To a Long Steep Hill

    Let’s hear it for the Royal Hotel   Excellent food, nice bar, willing staff and they have got the virus defences absolutely right.   The only negative is that our room is a little tired and ready for a makeover.   The location could not be better for our purposes.   It’s right on the SWCP and the bus routes we need. However, it is somewhat caught in the general decline of the town.   It faces a derelict wharf.   Behind is the closed railway and station. There are empty houses on one side, and an abandoned bistro on the other.   Sad!  One tip: If you are like us and like a nice strong coffee for breakfast, order an americano with hot milk from the bar. Yum.  

  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.     ...

  It all starts so well.   We have time before we need to be at Barnstaple station to take pictures of the Lundy ferry.   There have been neap tides all week so it has been operating from Ilfracombe.   Yesterday the water was deep enough for it to return to its Bideford base.   Then, disaster!   Getting off the bus at the station, I drop my wallet.   Chris quickly phones Stagecoach, the bus company and I run over the bridge to the bus station, but the bus has already gone on, and the information office is shut.   In the wallet are all my credit cards, driving license, Freedom pass and quite a lot of cash plus my train ticket.   Within minutes of getting on the train I am confronted by the ticket inspector.   But – surprise – he is a nice helpful chap.   Since I bought the tickets on line, there will be an email record on my phone.   Yes! There it is, complete with reference code.   So at least I can get home. ...

  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...