Wrong footed

On most days of the year there is a guide-led walk on Dartmoor. These walks, advertised in the Dartmoor Visitor, are ideal for a lazy person like me who enjoys tramping across the high moor from time to time but prefers someone else to do the map-reading and the worrying about not getting lost. Each walk listed in the Visitor is given a title, such as ‘Peaks and Pixies’ or ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’, and an Ordinance Survey map reference. The map reference tells you where to meet and usually refers to a car park.

Whenever I go on one of these walks, I often get off on the wrong foot, as it were, because I’m improperly dressed. The other walkers gathered in the car park will be velcroed up to the neck in the latest lightweight hiking gear, toting silly little day packs containing emergency provisions, and wielding titanium walking poles.