amount of heat from your head and therefore some form of headgear is extremely important all the year round for, even in summer, warm sunny days can quickly become wet and cold on Dartmoor. In winter a balaclava is well worth carrying. It is also worth mentioning that a broad-brimmed hat is a good thing to have on hot summer days for with a slight wind, sunburn is another hazard coupled with heat exhaustion and even heat stroke.
For winter walks thermal underwear is excellent, but not essential, and a woollen shirt is valuable. For summer lighter shirts will be sufficient. The rule is that several light layers of pullovers are better than one large, chunky sweater. It means that you have more control of your body heat and can shed one layer at a time when you are wearing several. Thermal, fleece jackets are very popular and to wear a light sweater with one of these jackets to put on or take off seems a good combination.
I like to wear breeches with a pair of long socks but you may prefer trousers. Whichever you choose, for winter walking they should be made of a thick material such as a woollen mixture and loose enough to allow easy leg movement; jeans are too thin and usually too tight to be ideal walking clothing but for summer they will do. There are plenty of excellent lightweight trousers designed for walking on the market.
Next, thick socks; loop stitch are very comfortable. Now perhaps most important, boots. The choice here is vast and nearly everyone has their own preference. Lightweight boots are very popular and for long days of walking they are far less tiring. However, the boots that are partly made of fabric cannot be said to be really waterproof unless you wear them with the type of gaiter that has a rubber rand that fits into a special groove round the welt of the boot. So probably I would suggest a lightweight, leather boot with a cleated rubber sole to be worn with gaiters, especially those with the rand. The sole should be flexible so that it bends with your foot as you walk.
Clappper Bridge over the River Avon, Walk 6
If the boots are well treated with waterproofing wax and you wear gaiters you should then be dry to the knees and I hope you do not go any deeper than that! I see no need for the heavy leather mountaineering boots for Dartmoor. You should get adequate ankle protection with lighter boots and there are no long scree slopes to descend.
I shall probably incur the wrath of some experts, but to be honest a good pair of wellingtons are excellent for a lot of Dartmoor and there are quite a few types of rubber boot on the market made with studs that can be taken out when not needed. Obviously it depends on your feet and whether you feel that you can walk comfortably all day in wellingtons.
Then you will need an outer layer of waterproof clothing. I am afraid that you will certainly need both jacket and trousers if you are going to walk a lot on Dartmoor in summer and winter. For summer walking a jacket only will be sufficient, but I do feel that a good hood is essential to stop the wind and rain going down your neck.
There are many breathable fabrics on the market but it seems that whatever you wear you will be very lucky to remain completely dry if you are out for several hours on Dartmoor on a wet and windy day. Either the garment will leak or you will get wet with sweat! In any case water will seep up your sleeves and down the neck! But do not be tempted to leave your waterproof and windproof garments behind as they are a life-saving and essential part of your equipment. The choice of which one to buy must rest with you: Gortex, Entrant, Ventile, waxed cotton, nylon proofed with rubber or PVC. The best answer is to visit a good equipment shop and look at the various makes available.
Finally, gloves or mittens. I prefer wool for inner gloves and indeed for most of my outer clothing such as shirts, sweaters and breeches; wool stays warm when wet. Again it is useful to have a waterproof and windproof outer glove for winter walking.
Equipment
You will need a small day rucksack to carry your food, spare clothing and all the other little bits and pieces I shall be suggesting. If you are thinking of camping you will have to consider a 65 to 70 litre capacity sack, but for a day walk up to 40 litres will be sufficient. A sack is useless if it does not keep the contents dry and it is usually a wise thing to put all your clothes into a polythene bag inside the rucksack.
A word should be written about some of the other small items that I feel might be taken with you for safety and comfort. Food for the day obviously is needed but it is a good idea to take a little extra in the form of ‘emergency rations’ such as chocolate, sultanas, nuts and raisins, mint cake and flapjack. On a hard day's walk you will need some 4000 calories and in cold, bad weather even more. I usually take a water bottle or a Thermos flask. Drinking from moorland streams can be dangerous: so often there is a dead sheep or cattle in or near the water and many people find the peaty water upsets their stomachs in any case.
Keeble Martin's Chapel, Walk 5
It is always wise to carry a spare sweater or thermal jacket, and a torch might well be of vital use if the walk takes longer than you expected and you have to finish in the dark.
I hope that you will never have to use it but a whistle to attract attention if need be, could save a life. The international distress signal is six long blasts on a whistle or six flashes with a torch in quick succession, then a minute's rest and then the signal is repeated followed by a minute's rest and so on until help comes. The answer, by the way, is three blasts or flashes followed by a minute's rest.
Next you might like to consider carrying a polythene survival bag or space blanket to shelter in if you or one of your party has an injury or suffers from hypothermia and has to lie out on the moor waiting for help. You will also need a small first-aid kit which you can either make up yourself or buy. It should contain bandages and dressings to deal with minor scrapes, cuts and blisters. On the subject of blisters it is far better to stop early on when the first slight burning soreness is noticed and put a plaster on. It is no good hoping it will go away. If you can feel it then the damage may have been done and blisters can ruin a day's walk. If you then add antiseptic cream, a triangular bandage, a crêpe bandage and finally some pain killing tablets these will make an excellent and useful first-aid kit to take for a day's walk.
Finally I know some people who like to carry a short length of nylon climbing rope with them on Dartmoor. I think that you are unlikely to have to use it except as a last resort to cross a flooded stream or river or to pull someone out of a deep bog! However, if you feel you need one, 30m of 9mm rope will be sufficient for Dartmoor, though for more mountainous regions you would need 45m.
Maps and compasses
For your safety and for you to get the maximum enjoyment from walking on Dartmoor it is wise to be proficient at understanding how to use your map and compass which are, of course, probably the most important bits of equipment you should have with you.
It does not take long to master elementary mapreading but I hope you will want to take it all a step further, for maps can tell you a vast number of interesting and important things about an area. More than anything else you have to be aware of the limitations of maps because they represent the three-dimensional features of our earth on a flat sheet of paper, but with practice this soon becomes no problem. I am fascinated by maps and spend hours just pouring over them and imagining the countryside they portray.
Dew on Conwebs
First you need to consider the scale. The Landranger Series of Great Britain have a scale of 2cm to 1km (1:50,000) or about 1.25 inches to the mile. You will need two sheets for the whole of Dartmoor: Sheet 191, Okehampton and North Dartmoor, and Sheet 202, Torbay and South Dartmoor. The Ordnance Survey has a Dartmoor map in its Outdoor Leisure series, Sheet 28. This is a marvellous map for detail as the scale is 4cm to 1km (1:25,000) or 2.5 inches to the mile, but as it covers the whole of Dartmoor it is a huge sheet and printed on both sides. The problems of folding and getting the relevant section that you want to use visible are enormous on windy, rainy days. Even if you prepare the map before you set off you are bound to want