Shaugh Bridge

It had been raining nearly every day for over a month.  It was a showery day today, but we wanted to get out for a breath of fresh air.  Last week we had taken my mum to Ivybridge and walked up the River Erme from the viaduct.  The river was spectacular as it rushed over boulders.  Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me so we decided to go to see what another river was looking like.  Today we chose to go to Shaugh Bridge where the rivers Meavy and Plym meet.  The sight did not disappoint us.

Plym Bridge in Winter

There has been a lot of rain recently and so we thought we would see how the River Plym was flowing at Plym Bridge.  We parked on the Estover side of the river and started by looking at the river by the bridge.  Although it was flowing fast, we were surprised that it was not that deep under the bridge.

We started to walk up the river and although the ground was flooded in places the river had not broken its banks.  There was a lot of water flowing into the river from the surrounding ground, making waterfalls.

At times there was white water as the river flowed over boulders, completely submerging them, but it was nothing special until we came until the weir, just past Cann viaduct.  The water flowing over this gave a  spectacular sight.

Being winter there was not much to see in the way of flora or fauna, but we did notice some catkins by the Cann Viaduct - the first signs of spring.

Cadover Bridge

It has been a long time since we visited Cadover Bridge but recently this part of Dartmoor has been mentioned to me a number of times so I thought it would be good to go there again.  We drove through Plympton to Wotter where we had been told there was an excellent view of Plymouth.  However, it was a misty day and we did not see very much.  Driving on through the clay works was not a very attractive route but we were soon onto the moor which was much more pleasant.

We parked at the National Trust car park at Cadover Bridge.  In the past we have walked from there to Shaugh Bridge, but today we decided to walk up the river.  The first thing I noticed was the sheep grazing by the river.  Most rivers on Dartmoor are fast flowing over boulders, but the river Plym at Cadover flows more gently and I was reminded of Psalm 23 "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters"

 

We crossed over the road by the bridge and started to walk up a small road parallel to the river.  We only walked as far as Trowlesworthy Warren House as the sky was threatening rain.  But as it held off once we were back at our car we did a short walk through the woods in the opposite direction.

It was surprising how quickly the river went from flowing gently to rushing down past boulders.  It seemed like a completely different river.

Although there were some brown, dead leaves on the ground most of the trees were still green.  There were lots of acorns around and some other berries on trees, but no magnificent autumn colour displays yet.

We did not return to Plymouth the way we had come but continued on the same road until we came to Yelverton,  Driving this way over Dartmoor was much prettier than the other way.