Like a Longfin Eel

So I’m going to stay a bit closer to home for a bit - I’ve been here over 6 months now and was a bit embarrassed that I hadn’t been to Dartmoor yet. It’s about an hours drive to the heart of if from Exeter, and although it is still Criss-crossed with roads and covered in farmland, it still has very much a sense of wildness to it. The hills are big but very flat; so all sense of distance is distorted- you can find yourself making quite a lot of elevation without getting all that puffed just because the hill eeks up slowly. The tops of the hills have thumbs of granite poking up- “tors” that remain after the rest has eroded, and with big chunks of rocks scattered around them from where the water has split apart the main rock over thousands of years. Think of perhaps, a Jenga tower, partly collapsed, with the pieces lying around. It wasn’t take-your-breath-away stunning like the highlands, but something different and I think, just as special - a slow realisation of the oldness of the place...

Devon Today population 1.2 million 5 ICU beds per 100 000 2937 new covid cases in the last week (366 per 100 000 people) 8 deaths in the last week 88% vaccinated (one jab) - 82% two jabs... and more starting to get boosters from 24th Sept  New Zealand Today population 5 million (but who actually knows because when exactly did we last have a proper census?) 4.6 ICU beds per 100 000 309 new covid cases in the last week (roughly 5 per 100 000 people) 0 deaths in the last week 80.2% vaccinated (one jab) - 57.5% two jabs  I went on a brilliant holiday in Scotland and walked a lot and loved it. I liked the immensely fresh air, seeing a red squirrel (in the distance, scootling across the road at speed like an eyebrow set free), the heather and the marsh. Picking fresh blueberries and trying new other berries - with a guide to let me know that eating that red one nestled in the marsh is okay . A bit bitter, but okay.  It's past halfway of my time here, and while I was away in Sco...