Tuesday 11th March Ducks Pool

After the warm sunshine of the last few days very different weather on the moor today. Swirling mists and a bitterly cold wind.

Starting from the small car park below Gutter Tor we set off past the Scout Hut.

Out through the Bronze Age Settlement to the ancient stone rows in the Giant's Basin.

 The largest standing stone on Dartmoor.






















On to Lower Hartor Tor.

Down to cross the upper reaches of the River Plym - just a bit tricky in places.

Up the other side of the valley to Calveslake Tor.

Looking back down the Plym Valley with Lower Hartor Tor on the right.

From here we set off for Ducks' Pool.  This one of the most remote and featureless parts of Dartmoor - there are no tors and no points of interest but there is a beauty in the remoteness.

Rosemary found this little plant called Lucifer's Matches.






















We arrived at Duck's Pool - there is no pool here any more just bits of boggy ground.

Within the boggy patch someone had left some plastic ducks!


Duck's Pool is home to the second oldest letterbox on Dartmoor and erected as a memorial to William Crossing in 1938. 
Terry got out the visitors book and duly recorded our names. 
We stopped here for a picnic lunch - with just a little shelter from the bitterly cold wind.
Dukis (Charlie's resident traveling  duck) had his photo taken by the memorial plaque.
After lunch we headed to the Post on Cater's Beam at the end of Black Lane (there is no lane any more).  This a watershed area and very wet, squelchy and not to everyone's liking - the ground is so soft that at times it felt like you were walking through snow.

The post is one of two (the other is about 1 km south) and both are marked on the os map.  It is made from an old railway sleeper put here many, many years ago to act as a navigation aid on this featureless part of the moor. It has been well weathered over the years. 

Next across Crane Hill and more remote moor to pick up the track which leads to Plym Ford.

On the track we met Matt who was rounding up his sheep so that the lambs could be born on the farm. He was after two more he had seen in the distance.













Along the track we walked through the ones he had found already.  At last the sun was coming through and it started to warm up as we headed down to the cars.

With Colin, Amber, Terry, Rosemary and Linda.