Walking - Day 1

Firstly, the all important stats:
Today's Route - Yeoford to Chagford
Distance - 22.5km (excluding random wandering around)
Beers Earned - Forgot to set the app running, won't make that mistake again

The first day of a long distance walk is always a bit of an experiment. It takes a couple of attempts to get everything right ... what gets packed at the bottom of the backpack vs what needs to be at the top for easy access, how many layers of clothing are required for the changeable weather, are the boot laces tight enough or have toes gone numb because the laces are too tight. It's been 3 years since our last long distance ramble (far too long) and it took us a couple of hours to get into the rhythm of things again. One of the more interesting challenges was adjusting the backpack straps ... we're not the same shape we were 3 years ago and the pack fits a little differently this trip.

But, despite these minor dilemmas, it's soooo good to be back in the boots.

The weather was kind to us today. Lots of very threatening clouds, strong wind and quite cold but no rain to speak of ... just the occasional annoying drop landing right in the middle of the sunglasses lens.

Our morning started on narrow lanes to get out of Yeoford and join the Two Moors Way a little down the road. It's definitely nicer underfoot to be walking cross-country but even the lanes are pretty here. The hedges are full of wildflowers and the views in the distance are so different to what we're used to at home that walking on the hard surface isn't really a chore.

And there's so much to see besides the scenery. The guide book for the Two Moors Way contains snippets of info about the hamlets we walk through (or near) and suggests diversions from the trail to see interesting things. We poked our noses into most suggested places so it was quite a long day by the time we arrived in Chagford.

Despite not setting the app to calculate how many beers we'd earned today we unanimously decided we'd earned at least one each ... and it went down very well after our first day of tramping across the Devon countryside.Read more