16 June 2016 - Exmoor House Caravan Club Site, Dulverton, Somerset

As per Murphy’s Law, the day dawned clear and sunny, perfect for striking camp and heading off away from Dartmoor. We were out the gate before ten o’clock, aware that we would be far too early for our earliest possible arrival time at the next camp. We travelled north on the A386 joining the A30 near Okehampton, then heading east toward Exeter, forty six miles a repeat of those travelled in reverse a week ago. But this time we continued on north up the M5 turning east near Tiverton. En route we were surprised to note at least three multi banks of solar panels; perhaps the farmers in this area see farming electricity as a more lucrative crop?

Eight miles west of the M5, we turned off the A361, north onto the A396, marked red on our excellent road map; red a colour we avoid if possible when towing. The “M” roads (motorways) are marked blue and are the preferred towing routes with three lanes in each direction. “A” roads can be either green or red, and vary between being dual carriage ways of the kind we consider motorways in New Zealand, to being one lane country roads, although the green roads are more reliably less narrow. Our route today was to be a combination of “A” and “B”s, blue, green, red and yellow roads, these an absolute lucky dip and generally “B” roads. Even more of a lucky dip are the white roads which show up on our Tomtom as “unnamed’ and these are the sort that can get the inexperienced into trouble even without a eight metre caravan in tow. (Peter Tavy is located up a series of these white unnamed roads)

So back on the road, we travelled up the picturesque Exe valley on the red A396, turning north west onto the yellow B3222 to Dulverton, an equally picturesque route although now following the River Barle. The camp notes finished with the direction “in abt 3m turn L in front of Bridge Inn, ignore car park sp and continue into Kemps  Way”. As it turned out, this meant we should ignore the fact that the street sign was overridden by any suggestion it was a turning into a private car park probably with limited turning, but turn in anyway, and just continue up the winding way until, voila! The Caravan Site. We were averse to taking the chance and instead proceeded up into the lovely little village of Dulverton, with its charming little narrow streets, and miraculously were able to go around a block and come back to give the pub car park another go, and of course, arriving correctly at our destination. This camp finding business is an adventure all by itself!

Unhitching and setting up camp was done in record time; the site level, gravel with plenty of room to manoeuvre. I soon had a load of laundry washed and hanging on my excellent portable clothes line and Chris was set up in front of the television in time to watch the soccer match between England and Wales, a much publicised match. 

With the sun still shining, I decided that I would be better entertained with a walk up into the village and so I was. I found the Exmoor National Park office, Heritage Centre and library all under the one roof, two excellent books on British wild flowers and trees, and friendly staff who confirmed that internet was not generally available in this valley. I also spent five minutes in the local post office, listening to the woes of a rather unhealthy local who was unaware that I was queuing to buy stamps. I suggest it is rare that anyone queues in this little village.

In the Heritage Centre I learned that Exmoor has two major rivers, the Exe, from which it takes its name, and the Barle, on which sits Dulverton. The River Barle, its name comes from “barwell”, a stream from the hills, rises at the heart of the moor. Over its twenty six miles, the river drops 1,000 feet, flowing from the high moorland to the deep wooded valleys known as “combes”, through Simonsbath, Withypool and Dulverton, before merging with the Exe at Exebridge.

Apparently Exmoor can be very wet; well surprise, surprise! England is very wet, and we have certainly seen that over the past few days! The clean fast running water of the River Barle is a popular habitat for salmon and brown trout. In fact, in 1879 between February and September, a Dr Sydenham landed a total of 3,523 trout just below Dulverton Bridge. That is probably the reason that these days there are all sorts of licences and rules for fisher folk to guard against such greed.

Up until 1935, Dulverton was provided with electricity from two water driven turbines on the river, prior to being connected to the national grid. Today, there are plans to reinstate the machinery, to provide environment friendly power.

I left the rest of the local history, economic and natural for a shared visit and returned to camp. By then Wales and England were neck and neck, and then I saw that final goal by England, to the great despair of the Welsh supporters who had travelled across the Channel to join the hoodlums creating bedlam in France and to cheer their beloved players on.