A Date for Rebecca and Dad

The week after my date with Gwendolyn, she had a birthday party to attend at our neighbor Rebecca's house. Rebecca is one of three Rebeccas at Harrowbarrow Primary and it was her fifth birthday. Our Rebecca and I decided that we would take this opportunity for a date and set off for Dartmoor National Park. Although Christine and I have hiked there, Rebecca had not yet visited Dartmoor.
Rebecca was intrigued by the walk involving two river crossings over stepping stones, so we headed for that trailhead. Dartmoor's boundary lies just to the east of Tavistock - the trailhead was only a 30 minute drive from our cottage. It's a beautiful drive and we were there in no time. This walk is characterized by Bronze Age ruins, a pretty village, plenty of wildflowers, sheep (of course!), and the beautiful West Dart River valley, so we were excited to get started. The total route was four miles - no problem for Rebecca!
We arrived at the car park and were immediately returned to the Bronze Age with the Dunnabridge Pound, which I've written about in a previous post. I should point out that Rebecca took all of the pictures in this post with some fairly obvious exceptions.

From there it was a nice downhill stroll along some ancient walls and across moorland

to the West Dart River.

We did this hike on 14 May and the bluebells were in peak color. They were everywhere. They are tough to capture with a camera, but here they are along the river bank.

The stepping stones are the real highlight of this walk. The larger one crosses the West Dart River where the river widens. Here is a picture from the stones themselves.

Rebecca had no problem making it across despite the leaps that are required between each stone.

The reward on the other side is a swing that juts out over the river. There is a smaller set of stepping stones across a smaller tributary further along the walk, but Rebecca didn't deem these stones photo-worthy.

The nice thing about this walk is that it was an out-and-back rather than a loop. While we normally prefer a loop, the chance to repeat the stepping stones made this a good hike. The midpoint of the hike is in the pretty little village of Hexworthy, here with a couple of thatched cottages.

The other appealing thing about this village is The Forest Inn, whose motto is "Hooves, boots, and muddy paws welcome." Rebecca and I had lunch here before doing the return walk. We also each got to have our favorites, Rebecca's being Scampi and Chips,

while I had a Cheese Ploughman. It looks as if we're sitting in someone's living room, doesn't it? We're looking forward to our next date.