21 July 2012

Walk before travel

A successful scientist rarely stays put at one place for a long time. Hugh had to travel again, and the day before his departure we thought we'd spend some quality time on Dartmoor. We found an ancient hillfort on the map, where neither of us had been before, so that became our destination. It had (as they do) amazing views!

You can't really tell from this picture it is taken inside an old hillfort, but just take it from me that it is. 

On the way back we were walking on a dirt track when suddenly a dark shape appeared in front of us. It was a rather sturdy bull, and he had this "none shall pass" look about him. And he probably just had that all the time, and he may well have been excessively well-meaning, but we didn't chance it and made a tiny little detour when he headed our way. From behind the field boundary we saw him rub against the vegetation and bellow mournfully - maybe he had hoped we would be willing to scratch his itch! Poor sod.

Should one risk this?

Gratuitous picture of thistle

As a bonus we also visited Brentor Church; a church balancing on a plug of basalt. Rumour has it the devil himself strongly objected to this development, and tried his best to sabotage its building, but when the locals invoked the services of Archangel Michael the prince of darkness had to admit
defeat.

 Brentor church

And after all that, it was time for an Urquell!

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