Tuesday 13th March

Fabulous weather down here today, probably one of the best on any visit we have made to Stone Farm.

It started with jobs around the farm and most of the pictures below are of the group working with the pigs, goats, alpacas and feeding the geese on the lake. First of all though we were able to watch a chick actually hatching in the incubator; when we got back this evening there were two more as well.

After breakfast we met our Dartmoor guides, Phil and Mike. During the morning we completed a 3 mile walk across Dartmoor around the old tin mines and Vixen Tor. We learned about how the miners had worked, the use of the leats - a water system devised to help them and farmers across the moor. We also learned about how others such as monks and people as far back as the Bronze age had lived on the moor. We also had a try at letterboxing - finding hidden boxes and stamps across certain parts of the moor. We also crossed part of a bog area and learned the legend of Vixana the witch.

We ate lunch at Postbridge, where we also found another old clapper bridge as you can see below. After this we made a short walk starting from an old school on the moor and found many remnants left by the various people who over thousands of years have lived on Dartmoor. Some of us found this a bit further than we normally walk but we all enjoyed the day.

We arrived early for swimming so we were able to spend half an hour on the park before having a swim at Tavistock pool. We only arrived back at the farm around 6.45 so we had a late tea and are now playing games in the barn. Off to Plymouth in the morning.