This time of year makes me love woodland walks, enjoying the crisp leaves underfoot, and the beautiful autumnal colours in full swing, so last weekend we decided to make the most of this season and go for a walk on Dartmoor. I decided on Burrator Reservoir, mainly because we don’t tend to visit the reservoirs on Dartmoor, and also because it had some highly rated geocaches there! Parking by the reservoir was fairly easy as there are a few car parks in the area, but we joined the rest of the parked cars on the roadside by the dam itself. There were even some brave people enjoying an ice cream from the ice cream van by the bridge on this cold October day!

We parked next to the Reservoir Dam, with beautiful views over the bridge.

From here we walked along the bridge, taking in the beautiful views of the water and the hills and Tors behind it. Once we crossed the bridge and turned the corner on the left, we soon spotted a gate to pass which took us closer to the reservoir. From here we started to find our first geocaches, some here were very clever! We enjoyed ‘The Joy of Caching’ series for anyone who’s looking for a fun geocaching loop to do on Dartmoor.

Beautiful views of Burrator Reservoir and the moors behind it.

After spending some time looking for a clever geocache in the wooded area, we then decided to stop and have our picnic on a secluded spot by the water, it almost felt like a little beach! We were soon joined by some very friendly Canada Geese and ducks, our 1 year old daughter found it funny that they were interested in our lunch!

Views from where we found our first geocache.

After finishing our lunch we decided to continue the walk all the way round the reservoir, which took us a couple of hours as we walked at a leisurely pace and stopped a few times to find some geocaches. The whole walk was about 4.5 miles in total, but wasn't at all strenuous. The path is very clear and easy to follow, and there’s also signage at certain points which told us if we needed to walk on the road for a short while.

We stopped at one point to read an information sign about Longstone Manor, which was an old Manor house owned by the Elford family, long before the reservoir was built beside it. Now only the remains of the granite house are here, but there’s still a fair amount to see. However we decided not to take a detour to the peninsula, instead continuing on straight ahead, following the path which eventually led us onto the road for a short while. From here the walk continued on around to the left and over Norsworthy Bridge, where there were beautiful views of the water cascading down rocks and flowing towards the reservoir. We stopped for a moment to take a few photos of the area then continued around to the left where we passed another gate and rejoined the path beside the reservoir.

Norsworthy Bridge surrounded by Autumn colour

Along this path we soon arrived at a gate saying that we would be entering an off lead dog walking area; we took this route and were soon met with the reservoir on our left again, with gorgeous views of the Moors and Tors behind it. As we continued ahead we soon spotted the education centre nearby, where we rejoined the road for the rest of our walk around the reservoir. We were only a few minutes walk away from the dam where we started, but first we passed a beautiful waterfall on our right, which is quite a pleasant surprise when you’re not expecting to see it!

Burrator Reservoir is definitely worth a visit, its great for dogs, children and geocachers! It’s even more beautiful at this time of year, with different shades of orange and brown in the trees surrounding the water. Parking is ample and free on the roadside as well as car parks nearby on the main road down to the reservoir. I would advise wellies or walking boots for the walk and to give yourself a few hours if you are intending to walk round the whole reservoir, in order to really enjoy the walk at a leisurely stroll. We also came across plenty of friendly Dartmoor ponies by the roadside, and for those of you interested in the local wildlife the area has to offer, we also passed a (free) car park by the reservoir for Burrator Arboretum and Nature Reserve which we didn’t have time to visit but have added it to the list for next time! The walk round the reservoir would not be suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs, but the Arboretum has a new easy access trail built to ensure those in wheelchairs or families with pushchairs can enjoy the nature reserve too.

This is a post mainly aimed at those of you who are interested in geocaching, but the walk itself is still enjoyable and the footpaths and quiet country lanes are perfect for walking dogs. We’ve done a few geocaching series in Kentisbeare, and I’ll write up more about the others another time, but this one is focusing on the loop that leads towards Stoford Water and back again to the village, which was just under 3 miles and not too strenuous. I won’t say too much about where the caches were hidden, but there will be photo spoilers in this post!

We started the walk in the (surprisingly large) free car park in the village, which is located behind the church and village hall. (EX15 2AB) From here we walked down a public footpath to the right of St Mary’s Church. The pub here, The Wyndham Arms looked rather inviting as we walked past the beer garden and to the village square in front of it; we were tempted to pop in for a drink, but thought we had better press on with the walk instead.

Some countryside views from the footpath.

From here we walked up the road, passing the village stores and telephone box library on our left, then past some cottages before turning left onto a public footpath hidden away next to a national speed limit sign. This footpath took us past a cottage garden on our right, we admired the pretty flowers, vegetable patch and friendly chickens before crossing over a couple of stiles and entering another path next to a field on our left, where our first cache was located. There were beautiful views of the rolling hills from this path, but the footpath itself was a little overgrown with nettles. This wasn’t a problem for Jo, who was wearing trousers, but I thought it would be a good idea to wear shorts (seeing as it is summer!) so I did get stung a few times. Once we finally found the first geocache, (which took us longer than it should have, and we had a large group of cows watching us the whole time!) we crossed over another stile and walked down to the bottom of the field where we soon spotted another stile to cross over for our next cache.

Over this stile our next geocache was waiting to be found. We knew it would be somewhere on the small bridge that crosses over the stream that leads to the local fishery lakes. Again, this one took us longer than it should have, considering I’ve found about 600 caches in the past, I couldn’t believe how slow we were at finding these ones today! This one was even in plain sight and in an interesting container; That’s one thing about this walk, children will love all the interesting and funny containers the cache owner has used on this loop. Once we found the cache and signed the log, we continued on ahead, followong a path through the wooded copse which soon led to a quiet country lane. The next cache wasn’t far away, and we found this sneaky one a lot quicker than the first two.

Some of the geocaches found in this series.

After signing the log, we continued up the lane to our next cache opposite an old farmhouse called ‘Lower Moneysland’. This cache was quick and easy to find, by a field full of corn. This was another funny container which I’m sure children will enjoy playing with. Our next cache was a bit further up the lane, in the small hamlet Stoford Water. We passed some pretty cottages and a garden full of roses before arriving at this next geocache. This one was probably the longest one to find as it was fairly small and hidden away very well. There were lots of ‘Did not finds’ logged for this geocache so we were pretty pleased we managed to find it in the end. Nobody likes a DNF when trying to complete a series!

Beautiful views from the top of the footpath.

To get to the next cache, from the crossroads ahead, we took the path to Sainthill with the crossroads sign saying Baptist church pointing in that direction. This took us up another country lane, where we soon found our next cache, the container was definitely one I have never found before, an unusual choice of container but a great idea. After a short walk up this lane, we spotted the footpath on our right which we took to our next cache. This one was a quick find, as I've found ones like this before, and they’re one of my favourite types of container, they blend in well with the surroundings! We continued up this path and once at the top, we found our next cache and were rewarded with beautiful views of rolling hills and Dartmoor in the distance. We stopped to see what places we could recognise from here, before turning right at the end of the path and walking down the lane, where we soon found our next 3 caches, all with quirky and funny containers!

Some of the quirky geocaches on the series

On one of these caches we were pleased to read that it was ‘all down hill from here’ on this walk. The walk itself isn’t at all strenuous but it was a fairly humid day, and I was carrying our 11 month old baby, so walking up the footpath we had just done, was a little bit tiring! We continued to see views of Dartmoor ahead of us on this country lane, as we walked further down until we reached a junction. From here we took the stoney path on the other side of the road to find our next geocache which had 168 favourite points. This one was the reason I wanted to do this series, as I was intrigued as to why it was so popular! It was soon clear as to why it was highly rated. This very large geocache was easy to find, but had a fun game to play in order to find the logbook. We read the instructions then began the game, where we also found a trackable which we decided to retrieve. We were fairly lucky and found the log book quite quickly, but Jo made sure to hide it well in the container for the next cacher!

We now had just 3 more geocaches to find. The next one was just further on down the path, a lot smaller than the last one, and very hard to find! It was a very clever hide as I was actually looking right at it without realising at first! We carried on down this path which soon passes some farm gates on either side, and then crosses over a stream, where the path turns into a track under tree coverage. As we stopped to find our next cache, I found it rather peaceful here listening to the stream flowing and the birds singing above. The next cache container was yet another clever hide, but we managed to put our hands on this one a lot quicker than the previous one.

The track that leads under tree coverage

We were now just a short walk away from the last geocache of this loop. Once we arrived at the end of this track, we took a while to find this cache even though we had an idea of what it may be, as the hint said it was magnetic. Once Jo reached a bit further over the gate, we found the cache, signed the log and were happy to have completed this series! From here we just had to walk up the road ahead which soon took us back into the village, where we recognised the footpath, village stores and pub that we passed at the start of our walk. We briefly stopped to look at the books in the telephone box library and admire the pretty thatched cottages opposite the pub, before taking the footpath back towards the car park.

Back to the car park next to St Mary’s Church

This walk took us a couple of hours as we were stopping to find all the geocaches and some of them took us longer than others! Children will definitely enjoy the fun and quirky geocaches on this loop, and it’s not too much of a walk for little legs. It was a fairly leisurely walk, with only the slight incline up the footpath to the views of Dartmoor that may be a bit strenuous for some. I would suggest anyone doing this walk to wear suitable footwear and trousers, as the nettles were a little bit overgrown at the beginning of the walk, and some of the paths were a bit uneven and may get muddy after a lot of wet weather. As I said before, we did this walk for the geocaches, but it was still enjoyable and quiet, which is perfect for social distancing at the moment! We didn’t come across many people on this walk, and only a couple of cars passed us on the country lanes, meaning it would be suitable for dog walkers too. If you wanted to have a bite to eat or a drink after your walk, there is the local pub in the village square that I mentioned earlier, but also on the outskirts of Kentisbeare is ‘The Keepers Cottage Inn’ which we drove past on the way into the village. This thatched cottage pub looked rather inviting, with plenty of outdoor space and a pretty little cottage garden out the front. We’ve made a note to visit this pub next time we’re in the area, which I’m sure won’t be long, as we have more geocaches to complete in the village soon.

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Exploring one of Dartmoor's Reservoirs - Burrator Reservoir.

Geocaching in Kentisbeare