Friday 23 October

By: Mike

 


                                                            The lighthouse at Hartland Point


But first, we have to face the 10 ¼ miles from Clovelly back to Hartland Quay.  The weather is blustery and rain threatens.  The stiff breeze is in our faces, and there are at least four steep coombes to navigate.

Our taxi from Number Six in Bideford is right on time.  We’ve checked out the previous evening so we are good to go at 08.45. £110 for b & b, £42.45 for dinner and drinks. Our driver is a familiar face.  She picked us up from the RHS Gardens at Rosemore last time.

 At Clovelly, I make a stupid mistake.  I miss the trailhead and we go charging down a steep road, only to trudge all the way back up.  I kick myself for this.  It means five ‘ups and downs’ for the day and an unnecessary waste of our limited energy.

 The morning is mainly through woods.  It rains a bit but not too much, and by lunch time we have negotiated two of the valleys/coombes/ chines. We find a bench with a fabulous view and get to work on mini-scotch eggs, cherry tomatoes and falafels which I got at Waitrose on Wednesday, knowing we would be miles from any shopping or hostelry.

                                            One of the coombes we had to traverse between Clovelly and Hartland Quay

 The worst is to come, though.  The weather gets better and is sunny though windy, but the going gets a lot tougher.  By the top of the final chine I am exhausted.  We limp down to Hartland Quay, where we gratefully down cups of tea and creep into the car for the drive to Morwenstow.

 The Bush Inn is busy, but they are expecting us and we flop into our room.  It’s nice, but full of flies, and we wack about ten before I collapse into the bath.

Emerging in a towel I say:

 “The forecast tomorrow is terrible and I am knackered.  What would you say if I propose that we don’t walk?”   She goes: “Well I was thinking the same”

 Me: “So it’s agreed then”.  We are not in a race and we have the rest of our (active) lives to do this.

 Then it’s down to the bar for another pint and supper.  Getting dressed first, obviously.  It’s a pint of Tribute for me and a Malbec for Chris, followed by Korean Pork (me), Romanesco Broccoli (Chris), and a delicious but naughty apple crumble and clotted cream with two spoons.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

By: Mike
Image
  Sunday 29 th October We aren’t going to make Fowey.   But we could do Mevagissey.   It’s only 3 ½ miles on from Gorran Haven.   There seems to be a bus back to GH, so we drive to the NT car park again and easily cover the distance over good path to Portmellon, where we have a bevy in the Rising Sun.   It is deserted and they aren’t doing food, so we press on in the rain now.   Mevagissey is quite a substantial place with a big harbour lots of pubs and a very acceptable harbour-side restaurant called the Sharksfin.   We settle in and tuck in.   I have a massive Sunday roast laden with every possible veg including a separate cauliflower cheese which is a meal in itself.   Chris has mussels.   The timetable says our bus is at 16.15 so we mooch around the harbour  and visit a little private museum.   It’s a real Aladdin’s cave.   My stand out memory is that they landed 90 tons of pilchards a day at the height of the now-v...
Read more

And they're off

By: Mike
Image
Friday 26th July That's the monument which marks the start in Minehead of the Southwest Coast Path - and this is Mike and Chris about to set out. Our selfie seems to be back to front.  It's a minor detail when you are about to tackle a 630 mile trek.  Maybe pre-race nerves came into it. Are we doing it all in one go?  Don't be ridiculous.  It's going to be a case of long weekends and I reckon it'll take up to three years.  So best settle down for a long read. Are we camping? er  yes sort of.  Our tent is being shifted by the lovely people at luggagetransfers.com.  And there will be hotels.  Oh yes.  Starting with The Rising Sun at Lynmouth.  But first - camping at Porlock.
Read more
By: Mike
Image
  Wednesday 25 th October Our taxi meets us at 09.30 sharp.   Chris has decoded the parking system and books the day on her phone. £5.00.   Driver is Santiago aka ‘Santi’.   He’s from Barcelona.   What on earth is he doing in St Mawes, we wonder. Perhaps he is a political refugee?   We don’t find out. Taxi is £30.00.   We are on the path at 09.45.   First thing that happens, I lose one of the stoppers on the end of my walking poles.   Annoying.   We then encounter a herd of cows.   They are harmless, of course, but still big and scary.   In avoiding them, we miss the path, and end up having to climb a fence.   This is much scarier for me than the cows.   I am too old to climb fences. Surprisingly, it’s a fine day.   Rain passed over Cornwall during the night. We were practically in Portscatho when we stopped for lunch. It’s only six miles. We got coffee at Thyme and Tide again, did a bit of shopping at the...
Read more