England - Sep18 - Chagford, Dartmoor National Park

We drove east from Port Isaac to Chagford which is northern part of Dartmoor National Park. We stayed in The Globe Inn which was very nice.

I must say, driving in Dartmoor National Park is not for the faint of heart. The roads quickly narrow down to one lane, and I mean one lane. There were sections where if two cars met head on, one would have to back up for half a mile before there was an opportunity for the other car to pass. It was ridiculous! And slow going.

But we made it to Chagford in the late afternoon, too late to do anything other than walk around the small, quaint village.

Chagford was pretty much this street, with another one perpendicular to it.

A serious thatch roof.

St. Michael's Church just across the street from The Globe Inn.

The chuch had a graveyard with gravestones that were probably impressive when new, but now unreadable in many cases. I wonder if anyone knows who is buried here now? Anybody who knew them is probably gone as well.

We walked out of town and almost immediately the road narrowed to this.

Your typical road in Dartmoor National Park! Again, driving here is not for the faint of heart.

We found a trail and had it to ourselves except for the sheep.

Thatch cat!

We had a nice dinner at the restaurant in The Globe Inn. This little fireplace inside the giant fireplace was kind of interesting.

The restaurant also had a bar with lots of beer choices to choose from.

The next morning, we bought an Ordnance Survey map -- GPS can't help you here -- at Bowden's hardware store, and made the short 15-minute drove over a very narrow road to the trailhead for the Scorhill Stone Circle. Rick Steves gave it two stars and said this about it: 'Hundreds of Neolithic ruins dot the landscape of Dartmoor, but the Scorhill Stone Circle near Gidleigh may be the best. Stonehenge, THE iconic stone circle, is much bigger -- but it's also packed with crowds. Tranquil, forgotten Scorhill is yours alone -- the way a stone circle should be. As it comes with a scenic stroll across a moor, it's a great sampling of what Dartmoor is all about'.

Here we are getting started on the trail. It was perfect weather for the moors: foggy, drizzling rain.

Looking out of the Moors.

It wasn't very far to the Stone Circle, but we overshot it to the left and were actually briefly lost!

We finally found it, but had to walk through a herd of cows to get to it.

Yes!

A really good look at the Moors.

From Rick Steves: 'Windswept and desolate, Dartmoor -- one of England's best national parks -- is one of the few truly wild places you'll find in this densely populated country. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's masterpiece, the Hound of the Baskervilles was set here. Locals brag that Dartmoor is England as it was 50 years ago

You can see the entire stone circle in this picture.

OK, as good as it was, Lynnette has had enough of the Stone Circle.

We had no trouble hiking back to the car parked at the trailend. But when I clicked the Key Fob to unlock it, nothing! We were locked out of the car in the middle of nowhere. I couldn't believe it.

Lynnette's smart phone had no service but fin what I can only say was a miracle, mine did. I called the Avis Emergency phone number on the key fob and someone answered "Avis Emergency Service." I can't tell you how good that sounded. They said, yeah, sure, we'll have someone out there in 50 minutes. I tried to tell them we were in the middle of nowhere but they didn't seem concerned. I knew it wouldn't take 50 minutes though.

What would we have done if neither of our phones had worked? There was an estate house right next to the trailhead. I would have walked up the driveway to their house, knocked on the door, and asked if I could use their phone.

So we waited.

and waited.

And waited.

Finally, about two and a half hours later, the emergency van showed up. The guy was a real pro. He showed us the skeleton key that was inside the key fob -- who knew? but the physical key mechanism in the car door wasn't hooked up so it was useless. (actually, I was glad about that, because I would have been embarassed to have had a key at hand all this time). He literally had to break into the car, using a complete assortment of car entry tools he had. I think he used to be a car thief earlier in his career! But he got us going and I tipped him well.

We had a small Ford Focus but the fit on the narrow roads was still tight.

This one-lane stone bridge was so narrow, we had to fold the side mirrors in to get through.

We drove to the nearest big town that had an Avis office at the airport, Exeter, to get a new car. But it turns out a new battery in the key fob did the trick. We used the car the rest of the vacation without incident. We liked the car; it had a nice, panel mounted GPS.

Dartmoor National Park had turned out to be quite the adventure. Rick Steves had an all-day, self-guided driving tour which he gave three stars, but I had had enough of driving in Dartmoor National Park. Plus we needed to get moving to see other things.

Next stop: Bath.

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