Oct 2020 - Ascent from Postbridge. Grim weather to start but it brightened up in the late morning. Nice walk through forestry before the pull up to Bellever Tor, and then more on the way towards Laughter Tor. Bellever is named after the nearby hamlet of Bellever, beside an ancient ford over the river. The rocks on the summit are fascinating, with a group of large central formations surrounded by many smaller blocks, all showing the characteristic erosion into thin, parallel layers. A trig point is placed on top! The map showed that there’s plenty of historical sites in Bellever Forest so I looked this up. One of the biggest travesties as far as Dartmoor archaeology is concerned must be the forestation of the area around Bellever and to a lesser extent, Laughter tor. The forest was planted by the Duchy of Cornwall in 1921 in order to replenish wood supplies and this effectively blanketed about 5,000 years of history. Prominent to the south of the tor is a menhir or standing stone. From Laughter Tor, it was a long squelch to Dartmeet. Dartmeet acts as a meeting point of the two major tributaries of the River Dart which are the East Dart and the West Dart. There is a road bridge just above the East Dart and was built in 1792, while another partially collapsed medieval clapper bridge sits to the side of it. Lovely pull up to Yar Tor, a great viewpoint. Eventually, I arrived at the stepping stones over the East Dart. I was last here with Helen 27 years ago! We were on a teaching programme with pupils from Bradley Rowe Middle School, Exeter. River was almost at bankfull so there was no way I was going to cross it as several of the stones were underwater and the river was powerful and deep. It was actually here, approaching from the other side, that I fell and ended up in Wonford A&E with a suspected broken leg on that same trip. I remember my mother coming up to Exmouth to nurse me through! I picked a route through to Bellever alongside the east bank of the river.