| Day 21 - Cottage Rest Day |
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| Copyright Famocon Tours 2001 |
| After two huge travelling days we were again looking forward to a much more relaxed day in and around the village of Twitchen. We spent the morning reading, including the huge amount of visitor guides and souvenir books that we had picked up so far on our trip. In the afternoon we decided to explore a bit more of the moor. We trundled around Molland, West Anstey, Hawkridge, Withypool and Sandyway and generally took in this amazing Exmoor countryside, comprising mostly grass heather moorlands. The moorlands were once well forested but gradual clearing, farming and poor crop growing techniques eventually resulted in soils becoming unsuitable except for the present types of vegetation. Exmoor was also well mined from ancient times and there are old mines and traces of machinery in abundance. Iron, copper and gold were highly prized over the years. Farming gave way to sheep herding during the Middle Ages and the area grew quite prosperous. Towns like Dunster thrived on the wool trade. We intended to do a walk from Withypool, following the Barle river before turning west and heading back to Withypool. Unfortunately, foot and mouth disease restrictions got in the way. We would have done a lot more walking in Exmoor but for those restrictions. There are many good walks of 2-3 hours and it pays to come prepared with a map of the pathways. This evening we started to pack up our belongings in preparation for tomorrow's big day on the road to Portsmouth. |
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