devon – Page 2 – Where is Phil now?

SWCP Walk day 2, Porlock to Lynton

Friday 07 August 2015 – Lynton, Devon.

14 miles.

It was not a good night’s sleep. I expected that, but hoped for otherwise as I was physically tired from the walking. I was really surprised with how cold it was in the early hours. I was freezing. Colder than I had been when I camped out much later in the year. I knew I should have bought a new sleeping bag!

It was a clear night, which led to the cold temperature as well as quite a hefty morning dew on the ground. I learnt my first lesson of choosing a tent spot. Always look for somewhere that gets the early morning sun so the ground and the tent dry off as quickly as possible. I had chosen a good spot, but my neighbours moved their van in the night and created a long shadow right across my tent.

I was up at 7:00 and had my first camping breakfast. I had brought with me some packaged oats that just need boiling water added. My stove is really just a water boiler – a really fast water boiler. Two minutes, water boiled for oats and coffee, and not too bad a breakie either.

When I finally got out of the tent and vertical I found I was a bit stiff, but otherwise fine, walking up to the supermarket to buy some sandwiches for lunch was enough to shake out the stiffness, and by the time I stripped my camp site down, loaded up my pack and headed off I was feeling OK with the world. The sun was warm, the day just starting and I had about 14 miles of stunning coast to walk.

Leaving the campground I immediately (probably) took the wrong, and longer path down to Porlock beach. A narrow band, nicely hedged off from the road.

The path goes through the inland side of a marsh area that comes and goes over the centuries with a skeleton forest that is significantly old, the remains date back 5000 years. Cool !

The final section before the small village of Porlock Weir was along the top of the stony beach and was quite tough to walk on, after yesterday’s small wobble on an uneven rock I took extra precautions walking across the stones.

Porlock Weir is tiny and cute and also has the last coffee stop before my destination at the end of the day – Lynmouth. So I made use of the facilities and had a final coffee before finally setting off on the trail at 10:00, with 12.5 miles to go. The book says it is moderate to strenuous…

The walk out of Porlock Weir is quite nice, up a hill, but quite nice. Once out of town there is another nice long section of shaded woodland, I did not realise there was so much tree cover on this early section, I expected the moors to be far more open, but apparently Exmoor has one of the largest coastal forest sections of any park in the UK. It is really nice forest – and I was also glad of the shade.

The lovely old toll gate at Worthy Toll collects a small fee for cars wishing to use the private road, built in the 1840s to provide an option for travellers to avoid the steep Porlock Hill road. The gate for walkers passing by is free Smile

Ashley Combe house has long been pulled down after being in ruins for many years. The grand house was built for Ada Lovelace (look her up, she is very interesting, especially if you are interested in computing) by her husband and included a series of tunnels linking the tradesman entrances to the house so that they and their guests could look out over the magnificent gardens without having to see the servants and tradesmen. A few of the tunnels remain and are part of the coast path, it looks like some of them must have been quite long.

Culborne Church was the next stop, for a long drink of water and a nut bar, as well a look around. I did not linger here too long as there was an incredible amount of flies, an unwelcome feature of most of the rest of the day. I caught up with the Dutch ladies here and as I was leaving the family group I saw last night were arriving. It is good to know there are people on the path – just in case !

There is an unproven story that suggests the steeple on Culborne Church may have come from the missing section of the steeple at Porlock Church…

Culborne Church is the smallest parish church in the UK, it has a capacity of 30 and still has weekly services. To access it you have to make the hour long walk from Porlock or risk driving down what is essentially a four wheel drive track. There has been a church here for many many years – in fact it is one of only a handful of buildings mentioned in the Doomsday Book which was written in 1086, so as well as being old it must have been quite significant. It was a shame about the flies as it was a really nice place to relax.

The walk out of Culborne was all up hill, up hill, up hill and more up hill. It started off through some nice woodland which was great.

Finally breaking out into a long rolling hilly section through farmland, which was probably the worst section of all the walking I did. It was just a bit dull, long sections down narrow roads with high hedges and walls on either side. Frankly, it was just boring. There was also a very large and unavoidable mud hole full of cowshit to cross so I also ended up with wet and smelly shoes, socks and feet.

I did see some sheep – and some deer.

Once I was back under the forest canopy there were plenty of little waterfalls and streams for me to stick my feet, it did not fix the wet socks and shoes, but it did mean I got to clean the mud and cow shit off. Thankfully.

Somewhere in this section I passed from the county of Somerset in to Devon.

This section had lots of short and sometimes steep ascents and descents so I finally got to break my walking poles out and use them, I think they made a difference on some of the climbs. I tried to stop for lunch at the top of one of the climbs, but as soon as I stopped moving I was inundated with flies. I ate a sandwich on the move, which didn’t give me the rest I wanted, but it did fill my tummy and provide a bit of energy for more walking.

The 19^th century stone cross near Sisters Fountain.

Just past the hogs head topped gateposts to Woodland Lodge I found a patch of sun on the grass and stopped to eat my sandwiches and change the wet socks for dry ones. My feet feel OK, but any precautions that can be taken to prevent blisters should be taken.

There was still a fair bit of walking to go before I got my first view of today’s final destination – Lynmouth and Lynton, way in the distance.

On the way I passed another, very tame, Exmoor pony and her foal, who seemed to not like the very bright sun too much !

By this stage I was quite close (or so I thought) to Lynmouth and there were a number of day walkers and families out and about on the cliff tops. Just past the St John the Baptist church of Countisbury, I saw there was a large car park and a pub – which probably explains the number of people…

From here it was pretty much down hill all the way, and I mean that in the positive sense too ! Looking back I just see the path rolling along the edge of the horizon. Stunning !

The good news was I was soon in the nice, but very busy town of Lynmouth. The bad news was the campground was in Lynton, at the top of the hill – a big hill, a soul destroyingly big hill !

I didn’t take the funicular – that would be admitting defeat. I walked another 45 minutes, getting lost and then a bit grumpy, before I found the lovely little campsite.

After checking in – and paying my 6.50 (note this for a later post, I sense a rant coming in a few days) for me and my tent, I picked up two beers and an ice cream from the shop before flopping unceremoniously onto the ground next to the stream that flowed past the campsite.

I was knackered – this was a much harder day than yesterday!

Once I had my tent assembled and myself and my clothes washed I decided to go to the pub next door for tea. There was no cell phone reception in the campsite and the pub had wifi. Except it didn’t, it was broken. I was really thrown by this, bizarrely thrown, I must have been tired. I knew this was likely to be the case on the path, but knowing it may happen and it actually happening are two different things ! I had told El I would let her know each day when I arrived at my destination and finding I couldn’t easily do it was frustrating. I decided to have a really early dinner and then walk back into town with the hope of getting reception there. Luckily as I sat eating my very average Thai noodles a bar of mobile reception appeared and I managed to get a couple of messages away. Relieved, I am not sure I wanted to walk any further today. I did manage to get El to find me a guest house in Combe Martin for me to stay in tomorrow night. I am going to have a rest day on Sunday – nothing to do with it being the first Arsenal game of the season on the telly, honest…

After eating I went back to the campsite and had a bit of a play with some long exposure photos in the stream.

After that it was bed time, I was quite tired. It had been a much longer and harder day than yesterday. But apart from the wee moment when I had no reception I had another good day.

Tomorrow is supposed to be really tough, Gulp !!

Ruined villages, WWII tragedies and some nice scenery.

Tuesday 23 December 2014 – Dartmouth, Devon.

After all that walking yesterday and feeling quite weary when I turned the light off at 10:00 I fully expected to get a pretty solid sleep in, but sadly that was not to be, and I just dozed off and on all night. Maybe it was the two hours of photo editing I did before sleep!

I was up at 8:00 again and spent half hour writing part of a blog post on yesterday after breakfast before I packed up and headed out the door. My plan was to catch the bus to Torcross and walk to Hallsands and back. The B and B host could not find a bus timetable before I left which turned out to be a mistake as I missed the once an hour bus by five minutes because I detoured on a walk around Dartmouth on the way to the bus stop. Which meant forty five minutes in a cafe waiting for the next one, at least I got to drink a decent coffee.

My B and B is next to the Cherub Inn, the only surving medieval house in Dartmouth, being built around 1380. My B and B next door was considerably newer being built in 1635….

I took the long way to the bus stop, walking up some of the narrow streets in the middle of town with the aim of getting a decent view of the Britannia Royal Naval College, a very large building that looms over the western end of town – and is off limits to most. The building itself is quite recent, with construction starting in 1904, though naval officers have been trained in Dartmouth since 1863. It is a mighty impressive building, though through the light drizzle it did take a rather poor photo.

It took me a while to find a vantage point, walking up and down some of the many steep streets, my legs were feeling it at the start, but once they had stretched out I felt pretty good, which I was pleasantly surprised at.

Dartmouth is a famous old town, with a long tradition of sailing, voyages and battle ships. From as long ago as 1147 when ships set sail on the crusades there have been vessels moving in and out of the Dart. The Mayflower left England for the last time on its voyage to America in 1620 – and landed in what became Dartmouth in Massachusetts. Sadly the museum was closed. But the bus stop had a nice outlook.

The bus journey over to Torcross took about thirty minutes and I snapped a few photos out of the slightly grubby windows on the way, the first overlooking Dartmouth.

There are some lovely beaches along this stretch of coast. Blackpool Sands for instance.

I would really hate to be a bus driver, anywhere to be fair, but it must be extra tricky on the narrow roads of rural Britain, especially driving a double decker bus. I raise my hat to all who do it.

Torcross Beach is about two and half miles long and is a narrow strip between the sea and Slapton Ley; a marshy lake, wetland area and scenic reserve. I got off the bus at what I thought was the half way point, into a howling gale and then a sudden downpour of rain. It then drizzled virtually the whole way along the beach to the small town of Torcross at the end. With its massive sand and pebble beach Torcross was used significantly during the second world war as an American training ground for the D-Day landings. The local population were all moved out of their homes during the training time and this memorial is a reminder of that forced evacuation.

The beach itself is really nice, vast and almost deserted, and looking quite imposing under threatening skies.

I remembered this is as the place where I almost lost my phone when I was last here, It had fallen out of my pocket when I had snuck into the bushes for a wee, and didn’t realise I had dropped it until a few minutes later. I was very relieved, and quite amazed, to find it again.

One of the many sad and terrible events of World War 2 took place in Torcross and I did not know anything about until It was mentioned to me over breakfast this morning. Operation Tiger was the name of the D-Day landing trials and the extra activity attracted the attention of the German navy and two boats were sunk by torpedo boats at the loss of over 700 US lives. To add to the pain, on the trial landing itself there was a mis-communication resulting in over 300 deaths in a poorly timed shelling. Over 1000 troops killed, just in a trial. A real tragedy. This tank was dug out of the sand and set up as memorial in 1984.

The road runs between the beach and Slapton Ley and was severely impacted by the winter storms last year, the storms also changed the lie of the beach to a degree where the long term future of the wetlands, the village and the road are all in doubt. Nature can be a hard mistress, not that humanity is helping that much.

The rain had stopped by the time I got to the village and started up over the hill to my next stop of Beesands. I spent ages trying to work out what the start point was far, and finally realised it was the name of the far headland and this was Start Bay. I had a mental doh moment when I realised.

It was only a short walk over the top and blessedly not too steep either.

Beesands did not really have any great redeeming features, it has been severely impacted by the downturn in local fishing, and is pretty much reliant on tourists passing through between Torcross and the more well known Hallsands – pretty much what I was doing.

Beesands main claim to fame is the Cricket Inn, where Mick and Keith first performed to an audience, as a teenage duo before the Rolling Stones were started. Keith’s family had long holidayed here and the young Mick often joined them on their trips.

You know a place is windy when the trees are all growing sideways!

Hallsands was my final destination for the day, it had been a small fishing village for a couple of hundred years, growing to a population of just over one hundred and fifty in the late 1800s.

In 1890 the building of a new naval dockyard was started further along the coast in Keyham near Plymouth. Too supply the sand for the construction dredging took place just off shore and within ten years the beach had been so undermined that the residents complained to parliament. Two years later dredging was stopped, but the damage was done and in severe storms in 1907 most of the village was washed into the sea. The build of the naval base was subsequently stopped – not due to the destruction of the village though.

Though a small village has been built since there is constant damage done during heavy storms, and you can see where the road has been partially washed away, as recently as 2012.

These houses were left almost stranded in 2012 as well.

There is now a small path and a viewing platform over looking the remaining houses from the first village, the reason why tourists come to Hallsands. The area below the houses used to be a sandy beach until the dredging ruined it.

As the buses from Torcross to Dartmouth only run hourly I decided to try for a quick walk back and get an earlier bus, so I power walked back over to Beesands, stopping to take a photo of the clouds coming down over the hills – luckily it didn’t rain again!

And this really cool football pitch with its drop off into the far corner!

I decided to take a punt on being able to walk on the beach around the headland between Beesands and Torcross. I had seen dog walkers heading that way and it sort of looked possible, and it would save a bit of time as well. It was also nice to walk on the beach, two days on the coast and I had not actually set foot on the beach yet….

The beach did go around to Torcross and luckily there were steps up the cliff and over this stream else it would have been a pointless short cut!

I arrived back in Torcross with five minutes to spare, so I took a photo of this nice old farmhouse for sale – El are you tempted ?

And a view up Slapton Ley. I wonder what it will look like if I make it back down this way again. So many broody dark skies….

The bus ride back to town was good, I was the only person on the bus, I can see why they do not run more frequently. I had a really nice soup for a late lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening editing photos and watching some TV before heading out for a very nice fish and chip dinner at the Rockfish Cafe. 2013 winner of best fish and chip shop.

And that was it – holiday over. I had a good time, I really enjoyed the hills and the walks and weather, which was much better than I expected. All those spare clothes I brought down with me where not needed, thankfully. I think next time I go away I will bite the bullet on the cost and rent a car. While I like buses and trains, off season they can be restrictive and costly. There were a couple of other things I would have liked to have seen in the area too, but time and energy were in restricted supply

I am now on my way back to London on the train, after a bacon sarnie and a not unreasonable coffee at the Totnes Station Cafe.

Looking forward to Christmas, but will miss seeing my kids, my grandchild, my mum and the rest of the family.

Brixham to Kingswear – a walk on the South West Coast Path.

Monday 22 December 2014 – Dartmouth, Devon.

Seeing as I am back on the road again, if only for a couple of days, it seems only fair that I continue with my traveling tradition of starting each blog post with a mention of how I slept the night before, poorly in this case. My room in the Cherubs Nest B and B is nice, comfortable and warm, I was (am) tired, but I did not sleep much at all and was awake before 6:00 as usual. I did not get up though. I was the only guest so enjoyed a really nice breakfast on my own, fueling up for the day ahead.

The forecast was for a cloudy day with no rain, so I decided to go west and walk from Brixham back to Dartmouth, via the ferry at Kingswear, a ten(ish) mile walk on the South West Coast Path. As is usual I woefully under-prepared for the walk, I did not take anywhere near enough water or snacks to munch on and perhaps should have tossed my head torch in my bag as well. On the plus side though, I did have warm and waterproof clothing. Ten miles is not that far in flat London with corner shops every few hundred yards, but on a remote, muddy and often steep coast it is much harder going. I also did not fully realise how unfit I am for this sort of terrain, yes I can knock off an eight mile run on the flat without too much bother, but wow I have missed doing hills.

I left the Cherubs Nest about 10:00 and headed down to the nearby waterfront to catch the ferry over to Kingswear. There are a few ferry services crossing the River Dart, but the lower car ferry is the most frequent, crossing every few minutes, and it does take foot passengers.

It is also a good spot to get a photo of some of Dartmouth old town. I really like towns on steep hillsides!

The ride to Kingswear is only five minutes and the bus stop is just up from the ferry, luckily there was a bus about to leave as I arrived.

The journey to Brixham was interesting, a bit ’round the houses’ as they say, and some of the houses were not exactly ones you would want to go round either. I have this rather romanticised view of what remote coastal villages and towns look like, all olde world stone and wood, with a thatched or tiled roof, occupied by wonderful friendly folk. Unfortunately the real world is not like that and outside of the original ‘old town’ part of these places, partly hidden from view – unless you are on a local bus, there is the usual swathe of cheap housing filled with those less fortunate than I. Brixham was like that.

Brixham is a commercial fishing village and I did see a sign that said it was the birthplace of trawler fishing, I marched on through. Though I did love these tiny old crabbing boats.

One of the things I recalled with little pleasure from supporting Mal on his run of the South West Coast Path was how poorly it was sign posted in and on the fringes of towns, and I definitely remember Brixham was no exception. I headed in the right direction, but ended up at a swanky hotel at the start of the headland, I wandered up a side road and just happened to come across the path again at Berry Head.

As I wasn’t planning on sticking religiously to the coast path I was going to walk across the headland rather than around it, but once I was up there I was surprised to find an old fort. The forts that remains – there are two of them, were built around 1800 – sadly on top of Iron Age forts, to defend Torbay against the French. All that was left of the first fort was the very solid external walls and a (surprisingly open) coffee shop and information centre inside the walls.

Berry head is also well known for migrating birds, and there are a couple of hides, but this was very much out of season.

The second fort has a few more ruins in it, and I had a few minutes of fun trying to get decent photos before I realised with a minor sense of panic that it is almost the shortest daylight day of the year, I have ten miles to walk and it is 12:00. I have four hours to get to Kingswear before it gets properly dark, this seems like an extraordinary amount of time to walk ten miles, but there are no villages between Sharkham Point and Kingswear to exit the path and get a bus from, plus I want to take pictures on the way. So I left.

St Mary’s Bay is very picturesque, though I did hurry past, casting my eyes in land only quickly.

Just past the bay I came across a sign that almost made me turn back enjoy more of St Mary’s Bay and the old forts and then catch the bus back.

I was worrying a little about time as I had not planned on having to take a detour, understandable as half the cliff face had fallen away. This detour took me back inland and around a recently built and monumentally hideous housing estate, and then dumped me on a street with no indication of which way to go. I headed back towards the coast and fortunately found the path again. I suspect the temporary signs had long been removed.

I slung my camera bag back on my back, fastened the straps and started jogging on the down hill sections, I wanted to try and recoup some of the last time faffing on the detour, and soon enough I was well on my way, back on the path – and at the top of one of the in-numerable climbs.

Soon I was heading down towards Mansands Bay.

Where I came across a sign telling me I had 6 miles to go, at this point I realised I was probably going to be fine, getting back an hour before sunset, though I did not slacken my pace that much.

The climb out of Mansands was pretty tough, not long but really steep, and this was just preparing me for the climb out of the next bay which felt like it was near vertical in parts. But the view was worth it…

What made the climb out of the next bay worse was that it had been used by live stock recently so it was completely chewed up, really muddy and a bit smelly.

And the steep grassed section was quite greasy in parts, I was almost crawling at the top.

For the next hour or so the track moved across the cliff tops, dropping down to small bays here and there and generally offering a constant array of beautiful scenery to gaze at.

The track was quite cut up along the tops and I could see horse shoe prints in the mud, I was getting a bit pissed with the person that decided riding a horse up here on these narrow trails was a good idea, and then I discovered the source – a bunch of Dartmoor Ponies had been released here. That made much more sense!

I think this is Old Mill Bay.

A last look back west.

I reached Froward Point about 2:45 and was thinking how well I had done in getting to Kingswear so quickly, before I saw a sign advising me I had two more miles to go. By this time I had only a couple of mouthfuls of water left and had long eaten my two muesli bars. Even though it was a little windy on the tops I had gotten a lot warmer than I had expected with my mix of light jogging and power walking had subsequently sweated more than a small bottle of water was good for. I was thirsty!

Mew Stone and Shag Stone from the point.

The walk from the point into town seemed to take forever and my lack of hill fitness was showing on the climbs as I got quite slow. There was a good view of both Kingswear and Dartmouth Castles through the trees at one point, which I ruined with a bad photo.

I was hoping to walk past the castle, but discovered that it is privately owned and is not accessible, or even readily visible to the public. Shame…. I did find this small tower though, which partly made up for it.

Soon after that the path ended and I was on the edge of town.

I found a tap outside some flats that were empty so I refilled my water bottle with some rather earthy tasting but very refreshing water, said a small thanks to the absent owners and carried on marching into town.

It was nice to find even rural Kingswear has the same issues as NE London…

Just down by the ferry I found a sign pointing back the way I came, and for the first time I had an indication of how far I had travelled, I was not 100% sure at the start.

And then I was on the ferry back to Dartmouth.

My first stop was one of the few cafes that was open and serving food for a very late lunch and a much needed coffee. I was a bit rank, a bit muddy, and very hungry! I ate and left (for the benefit of the other customers) and headed back to the B and B for a shower and a sit down before tea. I was knackered….

I will say it was a really good day. Followed by a really good pizza!