Ruby Red Ramble? Well, if I were the CO, that’s what I would call it!
We left our beloved Dartmoor and came north today to have a crack at 3 different series, but this was the pick of the bunch. There are 9 traditional caches (plus a puzzle cache that was disabled at the time) placed by digbysue to the west of Hatherleigh which form a delightful series. There is also a 10th cache by Station Master along the same route.
I was a little confused when planning this route as I read the description for the first cache (On the Lew!) and jumped to the wrong conclusion that this was a 4 mile walk taking in all of the caches. It is not it’s 6.25 miles! However, this is a very enjoyable walk in “Ruby Country” named after the Devon Red or Ruby Red cattle. Not that we saw any, except on the lovely mural painted on the underpass, but we did see lots of red Devon mud!
We parked right opposite the post office in Hatherleigh and followed a series of footpaths, a couple of shortish minor road sections and also a disused railway section in a circular-ish route (see map above) to take us back to Hatherleigh. In total we counted about 20 stiles, the early ones being very dog-friendly, but the last 5 definitely not. If you have a large dog (not as agile as our Tigger hound) then ensure that you follow the road back from the last cache and not the obvious footpath.
Not only a delightful walk, but also a delightful series of caches. As I said in my Found log on the last cache “The caches and hides were interesting and varied and it was obvious that the COs had given preparation and execution a great deal of thought.” An added bonus to the day was that whilst we were searching for one particularly difficult cache a car stopped and it was Digby who was keeping a very close eye on his caches and gave me a nice push in the right direction!
So we had a great morning, a lovely walk and a very nice series of caches which we would highly recommend. If they were mine I would add another cache in the centre of Hatherleigh to indicate the starting place and then number them from 1 to 10 to make it clearer that all the caches belonged to one series, but I think that Digby has his own ideas on how it should be developed. We may have to come back and find some additional caches quite soon! Thank you digbysue for a very enjoyable morning.
Please read digbysue’s reply to this post by clicking on Comment below.
I did some of this a few months ago before the recent additions, but my prep was poor and on the ground what I thought was a path on the old railbed leading NE from Waterhouse Farm wasn’t, and I was met with a Private sign, so deviated left up a very wet Furzehill and ended up cutting my walk short. Still enjoyable, and I enjoyed the old path deviation to the ruin west of Heane Farm (the path going out of one field, along a lane, and then back into the same field, showing it was once two paths to a local point of importance – an old farm or mill, of which only one gable wall and a bread oven is left! The walk along the railbed where it is public is very nicely done to a good standard, and obviously well used by cyclists and walkers alike – and, oddly, llamas. A nice walk in an interesting area, and I did two more circulars in the area before heading back home.
Also walked past the solar farm being built, how’s that coming along?
Growing and expanding quickly – not in my opinion what our lovely Devonshire fields should look like, they should be growing food not glass!
Thank you Dave for such a positive review of our Hatherleigh caches which have slowly evolved around two local circular walks. Because both walks share a common central route i.e. as per a figure of eight, some confusion about navigation can arise! When Dave did the existing nine caches in March 2013 we had two linking series, one of 4 miles & the other of just over 2 miles. Obviously a seasoned walker could complete both quite easily in about 4 hours. Rather than make all caches into one series we have elected to leave the route planning to the whim & ability of individual cachers. Not everyone wants to have a 6 mile challenge, children & the elderly have their own pace & energy levels, therefore they can manage and plan a trail to suit.
Dave did recommend a cache starting point nearer the town centre, a very valid suggestion, we felt. Also, we were aware there were some fairly long gaps between some of the hiding places which needed our attention. Subsequently we have placed a new cache close to Hatherleigh Market at the start of the Ruby Trail, plus three others along the way, all of varying difficulty, with no gorse bushes or rocks to encounter!
We hope you visit soon and enjoy the stunning scenery of our Ruby Country.