Winter comes to Devon

Right where's me skis!

So back to the UK and away from that lovely tropical climate down under - and 'Oh Dear!' we've come across some interesting weather in early November, this is Dartmoor at Haytor Rocks (in the background in this photo) on the Eastern side of the moor. I was well wrapped up and the climb warmed us somewhat but the feet got a bit cold. I had decided to wear Inov8 X-claws which were great for grip especially coming down but my extremities were clearly not yet acclimatised to the rigors of our part of the Northern hemisphere. And of course we've returned to the weekly grind - several very wet and windy parkruns in the past few weeks have seen us getting soaked and slathered with mud - still we have to keep at it - use it or lose it!

Plug through the mud!

But what's this - a ray of sunshine and a run in the sun. The Templer Way is nothing to do with the Knights Templar, rather it's the route by which Dartmoor granite was taken down to the docks at Teignmouth on the coast, (Templer was the name of the chappie who built the route and owned the quarries). And part of the trail is used as the basis for the Templer 10, a regular off road November race popular with local running clubs - and the first time I wore the local colours of Bovey Runners. Arriving at the start we found that the race was being shortened to 8 miles due to part of the course being flooded - no skin off my nose however as I enjoyed the mud and sun, and I managed to pick up a dinky trophy for being second in my age group. Strange to pass spectators saying 'Keep going on Bovey!' and 'Come on my lovely!'

The best pints we've found down here so far have been at The Taphouse in Newton Abbot - and here's a picture of it. Well the pub actually occupies a small segment of this magnificent building. This is Tuckers Maltings which sadly closed down last year after over a century of sprouting barley to create malt for brewers in the South East of England and further afield. Fortunately for us the bar serves a range of fine ales - can't be bad!