Great 'podcast' 😏 The bogs in my part of Canada(Northern Ontario) are serious business and quite deadly for those foolish enough to venture into their heart. Dartmoor is quite beautiful and it is my hope to hike thereabouts one day. Thanks for taking us along. 👍

I always thought the Raybarrow Pool was the most dangerous mire on Dartmoor. Great video and beautiful place.

I really like the approach your videos take to conveying the interests that Dartmoor can offer, keep up the good work 👍 I can warn of the need not to be complacent whilst walking in relatively inoccurus terrain. The path marked on the map between West MillTor and Yes Tor can get particularly water logged. Beware around the river crossing, as whilst admiring the view and travelling over reasonable ground i disappeared upto my trouser tonsils. Lucky for me my pack stopped further sinking and i was able to extract myself, i was alone with no witnesses 😅

Fabulous again George. I agree that Raybarrow has a worse reputation and we have passed it (giving it a very wide berth) several times, and it looks pretty nasty! We had an experience on Fox Tor Mire, back along when we first started our weekly adventures on the moor and were frankly a bit inexperienced in Dartmoor bog hopping (what would we do without a stick and tussocks 😁. One of the first Dartmoor walking books we aquired was Starkey's Exploring Dartmoor, a lovely book with wonderful descriptions and line drawings and hand drawn maps (it was these that caused the issue, we did have an OS map but couldn't corrolate Starkey's drawing with the OS map (our inexperience) and a compass). On the route that Starkey suggests the path (I now know) seems to go to the east of the path marked on the OS map and we 'probably' followed that. There was a path of sorts and we managed to cross the Swincombe but then it was horrible, no path, boggy and very very tussocky. We were aiming for Childes Tomb but by the time we had got the other side of the wall I was in a huff and we lunched in the tin working remains to the west of Fox Tor and trudged back to Nun's cross and back to Princetown. I now realise where we went wrong (apart from anything else we didn't appease the Pixies 😂) and if we did it again (not in a rush to be honest) I would follow the 'proper' path! Starkey says that the path is well marked with paint tipped sticks, but our edition is dated 1995 alot can happen on Dartmoor and a bog in 20 years! I am not saying that his routes or books aren't good, they are great, but worth remembering that things can change and next time I will trust the OS map instead (ish, as I know that some of those green lines are rubbish 🤣). We didn't get stuck in the bog, didn't drown, didn't meet the Hound (sorry) but learned a few lessons.

what a barren place but at the same time .... beautifull

Really interesting, as usual, George, but also informative. I did not know the difference between a bog and a mire until now, despite falling foul of both in the past. The worst experience was many years ago, whilst taking part in the Ten Tors, when the team leader got stuck in a bog. The team had to stand in a line, linking arms, to pull him free - but not before he was up to his armpits. A scary incident for us kids.

'He's going to die isn't he?'. 😆 I'm really glad he didn't ☺️ Keep up the great work past, present and future George 👌

Great video George(s) - what a talent you have for taking a subject which may on the surface seem unpleasant (ticks, slugs, bogs) and showing it can actually be fascinating and even magical. I've never had a genuinely dangerous encounter with a bog on Dartmoor but the time before last that I did a wild camp there I ended up with a very wet and muddy foot, having misjudged a tussock. Alas I had honed my tussock judgement when I was a teenager, and I suspect rather different dynamics are at play nowadays.

Whenever we get lost on Dartmoor we always seem to end up in a bog. My son lost one of his wellies in one once! We try to avoid them these days 😊

I don’t think the pixies want your weird Lego bread. Great video 😊

Enjoyed that , informative too ... Thanks.

Great video explaining the stories that were told when I see the moss and long grass I try to avoid it looks a quick way but it will definitely slow you down 🤟🤟

Great video again George! Educational and interesting as ever! I can’t remember the last time we heard so much from Past George in a video! 😂

You found the reset button & didn't press it!?? Top vid👍

Oh and for my bog story. This was somewhere North of Scorhill stone circle. I'd left my friends who decided to go for a ramble over the moor, it became very foggy and 2 of my friends had the misfortune of falling into the same bog which was very deep. To make matters worse a dead sheep floated up to greet them. Causalities also included a mobile phone and digital camera. They did make it back but very worse for wear!

there`s quite a nasty bugger between manga rock and Gidleigh along the Northern Teign (i think it`s called Hew down) that i once stopped walking on instinct and had a good ol` prod , it was at least 4ft deep..................... moral of the story , trust your instincts when on the moor . Another great podcast(not a podcast) George , thank you

Well done on crossing Fox Tor Mire! I tried once in my early boxing days after seeing the path on the OS map, but turned back after losing my nerve. I've also crossed Mis Tor Marsh, but wouldn't recommend it. As for stories, I've only ever been caught out once by a feather bed and went in to my mid thigh. Snapped my stick getting out! Was E of Ughborough Beacon at the foot of a small brook. Now where can we get our hands on a badge?

I had one catch me by surprise last year, had one leg into it to the top of my thigh. It was halfway up a hill and didn't have the usual growth you see on the bogs on the moors. This just looked like a bit shallow mud, like many on the path I walked through on the path leading up to it. My leg was quite stuck but I got out. It was then I noticed a bloated sheep carcass that got caught out by it too.

Did you leave Darran's hat up there?

Should try looking for bogs earlier in the year ....

Summer time probably better at winter would be a it dodgy

Didn't there used to be some sticks marking the way? And has not the odd beast come to an end in such places?

Thank you! I've just finished reading about Irish blanket and raised bogs in Manchan Mangan's Listen to the Land Speak, so this is timely. Are mires a Dartmoor thing? I walked south from Whiteworks 10 or so years ago and remember lots and lots of backtracking/ re-routing and a max speed of 1 km/h.

Can't yoiu give him a heavier back pack and smaller shoes...