CornishGazza

Be more than happy to meet up SirAdam - funny enough we were enjoying a rather excellent locally bred pasty in Hayle on Saturday before doing the Watch the Birdie cache.

Firstly welcome to geocaching SirAdamCollins! Like you I'm Cornish based (Penryn) and fairly new to this. The wife and I have done three walks on Dartmoor recently and can whole heartedly recommend the moor. First one was a 10.5 mile walk from Princetown taking in Swelltor, Kingstor, Ingra Tor and Leedon Tor with 27 caches along the way - plenty of interest including the former GWR line and tramway to Princetown as well as the excellent granite quarries all around. Some of the walk is easy going on the former railway line but a lot is onto Dartmoor 'proper'. The second one linked up South Hessary Tor, Devonport Leat, Crazywell Pool, Black Tor and Hart Tor - something like 7 miles in total; once again from Princetown. Yesterday we did the 10 caches around Feather Tor, Heckwood Tor and Pew Tor from the car park on the Tavistock - Merrivale road about 5.5 miles and a lovely corner of the moors. North of there is Cox's Tor and Staple Tor - plenty of caches there, though we're yet to do them! Why not consider Bodmin Moor as well - a great experience often overlooked in favour of Dartmoor. On Sunday I did an 11.2 mile walk for 12 caches across Showery Tor, Brown Willy, Butter's Tor, Garrow Tor, Alex Tor and Logan's Rock - just as good as the three Dartmoor walks. If you want I can send some details of these walks to you. You probably already have them but I can recommend the OS 1:25000 maps - even with GPS they're invaluable for the bigger picture. We saw plenty of places to rough camp and are considering it ourselves on Dartmoor in the future. Have fun.

Birdman is spot on - the ones around Pentire Point, Newquay are excellent - in fact all along the coastline of Cornwall are some excellent caches with stunning views. The Camel Trail that runs from Bodmin to Wadebridge and onto Padstow is another good walk / bike ride - plenty of bike hire opportunities as well. Give us an idea of where / what you want to see and we should be able to help more! It's all about folks coming to Cornwall and having a great holiday! We're proud of our county and love to show it off to our visitors.

There are many good trails plus numerous ones that can be linked into circular walks. We've only be caching for a couple of months in West Cornwall but can recommend trails around Loe Bar (nr Helston); Stompy and Stampy's trail around Barripper nr Camborne; and the one around Stithians Reservoir. There are many caches on the mining trails around Carn Brea (The Great Flat Lode etc) and the Portreath - Devoran tramway trail. The coastal paths are well populated and can make for some stunning walks; in fact you have a great variety of choice in a small area! Have fun Cornwall is a great place! If you give a more specific location and how far you want to travel from that we might be able to pinpoint a few more decent locations! We haven't done that many of the caches here in Cornwall but we do know the county well. Have fun!

Thanks for the link spannerman! Wild camping cropped several times during the weekend's conversations - might be giving it go sometime soon! We saw some suitable locations - can now look them up on the maps on the site you've given the link to. As for Plume we had no problems whatsoever and will happily return. As for fights - add alcohol to some folk and you get an instant idiot. It's a problem across the board in licensed premises (I've worked in a few social clubs down west and it's no different) and I suspect the Plume and the Prince both get their shares during the year, so I'm not going to let that bother me.

Just look at the map and make your own route......there's so much space to choose from Indeed there is! We thoroughly enjoyed the two routes we planned and are going to come back for some more sometime real soon. One of the last purchases I made before leaving the Moors was a 1:25000 map of the area so route planning will be a whole pile easier. I was just wondering if anyone had any 'must-dos' or 'must-sees' that they have enjoyed.

We didn't try the Prince of Wales but will definately give them a go next time we're in Princetown - fingers crossed we can make the trip up for the event. Fox Tor Cafe were superb - can recommend the nachos. My wife thoroughly enjoyed her breakfast! They also have a bunkhouse now that sleeps 12 in 3 rooms. As you say Mouse "Can't wait to get back to the Moors!" What walks do you recommend? We did the railway line out of Princetown logging some 26 (out of 27) caches around Kings Tor, Ingra Tor and Leedon Tor on the first day and then 6 caches past South Hessary Tor along the Devonport Leat towards Black Tor. So we know there's plenty more to be seen and done, we've barely scratched the surface - so it would be interesting to hear what other walks / caches the good folk on this forum can inform us of.

That sounds pretty clumsy and not what was expected. However we've only been caching for a couple of months and don't know of any history of events or whatever. We can only speak as we find, as indeed can you; I respect that implicitly. We were a party of four who had a fine time at the Plume whilst on a short break this weekend, your experiences are in contrast to ours. It is interesting to hear both sides of the coin.

Ooops double post - where's the delete button?

Ooh - has there been a change in management I wonder....? Don't know about that but we did enjoy our stay at the Plume. I'm particular about my ale and can say the pints I was served were spot on. We just got 'stuck in' with the locals and had a great couple of hours laughing and drinking with them. The landlord knew about geocaching and was warm to our activities, we found him good company and will have absolutely no hesitation in returning later in the year.

Hi All, First post on here but have been reading the forum since we (My wife and I) started caching a couple of months ago. We've just come back from a long weekend on Dartmoor - based in Princetown - with a couple of friends who we've introduced to caching (they're hooked and looking to cache more in the future!). There's a host of great walks and caches in the moors around Princetown - we did two excellent walks which linked up many of the caches. I'll happily provide info on these two walks for anyone who's interested. Anyhow on to the businesses that we used in the village and our experiences with them. We used the campsite behind the Plume of Feathers - we found the staff courteous, polite and well informed with prices for the camping reasonable. Facilities are functional and perfect for a few night's stay. Didn't eat at the Plume but the real ale (including locally brewed Jail Ale) is well kept and the landlord and his regulars very friendly - we spent a very late night there on the Saturday! This is definately a geocaching friendly business. We wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone wishing to stay in the area - they were more than happy for me to charge up my phone whilst in the bar as well (bonus in my book!) Elsewhere in the village the Tourist Information / Moorlands Visitor Centre are clued up and very knowledgeable. They guided us in the direction of Fox Tor Cafe - a very convivial business that offers free wifi to it's customers - big, big positive. We used this cafe on a number of occasions and can only speak highly of it and it's staff. The manager (possibly owner) took a genuine interest as to the purpose of our visit and really wanted to get some info on geocaching. He's looking to put up a geocaching sticker or something in the front window of the cafe - definately another geocaching friendly business. The board outside the cafe states "muddy paws and boots welcome" - this is a business that's got it's market researched. Before any cynic gets a comment in we've got absolutely no link to either business but just wanted to share our positive experiences on a first geocaching weekend away from home. Has anyone else had such experiences in similar locations? So all in all a big thumbs up to Princetown and the local businesses we used ! Well done to one and all. Gary and Kelly - two very happy but tired cachers.