Walking the moors

This is what you think of when you hear the word 'Dartmoor', except for the weather. There is a saying here, "It's winter 9 months of the year, and the weather is bad for the other 3 months." But, we are having perfect sunshine at last!

Haytor Rocks - very popular spot close to the road.

Pony ambush! Not sure why they chose this spot in a car park for their midday rest, but these ponies did not want to move when the driver of this car was trying to reverse to leave.

I had to push the ponies out of the way for them.

I am amazed at how tame the ponies are, but they do all belong to someone so they have been handled by people, even though they live a very free lifestyle up on the moor for most of the year.

After walking up to Haytor Rocks we headed off through the rocks and flowers, and, yes, the yellow flowers are gorse, but this is where it belongs.

We walked along part of the granite railway. Instead of iron rails, they used the granite they were mining to construct a rail line to carry blocks of granite down to a canal for transport.

They used trains of up to 12 carts similar to this, pulled back up to the moor by horses, but on the way down, the horses were hitched behind the carts to act as brakes.

Sleeping mare right beside the track.