Synopsis: Crazy idea for a barbecue on Dartmoor, when the weather was far from promising. Turned out ok though! Followed by a walk around Fernworthy Reservoir. Helen trials new rain jacket.
Helen was very bemused by my logic first thing this morning. We looked at the weather which was far from promising, with a good deal of low cloud all about. I said to Helen, “The one thing that you don’t want to do on a day like this is go up on Dartmoor.” Then, a little while later, I said to Helen, “What we should do is have a barbecue up on Dartmoor.” Helen looked at me most perplexed, saying, “Didn’t you just say that was the one thing we shouldn’t do on a day like this?” Well, yes. I can’t fully explain my thinking other than at some point I took a sudden fancy to doing this which overrode all logic really. Well, being illogical isn’t solely the preserve of women!
When we arrived at Fernworthy Reservoir car park we used the toilet and took a look around. We discovered (a) you now have to pay to use the car park, (b) there are signs which say fires should not be lit, and (c) the picnic area was quite exposed to a strong breeze. I said to Helen and Mum that I knew of a place a little further around the reservoir that would afford us more shelter from the wind and would be free.
The spot that I drove us to was a small grassy area on which I could park the car. This was a quiet spot that we had all to ourselves, and was quite well protected from the wind. We soon set about trying to light the barbecue.
Fernworthy Reservoir, Dartmoor - Helen and Mum by our barbecue spot
I say ‘trying’ since we had quite some trouble getting the barbecue to fire up. We’d grabbed this old disposable barbecue that I’d had lying around in my garage for goodness knows how many years. It was proving very burn shy today until Helen came up with the idea of placing it over the flame from the gas stove. This had the desired effect of breathing new life into the barbecue. Whether it was damp that caused the reluctance to burn I don’t know, but once the stove had heated the coals these soon began to burn quite nicely. Typical of these disposable barbecues, we were soon enveloped in clouds of smoke bellowing from the coals. However the sausages and bacon were now cooking nicely and it wasn’t long before we were tucking into a lovely, if rather late, meal, which was very welcome.
After lunch we placed the barbecue somewhere to cool off as we planned to walk the circuit around the reservoir. We gave Jaffa the opportunity to take a stroll and do whatever was necessary before returning him to the car for his afternoon nap. As we passed through the first gate on our walk, moments from our picnic spot, Helen noticed a picnic bench that we might have used, and was amused that we should have been so close to it and not have known it was there.
Fernworthy Reservoir, Dartmoor
The water in the reservoir was quite low reflecting how little rainfall we’d had over the recent months. The trail near the dam where there is a rhododendron plantation was thick with overgrowth through which we had to plough our way forward. The sun occasionally shone streaks of light through the clouds illuminating the water giving the reservoir a dramatic appearance.
It was very quiet around the reservoir, with not a sole in sight. I suppose it was by now late afternoon and everyone had gone home for their tea. Helen would have liked to have climbed up to one of the tors overlooking the reservoir, which would have been nice, but I felt we didn’t have the time for this today and managed to talk her out of it.
Walk Statistics:
Total Distance: 2.8 miles
Elapsed Time: 1hr 40min
Total Ascent: 226 metres
Maximum Elevation: 477 metres
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