Exmoor - Part 2

Exmoor is a national park and covers near 270 square miles of land, mostly in the county of Somerset, with some also in Devon. It has rough moorland, gentle rolling hills, farmland, rivers,  and coastline and is spectacular, in that understated English way ;-)

We took a "safari" over Exmoor which meant we were able to go off-road a bit and see parts of the landscape we wouldn't usually get to see from the main roads.  We were hopeful of seeing deer but only saw them, at a distance, through binoculars.  We did however see the gorgeous Exmoor ponies roaming wild (see previous post).

On the safari we visited the Tarr Steps, a "typical clapper bridge construction".  It's thought to date from around 1,000 BC.  This particular bridge was washed away when the river was in flood in the winter of 2012. It's now been reassembled and a note made of the placing of the stones so, should it happen again, it can be rebuilt properly again!

We drove through the ford at the steps, great in a 4x4!

I loved hearing the water running over the stones....

And this Labrador clearly adored being in the ford....

Further along our trip we came across this magnificent fungi....

Some of the moorland was wilder with heather.......

And now and a head would pop up from grazing....

Some of the "lanes" we drove up were very narrow - just farm tracks....

And wee hamlets hugged the side of hills....

Exmoor has a gentler feel to it compared with Dartmoor, which is in South Devon. Our guide on the safari thought that Exmoor was the more feminine moor, and Dartmoor the more masculine. That's a good description. Though neither are to be messed with in the changing weather conditions!

I love the thick trunk of this tree.....

And there are wonderful woods too. This was more of a conifer woodland, but there were native British woodlands there too....

There was a sculpture trail too, and this fellow was keeping guard.....

Next post I'll show you some photos of the coastal scenery around Exmoor.....