Schedule of Walks during 2005

I am only able to show the details of the final two walks for the year 2005 as it was in the November of that year that I (Maurice) joined the group and undertook my first GOBS walk.  I must show a quote here made by a member of the group on that November walk and who is from outside the County, but is forever trying to prove that he/she is a true Devonian: "My Great, Great Grandmother was a Madge, who lived for some time in North Devon and that makes me more of a Devonian than all of you" - priceless!!

My second walk, in December, turned out to be a real indoctrination into the group for me.  The start was from the car park in the centre of Chagford and on my arrival David M, who planned and was to lead the walk, informed me that his hip was really painful and that he would not be able to lead the walk.  He asked me if I would lead the walk so that he could drive home and come back in the afternoon to pick Peggy up.  I said that would be fine and off we set.  Unfortunately, the walk started in the rain, which seemed to get heavier the further we went.  We did the loop to the south of Chagford and after passing through Great Weeke we went north to pick up the River Teign.  After all the rain we'd had, the river was really swollen making it impossible to cross it at the intended place.  We therefore had to follow it back towards Chagford where we could cross it by a road bridge.  Although it was still well before lunchtime at that point, some of the group had got wet enough and decided to abandon the walk and continue straight back to Chagford for the dry and safety of their cars - these were sensible ones!   The hardy, or foolish amongst us, decided to continue with the walk. As the day progressed the rain did ease off and it brightened up a bit in the afternoon but the ground was still very wet underfoot, with the water level in the Teign rising still further.  I can remember that as we approached the entrance to the Gidleigh Park Forest we were met by a large number of fully-armed marines coming out of the trees and rushing past us.  We then went down a lane with the intention of crossing the Teign on the stepping stones at the bottom but, on reaching the river, the stepping stones could not be seen as they were well under the level of the river.  Consulting the map, we were able to take a detour downstream to cross it on a bridge and to come back up the other side to rejoin the intended route from there.  This all delayed us by quite some time which made our return to Chagford well beyond the expected time.  I think David was getting quite worried about us and he was very relieved when we eventually turned up in the car park.  The irony of this walk was, although it was planned by David, I seemed to be the one taking all the good-humoured (I think!) stick for some time after and David came out of it 'smelling of roses'.  

The details of our walks during 2005 are shown below: