How Dangerous is a Dartmoor Bog? - The Dartmoor Podcast Episode Thirty Nine
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- Опубліковано 29 сер 2024
- I attempt to cross the infamous Foxtor Mire, and wonder how difficult it would be to die in a Dartmoor bog. I also find a tiny carnivorous plant, and get pixie-led all over Crane Hill and Great Gnats Head (though I don't admit this in the video).
Past George waffles on a bit in this one, but don't worry, I managed to shut down any 'Hound of the Baskervilles' chat.
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I was in a walking group in Devon about 20-25 years ago. We thought it would be a good idea to do a night hike, the plan being to have a few drinks at warren house inn and then head out across the moor. In planning for this I set out by myself from WHI during the day time on a route towards Moretonhamsted. It wasn’t going to be a direct route, so I started by heading SE towards Wallabrook and an area I thought I knew well. Not a blanket bog like fox tor mires but I did find myself slipping into a bog up to my chest. It may not have been that deep, but I went in sideways and really did not like the feeling of my feet not touching anything solid and feeling quite restricted. Extracting myself wasn’t very easy as I tended just to push slushy peat around so I took of my pack, sat on that and pushed my walking pole down 2-3 feet as an anchor to pull on. Only had to pull myself a couple of feet until I could grab at well rooted tufts. It was scary how breaking through the top seemed to further weaken where I had been walking so there was no apparent “edge” to pull up on to.
I walked back up the way I had come, went home and gave up on the night hike idea!!
Great 'podcast' 😏 The bogs in my part of Canada(Northern Ontario) are serious business and quite deadly for those foolish enough to venture into their heart. Dartmoor is quite beautiful and it is my hope to hike thereabouts one day. Thanks for taking us along. 👍
I really like the approach your videos take to conveying the interests that Dartmoor can offer, keep up the good work 👍 I can warn of the need not to be complacent whilst walking in relatively inoccurus terrain. The path marked on the map between West MillTor and Yes Tor can get particularly water logged. Beware around the river crossing, as whilst admiring the view and travelling over reasonable ground i disappeared upto my trouser tonsils. Lucky for me my pack stopped further sinking and i was able to extract myself, i was alone with no witnesses 😅
I always thought the Raybarrow Pool was the most dangerous mire on Dartmoor. Great video and beautiful place.
Fabulous again George. I agree that Raybarrow has a worse reputation and we have passed it (giving it a very wide berth) several times, and it looks pretty nasty! We had an experience on Fox Tor Mire, back along when we first started our weekly adventures on the moor and were frankly a bit inexperienced in Dartmoor bog hopping (what would we do without a stick and tussocks 😁. One of the first Dartmoor walking books we aquired was Starkey's Exploring Dartmoor, a lovely book with wonderful descriptions and line drawings and hand drawn maps (it was these that caused the issue, we did have an OS map but couldn't corrolate Starkey's drawing with the OS map (our inexperience) and a compass). On the route that Starkey suggests the path (I now know) seems to go to the east of the path marked on the OS map and we 'probably' followed that. There was a path of sorts and we managed to cross the Swincombe but then it was horrible, no path, boggy and very very tussocky. We were aiming for Childes Tomb but by the time we had got the other side of the wall I was in a huff and we lunched in the tin working remains to the west of Fox Tor and trudged back to Nun's cross and back to Princetown. I now realise where we went wrong (apart from anything else we didn't appease the Pixies 😂) and if we did it again (not in a rush to be honest) I would follow the 'proper' path! Starkey says that the path is well marked with paint tipped sticks, but our edition is dated 1995 alot can happen on Dartmoor and a bog in 20 years! I am not saying that his routes or books aren't good, they are great, but worth remembering that things can change and next time I will trust the OS map instead (ish, as I know that some of those green lines are rubbish 🤣). We didn't get stuck in the bog, didn't drown, didn't meet the Hound (sorry) but learned a few lessons.
It can get pretty demoralising can't it! I wonder if there's any trace of those paint tipped sticks anywhere?
@@thedartmoorpodcast doubt it! We tried to follow the route in the book, but being a line drawing not easy. It did look to be to the east of the 'marked' bridle path on the OS map. One day perhaps we will go back and go the 'proper' way, I have an urge to walk to John Bishop's House from Whiteworks (Ter hill on the way out and the non existant bridle path on the way back 🤣).
'He's going to die isn't he?'. 😆
I'm really glad he didn't ☺️
Keep up the great work past, present and future George 👌
what a barren place but at the same time .... beautifull
Great video George(s) - what a talent you have for taking a subject which may on the surface seem unpleasant (ticks, slugs, bogs) and showing it can actually be fascinating and even magical.
I've never had a genuinely dangerous encounter with a bog on Dartmoor but the time before last that I did a wild camp there I ended up with a very wet and muddy foot, having misjudged a tussock. Alas I had honed my tussock judgement when I was a teenager, and I suspect rather different dynamics are at play nowadays.
Really interesting, as usual, George, but also informative. I did not know the difference between a bog and a mire until now, despite falling foul of both in the past. The worst experience was many years ago, whilst taking part in the Ten Tors, when the team leader got stuck in a bog. The team had to stand in a line, linking arms, to pull him free - but not before he was up to his armpits. A scary incident for us kids.
That sounds terrifying! Did he style it out and say he did it deliberately to teach you about the danger of bogs (that's what I would have done - ha!).
😂No, George, definitely not. We were pretty well equals, intent on getting to the end of the walk. Besides, he was panicked. The more he struggled, the more he sank. It was similar to quicksand.
Whenever we get lost on Dartmoor we always seem to end up in a bog. My son lost one of his wellies in one once! We try to avoid them these days 😊
I don’t think the pixies want your weird Lego bread.
Great video 😊
Enjoyed that , informative too ... Thanks.
Great video explaining the stories that were told when I see the moss and long grass I try to avoid it looks a quick way but it will definitely slow you down 🤟🤟
Great video again George! Educational and interesting as ever! I can’t remember the last time we heard so much from Past George in a video! 😂
Yeah - you should see how much I had to edit out! He wouldn't stop waffling!
Oh and for my bog story. This was somewhere North of Scorhill stone circle. I'd left my friends who decided to go for a ramble over the moor, it became very foggy and 2 of my friends had the misfortune of falling into the same bog which was very deep. To make matters worse a dead sheep floated up to greet them. Causalities also included a mobile phone and digital camera. They did make it back but very worse for wear!
I had one catch me by surprise last year, had one leg into it to the top of my thigh. It was halfway up a hill and didn't have the usual growth you see on the bogs on the moors. This just looked like a bit shallow mud, like many on the path I walked through on the path leading up to it. My leg was quite stuck but I got out. It was then I noticed a bloated sheep carcass that got caught out by it too.
there`s quite a nasty bugger between manga rock and Gidleigh along the Northern Teign (i think it`s called Hew down) that i once stopped walking on instinct and had a good ol` prod , it was at least 4ft deep..................... moral of the story , trust your instincts when on the moor .
Another great podcast(not a podcast) George , thank you
You found the reset button & didn't press it!??
Top vid👍
Thank you! P.S. Watch right to the very end ;)
@thedartmoorpodcast 😂👌 vellake corner, infinitely more moist than expected, near the footpath over the river,
Myself and my trusty companion, a rescue staffy called Macs discovered our first "scary" bog, right leg up to my hip, left leg up to the knee, trusty companion.....left me for dead.
Well done on crossing Fox Tor Mire! I tried once in my early boxing days after seeing the path on the OS map, but turned back after losing my nerve. I've also crossed Mis Tor Marsh, but wouldn't recommend it. As for stories, I've only ever been caught out once by a feather bed and went in to my mid thigh. Snapped my stick getting out! Was E of Ughborough Beacon at the foot of a small brook. Now where can we get our hands on a badge?
Summer time probably better at winter would be a it dodgy
Did you leave Darran's hat up there?
Should try looking for bogs earlier in the year ....
Yeah - they'd be worse in winter, but no sundews!
@@thedartmoorpodcast Never step on the ice, in winter.❄️
It's wet up here today.
Thank you! I've just finished reading about Irish blanket and raised bogs in Manchan Mangan's Listen to the Land Speak, so this is timely. Are mires a Dartmoor thing? I walked south from Whiteworks 10 or so years ago and remember lots and lots of backtracking/ re-routing and a max speed of 1 km/h.
Also - possibly Geoff Woad's beanie hat that you found?
Didn't there used to be some sticks marking the way? And has not the odd beast come to an end in such places?
Can't yoiu give him a heavier back pack and smaller shoes...