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.

B2B Day 3 Simonsbath to Lynmouth--Nothing's Gonna Stop us Now!

For an OS map of today's walk (10.1 mi.; 16.2 km; 1,425 ft total ascent) click here.

Ken woke up feeling worse with a cold and fever(?), so we had a slower day today. Sara actually thinks he should get a medal for walking more than ten miles today over sometimes steep terrain while feeling sick.

We initially weren’t sure about where the path began. We asked a man and woman walking together, and he seemed uncertain but suggested the direction of the circular walk. A few minutes later we asked a group of men who were doing the Devon Coast to Coast Walk, and they pointed us in the right direction, towards the upper car park. It was a steep path at first, and we gained height quickly.

 We saw the usual sheep, then the less usual cattle (who didn’t bother us when we went through their pasture). I noted that the landscape was the opposite of Kamloops, which has dry sandy coloured hills with little tufts of green on them, like a chenille bedspread. Here, there were green hills covered with little tufts of dry sandy coloured moor grass.

After a bit of road walking, we joined the Macmillan Way and had another ascent. 

Ken felt like if he could make it to Exe Head (about 3 miles into the walk), he could make it the rest of the way. We did arrive at Exe Head and sat down for lunch—ham baguettes from the Exmoor Forest Inn the night before.  We then began the part of the walk that we had done before in 2013, which we had really enjoyed. It began with the part Ken called the canyon walk. 

The canyon walk

When we got to the bottom, we were surprised and overjoyed (well, maybe just joyed and not overly so) that there was now a footbridge at the bottom, where the attempted fording of the river had caused us so much trouble before. 

The footbridge--it doesn't look like much, but it was great!

We then gently ascended to Cheriton ridge, and we saw the Exmoor ponies in the same area where we had seen them last year. They cheered us up.

Exmoor ponies!

I wish I had taken a photo of Ken once we got to the top of the ridge and were able to look down into Cheriton (it was a long way to get to that point). Ken said he needed to lie down on the grass, and he sort of collapsed down and happily lay on his back for awhile, shading his eyes with his map and then his hat, “waiting for the rescue jeep,” as he said. We enjoyed hearing the songs of the sky larks who rise high above their nests and sing a lengthy and seemingly unending song to distract people from the nests below. As no rescue jeep came, after about a twenty minute rest Ken felt good enough to go. He said that he felt like he was “soldiering on, like Mrs. Flack” (a reference to a character in the TV series As Time Goes By).

We again enjoyed our downhill walk, which last time had blooming gorse, this time had blooming hawthorn. We saw a fox on the path, briefly.

Ken beneath the blooming hawthorn

We entered the National Trust part of the land along the river, and again thoroughly enjoyed this peaceful, lovely walk. This time, the café at Watersmeet was still open, so Ken got a Pepsi to revive him a bit. He heard the cafe playing the song, "Nothing's gonna stop us now," with which he agreed. We remembered this time to actually take a photo of Watersmeet. 

Watersmeet

 When we came lower down the river, we saw a huge and majestic heron standing on a rock.

Sara really liked the architectural look of this tree.

We did finally arrive at Lynmouth. Throughout today’s walk, we appreciated that there were new fingerposts and better waymarking than there was six years ago. The quill on this fingerpost indicates the Coleridge Way, named for the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge who lived and walked in this area.

After a pub dinner, we’re settled in at our B&B Hillside House, where we are happy to stay again after enjoying it so much in 2013.

B2B Day 2 West Buckland to Simonsbath--Uphill all the way

For an OS map of today's walk (11.4 mi; 18.4 km; 1,908 ft total ascent) click here.

We enjoyed breakfast at Huxtable Farm—Sara had Scotch pancakes and Ken had an omelette and sausage, all delicious. We also enjoyed meeting the other guests at breakfast—Geoffrey and Sue who were on holiday and taking in an art show locally, and Doerte and Jutta who were walking the Tarka Trail.

We stopped briefly in the church at East Buckland—constructed in the mid-Victorian era along with a local school.

East Buckland Church

Today on BBC Breakfast, there was a news story on its being exactly 200 years since Queen Victoria was born. So Sara took a photo of this post-box from Victoria’s era (see the V R for “Victoria Regina” at the top?). She loves finding post-boxes with VR or GR on them—usually they are like this one, built into a wall so that they are not easily changed when there is a new monarch.

V R post box

We enjoyed retracing the route we shared with friends in 2013. This time, however, we did not get lost in the forest pathway. It was well waymarked, which we hadn’t remembered, and it was the lower path we took rather than the upper path we took the previous time. We sat on the upper path on plastic bags to eat our delicious (and ample!) packed lunch from Huxtable farm. A man walking his dog came on the path behind us and asked if we were having a sit-in protest, but we weren’t. 

Because Ken woke with a scratchy and sore throat, we made the decision to shorten the walk slightly and walk the roads the rest of the way. It seemed like a long, long climb uphill, with a 20% grade at first. It was a warm, sunny day, and we drank almost all of the water we brought, so we were glad that the Poltimore Arms was open. 

The Poltimore Arms

We had heard that the owner was a character, and he was indeed friendly and unique. We each had a pint of lemonade and used the bathrooms, which involved borrowing an electric torch/flashlight to go down the hall and find them (and use them), because he does not have electricity, just a generator which is turned on when necessary. There were several people inside, and it was a jovial atmosphere. We then set out on the road again to go uphill again. At one point, we had to pull to the side while a tractor herded sheep from one pasture to another. 

We did get some good views near the top, as the land changed from lush green to dry golden moorland.

The final stretch of the walk was downhill, to a bridge that crossed into Simonsbath (pronounced “Simmonsbath”). We were greeted by a set of flags by the road, including Canadian and American flags, and then turned right to walk to the Exmoor Forest Inn, where we are staying.

B2B Day 1 Barnstaple to West Buckland--It's like deja vu all over again

For an Ordnance Survey map of today's walk (11.3 mi; 18.2 km; 1,189) click here.

Obviously, even if a route is the same, you never have the same experience twice. Although the route for part of this day was the same as our walking pilgrimage in 2013, there were many things that felt different—and many that also felt the same. Here’s our experience of the day’s walk, moving sequentially through it.

Barnstaple:

The same: A lovely breakfast and send off from our host Jan at Herton B&B.

The same: The lovely weather, sunny and warm (though warmer than last time).

Different: Simon May is no longer vicar at Holy Trinity Church in Barnstable, so we didn’t go to the church for a blessing before beginning this year’s walk (though we had friends at our home church Bethel pray for us before we went). This meant we began walking a little earlier, leaving our B&B around 9:20.

Different: Overhearing a group of schoolchildren in Barnstaple about to head over the bridge:

Leader: “Children, this is the fifth time we are visiting the leisure centre, so what do we do when we cross the bridge?”

Loud chorus of children: “Walk single file!”

Leader: “Very good!”

The medieval bridge in Barnstaple: "Walk single file!"

Ken and I did a lot of walking single file on the roads, just to make sure we could both move over quickly if a car approached from either direction.

The same: We enjoyed walking alongside the park and river.

Bishop’s Tawton:

Different: There wasn’t a church work day this time, but we did actually visit the church and take a brief rest. According to the church guide, it is the only church in Devon with a tower topped by a crocketed spire.

St. John the Baptist, Bishop's Tawton

Tarka Trail to Landkey:

The same: Enjoyed the walk beside the river, and the scent of wild garlic.

The same but slightly different: Ken once again partly rolled one ankle when walking down a pitted cow pasture.

Different: Hearing one sheep bleating in two tones, the regular “baaa” escalating higher to “eeeeah!” at the end, kind of like Tarzan’s chest-beating cry.

A horseshoe in the sky for Joan!

Landkey:

The same: We bought food at the little store in Landkey to carry with us for dinner.

Different: Instead of accidentally pouring most of pint of lemonade into his pack (!), Ken spilled only a little lemonade on his hand while heading to an outside table at the pub in Landkey.

The route after Landkey:

Different: Instead of a long but beautiful detour up to Gunn, we took a more direct route along the valley near Swimbridge. This route was shorter but didn’t offer the grand views we had in 2013 (though were some nice valley views).

The same: Sara enjoyed all of the wildflowers in the hedgerows, especially the pink campion.

A hedgerow full of wildflowers (no campion, though)

Different: We liked walking the road through a forest on the way to West Buckland—no getting lost, the shade of trees, a slight breeze, views lower into a valley, and the smell of woods warmed by the sun.

West Buckland:

The same: We enjoyed little West Buckland and its church. We saw our 2013 entry in the church guest book, and added in this year’s entry that Ken’s new kidney had been going strong for eight years.

Leaving West Buckland:

The same: An ambiguous route across a sheep pasture (also potentially ankle-wrenchingly hummocky) that made us wonder if we’d find the way out at the bottom. But we did.

Huxtable Farm B&B:

Different: A greeting by two adorable lambs who came to the fence to say hi.

The lambs pose for our first sheep photo!

The same: Jackie greeted us with a delicious cream tea—scones, clotted cream, strawberry jam, and Earl Grey tea.

Different: While outside near sunset looking to take pictures across the lovely valley to West Buckland, to his surprise, for the first time in his life Ken saw—and took many pictures of—“sun dogs,” two small lights or “fake suns” on either side of the sun “caused by the refraction of sunlight through ice crystals in the atmosphere” (Wikipedia). 

Day Zero: After 30 years, it's just like riding a bike...

For an OS map of today's bike ride (12.9 mi; 20.8 km), click here.

For our “jet-lag day,” Ken had long planned that if the weather was good we would rent bikes and ride on the Tarka Trail, a former railway turned into a biking/walking path. The name “Tarka” comes from the novel Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson (1929). The man who helped set us up on our rented bikes was very good, and gave us some good tips about riding. 

The cycle hire at Barnstaple train station

The bikes each had names on them—Ken’s was “Hubert,” and Sara’s was “Kelly.” Ken hadn’t ridden a bike for about ten years; for Sara, it was probably more like thirty years. But after all . . . it’s just like riding a bike—you never forget, right? Sara was glad she didn't ask about how to change gears--she remembered that she used to have to pedal backwards to change gears on an old bike of her parents', but Ken hadn't heard of doing that. It was quite easy to change gears on these bikes, and no back-pedaling required!

We actually did fine after a little initial wobbliness. The weather was perfect, sunny and a good temperature for being outside. We saw sheep, cows, and painted horses. We got up enough speed that when we stopped, Sara noticed she had a few small dead flies on her chest—the kind you end up with on your windshield on a long road trip! Fortunately they were easy to brush off. 

Ken and "Hubert"

 

We stopped at the café at Fremington, which was extremely busy. Being a bit too early for lunch, we had our first ice cream of the day—Sara had salted caramel and Ken had lemon crunch (note for Dad: this was Cornish ice cream). 

After a nice break, we continued on to Instow, arriving around 2:00. We locked up the bikes and walked into the village, buying our second ice cream of the day—strawberry for Sara and white chocolate raspberry for Ken. There was a row of benches along a low stone wall facing out to the tidal river and the ocean. We found an empty one and enjoyed our ice cream, though this wasn’t quite as good. Oddly, both of them seemed to have jam in them (strawberry jam and raspberry jam). 

Outside the cafe at Fremington

 After sitting there for quite some time, just enjoying the view and the happy dogs playing on the beach, Ken volunteered to go back to the post office to get us some lunch. Soon after he left, an elderly woman and a younger one asked if the older one could sit on my bench, but I said there was plenty of room for both of them, so they sat and ate their ice cream and we chatted a bit. When they were about to go, the older woman asked if they had taken the seat of someone else, and I said no, my husband had gone to get us a sandwich for lunch and hadn’t yet gotten back. The younger woman said, “He’s probably spoiled for choice!” and I agreed he might be taking some time deciding. She said, “It looks like someone is coming with a sandwich now,” and sure enough, Ken was coming towards us with lunch. The women left to continue with their day, and we had our lunch—a hummous, olive, and sun-dried tomato baguette and crips (chips).

We decided that we had ridden far enough that we should turn around, so we walked back to our bikes and rode back to Fremington, where we shared another lemon crunch ice cream cone (that flavour was really good—refreshing and light). We also looked at the little museum there.

After thirty years . . .

We rode more swiftly back to Barnstaple, and were both a bit saddle sore and had stiff legs by the end. As we were coming off the path to go onto a normal road taking us back to the cycle hire, Sara got going too fast around the curve and went off the side of the path a bit, having to stop and then start again. But she didn’t run into any goalposts or juniper trees like she did when she was learning how to ride a bike, so that was a relief. All in all, it was a good experience getting on a bike again, especially with so many opportunities for ice cream!

Introducing the B to B (Barnstaple to Robin Hood's Bay)

Content coming soon!