Dartmoor National Park (DNP) is a glorious wild open space of 368 square miles. It has extensive wild and open (and windswept) moorland – a large part of which (65%) is made up of granite. The moor is capped with many exposed high granite hilltops known as tors. There are over 160 tors on Dartmoor making them a principal aspect…
The management plan for Dartmoor National Park is the single most important plan for the future of the park. It is the strategic plan which will guide decisions affecting Dartmoor’s future over the next five years. Look at it and you will see that listed are key drivers and challengers under three sections – Sustain, Enjoy and Prosper. Look more…
Here’s a short test. As you read this, stop and contemplate the plans for your day – what you’ve done so far, what you’ve yet to do and what you need to do but probably won’t have time to do. Does anything in your day involve ‘taking time out?’ And by that, I don’t mean a punishing circuits class at…
When people ask me about my love of Dartmoor National Park, one quote I like to give is from the book Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier. Although first published in 1936 and actually about Bodmin Moon over the county border in Cornwall, I feel the following quote provides an apt description of ‘the moors.’ ‘I love these moors ……
I recently read an article on the BBC News website that ‘Icelanders tire of disrespectful Instagram influencers.’ Part of the article included a comment by Pall Jokull Petursson, who makes a living out of showing photographers Iceland’s nature: ‘The good instagrammers try to show different ways of enjoying nature. We don’t tag places that are off the beaten path that…
Let’s talk about rubbish. As in discarded rubbish – especially discarded rubbish left in our areas of nature. Specifically wet wipes, hygiene products and sanitary items. This is specifically about Mongolia but also applies to wilderness areas in other countries. We have just completed our annual two-day rubbish clean-up of a national park here in Mongolia. And yes, there were…
Toilets. Always high on the list of travel stories and experiences – especially the ones involving a dropped passport out of the back pocket into a long-drop pit toilet (I sense a nodding of heads). In health and safety terms, long-drop toilets should have a risk assessment heading all of their own. What if there are no toilets? Just hundreds…