{"id":101,"date":"2012-09-27T14:05:08","date_gmt":"2012-09-27T14:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exmoorcentre.co.uk\/?p=101"},"modified":"2012-09-27T14:11:20","modified_gmt":"2012-09-27T14:11:20","slug":"james-team-discover-exmoor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/exmoorcentre.co.uk\/wordpress_4\/?p=101","title":{"rendered":"James’ team discover Exmoor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blog Post by James Law (http:\/\/jamesdlaw.com\/<\/a>)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Each year, our group of mates congregate from various parts of the
\ncountry for a weekend in the wilds – a spot of canoeing, some walking
\nor cycling maybe – whatever it takes to blow away the cobwebs.<\/p>\n

And like any internet researched trip, you never really know what
\nyour going to end up with in when it comes to the location and
\naccommodation you end up picking. But when the instructions just to
\nget to the your temporary front door are, “slow right down, engage
\nlow range gearing, don’t go over 5 miles an hour and watch out as you
\ncross the river at the bottom!” you know you’re in for a treat.<\/p>\n

Our home for the weekend, the Exmoor Centre offered the perfect combo
\nof wild surroundings (slap bang in the middle of the moor no less),
\nwarmth at the end of a rubbish summer (a log burner with combined
\noven and a roof as opposed to canvas) and close proximity to our
\nweekend’s ents (walking, mtb’ing and great pubs).<\/p>\n

When you combine all that with a very warm welcome from Will the
\ncentre manager, a black sky full of stars (the centre is in part of Europe’s
\nfirst dark sky reserve) and a natural plunge pool in the adjoining
\nriver to ease your aching bones (bring your wetsuits) and everything
\nwas nigh on perfect.<\/p>\n

We spent the first evening following the path by foot down to
\nWatersmeet and along to Rockford for a few swift ales in their local
\nbefore hiking back in the dark. The beer was great but the famous
\nExmoor hills certainly set us soft city lads up for our dinner of
\nbrisket chili and a few hands of poker by the warmth of the wood burner.<\/p>\n

Day two saw us hiring mountain bikes from Dan at Exmoor Adventures
\n(http:\/\/www.exmooradventures.co.uk\/<\/a>)<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for a trip out onto Brendon
\nCommon. The rapid descent from the top of the hill where the Exmoor
\nCentre lies down to Hillsford bridge was a great start to the
\nmorning, and the climb back up to the moor itself opened up our lungs
\nfor a great but testing day in the saddle. Lunch at The Staghunters
\nin Brendon, sat in the sun overlooking the river was a welcome break
\nbefore we took a deep breath and climbed back to the centre to try
\nout the plunge pool – an exhilarating final\u00e9!<\/p>\n

As we packed the next morning, all the talk was of when we’d be able
\nto make it back to Exmoor and the centre. Re-engaging low range in the
\n4×4 we crossed the river for the last time, fully satisfied and
\nwithout a cobweb in site…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blog Post by James Law (http:\/\/jamesdlaw.com\/) Each year, our group of mates congregate from various parts of the country for a weekend in the wilds – a spot of canoeing, some walking or cycling maybe – whatever it takes to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/exmoorcentre.co.uk\/wordpress_4\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/exmoorcentre.co.uk\/wordpress_4\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/exmoorcentre.co.uk\/wordpress_4\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/exmoorcentre.co.uk\/wordpress_4\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/exmoorcentre.co.uk\/wordpress_4\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/exmoorcentre.co.uk\/wordpress_4\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106,"href":"http:\/\/exmoorcentre.co.uk\/wordpress_4\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions\/106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/exmoorcentre.co.uk\/wordpress_4\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/exmoorcentre.co.uk\/wordpress_4\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/exmoorcentre.co.uk\/wordpress_4\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}