Snowdrops along the River Dart

It was a bright, albeit chilly morning so we decided to see the snowdrops along the banks of the River Dart near Dartington.  We parked the car at Dartington Hall and walked down the hill towards Totnes.  We turned off the road and through a kissing gate to the path that went along the banks of the river.  To begin with the path was very muddy, but once we had got past this section the path was OK, although muddy in places.

The river was glimmering in the sunshine and looked wider than normal.  At one point I saw a flash of blue - was it a kingfisher?  It went too quick to be sure.

Afte walking for some time we saw snowdrops on the other side of the river and then along the path we were walking.  There was a barbed wire fence around them - was this to protect them?  It could be as I understand that in the past there had been more there.

We followed the river along to Staverton Bridge.  We crossed this then walked back on the other river bank to the village of Staverton where we stopped for lunch at The Sea Trout.  After being refreshed we walked back to the bridge and continued walking through woodland to make our way back to Dartington Hall.  However, we missed the path leading down to the Dartington Craft Centre and ended up walking round in a circle and ending up back at Staverton Bridge 40 minutes later!  We made our way back up the hill through the trees and at the top when there was a choice of paths there were some dog walkers so we could check which was the correct path!

Once past Dartington Craft Centre we walked along the hill until we came to Dartington Hall Gardens which we walked through back to our car.  The gardens were looking lovely with snowdrops, primroses and crocuses out.

This walk is in the AA book of walks, they reckon it is 5 miles and should take 2.5 hours.  We must have done at least 6 miles as we were walking for over 3 hours.