1st March 2008
Poldue Downs - Louden Hill - King Arthurs Hall - Butters Tor - Brown Willy - Rough Tor
Approx 13km or 8 miles
Our first outing as Take Five saw us on a circuit of Bodmin Moor. Threatened by bad weather we all turned up with wet weather gear (except for Pete who turned up as a canary), but as it turned out we didnt need it, although it was a tadge windy.
The route follows an obvious circuit linking the prominant peaks to the west of Rough Tor and looping back round to run up the false summits of Brown Willy. Its a beautiful and remote part of Cornwall and well worth the visit.
Its fairly easy going for the opening part and although we couldnt find the Stone Circle properly, navigation was not difficult. It would have been different had the weather closed in. Lunch was had in a wooded copse about 1/2 a K east of King Arthurs Hall, an old enclosure which presumably at some point had a building. Our budding Magellan's spent many seconds deciding over which direction to go, checking grid references and compass coordinates and then completely ignored the guidance of the compass and map and made their decisions by pure guesswork.
Still, we made it to the summit of Brown Willy without too many bad jokes and then a welcome break in the lee of the wind on Rough Tor. Pete's Kendall mintcake made us all feel like intrepid explorers. The only thing that spoilt the remotness of the place were the five or six quad bikes, thirty horses and riders, seven four wheel drive vehicles, large pack of dogs and Barbour jacketed entourage of the hunt that was trawling around looking for something to kill.
All in all a great walk and a good warm up for Snowdonia in June, even if the 'mountains' on Bodmin Moor and not quite on the same scale.
Bring it!!
