren,t many true locals left now,) perhaps a subject for another time, complain of how cruel it is to leave animals up on the moor all year , be said that these animals are hardened to this environment,and if bad weather is forcast for any great length then they are brought down to lower ground, giving better shelter,but the moor itself would suffer without these animals as they help to keep down the gorse and is ironic that these same people, thinking they are being kind, feed the ponies with all sorts of unsuitable foodstuffs,and do much more harm to the ponies.

The other problem of course is,by feeding them they are encouraged to dwell on and by the roadside which then causes accidents. I will be out on "good old dartmoor" in the next few days,and look forward to telling of my" wanderings."