Incr-edibledorset & devon

When shall we four meet again? Hopefully not in thunder, lightning or rain! Because Dartmoor dripped. Frog-green, mossy tree trunks soaked up every downpour like a sponge, while roadside streams gurgled more than usual. But on Pew Tor, the sun peeped out and cast rays over four haggard-looking hawthorn bushes, yet to leaf.

Their exposed forms were windswept, bent like the witches of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, as I approached the otherworldly rock formations at the tor’s summit. At least a meal at Langstone Manor Holiday Park’s onsite restaurant, only a 30-minute walk away, awaited my return.

I had opted for a tour of Dorset and Devon to enjoy its food and drink scene. But a week of indulgence called for locations where a good walk was possible, too. A series of stately homes and gardens, alongside windswept hills for a rousing stomp to the summit, seemed a good match.

Lock, stock and beer barrels I had begun at Back of Beyond Touring Park, tucked away in woodland on Dorset’s eastern edge, where nightly food trucks serve freshly cooked fish and chips, curry and the like.

My fridge was empty – waiting to be filled at a farm shop (or the site shop, which sells Dorset fare) – and I’d heard the fish was good. It was.

I can hardly claim that supper was properly walked off along the campsite’s lakeside and woodland walk, but it was a start.

In the morning, I travelled to Cranborne, where the Manor Gardens looked magnificent, bursting with spring flowers. The gardens are extensive, but not sufficiently large to warrant lunch at the excellent Kitchen Garden Café, so I took a longer, four-mile walk around the Cranborne Estate. A light lunch was followed by purchasing a bottle of Cranborne Chase Cider as a souvenir.

I drove north-west to Fontmell and Melbury Downs. These steeply sided undulations south of Shaftesbury were acquired by the National Trust in memory of Victorian author Thomas Hardy, to protect the landscape in which his famous novels are set.

A long walk on the chalk downs helped to work off a few calories. It also provided an opportunity to visit Compton Abbas Airfield, which stands on top of the downs, offering extensive views of the surroundings.

The airfiel