B2B Day 4 Lynmouth to Brendon--A Walk in the Woods

For an OS map of today's walk (5.0 mi; 8 km; 1,562 ft total ascent) here.

We had a light breakfast at Hillside House B & B, and were delighted that we could leave our bags while wandering around Lynmouth and Lynton. We looked briefly around Lynmouth on our way to the water-powered railway up the cliff to Lynton (it is a brief ride). In Lynmouth, Sara bought a copy of Lorna Doone, so that we could read a bit more of it before going on our walk in the Doone valley tomorrow. On the railway, we talked with a man named Clive who was turning 71 next year. He was walking on the South West Coast Path for seven weeks, hoping to make Penzance by the end (this is about halfway on the path, which is the longest of the national trails, around 625 miles). He had a 20 kg pack with tent and stove, and was wild camping along the way. He said he kept trying to think of what he could send home! We wished each other well as we got off the train.

We wended our way to the churchyard and sat on a bench to look at the ocean view, and then went down into the village to look at the little museum. It was closed. We wandered back to the churchyard and sat on a different bench. A group of people came into the churchyard and were choosing where to sit, and one of them was about to sit down and realized he was about to sit on a table grave. He quickly moved elsewhere, and the group had a good laugh. 

The view from the churchyard in Lynton

After taking the railway back down to Lynmouth, we went to the Flood Memorial Museum. It was informative and inspiring to read and hear about the responses to the flood that swept water and boulders through Lynmouth in August 1952, killing over 30 people and rendering over 400 people homeless. There were some astonishing rescues (like catching people floating by and hauling them in through a hotel window) and much courage in rebuilding the village.

Hillside House B & B in Lynmouth

We then picked up our packs at the B & B with a farewell from our friendly host Denise, and set out for Watersmeet, the same way we had come into Lynmouth. Up to that point, we hadn’t considered that our walk into Lynmouth followed the course of the river downhill, so that today’s walk out of Lynmouth involved a fair amount of uphill. As we were walking, we saw a couple go down to the river, disappear behind a rock outcropping, and emerge in swimwear. The man dived into a deep pool and said something about feeling “very alive” afterwards, and the woman waded in more gradually. The water was very cold, from the sound of it.

When we reached Watersmeet House, there were lots of people there. I ordered one cream tea, which did for both of us—two huge scones, clotted cream, strawberry jam, and a pot of tea. 

Watersmeet again

 

After the cream tea

The walk from Watersmeet to Rockford was beautiful, with different types of forest, including one with mature trees which might have been whitebeams, a rare tree (we read on an information board at Rockford). 

Whitebeam trees?

Ken on the forest path

At one point in the walk we smelled woodsmoke, but couldn’t tell where it was coming from. We didn’t want to get caught in a forest fire in England! We stopped at the Rockford Inn for a break and a drink of lemonade. We did not see any car chases (a reference for anyone who has watched the TV series The Rockford Files). 

The Rockford Inn

We then continued on the forest path, which eventually became a mown path. 

The mown path

We were welcomed by our host Nigel to a beautiful shepherd’s hut. Sara wants one. He had thought of everything in fitting it out, and we were greeted with a card and home-baked (by his wife Annie) shortbread and flapjack (North American readers—flapjack is kind of like a soft oatbar/granola bar) that was absolutely delicious. They also kindly agreed to do our laundry, which was cause for rejoicing because we were near the end of anything clean. 

Our greeting inside the shepherd's hut

We can post some photos of the shepherd’s hut, but they probably won’t capture how nice it is. We appreciated the scalloped trim in the interior, the sink that is a water pump, the gateleg table, and the couch that folds out into a bed. 

The wonderful shepherd's hut

After a bit of a rest, we walked to the Staghunter’s Inn, where we had a dinner reservation for 7:00. They had one cook and a notice that food might take awhile to come when it was busy, so at least we were prepared for the one-hour wait. The service was excellent--the people who served us were kind and welcoming. Sara had a small cottage pie with vegetables, which was good. Ken ordered the burger, which was the second burger he had experienced in his life that he didn’t like and couldn’t finish. It came with cheese—too much thick melted white cheese—and bacon, which is thick back bacon in the UK, not strip bacon. He said the beef was undercooked and had almost no flavour. That was disappointing after such a long wait.

We walked back home to our hut and Sara updated her written journal, and then at bedtime started to read the introduction at the beginning of the edition of Lorna Doone that she had purchased. Keep in mind that Ken is still sick, so she was reading to him and hearing him doze in and out of the introduction (she could tell by the snoring), and suddenly he said in a loud, anguished voice, “Why are we talking about paddle steamers?” I had just been reading about the many things that had been named after Lorna Doone (including Nabisco cookies), and had just gotten to paddle steamers when Ken surfaced to consciousness and was perplexed. He said that it was almost unbearable hearing Sara read such a detailed amount of information when he was falling asleep, so Sara stopped at paddle steamers, and we went to sleep.