When probably my least ‘outdoorsy’ friend asked me to take her camping, I firstly could not believe it. But secondly, I was so excited to be the person to introduce Tash to one of my favourite places and do some of my favourite things!

Blessed with some August sunshine (which I was not expecting considering how WET the entire month has been), I was so excited that we had the right weather for a hike, a wild camp, and a wild swim.

Wanting to make sure Tash enjoyed her first Dartmoor experience, I planned a good walk starting from Prewley Moor with lots of opportunities to cut the route shorter in the first half if required. We started up Sourton tor, one of my favourites as it’s so close to where we leave the car, but you so quickly get to be in in the heart of the moors with fantastic views of Meldon Resorvoir, and on a good weather day, you can see across to Belstone Common.

From Sourton we headed to Nodden Gate, following the track below Great Nodden, to the ford where we had a lovely picturesque lunch stop by the water.

Lunch was abruptly stopped when a local farmer starting herding cows over the ford in our direction.

We quickly packed up and to my surprise Tash said lets do the full loop — rather than return to the car via the easier option of returning the way we had come.

So, up the hill we went. And then up another hill we went.

The ford was located at 320 meters, we walked past Arms tor at 457 meters, and carried on up to 586 meters at Great Links tor… I’m not sure Tash had fully understood what she had signed up for. We were definitely entering her Type 2 Fun territory.

From Great Links we dropped down 100 meters to the main track and followed that past Logan Stone and waved at Sourton Tor as we headed back down to the car at Prewley Moor.

You’ll be pleased to know, on completing the route, Tash was rather pleased that we had done it, and I was relieved that Great Links hadn’t traumatised her and made her want to drive home from there! Jokes aside, as I’m not giving Tash enough credit; she did brilliantly for a 14km walk in the depths of Dartmoor and out of her comfort zone.

We changed out of our walking boots and into the comfort of sandals in my case, Crocs in Tash’s, and consumed many a ginger nut biscuit in the car to refuel ourselves.

When some strength was regained, we drove 30 mins to the Dartmoor Inn in Merrivale for a half pint each and graciously; the luxury use of a toilet rather than squatting behind a rock or bush. From here we then drove back down the road slightly to a car park below the Staple tors. In the car park, we swapped our day packs for 65 litre rucksacks filled with that nights home and gear, and headed up to Little Staple. We decided we weren’t really far away enough from the road here and we would get more shelter at Middle Staple (as it’s tor is bigger) and continued up a little. Due to the wind direction and least rocky ground to sleep on, we camped on the far side of Middle Staple and had a fantastic view of Great Staple tor… that was until the fog came in.

Once the tent was up, we cooked up some dinner, had a hot choccie, and were fast asleep before 9 pm!

After a goodnights sleep, we packed up camp (including a soggy tent from where it had rained in the night) and walked back down the hill to the car.

We then drove 20 mins to Burrator Reservoir where I had planned a shorter walk, but with a wild swim for us to do that morning.

We parked near Norsworthy Bridge, swapped our big rucksacks back to smaller day bags and walked through the woods past Leather tor bridge, back out of the woods, and up to Crazy Well Pool.

It has been probably 10 years since I was last at Crazy Well Pool so I was so so so excited to revisit it, and this time be able to swim in it. It was such a hot day and after having a bit of an uphill to get to the pool, we were both very ready to get in.

We were super privileged to have had the whole place to ourselves, perhaps because we had got there early on a Tuesday morning? I know that it is a super popular wild swim location so I was very surprised to have it to ourselves, but I have to admit it made it so much more magical.

I must’ve been in the pool for at least 20 minutes. It was such a beautiful day for a swim and it was SO peaceful, I just didn’t want to get out!

Eventually, I got out and we walked back to the car. And that is where our Dartmoor journey concludes.

A huge thank you to Tash for being up for adventures and trusting me to keep us safe. I loved it!

Getting outdoors is my perfect mental reset and it was lovely to make it such a fun a varied trip. I feel so much better mentally for taking the time to escape to Dartmoor for a couple of days, I’m now looking at what adventure I can next put in my diary.