England in the full throws of an icy cold wet winter can be a depressing place. Wet jeans chafing at your thighs, frostbite eating away at your ears and shit hair. Oh to be a woodland animal and hibernate the winter away with dreams of sunshine, lollipops and rainbows…

Unfortunately, us human beings took a slightly different route down the path of evolution and weren’t designed to furrow away underground. So if you can’t beat the weather, you might as well join it in all its glorious shades of grey. Take a trip to Postbridge on Dartmoor and you can actually experience a smidgen of Technicolor.

A meandering stream that has burst over orange reeds reflects the myriad of greens, purples and maroons of the surrounding rocky and bracken-strewn environment. A dull black sky is punctuated with fluorescent yellow streaks as the sun tries in vain to penetrate its many layers. Take a brisk hour-long walk up and down this barren landscape and the endless unspoilt views and whipping wind will revitalise your senses to banish those winter blues.

Once you’ve chilled yourself to the bones with some invigorating Devonshire air, you can treat yourself to a pint or two in The Warren Inn, which has a great roaring log fire built from the embers of a previous pub that burnt down. Having not been extinguished for more than 150 years, the welcome heat from the fire engulfs every crevice of your skin to slowly melt away the cold and bring the feeling back to your toes. Now who said England was depressing ey…