Starting the Coast to Coast/ Two Moors Way

This post was meant to be part 1 of our Coast to Coast / Two Moors Way trips that we attempted a couple of weeks ago, but things didn't exactly go to plan and we had to end it before it had properly begun.  I still wanted to write about it, however, as it's good to talk about the bad as well as the good, and you can still learn something from it.

We knew that this wasn't going to be one of the easiest walks we'd ever done as we were attempting to cram the sensible eleven days trip into seven and we were having to bring more food than I would have liked as our itinerary meant that we couldn't guaranteed we were going to be near any of the shops when they were actually open.  We had managed to get the rest of our gear quite light, with the main weight coming from the food and water.

We started pretty early at the beginning point, Wembury Beach, and completed the Erme-Plym Trail part of the trek in the first day.  The distance was quite a long one, just over 17 miles, but the terrain of fields and country lanes was a pretty good one to start the walk with.  Unfortunately the views were pretty much obscured by the weather for most of the day.  In fact, it rained so much and so hard that I didn't want to take my phone out very often to take photos, and our guide book has taken quite a beating.

Despite the wet and windy weather wild camping on Dartmoor turned out to be a pretty good experience.  The food we had brought was enough to fill us and quick to make, and our tent (the Lanshan 2 which many people have said in reviews that they didn't think would hold up to wind and rain) worked very well giving us a sheltered but condensation free night despite all the rain.  The only issue I had is that I've now noticed that my hips have started hurting after a night camping, so I'll need to find a ground mat that gives me a little more support for future trips.

Day two was meant to be one of our longest days, just over 20 miles in total, and would see us travelling over Dartmoor, past Holne, and then back into Dartmoor again for another night of wild camping.  However, it turned out that this wasn't meant to be.  I have to admit that we didn't get up and as ready as early as we should have done, but the main issue was that the little niggles my partner had experienced the day before hadn't alleviated over night.  Instead, they got progressively worse as the day went on, mostly in his knees, and it got to the point where we had to call it quits on the walk.

Thankfully we had made it to the Avon Dam Reservoir, which meant we could take a nice slow walk down to the nearby car park where we could call in the cavalry to take us home.  The walk up until that point had been very, very wet and windy again, and shrouded in mist, but still beautiful in it's own right.  There's something about Dartmoor in the fog that is so attractive, maybe it's the added danger of getting completely lost.

So, what have I learnt from this incomplete trip.  Firstly, our choice in tent turned out to be a real win.  Light weight, capable of protecting us from some pretty bad weather, and the fact you need to bring your walking polls to use in junction with it turned out to be a win as my partner really relied on them in the end.  Secondly, I need to find a way of making our packs even lighter as I'm pretty certain that the weight along with the cold played a key role in the knee issues.  Thirdly, I really need to change my walking boots.  I love the boots I have.  They're sturdy and take quite a beating, but my feet are just too wide for them and no matter what I do I can't get them to fit.  On the plus though, I'm a lot fitter than I thought I was and my body actually took really well to the walking with the heavy backpack.  By day two it felt like my body had already gotten into the rhythm of it.

And the plan moving forward is this - we don't want to give up on doing the Two Moors Way, but doing it in one go probably isn't a good idea at the moment.  Instead, we're going to break it up into stages with shorter sections than we had originally planned to act as training for other longs hikes we have on the radar.  It was also great being back up in Dartmoor again and, once the knees have healed, we plan to spend a lot more time there in the future.