Devon

North Devon - looking West along the Southwest Coast Path from Westward Ho!

London.  Wed. Sept. 18

Southwest Coast Path through Devon and Cornwall

     Ifracombe, Barnstaple, Clovelly, Bideford; these seaside towns in Devon (the foot of England) were where my family went on summer holidays when I was a child.   I remember holiday camps (think England, 1950's), riding ponies on the moors, picnics, sailing.  So it was with considerable interest that I ventured back to this territory, 50 years on, for a weekend away to celebrate Bridget's 30th birthday.

     We left central London on Friday at 6 p.m.; from Paddington it takes less than three hours by train to Exeter, and from there a local train took us to Barnstaple, and a bus to Upper Yelland Farm, where we stayed for two nights.  We considered renting a car, but short of going out to one of the airports (an hour on the tube) it's hard to return a car in central London on a Sunday night.  Not horribly expensive - 85 GBP for the weekend, but that much again in petrol; it worked out about the same price as the train in the end.

Upper Yelland Farm - our B&B

     Our B&B was everything a B&B should be - 300 years old with tons of character and a lovely garden, comfortable beds, and a breakfast that knocks your socks off and lasts all day.  It was divine - homemade bread, jams and marmalade, eggs from local chickens, lashings of streaky bacon, good hearty English sausages and fried tomatoes (I skipped the baked beans).  The farm is dog-friendly and everyone staying there, except us, had dogs; always a good sign.  All in all, we couldn't have been happier with our choice of accommodation.

   
     On Saturday, gasping for air after downing an entire day's worth of food at breakfast, we set off by bus to walk a section of the Southwest Coast Path (SCP), Britain's longest long-distance walk; 650 miles, from Minehead in the north, around Land's End to Poole, in the South.  The bus took us to Westward Ho! (yes, it actually has an exclamation point in the name) on the coast south of the River Taw estuary, where, in addition to sailors, kayakers, swimmers and surfers also recreate; there's a surf school nearby -I kid you not.  The path was just yards from the bus stop.

Start of SCP in Westward Ho!

     I got the cliffs and dramatic scenery I'd wanted, plus a lot of up and down, mostly on stairs cut into the hills; our calf muscles were screaming.  Besides the sea vistas there were steep pebbly beaches, fields and woodlands.  We passed lots of hikers going from Clovelly to Westward Ho! - both lifeboat stations -in support of the Lifeboats; a 16-mile journey.  We hadn't planned how far we intended to go; we had to work around the bus schedule and got off the path at Buck's Mill, about 7 1/2 miles from our starting point, plenty tired.  From there it turned out to be another mile to the main road and the bus stop and we had to dash to catch the only bus for 4 hours.  We stopped in Bideford for a well-earned Devonshire Cream Tea (tea, plus scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam - yum!), and loaded up with fish and chips to take home for dinner.


     On Sunday morning we shared a table at breakfast with a couple in their mid-70's.  They moved to Cornwall from outside London 5 years ago, and over a two-year period had walked the entire 350 miles of the Cornwall section of the Southwest Coast Path.  Now they, and their yellow lab Tessa, were doing some of the Devon bits.  They also proudly recounted how, on their 50th wedding anniversary the previous year, they had gone our body-boarding on the Cornwall coast near their home (in wetsuits) with 12 of their 13 children and grandchildren, in the pouring rain!

Crow Point, Braunton Barrows

     Peter, our host,  had bicycles for rent, so after breakfast we started our ride on the 30-mile long Tarka Trail, one of Britain's longest continuous traffic-free walking and cycling paths, which happens to run right next to the farm.  We rode back towards Barnstaple along the River Taw, crossed the river, and headed west to Crow Point on the Braunton Barrows, part of a UNESCO Biosphere preserve.  Here it was flat, grassy and sandy, with many grazing cows and sheep, in stark contrast to the previous day's landscape, and it was lovely not to worry about cars and traffic.  We stopped for a pub lunch and made it back to Upper Yelland Farm, our B&B, after a very decent 24 miles in the saddle, in good time to catch a bus back  to Barnstaple and from there trains back to Exeter and London. 

Bideford, on the River Taw

    Having had a little taste of the SCP, I definitely want to come back for more.  The SCP Association has an itinerary which invites walkers to cover the entire 650 miles over 8 6-day weeks of walking.  I'm thinking I could walk a week or two a year...  It's something I could plan as part of each trip back here.  There are sections in Cornwall, from Penzance to St. Ives, which are more bouldering than walking, apparently; the trail guide describes them as "extreme."  But our breakfast companion, who had done many British long-distance walks, including several in the Scottish highlands, was of the opinion that the SCP was the most beautiful walk in the world.  A good reason to return to Devon, again.  And I won't wait 50 years this time.