To a Long Steep Hill

  Tuesday 18th August                                                            View from 'The Hobby outside Clovelly Over the bridge again.   This time it’s to catch the dreaded 319 back to Bucks Mills.   We don’t buy sandwiches.   The plan is to reach Clovelly and get lunch there.   Our friend from yesterday’s bus stop is in the bus queue with us, on her way to work. “Bus came just after you gave up”   I say. “Well I got a lift, anyway” she replies.   We walk down from the bus stop at Bucks Cross, back to Bucks Mills.   It starts to rain again.   Bucks Mills, forever remembered in the pouring rain.     The good thing about going the extra distance yesterday is that we only have about four miles to reach Clo...

  Monday 17 th   On the trail again.   We pick up huge sandwiches at the baker on the quay and get the 21 bus to Westward Ho!   This is our last walking engagement with the good old 21.   It doesn’t go beyond Westward Ho!   From here on we are in the hands of the much more sporadic 319.   More about this bus later. We start climbing out of WWH.   We have been on the flat, up and down the estuaries since Saunton Sands.   We are certainly feeling the difference.   The path becomes difficult and very overgrown.   My theory is that it’s the result of the lockdown.   Probably no one walked the path in March and April, just when everything, especially brambles were bursting into growth.   It’s also muddy with all the rain.   We find a nice spot just before Peppercombe Bay to eat our mega-sandwiches.   Peppercombe is a bail-out option.   A 15-minute walk up to the A39 and the 319 bus.   But it’s early. ...

  Sunday 16th August                                                           The flower borders at Rosemore We are on holiday.   Nobody says we have to walk every day. Weather still iffy, so we decide on a rest day.   After breakfast (scrambled eggs on toast watery hotel coffee) we amble across the bridge, buy Sunday papers and settle down to proper coffee in the Otter café on the quay.   I browse my phone for somewhere to go for a Sunday excursion.   What’s this? Rosemore RHS gardens is at Great Torrington, just up the river.   We decide to visit.   It’s the one time a car would have been useful, but it’s taxis for us. £35.00 each way.   Rosemore is absolutely enchanting.   We have to book, which means limited numbers of people. Also, the weath...

  Saturday 15 August     Our walk starts today at the hotel front door.   We cross Bideford’s ancient bridge and head along the quay down towards Appledore, destination Westward Ho! The exclamation mark is part of the name. Along the way we see many deserted vessels, hulks abandoned on the estuary mud.     By the time we get to Appledore it is pouring.   The approach to the village is depressing.   First the shuttered shipbuilding yard and then a series of ancillary businesses all locked and silent. We go into the Seagate Hotel for coffee.   It’s a low moment.   We are tempted by the bus stop outside the hotel and back to Bideford.   However, our courage doesn’t desert us and we agree to press on.   I notice that the hotel is advertising lobster on its dinner menu.   Hmm.   Our route takes us through Northam country park, a flat expanse of sheep and golf extending out into the estuary. The rain is relentles...

  Friday 14th August   21 bus stop is right outside the hotel, so we set off back to Barnstaple, which is where we finished in July. Creatures of habit, we head for St Anne’s café again for a quick coffee before crossing the Barnstaple Long Bridge and finding the path on the far side of the river Taw.   We head back to Bideford via the estuary mouth at Instow. Like the last section we walked in July, this is the Tarka Trail shared with bikers.   There are few at first but as the morning wears on they build up.   There are notices everywhere telling cyclists to slow down, ring bells and give priority to walkers.   Most of them do none of these things, and it becomes stressful to be forever looking over your shoulder so as to avoid the next peloton rushing up silently behind you.    Thankfully we leave the trail well before Instow and meander close to the water.    At Instow there is a ferry which runs at high tide across the mouth...

  Thursday 13 August.   We are off again.   This time by train.                              We are off!  Our train awaits at Twickenhan Station It’s Uber to Twickenham, Southwestern to Reading, GWR to Exeter and then the Tarka line to Barnstaple, taxi to Bideford. Because of the virus, we have to wear masks all the time, in theory.   In practice there are so few people risking public transport that we uncover quite a lot of the time.   There is no one in our GWR compartment. Does it make sense to go by train?   Not really.   The return ticket costs £117.60 and there are taxis as well.  The journey time is longer than driving – especially when we miss the connection at Exeter because the GWR has to slow down because of the heat.   (It’s been a bit of a heatwave).   Our thinking was: Barnstaple is the only place on the North Devon coast accessible by ra...

  12th August                                                            Prologue Sorry to have to get back to the subject of walking boots.  When you are walking 630 miles, the boots are quite important.   As you may remember, there was a boot malfunction near Ilfracombe in July.  My much-loved left boot literally disintegrated.  However, contemplating the wreckage I realized that it was the glue which failed. Τ he various pieces, upper, lining and sole all appeared intact.  I took the boots to the Hampton cobbler.  He shook his head and said he would have a go, but would not guarantee the repair.  So, look – here they are.  As good as new, well almost.  If they survive even for one more year, it will be the best £15.00 I have ever spent.  We are travelling do...