Tuesday , lazy start to the best day so far!

Leaving pub accommodation is never a quick thing in the morning, today we excelled at slow! Between enjoying our fried breakfasts and talking to Karen owner of the East Dart inn lovely lady with history of rubbing shoulders with royals! We didn't leave until 10am two hours late really! 

But it set the theme for the day kick back enjoy and plod on!

To start the weather was awful battering wind and rain as we headed north a few miles to join the path east, as soon as we'd left the road the weather turned for the better and it just improved as we went through the day!, for now the improving weather saw us head over moorland trails to an abandoned settlement probably 3-400 years old nice spot! Over the next hill and a farm is set in a similar location and appeared to have evolved from a preceding settlement, sunny now! We head upwards to the late bronze age settlement of Grimspound an impressive size for it's time with 24 homes! 

Before reaching Grimspound we'd been lucky to see a Dartmoor pony with a very young fole close to the path! Stopping to watch, the mare brought the fole over in apparent motherly pride! A privilege indeed! 

Over the moor and down the other side passing multiple other paths not marked on the maps, this time ours still existed! 

Into heathercoomb a pretty hamlet and uphill following walls where the trees growing from them were so moss covered as to make them indistinguishable from the walls! 

Pleasingly level road walking to Manaton where an honesty box cake stand supplied chocolate brownies😋

On to Freeland passing fields of new lambs our way descends upon twisting stoney paths that bare greater resemblance to shallow streams and on into Lustleigh cleave, the decent through the woods here was bliss! Birdsong, wind in the trees the flow of the river and springs new offerings of wild flowers including the first orchids I've seen on the walk created an almost magical feel very soporific! 

Into Lustleigh itself this idyllic village is without doubt home to an exceptionally rich group of people... You can smell the money, but it doesn't take away the beauty of the place! 

Mum you may remember the primrose cafe from the 80's!!

A quick pint and on through damp fields with more lambing in progress our path started a steep ascent into a wooded hillside where we've found our wildcamp for the night. 

Food cooked and heads down for night of content sleep😊.

The path of the dead!

Out of Harford Bridge we followed the road to the village Peter Davy and up an old cart track high onto Dartmoor and the first real wilderness of the trail, post Boulters torr we could look back as far as Minions! 

A strong cold wind that stayed with us all day pushed us past many ancient stones and sites that were largely unobvious until we reached white barrow that if identified correctly was a row of barrows! ↑↑↑ 

The Lich way (the way of the dead)we are following hence the title of the blog was in distant times the route for settlements around Dartmoor to bring their dead for burial! 

To us the lich way just died out! This was largely obscure at best to just not there! The recent rain had still to soak away and the ground was boggy and streams were in spate, which made crossing an experience, either leaping rock to rock or giving in and wading in knee deep torrents!

Over the last stream the path was gone and nothing ahead was going in our direction so compass being taken we headed over the last hills and down to the village of Post bridge... Stunning 13/14th century clapper bridge here! 

And The east dart inn.... Yeah a room was had for the night! 

Deserved!