Getting into hiking can be one of the best decisions you make in your life. Perhaps you're looking to get fitter, join a club to meet new people or just to get to know the great British countryside a little better – whatever your motivation, it’s a great way to spend your time.

London and I have never really got on. I find the capital loud and overcrowded, expensive and grubby. London, in return, is utterly indifferent to my very existence. So we share little common ground, it’s fair to say. But there is one corner of England’s cocky, choked capital that I am always happy to revisit.

For the dedicated car-free walker, this leg of the Two Moors Way route requires planning over spontaneity and on this occasion, a degree of dedication over reason. It being half term, I had freed myself of mid-week parental responsibilities to be able to make use of the once a week bus service from Buckfastleigh towards Widecombe in the Moor.