Friday December 20th

The Old Faithful- Shining Tor and Thursbitch

The weather forecast turned out to be pretty accurate- it had suggested that there would be a two-hour window in the rather persistent drizzle and then some proper rain. We parked up at the Pym Chair car park, which had a surprising number of cars in it (we only actually met two other parties during our walk). On reaching Shining Tor we sat on the bench nearer the trig point which was surprisingly sheltered from the chilly wind. We each had a hot drink from our flasks and a snack.

Outstanding view at Shining Tor

Much needed tea break!

We stopped briefly at the trig point for the obligatory selfie before moving on.

Summit portraits

For virtually all of our walk we'd been in the mist, but as we walked down towards Thursbitch, we dropped out of the cloud- there was a very clear demarcation line.

Leaving the mist behind/above!

The ruins of Thursbitch are a bit eerie, but that may just because I've read Alan Garner's somewhat incomprehensible book of the same name.

The remains of Thursbitch

There was a sad lack of sheep on our return to the path back up to Pym Chair (with only a few in the distance) and we made it back to the car just before the rain started in earnest.

A walk of 4.8 miles with 320m ascent.


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