5 Miles miles walked since starting ... The stagecoach bus drops us where we jumped on yesterday and we make our way down the side street to the seafront.  We now have a good look at the huge, and I mean huge, part completed apartment block between the road and the beach, in varying degrees of completion.  A local man walking his dog stops to give us all the gossip of the developer who took deposits then did a runner with the money before anyone could set up home in their luxury seafront apartments. How sad, for the town and for the potential residents. The [...]

11 Miles miles walked since starting ... The Cornish bus timetable is surprisingly not geared up to early morning walkers so we drive to Clovelly, leave our car and start walking before the donkeys arrive to greet the tourists. Keeping to the higher section of the village we pass through the gates leading to Hobby Drive. “As it winds through the woods, Hobby Drive, gives magnificent glimpses of the harbour and Bideford Bay” states the Clovelly leaflet.  Which I guess is true but we actually found it a really hard hours traipse on hard gravel paths through dark woodland.  We were overtaken by a couple [...]

9 1/2 Miles miles walked since starting ... It’s as if we weren’t meant to achieve this leg of the coast path what with April’s storms and yesterday’s 200-mile detour to sort out a burst pipe at home. But we arrived at the Red Lion in Clovelly last night after a whole day of driving on the hottest day of the year so far. After our overnight stay and breakfast at the Red Lion we drive back up the steep hill to the visitor centre car park to meet our friendly taxi driver.  He turns out to also run the village b and b and gives a [...]

5 1/2 Miles Miles walked since starting ... We’ve been kept awake by the beating rain on the roof of our cosy bedroom in an outbuilding behind the pub, flashes of lightning lighting up the room through the Velux window. Even the landlady says it was exceptionally stormy overnight, as we enjoy our full English breakfast in the now deserted bar. As we leave our delightful lodge at the end of the pub garden it’s as if last night’s downpour never happened. We take the steep track back down the valley to re-join the North Devon coast path then up the other side where we [...]

9 1/2 Miles Miles walked since starting ... Despite many setbacks, including breaking my wrist in January and our car breaking down just three days ago, we return to Bude in a sexy red mini – the garage courtesy car. Our overnight bed and breakfast at the Edgcumbe Hotel in Bude, perched above Summerleaze Beach, is perfect. The lady showing us our room couldn’t have been friendlier, the upgraded sea view room extremely cosy, and the breakfast as good as the one we had enjoyed here last November. The grey and white clouds hang low over Summerleaze and Crooklets beach as we return over Maer [...]