Combe Martin to Ilfracombe Sunday 29 September

By: Mike
Holing up in the Bath Hotel last night was a good call.  It was good to cuddle up in a warm hotel bed as the rain beat down outside. As we got back into the car, parked next to the river Lyn we watched the roaring torrent which all the rains have created. I wonder if residents still think of the 1952 flood which buried the village with the loss of 34 lives.

 The stretch of coast path between Combe Martin and Ilfracombe is very different.  The high cliffs of the Somerset-Devon border have been left behind and we are in a new landscape of coves, caravans and boat moorings. It's a bit of a slog, frankly, with stretches where you have to walk along the main road.


 The rain has stopped but the wind!  In the exposed stretches it is exhausting, coming straight at us from the west. We were pretty knackered by the time we got to the top of Hillsborough, overlooking Ilfracombe Harbour. 
The harbour at Ilfracombe

We went into The Dolphin restaurant on the quay and had a light lunch and a very welcome cuppa.  
Tea at The Dolphin

With foresight, we had pitched our tent at Newberry Valley Campsite in the morning, so all we had to do was lay out our airbeds and sleeping bags.  But first - a hot bath in their fantastic services block.  There's a minor panic while the water is running as I realise that I have left my phone in the taxi.  Chris to the rescue, and the cab driver (Andy's wife) kindly brings it back.
Combe Martin on a Sunday night is, how shall we put it? Pretty dead.  We don't like the menu at the beach-side Foc'sle pub (whilst enjoying a much needed dram) so we head off to the Pack O' Cards where the Sunday carvery is about to close.  We sneak under the wire and are rewarded with a plentiful and delicious late Sunday roast.

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