Wild Swimming in Eerie England

We have been on our holiday, and managed to spend a few glorious days on Dartmoor, one of my favourite places, with a seemingly limitless array of stunning locations to walk to. This time we took a  walk North, following a branch of the Dart river, from Two Bridges to visit Wistman's Wood.

Wistman's Wood is fairy small, and yet, it is a truly spectacular place; stunted dwarf Oaks, huddle together and cling to the sides of the steep valley amidst a chaotic carnage of vast granite boulders. The curious feature that makes it seem like a set from a Harry Potter movie, is that the whole place is positively draped in dense layers of thick green spongy mosses and ferns.

You need to be careful, as you clamber through the boulders, partly because it is slippery and dangerous terrain, partly because you want to preserve this unique environment and partly because there are various legends that indicate that the Devil's ghostly Wist Hounds abide in the area, as well as nests of writhing vipers (really). 

We found it a truly splendid place and it fulfilled my slightly obsessive quest for English Eerie. After eating our sandwiches in the Druidic grove, we trekked back over the nearby tors to the Two Bridges Hotel for tea and scones. Finally, on our route home, we stopped off at Merrivale to visit the fascinating array of stone rows and circle there.

On another day we took a lovely woodland walk from the village of Holne, along the river Dart until we found the legendary Sharrah Pool.

This idyllic spot is perfect for a picnic followed by a bit of wild swimming. The Dart has carved out a massive groove through the ancient granite landscape, which is deep enough to dive into in several places (if you are brave enough) and longer than 100 meters. 

There are several delightful places along the river, where it is deep and accessible enough to swim, and these natural Jacuzzis are becoming more popular with the recent trend for wild swimming in the UK but Sharrah Pool is astounding, an absolute must.

The dark peaty water gushes down-hill via boulder strewn white-water rapids, sluicing into the main pool via a narrow waterfall and channel, "the Sharrah Shoot". The bold can plunge into the shoot and get swept into the pool for further swimming and frolicking. After exhausting ourselves in the pool, we hiked back to Holne for the best cream teas in Devon from the local community shop, the perfect conclusion to a brilliant day out.

Mulberry Murder Mystery

While on holiday in sunny Devon recently, we visited Greenways – Agatha Christie’s House, near Dartmouth. We got a small ferry over the Dart river from Dittisham (another lovely place) and clambered up the hill to the house.



A Jay's Feather and a Mulberry

 I was wandering about the massive garden with the children when we spotted a Mulberry tree. Closer inspection revealed that many of the fruits were ripe, and so, purely in the spirit of the National Trust’s (who  own the house) 50 things to do before you’re Eleven and Three-quarters – we set about picking and eating as many of the sweet juicy fruit as we could lay our fingers on. Later we checked out another big Mulberry tree, in Salcombe too. 

These fruits are easy to find under the leaves of the tree but they can be tricky because a) They do not all ripen at once. b) The ripe ones are likely to drop off as soon as you shake the tree. c) The blood red, honeyed juice gets everywhere can make it look as if you might, just have slaughtered someone with your bare hands! 

The reward, for those who recognise the trees, bother to find the ripe fruit and risk the suspicious stares of passers-by, as they note the incriminating evidence, guiltily smeared across your mouth and fingers; is an incredibly luscious berry, tasting something like a syrupy blackberry/raspberry cross.

When we got home we found another tree in Winchester and I decided to try creating Mulberry liquor. I used gin and my surplus berries but I had to fight the children off, to prevent a Mulberry massacre; they would have scoffed the lot straight away if I had relented. I will report back on this project later but I do already have a very good feeling about it. 

Murder She Wrote!

 There is a Mulberry tree in the Southampton parks too, for those who know where and when to look…

Definately Guilty!