I’m trying to squeeze more adventures into my everyday life, so how could I resist a ‘somewhat’ dry forecast for a Dartmoor adventure with one of my favourite hiking buddies!

The intention of this trip was a wild camping trip with my mate’s doggies, but, spoilers alert, we bailed on the camp due to the soggy forecast… and an unwillingness to dry out a tent.

Having hiked a reasonable amount on the northern side of the moor (Okehampton and Willsworthy) with Ten Tors training, I was excited to head to the southern side of the moor to Merrivale.

When planning a walk, my main objective is to try and incorporate a swim spot. So I started by marking swimming locations on my map using my Wild Swimming book and I plotted a couple of walks for my mate Asia to choose from. We opted for the walk that went via Crazy Well Pool.

I’ve been to Crazy Well Pool before and it’s a beautiful spot, so I was very excited to have a second swim there almost a year later.

So with the route decided and our bags packed, we headed off on bank holiday Monday down to Dartmoor.

We parked along the B3357 between Merrivale and Princetown, in the free car park below Great Mis and Little Mis (SX 56080 75085) and set off on our adventures!

Our 20 km route took us over Kings Tor and along the Disused Railway footpath/ Dartmoor Way High Moor Link to Princetown.

We had a brief stop here to put on our rain jackets as the heavens opened — we remained positive though, keeping our sunglasses handy.

Thankfully, the rain soon stopped and we didn’t need our coats again. We were actually incredibly lucky with the forecast, we drove through a lot of wet weather to get to Dartmoor and the rain that was predicted to dump on us later in the day didn’t come until we were safely in the dry.

From Princetown we took the footpath over South Hessary Tor before taking a right alongside the Devon Port Leat to Crazy Well Pool. We passed a few cyclists here pushing their bikes as the rock was so loose, it was tricky to even walk on. Knowing how clumsy we both are, I am surprised neither of us took a tumble.

We arrived at Crazy Well Pool as the sunshine came out. To make the most of the sun we laid out and had our lunch before having a swim.

The swim was glorious!

After the swim, we then re-joined the path through the woods near Burrator Reservoir and over Leather Tor Bridge.

Here the footpath was right next to the Devon Port Leat and Asia took the opportunity to cool off her feet.

After crossing the B3212 we picked up the Disused Railway footpath/ Dartmoor Way High Moor Link past Ingra Tor and Kings Tor back to the car park.

All in all, a fantastic day adventuring on the moors!

I’m hoping to get lots of adventures in over the summer and I cannot wait to share them with you!