I have been staying down in Devon for a few days at the excellent Acorns campsite. Remembering that I'd read about some naturist walks on here over Exmoor, I thought I would look Simon T up to see if he had any route suggestions or advice on where it was safe to strip off and places to be wary of.  As it turned out he was free and so we arranged to meet up. This would have the treble effect of a) someone to talk to, b) not having to navigate and therefore c) not missing the fact that I was about to bump into some other walkers while my head was in a map! A win win on all fronts!!

We met at a car park called Dry Bridge and headed out down a beautiful river valley called Lank Combe. We had the place to ourselves and therefore could dispense with shorts and t-shirts within a few hundred metres. Fortunately we waited until the guy in the Land Rover doing guided tours over Exmoor passed us or there would have been some new wildlife for him to point out!!

At the bottom of Lank Combe is Badgeworthy Pool which Simon promised was spot on for a cooling skinny dip. There was an elderly couple having a picnic when we got there, but we quickly assessed that they wouldn't mind and so it was off with the boots and shorts and in we went. It was on the brisk side, but as the sun was now out after the morning mist, it was absolutely lovely. I could have stayed there a lot longer, but we still had a fair way to go on out circular route and floating in this lovely pool was not putting any miles on!

As this valley is popular for its links to the story of Lorna Doone, it is quite well populated with walkers and a couple of campsites and so the shorts stayed on for a while, but as we headed up into Southern wood it was soon back to naked and a stiff climb up through the wood to the top of the moor. A diversion for a pint was suggested and it didn't take much persuasion. One pint of Exmoor Gold in the pub garden beside the river later and it was time to finish our loop.

We had to track back a little but soon picked up a track that led back up onto the moor and we were soon on our own and the shorts were off again. We'd decided to head for a trig point which was on top of the ridge that we had to go over to get back to Dry Bridge. It was just out of view over the ridge and so we had to take a bit of a guess which path to take up the ridge. Fortunately we got lucky and the trig point hover into view. This seemed like an ideal spot for a photo. (Once I work out how to reduce the size of pictures I'll post it up)

The other side of the trig point and the car park was visible and the end of our walk. The car park is literally in the middle of nowhere and so I thought I would be fine to change into my decent shorts, but just as we got there, two car loads of Japanese tourists turned up and started taking pictures in every angle!! You couldn't make it up!  Anyway, their photo shoot didn't last too long and they were off again. I got changed and took in the beautiful view for quite some time while reflecting on a great walk of around 10 miles.
Thanks Simon for being great company and showing me some absolutely beautiful countryside.