Wray Cleave Workout
(Main Page - info about the walk is here)
Note: Do not attempt to drive the steep Pepperdon Hall Lane in a normal car. It is not suitable for motors and even 4wd vehicles will have trouble in the winter with an inexperienced driver. There is also only one good parking place on the route, which is waymarked from this first cache.
The Walk
This three mile walk of twelve caches takes about two hours and is what I would class "Strenuous". Whilst the hides are not difficult, the path is at times indistinct through the woods of Wray Cleave and there is a tiring 1-in-3 road to ascend on the way back to your car. The payback for this work is nice views, historical mineworkings and ancient woodland. These public footpaths are also very rarely visited, so solitude is almost guaranteed. (Apart from those pesky geocachers, anyway!)
The Gallery for this cache contains photos to give an idea of what you can expect. You can walk the whole thing in reverse, which makes the ascent somewhat less severe, if you wish.
The walk takes in the rarely visited open moorland of Pepperdon Common commanding magnificent views across the Wray Valley and beyond well into deep Southern Dartmoor, up to Mortenhampstead and south towards Lustleigh. On a clear day, at this first cache, the view is superb. From there, you descend to farmland, past ruined farm cottages and old machinery, then turn into the woodland and follow a faint path through bluebells and wild garlic. This path hugs the contour for a while and becomes indistinct - be careful, it will be slippy after rain. Then it descends sharply, following an old and unmaintained path and steps, to a more level and open section including a pretty woodland glade and forest ride. This follows north along the base of the woods and you can see the commanding Wray Cleave buildings to your left, before rising to the old ore processing station and its buddles. After this, you join the tarmac and very steep Pepperdon Hall road, past Pepperdon Hole cottage and, after a few stops for breath (can you believe they chose this hill for the new Dartmoor Way cycle route? The sadists!), you'll emerge at the base of the common. From there, another hill awaits back up to your waiting car.
Each cache's description will give you directions to it from the previous cache. Be sure to check as the route is not always clear.
Notes:
- The Walk: Slippery going even in the dry along the first section of the woodland between 4 and 5. Steep woodland and poorly marked footpaths here, but I've added waymarks to help.
- Livestock: Potentials for sheep and cattle on the route, from 2-3, and sheep in fields adjoining the lower walkway.
- Dogs: A great walk for dogs, but beware deer in the woods, livestock in the fields. Note there is a dog-unfriendly stile at #3 (but the nearby gate can be opened!)
- Bikes: Nah. Seriously, don't even. (Although caches 10, 11 and 12 are fine and on the Dartmoor Way, and 2 is accessible by bike or car.) See my Marden Down series instead!
- Caches: All are 60ml specimen pots painted black.
- Logging: Please write an interesting log for each cache, not just TFTC or a cut and paste - I enjoy reading about your visit and it's very boring to get dull logs. Be inventive!
- Wildlife: I spotted a buck deer when this cache was set, and the woodlands are very biodiverse.
- Bonus: No bonus cache and no clues to collect.
- Permission: Permission kindly granted by Dartmoor National Park using their Geocaching Guidelines