Dartmoor

Dartmoor is the vast, brooding upland that dominates the horizon to the north of Kingsbridge, and it stands as the first great physical and psychological barrier in Harold Fry's pilgrimage. When Harold steps out of the phone box after promising Queenie Hennessy that he will walk to Berwick-upon-Tweed, he stares at the ribbon of road ahead and the glowering wall that is Dartmoor, and asks himself what in heaven's name he has just done. The moor is thus present from the very first moment of his decision, a dark mass on the shoulder of the horizon that seems to embody the impossibility of his undertaking. It is the threshold he must cross before the true journey can begin, and its presence haunts the opening stages of his walk, looming to his left as he heads north towards South Brent and Exeter.