Rest Day

By: Mike

 



Wednesday 19th  August

 

We are both frankly knackered.  Weather is still unsettled and our next section (Clovelly to Hartland Quay) is one of the longest and hardest on the entire path.  There is really nowhere to break off to make it shorter.  So, we decide to take a day off.  We head over the bridge to the Pannier Market and Butchers Row.  It is deserted and the market is mostly empty.  Half the craft shops on Butchers Row are closed. Two guys are sitting outside a second hand book stall in the deserted Pannier Market.  I select The Cruel Coast, about wrecks on the North Devon Shore (very bad) It’s a lee shore for the prevailing west wind with few safe harbours. Hundreds of sailing ships were lost. Then I spot a first edition of A E Houseman, Last Poems.  The two men are council maintenance workers, but they agree to take my money and pass it on to the book shop owner. £20.00 for the two books.

 

                                        The Pannier Market, Bideford

We mooch on to the High Street.  There is nothing there apart from a rather nice bookshop.  I buy a collection of short stories by PD James.  Browsing, I discover the astonishing fact that Bideford’s main industry in the first half of the 20th century was making the detachable collars for men’s shirts.  There were six factories involved in this arcane trade.

 There’s a break in the weather forecast in the afternoon, so we decide to head back to Saunton Sands for a final swim.  The sea is warm, though quite rough and dodging the surfers is a problem.  It all looks lovely, but the beach was the graveyard for many ships unable to get into the estuary because of the notorious Bideford bar.  This sandbank in the mouth of the estuary is only navigable at high tide.  Desperate sailing ships were advised to try and go aground on the Appledore side where at least they had a chance of rescue by the lifeboat.




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