Finally, here are some works of #art that people have made by balancing #rocks and #pebbles on top of each other.

Like in all wild areas, #life, #growth, #death, and #decay are often intermingled and you can’t have one without all the others. Here’s a rotting tree trunk which has been hollowed out by various living things, some of which are still growing on it.

I try to watch where I’m stepping, though it’s not easy if the ground gets too rough and irregular. Here, I avoided the impressive #beetle which was minding its own business.

A bit further along, some of the pine trees which have been cut down are piled up. Counting the rings, it seems that they were around 25 years old.

Here I am standing in this group of #trees.

These #PineTrees are grown for #softwood #timber. They have been planted in a regular array, producing an interesting geometrical effect. They’re about 25-30 m tall.

Some barely living trees had become very oddly shaped in their later years.

By the side, there were #stumps of several felled #trees which had been left to #rot and #decay. They make a #habitat for #ferns, #lichens and #fungi.

Some #paths are little more than #mudtracks and as it had rained heavily on the previous day, #puddles remained and the ground was quite muddy… Part of the fun of #hiking, I find, is getting a bit dirty in the process.

#PublicFootpaths often go through #farmland but also sometimes through #farmyards. Walking through one of the latter, we spotted these #chickens. The #hens started to retreat to their #barn as they spotted us approaching while the #cock remained outside just to make sure we weren’t going to try anything.

After our lunch, it was time to cross the #bridge and resume our #hiking back towards #Dulverton. We’d done just over 11 km up to this point.

According to #Wikipedia, the #TarrSteps are form of construction called a #ClapperBridge and were originally built in #Medieval times but these are not the original stones as they have been damages and swept away several times in their history during storms and rebuilt, luckily in the same manner.

When we finally got to this destination, it was time to relax. For the first time since breakfast at around 6 am, I had something to eat and drink. It was a wonderful feeling and helped revive me almost instantly. As it was a fine day, may people were gathered here, just having a good time.

The first enigmatic view of the #TarrSteps was from behind trees. Here, we could see people crossing the river.

The last part of the path to the #TarrSteps from the north-east is quite rocky.